Newsreel: One Serve And Volleyer Won ... Another Lost

This lefty odd bird won the biggest tournament of her career in Rome by playing a throwback game: slice and dice, serve and volley, and a generous helping of dropshots.



Lady JaJa's primary weapon, her speed, was sapped as her legs gave way chasing down Kamikaze's dropshots.



Hmm, lemme guess ... Kamikaze's favorite male player also bites trophies.



This sometime serve-and-volleyer played yucky again.



He allowed yet another journeyman, Albert Montanes, to be hero for the week.



Didn't Federer claim that anything less than winning the tourney would be a disappointment? After the match, he claimed:

I'm not worried. My goal isn't to win 12 tournaments a year, it is the big events: the Masters, the grand slams and keeping the number one ranking.

Whatever, Federror. We know that at this point you only really care about Slams.

Estoril, Belgrade, Munich 2010

All ATP tourneys this week are minor clay court ones, offering a grand total of 250 ranking points to the winner.

Estoril

Tourney site: here

Draw: there

A minor tournament except for the fact that both top seeds swing Wilson sticks and one is a goofball. The goofball has failed to advance to the quarterfinals in his last three tourneys. Has he really gotten a wake up call and decided to kick some butt and win ugly? Or will he get bored with advancing through rounds to face Le Monf and Ljubs, and start playing lackadasically the way he tends to practice? While much of the competition is supposed to be no challenge for Fed these days, is he just kicking back til Roland Garros? One would normally think this tourney is low hanging fruit for the Greatest Shanker of all Time to win. But outside of Slams I won't even bother with prognostications for the goofball.



Top Male Seeds: Fed, Le Monf, Ljubs, Montanes

Lurkers: Phau (love seeing him chase balls), Granola

With no gals in the top 25, this tourney has the feel of a slightly overgrown Challenger tourney. Agnes is the top seed ranked at #35 and Sorana Banana nipping at her heels. Since this is not the top tier of the WTA, one can only predict that the unpredictable will happen.



Top Female Seeds: Szavay, Cristea, Can Woz, AMG

Prominent withdrawals: Playstation, JB, Nails

Belgrade

Otherwise known as the Djoker's home tourney.

Tourney site: here

Draw: here

Seeds: Djoker, Tree, Head Samurai, Wawa

Munich

Tourney site: here

Draw: here

Seeds: Cilic, Misha, Big Berd, Bags