The Acapulco draw isn\u2019t up yet and I have to prepare for my Oscars party. Vanity Fair canceled its usual after-Oscars bash in solidarity with the writer\u2019s strike and I live in Hollywood so I\u2019m having the party instead. I invited Cate Blanchett<\/b> and Ellen Page<\/b>. No word on whether they\u2019ll turn up or not.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll do Acapulco and look at the women\u2019s event in Qatar on Monday.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the U.S. hard court\/European indoor hard court\/South American clay court<\/i> swing of the ATP season. There appear to be three distinct tours playing out in different parts of the world. How are we supposed to build up excitement when players are strung out all over the world \u2013 well, not strung out, oh you know what I mean.<\/p>\n
Television executives aren\u2019t feeling it either; the coverage is sparse to nonexistent. You could have watched San Jose last week for $39.95 on top of your $60 cable bill and that\u2019s a subject I\u2019ll look at in the future because tournaments are increasingly using the internet to generate income with their own pay-per-view policies. Anyway, enough ranting, let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n
Zagreb<\/b> (indoor carpet)<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s event in Rotterdam was so topsy turvy that no seeded player reached the quarterfinals. Most distressing of all? Rafael Nadal<\/b> lost to Andreas Seppi<\/b> in the second round because, he said, he lost focus. No idea what David Ferrer<\/b>\u2019s excuse was.<\/p>\n
Rotterdam had 8 players in the top 20, Zagreb has no players in the top 20. The top players are all resting up for Dubai and the big money.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m desperately looking for someone in the top half of this draw who can beat Ivan Ljubicic<\/b> because his game has been going downhill and I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll win a tournament this year. Thank heavens Mario Ancic<\/b> is here. Andreas Seppi<\/b> was the guy who beat Nadal last week and he beat Ljubicic indoors in Vienna last year but this is indoor carpet, not hard court, and that means the court is fast and slick which is well suited to Ivan\u2019s serve, about the only part of his game that’s still firing.<\/p>\n
Ivo Karlovic<\/b> is in the bottom half of the draw and he could meet Michael Llodra<\/b> in the second round. Llodra just beat Karlovic in Rotterdam and he beat him here last year so I have to go with Llodra in that matchup.<\/p>\n
If Llodra has to meet up with Janko Tipsarevic<\/b> he\u2019s in trouble because he\u2019s lost to him three straight time but I don\u2019t think that’ll be a problem. I say Mischa Zverev<\/b> beats Tipsarevic because Zverev took out Ferrer and Philipp Kohlschreiber<\/b> last week.<\/p>\n
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez<\/b> is in Fabrice Santoro<\/b>\u2019s quarter and Garcia-Lopez did get to the semis this week in San Jose but he didn\u2019t beat anyone notable to get there so I say Santoro gets to his second semifinal of the year.<\/p>\n