September/October '06 Awards

Who needs Maria for a Russian celebration?



==SEPTEMBER PLAYERS OF THE MONTH==
1. Dmitry Tursunov
2. Marcos Baghdatis
3. Filippo Volandri
4. Marat Safin
5. James Blake

==OCTOBER PLAYERS OF THE MONTH==
1. Roger Federer
2. James Blake
3. Ivan Ljubicic
4. Nikolay Davydenko
5. Novak Djokovic

==RISERS==
1. Dmitry Tursunov
2. Richard Gasquet
3. Fernando Gonzalez
4. Tomas Berdych
5. Filippo Volandri

==FRESH FACES==
1. Novak Djokovic
2. Stanislas Wawrinka
3. Benjamin Becker
HM- Juan Martin del Potro

==SURPRISES==
1. Marc Gicquel
2. Igor Kunitsyn
3. Ernest Gulbis
HM- Mischa Zverev

==VETERANS==
1. Tim Henman
2. Arnaud Clement
3. Thomas Johansson
HM- Fabrice Santoro

==DOUBLES TEAMS==
1. Bob & Mike Bryan
2. Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor
3. Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram
HM- Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski

==DOWN==
1. Andy Roddick
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Australian Davis Cup team
HM- Juan Carlos Ferrero

==BREAKOUT PERFORMER==
Dmitry Tursunov
...Tursunov led Russia into the Davis Cup Final by helping to down the Americans on the strength of his 17-15 in the 5th set win over Andy Roddick. The next week, Tursunov won his first career ATP singles title in the delayed Mumbai final.

==TOP MATCH==
Davis Cup SF/Match #4 - Tursunov d. Roddick
...6-3/6-4/5-7/3-6/17-15. Go ahead and retire the "Top Match of 2006" crown with this one. The Russian blew a two-set lead, but won in 4:48 anyway to the clinch a spot in the DC final. The 72 total games were the most in World Play since the use of the tie-breaker was introduced in 1989.

==MOST SURPRISING FIRST TITLE==
Marcos Baghdatis in Beijing
...not surprising that he won, but that he hadn't won one before then.

==BEST COMEBACK==
Joachim Johansson
...the Swede returned from elbow and shoulder injuries to upset Rafael Nadal in Stockholm.

==IT'LL BE INTERESTING WHEN HE COMES BACK==
Tomas Berdych
...Berdych upset Nadal in Madrid, gesturing toward the partisan crowd (shhhhh) to make sure they didn't forget him. No one did, and they all made sure Berdych knew it in his next raucous, nasty match. Should be interesting to see who's memory will be the longest if Berdych comes back next year.

==BEST NEAR-MISS==
Paradorn Srichaphan
...the Thai star pushed Roger Federer to a 3rd set TB in their SF match in Basel, where Federer was born. Federer won, but still... talk about Srichaphan almost not being a very nice guest.

==YOU, AGAIN?==
Fernando Gonzalez
...Gonzalez played the gnat as Federer swatted him away in singles finals on back-to-back weekends in Madrid and Basel.

==SAW IV?==
...with Rafael Nadal a virtual non-entity over the past two months, Federer's world was endangered most when he was sleeping. In Tokyo, he had a nightmare and woke up screaming, in a state of shock. He ran out of bed, bruising his tibia in the process, and had to be restrained by his girlfriend. Of course, he went on the win the tournament title... so there was no restraining the nightmares the rest of the field continued to have about him.


All for now.

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