You got a live fifth rubber, you want David Nalbandian on your team. Even an old, injured, rusty version. After Nikolay Davydenko pulled himself together and evened things up 2-2 in Moscow on Sunday vs. Leonardo Mayer, David took to the court vs. current World No. 14 Mikhail Youznhy and beat him in straights. Not [...]

The 2010 Davis Cup quarterfinals are here, less than a week after the Wimbledon finals. Who is ready to fight on? SPAIN VS. FRANCE: Wimby champ Rafael Nadal has pulled from the anticipated Spain vs. France quarterfinal in Clermont-Ferrand, France, to rest his knees. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is also out with a knee injury. As the [...]

The trend this weekend in tennis: Firsts and seconds! Self-described “best friends” David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero met in a final for the second time in two weeks, with Ferrer avenging last weekend’s loss in Argentina with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win in Acapulco. With this victory, Ferrer scored his first title since 2008 [...]

The citizens of Tennis Land are keeping busy, with five different players earning a spot in the winner’s circle this week. Let’s see who’s hoovering up the rankings points on Sunday: In Paris, Elena Dementieva beat Lucie Safarova, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4 for the Premier-level Open GDF SUEZ title. After losing in last year’s final [...]

Here’s a quick peek at what’s going on in the tennis world this weekend. In Paris we have the WTA’s Open GDF Suez, a Premier-level event without the Williams sisters, Clijsters or Henin. It’s nice to see Melanie Oudin taking advantage of both the draw and the confidence she gained last weekend in Fed Cup; [...]

Sveta played a late night match on Friday, getting past Angelique Kerber in three close sets. Gotta love that game face. . . Now onto Day Six Down Under, which was notable for retirements, withdrawals and old fashioned beat-downs. The men didn’t get to four-sets until Tsonga and Haas played the last match on Hisense. [...]

Andy Murray beat Mikhail Youzhny in the Valencia final on Sunday: 6-3, 6-2. Murray, the tournament’s top-seed, was playing his first tournament after six weeks off recovering from a wrist injury. Here’s Murray’s post-match interview: And some highlights from the match: Andy “the teetotal” Murray goes into the Paris Masters tournament with an undefeated indoor [...]

REUTERS/Soren Andersson (SWEDEN SPORT TENNIS) via Daylife Marcos Baghdatis won his first ATP title since 2007 on Sunday beating fellow un-seeded player, Olivier Rochus at the Stockholm Open: 6-1, 7-5. To be fair to Olivier, the diminutive Belgian played a three set semifinal on Saturday against Thomaz Bellucci while Marcos got a walkover from Robing [...]

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 [...]

The men put in a good day’s work on Day Four of the US Open on Thursday, including some solid wins by Tommy Haas, Fernando Verdasco, Novak Djokovic and Tommy Robredo. Here are some of our snapshots. *fellow bloggers are more than welcome to use our photos, please link us if you do.

Eight teams remain in contention to win the Davis Cup for their countries. They will battle each other in various (mostly European) cities this weekend – July 10 – 12. Only a sport as crazy as tennis would schedule the quarterfinals of its premier team event the weekend after its premier tournament. Roddick, Ferrer, Nadal [...]