ROME MASTERS:

I have to say, I’m thrilled we have some qualifiers in the last eight this weekend in Rome. I’m getting a little tired of the same old top guys making it. That said, five of the six top seeds are playing the quarters on Friday.

Here’s the quarterfinal run down (stats from the ATP)

Rafael Nadal vs. Fernando Verdasco – Nadal leads 7-0
Roger Federer vs. (Q) Mischa Zverev (22 year old qualifier from Germany)  – first meeting
Novak Djokovic vs. Juan Martin del Potro  – Djokovic leads 2-0
Fernando Gonzalez vs. (Q) Juan Monaco (obviously, not your typical “Q”)  – Gonzalez leads 4-0

On paper these match ups don’t look that competitive (19-0!), but in reality, any one of these could be fantastic. I can’t even begin to guess which one will be the must-see. What do you think?

Click here for Rome TV schedule (U.S.)

STUTTGART/PORSCHE GRAND PRIX:

Here’s what we have in store for the Stuttgart quarterfinals:

Marion Bartoli vs. Elena Dementieva – Dementieva leads 4-2
Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Gisela Dulko – tied at 2-2
Jelena Jankovic vs. Flavia Pennetta – Jankovic leads 5-1
Dinara Safina vs. Agnieszka Radwanska – first meeting

If the seedings hold, Safina should meet Jankovic and Dementieva should meet Kuznetsova in the semis. But nothing is certain. Jankovic and Kuznetsova may be fatigued after their tough quarterfinals over Lisicki and Li, respectively, and Pennetta and Dulko are playing on their favorite surface.

Stuttgart’s already had the match of the tournament with Thursday’s quarterfinal against Sabine Lisicki and Jelena Jankovic. The German stretched Jankovic to three sets and over two hours on court before going out, 5-7, 7-5, 3-6. All credit to Jelena for the win, but I was really impressed by Lisicki’s post match comments, which set just the right tone:

“My aim was to show everybody what I’m capable of. And that’s exactly what I did. I can hold my head high. The match was also fun to play. I don’t think I’m that far off the top players now. I’m looking to climb as high as possible in the rankings this year.“

Here are some highlights from Lisicki vs. Jankovic and an interview with the Serb (Safina vs. Hantuchova also included):

Hopefully I’ve spoken too soon, and we’ll have even more great action out of Stuttgart this weekend – what matches are you looking forward to?

Click here for the Stuttgart TV schedule (U.S.)

* photo via AFP and VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Jelena Jankovic is putting out an APB for her tennis game after being kicked out of the second round for the second tournament in a row. Her latest loss came in Miami against Gisela Dulko after midnight on Sunday morning. The 6-4, 7-6 (5) scoreline is especially disappointing, considering Jelena was up 5-2 in the second set and then 5-2 in the second set tiebreaker.

The always expressive J.J. hasn’t tried to hide her concerns over her recent slide (click here for her letter to fans), but I sense from today’s presser that she’s now on the verge of despair. I would be too, if my most precious possession went missing.

But at least she hasn’t lost her gift for gab – here she is talking through her grief in her post-match presser:

Q. You were saying before the tournament that you weren’t really feeling yourself in terms of your form. Are you still battling with those same things you were talking about?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yes. You know, I started — to be honest, I started to move better on the court and started to kind of, you know, get in the match, but I didn’t play the way, you know, I normally play. That’s a fact. And it’s the truth, in this moment, for the last three months. I haven’t been playing well at all. I’ve been losing to the players because I’m just not at my level. I’m not the same player as I used to be. I lost because, due to those bad results and all this, you know, that I haven’t moved well and I change all these things. I lost a couple of matches which, you know, was for my caliber it’s not really acceptable, and so I lost a little bit of confidence.

That showed today in the match, you know. In important points, I let my opponent come back into the match because I played bad points. I mean, I made bad mistakes and I served poorly. The whole time I didn’t make many first serves, and when you play the whole time with a second serve it’s very hard. During the practice I served well. I started to feel my serve, and then I went on the court in the match and I couldn’t make two first serves in the first set.

So I need to keep working hard. You know, now the clay season starts, and hopefully I will begin my season, because I still haven’t begun at all. For three months I haven’t been doing well at all, and I hope to begin my season sometime soon.

Q. Do you know what you have to do, though? It’s not a mystery to you now? Can you pinpoint…

JELENA JANKOVIC: I just need to, you know, get into — because for three months I wasn’t in this situation when I’m winning matches. Normally it comes for you as a habit, which happened last year and the year before where I won so many matches. All I knew is how to win matches. No matter what, even if it’s — I’m down a set at 5-Love, I still have that belief and confidence I’m going to win, I’m going to stay in the match, and at the end of the day I’m going to come out as a winner.

And now I need to find that habit again, find a habit of winning matches and playing poorly, whatever, tired, not tired, don’t feel the shots, whatever it is. My opponent plays great. I need to find a way to win, and that’s what I’m looking for. Hopefully I’m going to find that, you know, confidence and that, you know, the whole construction of my game sometime soon. That’s all. I mean, it’s very disappointing, and it’s very difficult sometimes, but that’s the way it goes.

Q. Do you feel a problem when you lose lots of points? Because last year you were in the finals here.

JELENA JANKOVIC: I’m not thinking about my points. All I’m thinking about when I find my game. When you find your game, the results come and the season is very long, and there’s a lot of time to play. But I mean, I just need to start playing some tennis. I mean, I’m just looking to play good tennis, and then when you’re going to do that, results come on their own.

Let’s form a search party, tennis fans! Her game’s gotta be out there, somewhere. (Maybe it’s out shopping with Maria Sharapova?)

Photo by: AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

In case you didn’t catch this at Down the Line a couple days ago, I’m re-posting my Indian Wells practice court report here. (Can you tell I’m missing hanging out in the desert – boo hoo!)

The highlight of my visit to Indian Wells (a.k.a. the BNP Paribas Open) this weekend was hanging out at the practice courts. Where else could a mere mortal like myself stand within arm’s length of Rafael Nadal while he soaked through his Nike t-shirt? And when Rafa, Roger or another one of my fave Top 5 players wasn’t hitting, I had fun cruising the rows of unobstructed practice courts in pursuit of quirky hitting partner combos, e.g.,  Simon/Isner, Safin/Tipsarevic and Haas/Stepanek.

Of course, the real thrill was catching Federer and Nadal’s practice sessions, which generated almost as much buzz as their matches.  The two had vastly different routines – Rafa pounded balls for an hour or two while Roger barely got around to unzipping his RF warm up jacket – but both players attracted hoards of fans. We’re talking six-person deep crowds lining the court, kids climbing on top of trashcans for better views and hundreds of faces peering down from the upper reaches of the main stadium. The amateur sociologist in me enjoyed observing the true Rafanatics and Fedophiles in their natural habitats. Fed fans brought banners (“Federer is Better-er than Chocolate”) and Rafanatics brought their libidos (lots of décolletage and lip licking.) Both groups shun irony.

And then there was the grassy practice field, my favorite spot for witnessing chance encounters between the players. A typical scene: Nalbandian and del Potro horse around with an Australian rules football while Daniela Hantuchova does jumping jacks in the background. Gasquet saunters between the Argentines, and a game of monkey-in-the-middle ensues. Then Gisela Dulko jogs by in her short shorts, distracting David. I also caught Rafa exchanging (air) kisses with a mystery WTA blonde (reportedly Kaia Kanepi) and Tsonga switching places with his trainer to get a better view of Maria Kirilenko’s stretching routine. It was like watching the Real World: Tennis Tour (I guess Maria Sharapova feels the same way).

When I needed a break from the excitement of all this practicing, I lounged on the main lawn with a beer or browsed the tennis gear for sale in the retail tents. I even watched an actual tennis match or two. But after being within sniffing distance of Rafa’s back sweat and Roger’s deluxe hair care products, everything else kind of faded in comparison.

Even with the no-shows (Williams sisters) and early upsets (Jankovic, Dementieva), GTT still managed to catch plenty of tennis babes on the grounds of this year’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Enjoy!

Hantuchova is FreakyFritter’s favorite. . .

. . .as is Maria Kirilenko

. . .and he likes Dulko, too!

[flv:http://www.gototennisblog.com/wp-content/uploads/videos/kirilenko_tsonga_warmup.flv http://www.gototennisblog.com/wp-content/uploads/kirilenko_tsonga_warmup.jpg 525 295]

Here’s Maria doing her alluring resistance band routine – there’s a hunk bonus at the end!

 

Fellow bloggers: Thanks to everyone who asked to use our photos! Please feel free to use them – we would appreciate a link back to our post, if you do.

Hurray, U.S.A.! The team of rookies and underdogs (with the exception of Liezel Huber, who is ranked No. 1 in dubs) beat Argentina today in the first round of Fed Cup World Group competition. The tie was extended to a live fifth rubber, after No. 147 ranked Melanie Oudin tied things 2-2 with a must-win three set victory over No. 132 Argentine Betina Jozami. Liezel Huber and Fed cup rookie Julie Ditty formed a canny pick-up doubles team and scored the crucial victory in straight sets over Dulko/Jozami.

Impressive!

The “Best Rookie Award” goes to Mary-Joe Fernandez, who made a strong debut as Team Captain. All the players deserve credit (each won a point for the team), but I think that their inspirational captain was the “intangible” that made the difference in the end. She encouraged the 17-year-old Oudin to come back from a set down in the fourth rubber. And she didn’t panic and replace the more experienced Craybas for Ditty in the penultimate doubles match. The pairing with Huber worked better than anyone expected.

Gisela Dulko, the No. 44 ranked Argentine, is my MVP. She played scary-good tennis in her singles matches. I’m tipping Dulko to make the quarters at Roland Garros.

Other World Group results:

• Russia def China 5-0
• Italy def France 5-0 (Forget Flavia’s finger, it’s the French who should be ashamed!)
• Czech Republic def Spain 4-1 (Carla lost her match – boo!)

World Group II results:

• Slovak Republic def Belgium 4-1
• Germany def. Switzerland 3-2
• Serbia def Japan 4-1
• Ukraine def Israel 3-2

Team U.S.A. will play the Czech Republic in the April semifinal.

Click here for more from the Fed Cup website.

Image: Ron Angle