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I was stunned when Giles Simon reached the top 10 last year. I couldn't believe that a player as minuscule as Simon could beat both Roger Federer (twice) and Rafael Nadal, but he did and he ended up peaking at 6 in the world. Simon's run in the top 10 is likely nearly over. He has a ton of points to defend this summer, and he started off poorly by losing his opening match in Hamburg, where he was playing instead of Indianapolis, where he was the defending champion. The Hamburg draw opened up... Read Full Story

Nathalie Dechy has announced her pregnancy and retirement. At age 30 Dechy is hanging up her rackets to start a family. Dechy turned pro back in 1994, so her career has been quite lengthy. She achieved her career high ranking of number 11 in 2006, a year after she nearly beat Lindsay Davenport to reach the Australian Open Finals. Dechy finished the year ranked inside the top 100 for 12 consecutive years. Many of you may best remember Dechy for her match last year at Wimbledon where she was a... Read Full Story

Things got a little heated in a recent World Team Tennis match when Leander Paes took a volley right at Robert Kendrick. John McEnroe was quick to give Paes a piece of his mind, but Kendrick decided to retaliate, by taking a first serve and drilling it right at Leander. World Team Tennis is usually not very serious, it is actually pretty boring, but this got interesting as there is clearly some bad blood between Paes and Kendrick. They dislike eachother, and I'm sure McEnroe isn't joining the... Read Full Story

Jeremy Chardy had a rough start today in the Stuttgart finals, dropping the first set to Victor Hanescu 6-1, but Chardy was able to fight back and with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the last two sets and claim his first ATP Title. Jeremy Chardy burst onto the scene last year when he reached the fourth round of Roland Garros as a wild card, now he will likely move to a new career high ranking after winning his first career title. Chardy's previous high was 39, but my sometimes faulty projections... Read Full Story

I was stunned when Robin Soderling pulled off the upset of the decade, maybe of all-time when he beat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, but now I'm stunned he is continuing the good form. Since the start of Roland Garros Soderling has compiled a record of 13-2, and only lost to Roger Federer. This week he continued his great form, by cruising to his fourth career title without losing a single set. Soderling will likely move to the top ten with this result, and I expect his confidence will... Read Full Story

Flavia Pennetta won an all-Italian final today when she crushed Sara Errani 6-1, 6-2 to win the XXII Internazionali Femminili Di Tennis Open in Palermo. This is the seventh title for Pennetta in her career. Pennetta has been hanging around the top 15 for quite some time now and peaked at 9 on February 11 of this year. She moved from 15 to 13 after this title, and is just 200 points shy of debuting in the top 10. Sara Errani also moved up 9 ranking positions for reaching the finals, but she is... Read Full Story

29 year old Austrian Sybille Bammer won her second career title today at the ECM Prague Open in Austria. Bammer defeated Francesca Schiavone in the finals 7-6, 6-4. Bammer has already moved up to 22 in the world after this tournament, her career high is 19. Schiavone moved back into the top 25 at number 25. Both players in the finals are 29 years old so this was truly a battle of veterans. Bammer is perhaps most well known for not only being a touring professional, but for having a soon to be... Read Full Story

Maria Kirilenko is one of the hottest players on the WTA tour. She reached the top 20 in 2008 peaking at 18, but she has dropped out of the top 50 and is currently ranked 52 in the world. Read Full Story

Juan Monaco crushed Tommy Robredo 6-0, 6-2 today to reach the finals at the Catella Swedish Open. Robredo was the defending champion and the number 3 seed. Monaco was ranked in the top 20 for much of 2008, but in late 2008 and early 2009 injuries forced him out of competition and his ranking began to drop. He returned to play a relatively successful clay court season but it wasn't as successful as his 2008 season. His current ranking of 61 will most certainly be rising quickly. I think he... Read Full Story

Andreas Vinciguerra continued his miracle run today in Bastad by upsetting the fourth seed Jurgen Melzer. Vinciguerra will meet his countryman and the number 2 seed Robin Soderling in the semfinals. I already did a pretty lengthy post on Vinciguerra yesterday, but his ranking will now be improving approxamately 162 spots to 298 should he lose in the semifinals. On the top half of the draw Juan Monaco defeated Fernando Verdasco when Verdasco had to retire with a pulled calf muscle. Monaco will... Read Full Story