Gearing up for Basel and Istanbul

It's a busy week coming up on the tennis circuit for men and women.  First a little review on what has just taken place.  After 2 1/2 years without a title, Venus Williams proved that she isn't planning on going away anytime soon by winning in Luxembourg.  Caroline Wozniacki also proved herself at the end of the season by winning another tournament in Moscow, beating top 10 player Sam Stosur.  Other winners this weekend in 250 tournaments for the men were Seppi, Berdych and Del Potro, with the latter two trying to quality for the elite World Tour Finals.

Speaking of World Tour Finals, the women have their year-end championship with the top 8 in Istanbul this coming week.  They were all looking pretty classy for the draw and player party:

Should be a fun week, with Serena and Vika being drawn in the same round robin group.  With Serena having won the last three big titles it will be fascinating to see if she can finish it off in style by claiming this elite title.

I have to say I wish this wasn't happening the same week as Roger Federer's hometown Basel tournament.  Of course anytime Roger is playing, his matches are priority with me.  That won't be the case on Tennis Channel in the U.S., however, who will be favoring the Istanbul matches and showing Basel on a delay, meaning I will need to watch Roger's matches on the computer.  Speaking of Roger he has been busy this week with commitments at Lindt, 

as well as meeting with friends, going to visit kids at a tennis club, and helping out at Jura headquarters:

Roger's initial first round opponent, Jeremy Chardy, withdrew from the tournament, instead giving him Benjamin Becker, which should be a nice warm-up for him.  We'll see if he can win a 6th title at his special tournament.  

I suppose I should also mention that there is another 500 level tournament going on in Valencia with some worthy players, though I doubt it will get much of my attention with the other big ones happening.

Looking forward to a fun upcoming tennis week!