A fortnight till the French :o)

Before I forget, notable performances this week especially by Australian player Andrew Ilie, a qualifier to many of the ATP tour events he competes. Andrew Ilie, a countryman of mine, who reached the third round at the Australian Open this year (losing to eventual finalist Marcelo Rios), has won his first ATP Tour title. Woo-hoo!! And in fashionable form too - defeating top seed Stoltenberg 6-4 7-5 (the third time this year he has beaten Stoltenberg) and with a victorious thrashing of Italian 8th seed Davide Sanguinetti 7-5 6-4. Look out for him - he's coming up! Not only are the up-and-coming stars in action, but the experienced and battling have also shown us what "oldies" of the game can do - with man of the moment Agassi, recovering from a year long slump, and injury prone Swede Enqvist squaring off in the final at the Munich Open, with Enqvist taking the edge 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3, and bringing the head-to-head battle 3-2 his way.

One more thing, I'm a little concerned with Gustavo Kuerten. Although given he is ranked at a career high #8, I'm afraid he wont be able to defend as many points, given recent performances with a second round defeat at Munich to Magnus Gustaffson 7-6 (7-2) 6-3. OK, he made the quarterfinal at the German Open, but he will need to pull in a little bit more if he wants to maintain his Top 10 ranking. And old battlers Ivanisevic and Muster. Ivanisevic - not bad at the German with a quarterfinal showing, but how many early round defeats have supported that attempt?! Likewise for Bruguera who will need a big form improvement in the next fortnight to defend a lot of points at the French. And Muster, the former king of the clay, is now looking more like the court jester with humiliating early round defeats in most of the tournaments lately. (However, he did make the quarterfinals at the German Open. Actually, just as a lot of the other players I have mentioned in this paragraph. Hmmmm, maybe I'm wrong, but then again, performance in one week will not determine performance in the next.)

Anyway, if I still haven't fulfilled your appetite for tennis, I'm sorry. But to leave you know, I'll feed you a few more stats

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