Posted by Ravi Ubha, ESPN.com
Roger Federer,
Rafael Nadal,
Andy Roddick and
Serena Williams didn't feature, but last week produced highs and lows as the respective tennis tours rolled on ahead of the U.S. Open Series.
Player of the week: Andreas Vinciguerra
Talk about perseverance. Vinciguerra, out most of the past three years with knee problems, answered Swedish captain Mats Wilander's call to play in the Davis Cup against Israel in March, only to heartbreakingly fall in five sets in both singles encounters -- in his hometown. After losing to fellow hard-luck case Harel Levy in the decider, the lefty vowed not to play for a while, maybe ever.
Well, he did return and put in a battling display at the Swedish Open in picturesque Bastad as a wild card, reaching his first top-level quarterfinal in six years. His ranking soared from outside the top 450 to 293rd.
The aggressive baseliner, once one of the sport's brightest prospects, is still only 28 years old.
Vinciguerra's first-round tilt with Frenchman Florent Serra was particularly interesting. In an ill-tempered affair, the pair bumped into each other during one changeover.
Match of the week: Fernando Verdasco versus Daniel Koellerer, Swedish Open
Used to plying his trade in front of minuscule crowds at Challengers, Koellerer, nicknamed "Crazy Dani" thanks to his on-the-court antics, earned big-time exposure against Verdasco on the clay in Bastad. The Austrian grinder made the most of it.
Koellerer manufactured a match point before losing 6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-5 in an exhausting 3-hour, 9-minute second-round thriller on Center Court. Verdasco, mind you, was visibly fatigued after arduous Davis Cup play the previous weekend.
Koellerer got a warning for time wasting receiving serve and ripped into ever-smiling chair ump Mohamed Lahyani for not allowing him to take an immediate injury timeout as calf cramps struck him late in the third. According to Koellerer, Lahyani warned the Austrian for delaying because he didn't want the top seed, Verdasco, out of the draw. Lahyani, for the record, denied the charge.
Koellerer could barely stand at the end of the match, another injury seemingly surfacing.
Flop of the week: Gilles Simon
Simon continues to stumble.
One of the few top-10 pros on duty, the Frenchman lost in the second round of the clay-court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, to home favorite Mischa Zverev. The match took barely more than an hour, and Zverev had handed Simon an embarrassing 63-minute defeat at the Rome Masters in late April.
Simon now has plenty of points to defend starting this week. Curiously, the 24-year-old is competing at the clay-court German Open in Hamburg instead of the hard-court Indianapolis Tennis Championships, where he's the reigning champ.
Indy blues
Speaking of Indianapolis, the U.S. presence -- and field in general -- is pretty thin.
Roddick is still recovering from a hip injury, Mardy Fish turned down a chance to compete because of a back injury, and James Blake, according to tournament director Kevin Martin, was too expensive.
Martin tried to land Blake once Roddick withdrew, but "we couldn't meet his expectations [financially]," Martin told The Indianapolis Star.
It's the first time in tournament history a top-10 player won't show up. Russian Dmitry Tursunov, ranked 27th, is the top seed.
The boys are back in town
What's with all these comebacks?
Jeff Tarango, 40, played qualifying in Indianapolis but lost in the final round to Frenchman Sebastien De Chaunac on Sunday.
Former Wimbledon champ Michael Stich, also 40, will team up with Zverev in doubles at the German Open. Stich is the tournament director in Hamburg, no longer a Masters event.
She's back
The road to U.S. Open glory for Dinara Safina starts in Slovenia.
The world No. 1, awaiting a maiden major after three crushing losses in finals, makes her first appearance since Wimbledon at this week's modest Slovenia Open in Portoroz, a resort town situated in the west of the country.
"I'm amazed because I've never been here, and it's a beautiful place," Safina said. "There's everything I need. The courts are good, the beach is close and the food is great."
Mom and dad are joining Safina in Slovenia.
A dog's life
Kateryna Bondarenko, the younger of the Bondarenko sisters from Ukraine, had some company in her hotel room in Prague.
Bondarenko brought her Chihuahua to the Czech capital, although Princess appears to be a tad excitable.
"My dog loves to bite," she wrote in her blog for the women's tour. "She's actually biting me right now as I'm writing this. I push her away but she runs back to me and bites again. It's more playful than violent, but I have scratches on my hand and it's sort of red right now."
It didn't bother her in Sunday's doubles final. Kateryna and Alona Bondarenko cruised in 53 minutes.
Winners
Swedish Open: Robin Soderling won a fourth career title and first outdoors.
Mercedes Cup: Jeremy Chardy claimed his maiden title.
Palermo International: Flavia Pennetta won for the time on her home soil. She routed good friend Sara Errani in the finale.
Prague Open: Sybille Bammer rallied from a set and 5-2 down in her first-round match against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.
