For a while on Sunday, it looked like Romanian Victor Hanescu looked a party-spoiler for Roger Federer. The 28-year old Swiss star was awarded the ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite Player of the Year Award after his second round match in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Federer also received the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for 2009.
Australian Open and Brisbane finalist Justine Henin could not overcome dangerous Argentine Gisela Dulko who won a see-saw 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 match. The 31st seed was very much in form, while Henin showed a bit of rust from an extended layoff. The serve was the key in this one as Dulko lost all three of her service games in set two only to come up with a key reversal in set three and upset her idol. Henin had won their only previous meeting.
The men swing into action today at the 2010 Paribas BNP Open. All the biggest stars will be there, vying for their share of the more than $3.6 million purse. Indian Wells drew more than 330,000 last year and indications are that this year the turnstiles will keep moving. Why not? This is the crème de la crème of men’s tennis in a great venue with good weather.
In Melbourne, one of the most dominant signs read Just In Time, a tribute to Justine Henin’s return to the tour. The popular 5’ 5 1/2” Belgian dynamo returned to the tour after a nearly an 18 month leave of absence and immediately stormed to the forefront. In her very first event, the unseeded Henin put away Nadia Petrova, the two seed, in the first round at Brisbane and then marched to the finals. She succumbed to Kim Clijsters, another Belgian comeback player, in the finals but clearly staked her claim to the elite level of women’s tennis.
