Two tournaments on clay and one on...grass!

Gstaad, The Swiss Open
Al Costa is the top seed at this fairly prestigious ($600,000 in prize money) clay event. Ferrero is seeded second, Federer third, and Pavel is No. 4. Jiri Novak, the defending champ, isn't present. Wimbly runner-up David Nalbandian is unseeded, and will open against Pavel. Also playing: Alex Corretja and Nic Lapentti.
Official Site: http://www.swissopengstaad.com/
ATP site for Draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/newsandscores/...aws/default.asp

Bastad, The Swedish Open
G. Canas is seeded No. 1, followed by El Aynaoui, Moya, and Robredo. Yeh, this is the other clay tournament this week. Gaudenzi won here last year.
Official Site: http://www.swedishopen.org/default.asp?id=28&lang=en
ATP site for Draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/newsandscores/...aws/default.asp

Newport, Miller Lite Tennis Hall of Fame Championships
THIS is the grassy end-note to Wimbledon. Get ready to hear the TV commentators (yeh, it's televised!) bemoan the absence of grass-court tournaments on the tour. James Blake is seeded No. 1 in the draw, and could very well win his first ATP event here. The very capable Wayne Arthurs is No. 2, Julian Knowle is in third, and Jeff Morrison is the forth seed. Morrison plays big-serving American Taylor Dent in the second round (Dent beat that Ancic kid who beat Federer in the first round). Arthurs is likely to meet James Blake's brother in the second round. Assuming James doesn't blow his load looking at how OPEN this draw is for him, he should reach the semi's at the very, very least. Considering how well he played against Krajicek at Wimbledon, a final against Arthurs would be very winnable...
Official Site: http://www.tennisfame.com/Championship/
ATP site for Draw: http://www.atptennis.com/en/newsandscores/...aws/default.asp

How weird is it that Nalbandian is unseeded - it's not like he was a TOTAL nobody before Wimbledon. I guess enough guys are really REALLY anxious to get back on clay. Then there are those who never left (paging Albert Costa).

A really tough draw to call. It really is going to be a case of "who wants it more." To me, the man with the biggest motivation to do well is Roger Federer. After being humiliated in his past two majors, he's at home in Switzerland and hopefully totally prepared. However, a draw that could have him face Arazi (whom he just now beat 6-4 6-3) Lapentti, and then Ferrero or Corretja just to get to the finals is very, very tricky.

I wish Newport were a bigger tournament. For god's sake, it's the Hall of Fame tournament! Didn't we discuss this last year, how it would be a perfect time for a kind of All-Star week, with men and women both performing, skills competitions, HOF inductees, clinics ... I know the tennis world is exhausted after Wimbledon, but why waste a beautiful opportunity on seeing how marginal Americans compete against subpar Europeans?

That said, I look for Taylor Dent to make the finals here against Blake and win the whole thing.

James Blake and Taylor Dent met for the first time earlier this year at an indoor event in Memphis. Blake won in three sets.

I'm all about Blake winning this event, sorry to root against you B-Jake...

Okay, scratch what I said about Federer "wanting" to win anything. In Switzerland. Second round. Losing to a qualifier. Roger, what the...?

With Costa losing his first round match, and Nalbandian out, too, and Lapentti... wow, kind of a blood bath. Makes you think that the winner of the Spanish quarter (containing Corretja, Mantilla, Sanchez & Ferrero) could win this whole thing.

Elsewhere, congrats to Thomas Blake for winning his first pro match at Newport. Can it continue against Martin Lee (who upset Wayne Arthurs)?? Probably not. But go Blake!

Finally, hats off to Guillermo Canas, for double bageling Albert Montanes in the second round at the Swedish Open.

Federer is officially in a slump. He's so talented and it would be a shame if he stays there. But his confidence is shattered.

Well, Thomas Blake was unable to beat the Brit Martin Lee, but his brother took out Ota Fukarek in three sets to set up a match-up with Justin Gimelstob.

The semifinals will be shown Saturday on Fox Sports (at least here in Chicago) at 1 & 5 central time.

Other Americans in the quarters are Mardy Fish (who could win against Llodra, with enough crowd support); Taylor Dent (who should win against Alexander Popp, the German's shocking 2000 Wimbledon notwithstanding); and Robbie Ginepri (who now has to face Lee). Ginepri beat Srichaphan at Queens Club, by the way.

It could be an all-American semifinal! Go Blake!

Two down, one to go! Three Americans will definitely be playing in the Hall of Fame tournament semifinals on Saturday:

Robbiy Ginepri beat Martin Lee and will now face Taylor Dent, victor over Alexander Popp. France's Michael Llodra, seeded 7th, is the last non-American left in the draw.

It will be interesting to see how the Americans' success here translates to the upcoming US hard court season. This is where James Blake first made noise last year, remember. Hopefully, the confidence boosting of Newport will help in LA, Cincy, and Toronto.

Meanwhile, in Gstaad, a decent-sized upset occurred with David Sanchez beating Juan Carlos Ferrero. Sanchez faces another compatriot, Corretja, in the third round. Again, too much parity: only two seeded players are left after two rounds - Corretja (8) and Gaudio (7)!!!

On the women's side, by the way, there are three clay tournaments going on this week. The top ranked player of all three tourneys is Paula Suarez, #30 in the world.

I was going to post a thread on what the women were doing this week and I noticed the same thing, B-Jake.

Why, oh WHY?!, isn't Anna Kournikova playing this week?!?!?!

Argentinian tennis just keeps trucking this week. Following Nalbandian's final showing at Wimbledon, which itself followed Fernandez's semi finish at Roland Garros, we've got this week:

Paola Suarez and Mariana Diaz-Oliva in the semis of Palermo;

Gisela Dulko upsetting Montolio and Gubacsi to make it to the semis of Casablanca;

Gaston Gaudio, the last seed standing, a semifinalist at Gstaad;

Agustin Calleri beating countryman Guillermo Canas to make the semis of Bastad.

Actually, Spain has six semifinalists in the six tournaments this week, but the Armada is SO last year.... everyone on-board the Pampas Express!!!

James Blake d. Justin Gimelstob, 7-5, 7-5 to reach the semi's at Miller Lite. James faces Frenchman Michael Llorda next. Not an easy match, but also not one Blake should lose.

Americans Taylor Dent and Robby Ginepri meet in the other semi.

Taylor Dent d. James Blake, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 at Newport. Both men were vying for their first championship win. Pretty solid match.

Other scores:

Moya d. El Aynaoui at Swedish Open, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5

Corretja d. Gaudio at Swiss Open, 6-3, 7-6, 7-6