Davydenko and Ljubicic KOs show America what tournament tennis is all about

In my opinion, some of the smaller European tennis tournaments get no love. Two weeks ago, the Tennis Channel in the U.S. had weekend coverage of Vina del Mar and Delray Beach - but not Zagreb.

This week, they again have coverage of two events (San Jose and Costa do Sauipe), yet again, the European event (Marseille) is omitted. Obviously, I can understand the American events getting top billing here in the States, if for no other reason than the proximity and the time zone. But why the choice of clay events in South America over indoor events in Europe? It could surely be a TV rights issue that I'm not at all familiar with, but regardless, we're getting shut out of some fine tennis. And this quip of mine isn't just limited to United States TV - check out the ATP's website, where as of late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, the revolving picture/headline spoke of the tournaments in Brazil and San Jose - but not the one in France.

Trust me, I'm not masquerading as Jean-François Caujolle, the tournament director of the Open 13, in order to drive up ticket sales or publicity - but I would like to suggest to you all three reasons why you should be paying attention to this event:

1. This has been one of the wildest first rounds of recent memory.
I know this isn't a Grand Slam, or even a Masters Series event, but take a gander at what has unfolded (so far) in the first round at Marseille:

Mikhail Youzhny beat (4) Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.
Andreas Seppi beat (3) Mario Ancic 4-0, retired.
Nicolas Mahut beat (2) Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-4.
Robin Soderling beat (1) Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The top four seeds losing in the first round in any tournament are about as shocking as it gets - I am not certain it has ever happened in the recent past.

Croatia, fresh off the sting of a Davis Cup first round exit, will have to deal with yet another early demise in a tournament, as Ancic and Ljubicic were sent packing. From the look of it, Mario probably should have simply withdrawn from the event, as it has been said that he was battling the flu. As for Ivan (the Terrible), this latest defeat just adds to a 2007 that can be only defined as feast or famine (mostly the latter, I feel):

- Defeats Andy Murray in the final to win the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.
- Loses in the first round of the Australian Open to Mardy Fish.
- Reaches the final of Zagreb (in Croatia), but falls to Marcos Baghdatis after winning the first set.
- Loses a must-win rubber to Tommy Haas in the first round of the Davis Cup.
- Loses in the first round of the Open 13 to Nicolas Mahut.

Is anybody prepared to wager a few Euros on him at Indian Wells? No smart money on him, I would guess.