July '07 Awards

There's no doubt about it. July is one of "those" months.

Wimbledon ends in the first week of July, but it's more of a June event. Clay court events two months before the U.S. Open seem out of place (even if Rafa wins them). And how important are the hard court events if Roger Federer doesn't show up, but still manages to win another slam at the end the summer anyway?

But someone has to be the non-SW19 July Player of the Month, so...

**PLAYERS OF THE MONTH**
1. Rafael Nadal
...he's 93-1 in his last 94 matches on clay.
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2. Juan Monaco
...the most anonymous three-time 2007 champion on the board.
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3. Dmitry Tursunov
...slowly but surely he's recovering from that sluggish start to the season.
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4. Radek Stepanek
...could he have managed to outrun the Martina Curse?
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5. Frantisek Cermak
... you know it's July when a relatively unknown doubles player's two titles is enough to qualify him for a Player of the Month nomination.
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**RISERS**
1. Juan Monaco
2. Dmitry Tursunov
3. Radek Stepanek
4. Paul-Henri Mathieu
5. David Ferrer
HM- Potito Starace

**FRESH FACES**
1. Sam Querrey
2. Stanislas Wawrinka
3. Viktor Troicki
4. Robin Haase
5. Donald Young
HM- Kei Nishikori

**SURPRISES**
1. Hyung-Taik Lee
2. Steve Darcis
3. Frank Dancevic
4. Zach Fleishman
5. Werner Eschauer
HM- Andreas Seppi

**VETERANS**
1. Carlos Moya
2. Andrei Pavel
3. Guillermo Canas
4. Juan Ignacio Chela
5. Werner Eschauer
HM- Luis Horna

**DOWN**
1. Nikolay Davydenko
2. James Blake & Andy Roddick
3. Fernando Gonzalez

**COMEBACK**
1. Nicolas Kiefer
2. Mark Philippoussis (on reality TV)

TOP PERFORMANCE: Rafael Nadal wins Stuttgart, getting another clay court winning streak started.

BLAME CANADA... or McDonald's: Canada's Frank Dancevic had the breakout performance of the month, upsetting Andy Roddick in the Indianapolis SF to reach his first tour final. Of course, then Roddick hinted that his post-match fast food run from the night before, which caused all his match-day bathroom runs, might have had something to do with what happened.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR! But...: James Blake's well-received book was released... but it didn't prevent him from suffering upset losses to Radek Stepanek (L.A. final) and Sam Querrey (Indy QF) in July.


All for now.

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