Besides the Fed Cup diaspora, last week’s tennis action included three ATP 250 tournaments on three different continents. (And Major League Baseball’s “World Series” includes just Canada and the U.S.A? Pffft!)

Marin Cilic won his fifth career title at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors in Croatia on Sunday, beating Michael Berrer 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3. He’s now 15-1 [...]

Nikolay Davydenko made this comment after beating Fernando Verdasco in the Round of 16 on Monday:
Q. Have you allowed yourself to dream that it (an AO title) might be this time?
NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO: Dream? No, no. No, I never dream. Maybe in the night, but not in the day.
Contrast this to what Justine Henin, [...]

Wow, this tournament suddenly emptied out. Day eleven brings semifinals action in singles and doubles. It’s lonely at the top.
Match of the Day: Obviously the singles semifinals. In doubles, the Williams sisters vs. veterans Stubbs/Raymond should be good.
Question of the Day: Justine vs. Serena in the final?
2010 Australian Open Order of Play Day 11: Thursday, [...]

Tuesday was Australia Day and the first day of quarterfinal action at the Australian Open. There were fireworks.
Andy Murray was awesome against Rafael Nadal on Tuesday night. He out-served him, out-hit him, out-ran him and out-muscled him. He brought Rafa low:

Ryan Pierse/Getty Images via Daylife
Nadal was moving well at the beginning of the match – [...]

Today was the start of Round of 16 action Down Under. It must stink to lose in the fourth round – so close to the final weekend yet so, so far. Let’s see who made it over the hump and who’s humping it back home.
Nadia Petrova isn’t happy just making it halfway. She backed up [...]

I admit I had a hard time following all of the tennis action from the past week. We had the men and women in Brisbane, Roger and Rafa (and the mighty Kolya!) in Doha, Peer protests in New Zealand, an ATP tourny in India, Laura Robson making Andy Murray look good at the Hopman Cup [...]

AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani via Daylife
Andre Agassi wasn’t the only bald tennis-playing daddy making news this weekend. Ivan Ljubicic told his own inspirational story (minus the meth and hair piece), after beating Michael Llodra, 7-5, 6-3 in the finals of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon. It was the 30-year-old’s ninth ATP title and his [...]

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the Japan Open title on Sunday, beating Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3 in just over an hour. It wasn’t the most dramatic match, but it’s always nice to see the top seed make good, especially when that top seed is the gallant Jo-Wilfried. And we were treated to a snazzy trophy, too – [...]

World No. 15, Marin Cilic, steamrolled Rafael Nadal in Beijing, winning 6-1, 6-3. Here’s an interesting post-match comment from Rafa:
“I can accept to win and I can accept to lose but mentally probably I wasn’t there. If you’re losing 6-1, 6-3 then there’s something wrong.”
It is very rare for Rafa not to be “there” in [...]