Chardy Drives Off With First Title

While players who have never won a tour title can't really be choosers, it's tough to say it was a bad decision for Jeremy Chardy to make his first tournament win the one that came with a Mercedes.

The 22-year old Frenchman drove away in a E350 CDI by defeating Victor Hanescu in the Mercedes Cup final in Stuttgart, by the score of 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Hanescu was a two-time loser on Sunday, dropping the doubles final as well. I'm sure someone told him he'd be happy with his accomplishments later on.

Chardy is a real fun player to watch. Think Lleyton Hewitt minus a step, but with a more downhill way of ball striking. With this win he moved up eleven places to a career high of #32 in the world, in position to be seeded at a slam for the first time.

His movement is much better on clay than hard courts, but if he ever gets a handle on moving on the hard stuff, his game should translate real well to the US Open courts. It'll be interesting to see what if anything he can do during the next couple months.

Fognini Makes Semis in Stuttgart

Perennial first or second round exiter Fabio Fognini is making a surprise run into the late stages of an ATP tournament for only the third time in his career.

He's doing so on the heels of one of his biggest career scalps, a in the quarterfinals of Stuttgart, defeating second seed Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. At #11 in the world, Davydenko is the highest ranked ever to fall to the player straight outta San Remo.

Fognini, who has a father named Fulvio and a sister named Fulvia, notched a nice 6-2, 6-0 win over Marin Cilic in Monte Carlo this spring. That was the kind of match he was capable of winning--one where the other guy never really showed up. But for him to prevail in a match that was tied 5-5 in in the third set against a tough opponent could represent a milestone in the 22-year old Italian's career.

I've seen Fognini play a couple times in person, and he's got some nice weapons, to be sure. He moves incredibly quickly and can hit just some pretty decent shots on the run off both wings.

He's also been, today's win excluded, totally useless in terms of mental toughness during the key stages of matches. When the going got tough, racquets got smashed, chains of Italian gestures and expletives flew, and Fognini routinely blew late leads and chances. If something happened (perhaps winning a $35k challenger in San Benedetto last week?) to give him the mental toughness he needed so badly, he could become a real threat to make some noise at some big clay court events next spring.