Today's Upsets

WTA

Russian, Vesna Manasieva, defeated her first top 20 player on her 20th birthday to advance to the second round of the Slovenian Open today. Ranked 141 in the world, Manasieva battled for nearly 3 hours and saved two match points before finally overcoming the second seed, Anabel Medina Garrigues. Recently, the WTA Tour conducted an interview with Manasieva, asking her about potential goals for 2009. The Russian responded hesitantly, stating:

"You know, I'm not making any goals, because for a year and a half I've had quite a black time - I was getting injured and ill - so now I'm taking things match by match. I just want to be able to play."

Manasieva next plays the Croatian wildcard, Petra Martic, for a place in the quarterfinals of the International level tournament. (It is really hard to not say Tier III)

ATP


The German Open, itself, was the men's upset for the day. Nearly every seeded, favorite, or otherwise favored player lost today including the number one seed, Gilles Simon. The day's shocking affairs began with matches between unseeded players that nevertheless produced several surprises. Rainer Schuettler, Mikhail Youzhny and Juan Ignacio Chela all lost before Tommy Robredo became the first seeded casualty, losing in straight sets to Ivan Navarro (ranked outside the top 100). The upsets continued as Melzer and Wawrinka lost to Cuevas and Garcia-Lopez respectively - both in straight sets. Arguable the biggest shock was the Simon's loss to German wildcard, Daniel Brands, who is ranked 113 places below the Frenchman.