July '06 Awards

==PLAYERS OF THE MONTH==
1.James Blake...clearly now ruling the American roost
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2.Tommy Haas...when the King is away, Tommy plays
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3.Novak Djokovic...no wonder the Brits are trying to negociate for the "country naming rights" to this guy
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HM-Agustin Calleri

==RISERS==
1.James Blake
2.Agustin Calleri
3t.Tommy Robredo
3t.Richard Gasquet
3t.David Ferrer
4.Dmitry Tursunov
5.Jose Acasuso

==FRESH FACES==
1.Novak Djokovic
2.Stanislas Wawrinka
3.Philip Kohlschreiber
4.Juan Martin Del Potro
5.Marin Cilic

==SURPRISES==
1.Diego Junquiera
2.Wes Whitehouse
3.Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo

==VETERANS==
1.Daniel Nestor (WTT)
2.Juan Ignacio Chela
3.Dominik Hrbaty

==DOWN==
1.Marat Safin
2.Gaston Gaudio
3.Lleyton Hewitt

==TOP PERFORMANCE==
...James Blake asserts his American dominance once again with a 4-6/6-4/7-6 win in the Indianapolis hard court final against Andy Roddick, barely a month after topping the former world #1 on grass in London.

==BREAKOUT OF THE MONTH==
...Novak Djokovic claims his first ATP singles title in Amersfoort, and then advances to another final a week later in Umag (he retired at 6-6 in the 1st set, giving Stanislas Wawrinka his own first career title).

==THE BEGINNING OF THE END==
...Andre Agassi's last American road trip began with a QF result in Los Angeles.

==NEW ANDYS DANCE PARTNERS==
...it's official, Andy Murray will be coached by Brad Gilbert, while Andy Roddick is being advised by all-time great Jimmy Connors.

==MARAT IS BACK...but the "wrong" one==
...Safin opened up July with a loss to #517-ranked Wes Whitehouse.

==PETE IS BACK, TOO==
...Sampras played World Team Tennis for the Newport Beach Breakers in July, going 3-5 in singles sets and 21-29 in total games, with his .420 win percentage ranking last in men's singles for the season. Still, he helped lead the Breakers into the WTT final. They lost there, but Sampras didn't play.

==CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR ABSENCE==
...the rest of the ATP field finally found a way to get the best of those two guys whose names need not be spoken -- by playing tournaments while they rested (and prepared to kick their butts in August and September, no doubt). Brilliant. Someone should have thought of that earlier.

All for now.

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