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 first since winning ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2007.

Ljubicic told reporters that Lyon has a special place in his jaded veteran’s heart:

“It’s a special place for me. I won my first title here in 2001 and here is my first title as a father. It’s my son’s first birthday in four days and it’s the best present I could offer to him.”

The 29-year-old Llodra, who is also a father, had this to say about Ivan’s victory: “I recently played with Ivan in doubles and I called him a grandad. And today the grandad won.” (quotes via tennis.com)

Grandpa Ljuby watches Llodra’s kids. Photo by REUTERS/Robert Pratta (FRANCE SPORT TENNIS) via Daylife

In St. Petersburg, Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky won the second ATP tour title of his career, beating first-time finalist Horacio Zeballos on Sunday: 2-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(7). Coincidentally, Sergiy’s first title came over Ivan Ljubicic last year in Croatia. It’s hard for Safin fans to see a Stakhovsky vs. Zeballos final and not rue Marat’s three-set loss to the Ukrainian in the semifinals. If only Marat had pulled out the win, he would have had a chance to play an inexperienced qualifier in the final! He could have broken his nearly four-year title drought on Russian soil, just a couple weeks before his retirement! He could have used this new-found confidence to win his final tournament in Bercy,  announcing during the trophy ceremony that he’s decided to return to tour in 2010 with more ambition and drive than ever!

Or – in a more likely scenario – Safin would have lost to Zeballos in the final and turned his fans’ hearts to dust. So I thank Stakhovsky for saving us from that.

In the third ATP 250 indoor-hardcourt event of the week, hometown hope Jurgen Melzer beat top seed Marin Cilic in the finals of Vienna: 6-4, 6-3. It was the first time an Austrian had won the title since 1988. It’s the second title of the 28-year-old’s career.

I love Ivan LJubicic. I love him for being an old dude in a sport of boys. I love his big bald head. I love his intelligence. I love his one handed backhand. I love that he doesn’t suffer fools. I just love him! Enjoy:

Ivan was ranked as high as #3 in the world back in 2006. He’s been sliding down the list ever since, but has experienced a mini resurgence this season, at 30 years old. Ranked in the 70s a year ago, he’s now at #28. He says in the video that he will retire when he feels he doesn’t have a chance at the Top 20 anymore. Winning a set off Rafael Nadal last week in Shanghai (before boarding the injury train with the rest of the players) may convince him to extend his career.

And is there any doubt that he’s going to become one of the tour’s best coaches when his playing days are over?

Speaking of boys – here’s Eric Butorac and Ross Hutchins behind the scenes in Moscow:

FRENCH OPEN DAY 1: The brick orange clay, the renewed fire (and fear) in the players’ eyes, new drinking games based on Brad Gilbert-isms – what’s not to love about a Sunday start at Roland Garros?

Here are some random musings from the debut day on Paris clay:

1.  Sad face: 2004 champ Gaston Gaudio lost to Radek Stepanek. There goes my dream Gaudio/Nadal semi!

2. Sadder face: Amelie Mauremo was bounced out in straights against German Anna-Lena Groenefeld. But don’t worry, Amelie fans, she’s still hopeful for Wimbledon (via L’Equipe):

“It’s not terrible. It should not be exaggerated, there are things much worse. This is not pleasant. Simple as that. . . . Life goes on, the circuit continues and we will digest it quietly with a few days of rest. Then I’ll go to conditions that I like more.”

3. Ana Ivanovic beat Sara Errani in straight sets: 7-6 (3), 6-3 but the match could have been a three set scrapper for all the confidence it inspired. Her forehand’s working but her ball toss weaves and bobs like a drunk at a wedding reception.

4. When the World No. 3 beats someone ranked 180 places below him, does the win really qualify as a “tour de force“? The Times, U.K. thinks so.

5. Then what do you call it when a scrappy American like Wayne Odesnik (#87) takes a top-ranked Frenchman like Gilles Simon (#7) to a fifth set on Court Philippe Chatrier? A “tour de balls“?

6. Happy face: Darren Cahill is convinced that Marat Safin won’t retire in 2009. Super Coach said on ESPN today that he thinks Marat is working way too hard off-court to be seriously considering leaving the sport.

7. Speaking of Darren Cahill, how is he going to man both the ESPN booth and the players’ box during the same tournament? His charge, Fernando Verdasco, will be keeping him busy. The Spaniard beat Florent Serra today in straights.

8. Fernando Verdasco is hot:

9. Roger Federer’s hotter:

10. Ivan Ljubicic answers the ultimate tennis-geek question, “who is the best chair umpire?”: “Mohamed Lahyani. You either love him or you hate him.”

Put me in the love column! And be sure to check out more from the discerning Ljuby on the RG website (click here).

11. Rafael Nadal is blogging again at the Times U.K. (click here). His first Roland Garros post promises. . .not very much:

“I hope what I say is not taken too serious or too not serious. I am someone who doesn’t go too deep to talk about things openly. I can be very open with my team, with my family these weeks, but kind of reserved with the rest of the World.”

Here’s Rafa vs. the rest of the World:

12. Gael Monfils is fit to play the French Open, says his coach Roger Rasheed. As if we needed confirmation after seeing this photo from Saturday’s exhibition event:

13. Advantage, Tennis Channel! I can’t get it in HD, and I’m not a huge fan of its second tier commentators, but TC scores big with Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. Also, love that the channel shows the action live and unabridged (ESPN comes on later and about half its broadcast is on tape.)

14: Speaking of watching tennis, here’s what’s on for Day 2: Safina, Nadal and Federer (in that order) in the main stadium and Venus Williams and Andy Roddick on Lenglen. Sharapova will play her first rounder in the Bullring. Interesting Day 2 matches include: Safarova vs. Lisicki, Bolelli vs. Berdych, Cibulkova vs. A. Bondarenko.

15. The full Day 1 results: Sunday, May 24, 2009

ATP – Singles – First Round
Andrey Golubev (KAZ)def Denis Gremelmayr (GER) 6-3 6-3 6-2
Mathieu Montcourt (FRA)def Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)6-2 Ret.
Dudi Sela (ISR)def Jean-Rene Lisnard (MON) 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-3
Marat Safin (RUS)[20]def Alexandre Sidorenko (FRA) 6-4 6-4 6-4
Fernando Verdasco (ESP)[8] def Florent Serra (FRA) 6-2 6-1 6-4
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) def Ivo Karlovic (CRO)[26] 6-7(1) 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 6-4 6-3
Nicolas Almagro (ESP)[31] def Agustin Calleri (ARG)6-4 6-1 6-3
Marin Cilic (CRO)[13] def Jan Hernych (CZE)6-0 6-4 6-3
Josselin Ouanna (FRA) def Marcel Granollers (ESP) 7-5 2-6 3-6 7-6(2) 6-1
Gilles Simon (FRA)[7] def Wayne Odesnik (USA) 3-6 7-5 6-2 4-6 6-3
Andy Murray (GBR)[3] def Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) 6-2 6-2 6-1
Radek  Stepanek (CZE)[18] def Gaston Gaudio (ARG) 6-3 6-4 6-1
David Ferrer (ESP)[14] def Frederico Gil (POR) 6-2 6-4 6-4
Robert Kendrick (USA) def Daniel Brands (GER) 6-7(7) 7-5 7-6(11) 4-6 6-3
Philipp Petzschner (GER) def Peter Polansky (CAN) 5-7 6-2 7-6(4) 4-6 6-3

WTA – Singles – First Round
(8) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 76(3) 63
(9) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Roberta Vinci (ITA) 64 62
(11) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (WC) Lauren Embree (USA) 61 62
Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) d. (16) Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) 64 63
(Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) d. (19) Kaia Kanepi (EST) 76(2) 36 62
(25) Li Na (CHN) d. Marta Domachowska (POL) 64 62
(27) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Ioana Raluca Olaru (ROU) 63 62
(32) Iveta Benesova (CZE) d. Julia Goerges (GER) 75 41 ret. (heat illness)
Gisela Dulko (ARG) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 61 63
Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. Severine Bremond Beltrame (FRA) 63 63
Julie Coin (FRA) d. Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) 75 62
Kristina Barrois (GER) d. Maria Emilia Salerni (ARG) 36 61 62
Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) d. Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 63 63
Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) d. (WC) Emilie Loit (FRA) 46 64 61
(Q) Arantxa Rus (NED) d. (WC) Olivia Sanchez (FRA) 61 61
(Q) Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS) d. Mathilde Johansson (FRA) 26 62 108

Amelie photo by REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel (FRANCE SPORT TENNIS IMAGES OF THE DAY) via Daylife

Fernando “hot sauce” Verdasco by AP Photo/Laurent Baheux via Daylife

Roger “hot man” Federer photo by REUTERS/Benoit Tessier (FRANCE SPORT TENNIS) via Daylife

Rafa vs. World photo by AP Photo/Laurent Rebours via Daylife

Results via Great Tennis Photos.

Monfils tests his knee photo by CYRIL CADET/AFP/Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports

Rafael Nadal enjoyed an impressive 6-4, 7-5 victory over Fernando Verdasco in the Madrid Open quarterfinals on Friday. Verdasco played well for most of the second set, forcing Rafa to fight his way out of a double break deficit. The comeback was inevitable – I’m sure even Verdasco knew, deep down, that Rafa wasn’t going to give him a set.

Also inevitable? Nadal’s refusal to be deemed the tournament favorite. Here he is talking about his upcoming semifinal match against Novak Djokovic (via ATP.com):

“In this tournament I don’t even think that I’m favorite. I’m one of the four players in semi-finals and we’ll see what happens, because I think that these conditions are quite different from a normal clay court tournament and playing against [Djokovic] is going to be a true challenge. Djokovic is going to try to make me be more inside and to make me use my forehand more.”

Despite the intimidating 8-0 head-to-head he enjoys over Djokovic on clay, Nadal’s wariness is prudent  – the Serb’s looked great all week, including in his 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Ivan Ljubicic.

Here are some highlights from Nadal vs. Verdasco:

Also in Friday’s quarterfinals, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick met for the twentieth time on tour, but for their first time on clay. Andy Roddick played well, considering it was only his second match of the clay court season, and Roger needed three sets to finish him off: 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-1. It was another chaotic match for Fed fans: Roger’s first serve percentage and forehand were all over the place, yet he pulled off some amazing shots, including a hot-dog “tweener” in the third set.

Here are some highlights from Federer vs. Roddick (the tweener is at 3:50, and don’t miss Andy’s serve, afterwards!):

At least Roger won’t have to face his nemesis, Andy Murray, in the semis. Juan Martin del Potro beat the new World No. 3 for the first time in Friday’s last quarterfinal match, 7-6(4), 6-3. Roger has a 4-0 winning record against the Argentine.

So we have some good semi-final matches to look forward to on Saturday! They’ll be shown on Tennis Channel in the States – click here for the TV schedule.

“If you call me the favorite again, I’m going to kick your a$$!” AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

Love that huge grin from Roger Federer at the beginning of the video – was the interviewer making funny faces, asking him about Rod Laver, topless??? Anyway, from there he talks about how “interesting” it will be to play Andy Roddick on clay in the Madrid quarterfinals on Friday (Roger beat James Blake easily and Roddick got a walk-over when Davydenko withdrew on Wednesday.)

“Interesting” is probably Roger-speak for something, but I prefer not to guess in case I jinx him.

The other quarterfinals will be: Novak Djokovic vs. Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Murray vs. Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal vs. Fernando Verdasco.

I’m really excited about all of these matches – thrilled at Ljuby’s resurgence (his game is so simple and refreshing – and I love that he looks about 40 years old), interested to see Murray battle “yo momma” del Potro on clay, and really hoping that Verdasco is motivated by his hometown crowd and goes the distance against Nadal. And of course I’m planning to watch Roger’s match with my heart somewhere around my tonsils. (Don’t worry, I’m starting to get used to the sensation.)

Tell me fellow book worms, did this edition of the ATPs “Favorite Things” depress you at all? Because besides a Dan Brown novel every now and then, most of our favorite tennis players don’t read anything but draw sheets (no, wait, that’s what their coaches are for.)  At least the Eastern Europeans are keeping literature alive on tour (Ljubicic, Andreev and I could form a book club!):

Notice that Andy Murray went all Victoria Beckham on us. He could have lied and said he’d read his  own autobiography! And I’m really starting to wonder about Gilles Simon – his favorite food is McDonald’s and he doesn’t read books. Next he’s going to say his favorite music is smooth jazz (oh wait, it is!)

I’m going to go sit in a corner and read now. If you’re interested in that book club, Ljuby, I’m reading The Painted Veil right now. . ..