THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 – Is it merely coincidence that seven men have withdrawn from or been knocked out of Shanghai this week? Probably not, but most of the tennis world will concede that Gael Monfils, who was down 6-2, 3-0 to Ivan Ljubicic when he retired because of a back injury, seems to get hurt every other week and the length of the season has little to do with why the young Frenchman can’t keep healthy.
Swiss Stan Wawrinka is another matter, but he did compete last week in Beijing and was likely a little peaked in Shanghai and on Thursday, he quit down 3-6, 7-6, 4-2 to Radek Stepanek with abdominal pains.
Then there’s Tokyo champ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose been playing constantly this fall and has a ton of points to defend before the ATP Finals. The big guy went down to another powerballer, Robin Soderling, 6-3, 6-3. Soderling, who is also hoping to qualify for London, is really going to have to grind to extend his season to the final week.”I know that if I play well, I have a chance, but this tournament won’t decide who’s going to play in London,” said the Swede, who will face Feliciano Lopez. “There’s still a lot of tennis to be played.”
Rafa Nadal took care of his Spanish compatriot Tommy Robredo again, this time with a 6-1, 6-4 victory. Robredo has absolutely no real weapons to hurt Rafa, or anywhere near the lefty’s grit. “I am playing well,” said Nadal, who will play Ljubicic. “But I played two terrible games at the start of the second set so I have to improve in situations like this if I want to beat the top players.”
Novak Djokovic, who is rapidly becoming a legend of the ’09 fall, scored a 6-4, 6-2 takedown of German qualifier Rainer Schuettler. Nikolay Davydenko, whose been very solid since July, put a dent in Fernando Gonzalez’s London hopes in scoring his sixth win in six meetings over the Chilean 6-3, 7-5. “If he has a second serve, I know I have a 90 percent chance to win the point,” said the cocky 28-year-old Russian. Gilles Simon took a 6-3, 6-4 win over Tomas Berdych.
In Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki bested Britain’s Katie O’Brien and will face familiar vowel and consonant sounds in the form of Aleksandra Wozniak, one of her many friends who beat Chang Kai-chen 7-5, 7-6(2). Wozniak scored her sole win over “Caro” in Tokyo when a flu bug overtook the USO finalist. Samantha Stosur took out Akiko Morigami 6-1, 6-2 in one of the Japanese vet’s last matches, and US super-veteran Jill Craybas mauled Mathilde Johansson 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
In Linz, give it up once again to Sony Ericsson Championships’ contender Agi Radwanska, who took down the once formidable and now easy to best Alize Cornet 6-4, 7-5. Another Doha contender, Flavia Pennetta beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Yanina “I’m headed to Bali” Wickmayer also pulled through, as did Ioana Raluca Olaru and Lucie Safarova, who beat the younger and more temperamental Radwanska, Urszula, 6-4, 6-4.
