Yes, it was a little obvious, but I must comment on Tim’s great triumph in the first round of the NASDAQ 100 Open yesterday.
News for both my faves has been scarce lately, mainly due to Daniela missing Indian Wells, and me having a lot of things on my mind, and my workload, which has now mounted to a fearsome height.
Henman’s ‘breeze’ (thank you BBC for a rare positive!) over Marat Safin 6-3, 6-3 is a great result. Yes the Russian is still recovering from a knee injury, which has sidelined him for the past eight months (of course denying him a chance to defend his Aussie Open title in January). However, on the only time I have had the pleasure of seeing Safin play this year, was even earlier in his comeback, and he was masterful in his win over compatriot and (then) world number five Nikolay Davydenko in Dubai.
Henman, who has always given Safin close games in the past, was simply too much and this result yet again proves that Tim is still a force on the tour and once the clay court season begins, and his points to defend are almost non existent, we can expect a resurgence up the rankings.
Hewitt lies next, he is of course Henman’s nightmare opponent, but is way off his best form (exploited by Murray in San Jose last month). Should be an interesting one.
Elsewhere, in her absence Daniela was busy winning awards at the ‘Stars for Stars’ in Miami: the official award ceremony for the professional tours. In 2003 Daniela won a host of accolades including Best Newcomer and Most Improved Player. This year she, together with regular partner Ai Sugiyama won the Fans Favourite Doubles Team award with over a fifth of the total votes.
Tim picture from Getty Images and Daniela picture from Official WTA Site
All Things Tennis 