TENNIS in DEPTH.

Top seed Gael Monfils won an all-French clash against 31-year-old wild card Sebastien Grosjean 6-1, 6-1 for a place in the Open de Moselle quarter-finals on Thursday, at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament in Metz. Monfils fired 10 aces and saved six of seven break points for victory in 67 minutes. It was the pair’s third meeting, but first clash since the 2006 Open 13 in Marseille. World No. 13 Monfils, who received a first round bye, improved to 25-13 on the 2009 ATP World Tour season highlighted by one runner-up finish at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco (l. to Almagro).

Monfils will next face Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who edged past eighth seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, the 2005 champion (d. Monfils), hitting seven aces to Ljubicic’s 11 in a 6-4, 7-6(3) win in one hour and 56 minutes.

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Defending champion Maria Kirilenko enjoyed a straightforward passage to the quarter-finals of the Hansol Open in Seoul on Thursday as opponent Francesca Schiavone was forced to quit in the second set.

The Italian third seed was 2-1 up in the second after losing the first 6-1 to the Russian when she retired hurt.

Kirilenko will now take on top seed Daniela Hantuchova who beat South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-1 6-1 in one hour and 11 minutes.

In the day’s other matches, Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm knocked out fifth seed Alisa Kleybanova 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 and seventh seed Vera Dushevina, of Russia, beat Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova 7-5 6-1.

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Flavia was on the catwalk at Milan Fashion Week and was displaying some swimwear from part of the Pin-Up stars Spring/Summer 2010 women’s collection.

Milan is one of the ‘big 4′ fashion weeks of the year with New York, London and Paris. Fashion weeks lets the industry know what’s “in” and what’s “out” for the season.

After Flavia’s fantastic run in America, she will take a break and will be back in action on September 27th to play the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and that is a Premier 5 event. Flavia will then play the China Open in Beijing the following week and that is a Premier Mandatory event. Both these events are played on hardcourt outdoors.

Flavia will then travel back to Europe to play the Generali Ladies Linz in Linz, Austria the week of October 12th and the following week will play the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Both events are played indoors.

Flavia has a very good chance of qualifying for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha which features the best 8 players of the year. If Flavia doesn’t qualify she will be playing the Commonwealth Bank Tour of Champions in Bali which is a level below Doha.

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Famous Romanian tennis player Andrei Pavel lost in the last match of his career today (Weds) to Uruguyan Pablo Cuevas at the BCR Open tournament in Bucharest.

Pavel lost by a score of 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). Cuevas will meet Australian Peter Luczak in the next round.

Pavel, who received a wild card for the BCR Open, will officially withdraw from professional tennis during the tournament.

Croatian tennis player Goran Ivanisevic and Pavel will play a demonstration match on 26 September at the BCR Open tennis tournament in Bucharest.

Pavel, 35, experienced back problems in 2008 that have continued to have an adverse impact on his play.

Pavel said today: “I have no regrets and am very proud of my career.

“I want to spend more time with my family, especially as we’ve moved to the USA. I am going to try to start a tennis academy and see what else I can do. I will certainly continue to have a relationship with tennis,” he said.

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Ana is in Asia for tournaments in Tokyo and Beijing – her final scheduled events of the season. Almost all of the world’s elite players will be competing in each city, with Beijing classed as a Premier Mandatory event, meaning that it cannot be skipped without penalty. It is also a combined event, and takes place at the stadium that was built for last year’s Olympic Tennis Event.

Ana arrived in Japan on Tuesday and has been practising at the picturesque Ariake Colosseum in the south of Tokyo. The tournament is in its 26th year, but it is only two years since it moved from its traditional position in the calendar, which was in February on indoor carpet.

Ana said: “The field here is very strong so I’m going to have a difficult first round match for sure. I’ve obviously had a very disappointing season, but these two tournaments in Asia are an opportunity to end it on a high. I’m going to try and enjoy myself on the court here.”

Last year’s courts played especially fast and prompted the organizers to re-lay the hard courts: they are now described as “slow”, acccording to International Tennis Federation classifications.

The Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo is a favourite event of many of the players. “Everyone here is so polite and welcoming. It’s actually very humbling to visit here.

The China Open in Beijing,  is a “super” combined event lasting nine days. Consequently, the Tokyo tournament begins on Sunday 27 September and ends on Saturday 3 October, rather than the traditional Sony Ericsson WTA Tour schedule of Monday starts and Sunday finishes.

15 of the world’s top 20 ranked players are set to appear in Tokyo, with world No.1 Dinara Safina and No.2 Serena Williams the most notable absentees. There are no top 20 absentees from Bejing.

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Top seed Daniela Hantuchova was made to work hard before booking her place in the second round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul today.

Hantuchova took the opening set against Japan’s Ayumi Morita and recovered after losing the second to seal a 6-4 4-6 6-2 victory.

Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm also advanced to the second round with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over wild card Lee Ye-Ra of Korea.

Four second-round matches also took place on Wednesday with second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues dropping just four games in beating American Meghann Shaughnessy.

However, sixth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and eighth seed Sybille Bammer of Austria crashed out at the hands of Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan and Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova respectively.

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A meeting between the top two players in men’s game is by no means a certainty, however, as Federer does not always turn out for the Swiss though he recently earned two points for the team when Switzerland beat Italy 3-2 in the play-offs to remain in the top-tier World Group last weekend.

“We have to accept how the draw is. We’ll try to beat them in Spain,” Switzerland captain Severin Luthi said. “For sure that’s one of the toughest draws we can have.

 “It’s too early to say if Roger will play or not.”

Nadal by contrast is a mainstay of the Spanish team that won the title last year and will face the Czech Republic in December in this year’s final.

Spain beat Israel 4-1 last weekend in the semifinals with only Nadal missing the tie because of injury. He also missed last year’s final win over Argentina for the same reason.

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Second seed Shahar Peer dropped just three games in cruising into the second round of the Tashkent Open on Wednesday.

Israel’s Peer thrashed Estonia’s Maret Ani 6-1 6-2 while fourth seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus was almost equally convincing, beating qualifier Arina Rodionova 6-3 6-2.

Four second-round matches were also played today, with Galina Voskoboeva the only seed to fall.

The eighth seed lost a third-set tie-break to Darya Kustova of Belarus while top seed Yaroslava Shvedova, fifth seed Stefanie Voegele and sixth seed Monica Niculescu all advanced.

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