Djokovic Aims for Top 10 in '07

From Reuters: Serbian teenager Djokovic is thinking big

Serbian teenager Novak Djokovic, delighted with his 2006 progress, believes he can break into the top 10 next season and be a future world number one...

"My goal is to be the best in the world and there is no rush," he told a recent news conference.

"I am 19 years old and the youngest player in the top 20. I know people see me as one of the prospects who can give Roger Federer a good run for their money.

"I hope to play professional tennis for another 10 to 15 years and be the world number one at some point in my career.

"For a start, my ambition is to break into the top 10 next season and stay there."...

An Argentina-Russia Final; Fed: "Novak is a Djoke"

I love how Boris Yeltsin always elbows in on the action. So Andy Roddick essentially choked--2 df's in his last service game, folks--after a valiant fight back from 2 sets down v. Dmitri Tursunov. Here's the official match report.  Here's the AP report. Also, Safin lost to Blake in the dead rubber in two close sets.

As expected, Argentina smoked Australia; the final will be played in Russia. (Lucky mofos! Two-time home court advantage!)

Federer had some choice words for the injury-prone Novak Djokovic post-their tie-deciding match today--which have been censored from the Davis Cup site. The original 3 minute interview that was posted has since been cut down to 1:19 minutes. Listen here to the original version; here's the new Davis Cup site's version. *Ouch*--and for shame, DC staffers!

Here's the Davis Cup radio round up. Tons of pictures here.

Wacky Wednesday

The nightmare continues for the Rogers Cup. Montreal lost top seed Kim Clijsters in her opening match to a wrist inury; and seeds Nadia Pertova and Anastasia Myskina fell. Let's hope Kim's alright. Here are a round up, video highlights and interviews.

In Cincinnati, the biggest news, of course, was the fall of Federer. Lucky for James Blake, whose tame loss to a sharp Juan Carlos Ferrero would have been the Google News Headline instead. Same goes for David Nalbandian, who was the victim of his own poor play and Federer homie Stan Wawrinka. Fat Dave did not, however, get a code violation: Blake and Federer got one each for blasting balls.

In other news, Baghdatis def. Monfils in an entertaining 3-setter, a resurgent Robby Ginepri over red hot Dimitri Tursunov (the power of the blog manifesting itself yet again?), and Florent Serra took out young gun Novak Djokovic. Roddick, Nadal and Ljubicic are through.

Here are an audio wrap of the day, player interview transcripts, audio interviews, and a review of the highlights.

Order of Play for Montreal / Order of Play for Cincinnati

Montreal Draw / Cincinnati Draw

Last Week's Wins

Pleased to say my picks were right on. Kim Clijsters easily over Patty Schnyder for her 4th Stanford title. She's undefeated in Stanford since 2002. (Does Kim's wild success on hard courts make her a hard court specialist? Hmmm.) Here's a nice wrap from the NY Times.

In LA, Tommy Haas in 3 sets over everyone's favorite ATP blogger Dmitri Tursunov for his 3rd title of the year. Here's a really good wrap from the LA Times.

Swiss Number 2 Stanislas Wawrinka over Novak Djokovic for his first ATP title in an astericked win at Umag--Novak had scary breathing problems--his father and a doctor ran out on court to check his pulse--and retired in the 1st set tiebreak. Here's a match review.

Argentine Agustin Calleri over countryman Juan Ignacio Chela in straight sets (best of 5), for his 2nd ATP title; and in Budapest, veteran Anna Smashnova defended her title easily.

Nice Novak Djokovic Interview

After his first title win. Here you go.

Djokovic Wins First Title

Novak Djokovic (News/Posts) won the Dutch Open in a tight 2-setter with Nicolas Massu. Here's a match review.

Djokovic's always had game and is a bit rascally (remember the shite-talking re: Rafa at the French Open and the ludicrous time outs against Monfils last year at the US Open?), and I for one can't wait til he's in the top 10 (inevitable, really) just to see what kind of trouble he stirs up.

*photo by TOUSSAINT KLUITERS/AFP/Getty Images

Wimbledon Round of 16 Review: The Men

Biggest Letdown: Murray v. Baghdatis didn't live up to its billing: Murray (News/Posts) played like a loose cannon; Baghdatis (News/Posts) was solid and won in straight sets. Here are Baghdatis' interview / Murray's interview /Jimmy Connors' breakdown of the match.

Closest Shave: Nieminen v. Tursunov. Finn Jarkko Nieminen took the first two sets; an extremely surly Tursunov (News/Posts) almost willed deja vu, coming back from 2 sets down as he did against Ljubicic in the 3rd round. Nieminen finally closed it out 9-7 in the 5th. Here are a match summary / Nieminen's interview / Tursunov's interview.

Roger Federer (News/Posts) had a routine win over Tomas Berdych, and Rafael Nadal (News/Posts) took out Irakli Labadze and his beer gut in straight sets.

Federer Match Review / Federer Interview / Nadal Match Review

Lleyton Hewitt (News/Posts) took out Spaniard David Ferrer in 4 tough, clay courtish sets; Mario Ancic (News/Posts) edged Novak Djokovic (News/Posts) in 5; Jonas Bjorkman took out his doubles partner Max Mirnyi in 5, and Hingis' boy toy Radek Stepanek took out Fernando Verdasco in 5. Here's a round up of all of these.

Some great tennis on the men's side today!

Wimbledon Day 4 Upsets

On the women's side, there were a trio of upsets: 20th-seeded Israeli Shahar Pe'er lost to Chinese player Shuai Peng; 29th seed Tatiana Golovin fell to Australian comer Nicole Pratt in 3, and Frenchwoman Severine Bremond took out Patty Schnyder in a 2 day, 3 set match in the biggest surprise of the day.

None really on the men's side; despite the fall of 2 seeds--Novak Djokovic (News, Blog Posts) saw off 11th seeded Tommy Robredo and Georgian Irakli Labadze took out 16th seed Gaston Gaudio, both of whom are much more at home on clay (though Robredo's powerful game is maybe even more suited to hard courts.)

Wimbledon, Day 3

Well today we've got some really interesting match-ups. Mirza v. Dementieva in round one? Ouch. Mirza's power game is suited to grass...and Dementieva...well, I love her, but this could be the upset of the day.

Also, Nalbandian v. Clement, Djokovic v. Robredo, Santoro vs. Berdych, Malisse-Stepanek. What match ups are you looking forward to?

Looks like Ljubicic is about to take out Feli Lopez; he's already up 2 sets on court 13...I'm about to watch the rest of that one. ETA: Wow, Lopez took the 3rd set; he broke Ljubicic to love in the last game of the 3rd set (7-5). Ljubicic seemed to fade after Lopez saved break points in his last 2 games...Lopez is really battling. Let's see if he keeps it up. ETA: Brave effort from Lopez, but not enough.

ETA: Ginepri's crap year continues with his first ever loss to Mardy Fish (in straights sets! Fish had never even won a set off Robby). Davydenko was also dismissed by some Colombian named Falla.

Video: Djokovic on Nadal; Nadal's response

In case you missed it on ESPN2, here's the video with excerpts from both the Djokovic and Nadal interviews, and Brad Gilbert's priceless response. I posted on the match and its aftermath yesterday; that is here.

Nadal, Djokovic and the Young Guns

Novak Djokovic threw in the towel at the beginning of the third set after losing the first two in today's FO quarterfinal. I don't know how badly he was hurting, but some of his grimacing seemed a bit disingenuous to me and his post-match interview didn't convince me otherwise.

Nadal's post-match press conference was more revealing. He seemed irritated with Djokovic:

I lost little bit my concentration in the second with his problems, no? Because I don't understand very good that, no, because he has a lot of problems. Every time, when he serve, he puts the hand on back, and after he play normal point. So I don't understand very good, and I lost my concentration a little bit, no?

and then:

Q. Djokovic told us he felt he had the match under control till his back problems. Do you agree with that?

RAFAEL NADAL: Oh, yes (smiling).

[ESPN2 showed the section of the press conference, and he actually thought he didn't hear the question correctly and turned to the translator. And then, once the question was confirmed, Nadal just did his eyebrow thing and then said "oh yes." with this funny smile. The press corps burst out laughing (and kept laughing) as Rafa continued:]

I don't know. If he say that, it's okay. I don't need to answer that, no? But he had the problem in the first game or what? Because I don't remember, no. I have break, break, all time up in the score, no?

Novak is just a few months younger than Nadal and is sure to be a big-time rival once his body grows into his game. I wonder if we'll be seeing more of what seems like gamesmanship from Djokovic (remember his notorious time-out riddled 5-setter against Monfils at the US Open?) in the future. He seems to have rubbed the ever-genial Nadal the wrong way today.

I think we're in for a real treat once Monfils, Murray, Gasquet and Djokovic mature and really start challenging Nadal. Lots of talent, a kaleidoscope of personalities and serious potential for the return of smack-talking and gleeful head-butting to the game.

Anyway, here's a match summary, and here's another.

ETA: Here's the ESPN2 video with excerpts from both the Djokovic and Nadal interviews.

The Men's Quarters are Set

Well, it was Ivan Ljubicic over Ramirez-Hidalgo, Rafael Nadal over a game Lleyton Hewitt, an injured Julien Benneteau over an injured Albert Martin, and coachless, agentless Novak Djokovic over a tired Gael Monfils. Do you give Djokovic and Benneteau a shot on Wednesday? I do.

Upset Saturday at the French Open

Well, it's been a day of upsets: Israeli Shahar Pe'er over Elena Dementieva, Frenchman Julien Benneteau over 11th seed Radek Stepanek, Spanish qualifier Ramirez-Hidalgo over his 15th seeded compatriot David Ferrer, Alberto Martin over Belgian 27th seed Olivier Rochus, and upstart Serb Novak Djokovic over veteran 23rd seed Tommy Haas.

Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu is giving birthday boy Rafa Nadal trouble and Ivan Ljubicic is in a dogfight with Argentine Juan Monaco.

Djokovic Signs With Wilson

I'm still trying to stop laughing at this one.  While it's fairly common knowledge that players sometimes just paint the name of a new sponsor on equipment from another company, it's probably not good form for the player to announce it publicly along with the announcement of a new deal, as Novak Djokovic did here.

From Novak Djokovic's official site:

When he was arrived at Belgrade's airport yesterday, Novak Djokovic had new bags in his lugguage. Head's mark on Novak's racquets is changed with big "W".

The agreement with Wilson company was attained few days ago in Monte Carlo, and Novak will play with new racquets already in Perth from 31st December.

"Roger Federer and me," Novak laughed on comment about club in which he entered. "People from Wilson company tried to make agreement with me for five years and they "catch me" now finally. I don't know the specification of our agreement, because we didn't ratify that still, but I know it's much better convention then I had with Head. I tried to play with 15-20 different models of Wilson and no one is conform to me. Then they made a copy of my Head racquet, and he is absolutely the same."

Djokovic to Have Surgery to Resolve Breathing Difficulties

From The Times: Djokovic breathes a lot more easily

...when, in 1991, Srdjan Djokovic, a Serbian restaurateur, permitted the construction of three courts next to his establishment, he could not have expected that his son, then 4, would become the nation’s finest teenage prospect...

Djokovic is soon to have his sinuses cleared out, just in time as next year he plans to be taking in the exotic air at the sport’s pinnacle...

From here he flies to Milan for a 45-minute operation on what he quaintly describes as “a deviation on the left side of my nose”. Once he can breathe more easily, Djokovic says, not many of his opponents will.

“When I solve this problem, I will play even better,” he said. “I have been playing a lot of matches against guys in the top 10, 20, 50. I have tried my best but you need so much power, energy and physical preparation and when you cannot breathe, it is so much harder.”