Stanislas Wawrinka bows out in hometown

Earlier this evening Stanislas Wawrinka was knocked out in the 2nd round of the GSTAAD open to Brazilian Thomoz Belluci. Wawrinka certainly suprised me with his 6-4 6-4 defeat but I guess thats just tennis. Belluci will now face Nicolas Kiefer to book a place in the semi final where he will join Marcos Daniel, Andreas Beck and the winner of Igor Andreev/Jeremy Chardy.

I had given Wawrinka a rough chance of progressing far in the US open so we will just have to see how he goes after this defeat.

ATP Los Angeles round one winners

The Los Angeles Open is underway with Robbi Genepri bowing out first round To Marat Safin. The Indianapolis chamion who deafted big Sam Querry in there final found big serving Marat just a little bit to much in there 3 set encounter after marat claimed the match 3-6 6-3 6-4. None the less its fair to say Genepri has been delivering some decent form since his embarrassing loss on centre court to Llyeton Hewitt at Wimbledon. Other Los Angles First Round winners Included Gulbis, Sweeting, Querry, Isner, Bagdatis, Mayer and Kunitsyn.
The LA tournament seems to be up for grabs and could lead somebody into some promising form leading into the US Open. My tip is Bagdatis.

GSTAAD Updates

Igor Andreev made steady progress in his match earlier this evening with a solid 6-4 6-1 victory over Jan Herych. The russian never really looked in doubt during his match and now begans a main chance of winning the tournament. He will now meet Jeremy Chardy in the quater finals after Chardy defeated Mikhail Youzny 6-3 5-7 6-3. Other winners included Andres Beck who fought out a tought match to beat Garcia-Lopez 7-6(3) 1-6 7-6(3) whilst Crivoi put pay to Gabashville 6-4 6-4.

Davydenko ends drought

Nickolay Davydenko has clinched his first atp title in over a year after convincingly defeating frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-2. The russian will receive 500 ATP tour ranking points along with €228,000. This is the 28 yr olds 15th ATP world tour title and he also becomes the first Russian to lift the Hamburg title.
A very fine effort Nickolay you deserve this one !!

ATP Indianapolis / Hamburg

Robby Genepri dismisses big John Isner in the semi final at indianapolis to join fellow team mate Sam Querry in an all american final. Genepri suprised most people with a solid 6-4 6-3 victory. Meanwhile over in Hamburg Nicolay Davydenko (left) has fought off a tough David Ferrer in straight sets 7-5 7-6(2) after coming from behind in both sets. Davydenko has made a solid comeback from injury and now meets French rising sensation Paul-Henri Mathieu in the final later this evening.

US Open

The next Grand slam to begin is the US Open which kicks off at the end of august. I personally think nadal can win this US Open and get the only slam that his yet to win. We seen federer take the 2009 french open crown to finally conquer all 4 slams, I think nadal can do the same. The only query about nadal obviously at the moment is his knees and whether or not he will actually start. Nadal has suffered tendornitis of the knees which forced him to withdrawl from wimbledon this year so there might be a few queries. I think if he starts in this years US Open then he should be 100% fit and he can bring home the bacon, what an effort it would be if he does. Federer is the other obvious threat and he might just claim his 3rd slam in a row after previously coming off what we could call "rare" form for roger, however his now back to his best and looks the man to beat. Other darkhorse chances if your going to have a bet are Juan Martin Del Potro, Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco, Fernando Gonzalez and if your game at odds Ernest Gulbis and Stanislas Wawrinka. Obvious other choices in the market are Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic however we are going to let these two slide. Previous slams show the top ranked players always seemingly coming through in the finals so just maybe we could be in for an upset. Having said that I'm sticking to my guns and tipping Rafael Nadal if he starts.