• The tour is now in Asia.
• Novak Djokovic (pictured) won the Beijing Open this weekend and will overtake Andy Murray in the rankings next week.
• The musketeers did well. Gael Monfis won his first title of the year at the Open de Moselle. Not to be outdone, Gilles won his first title this year in Thailand the following week. Now this weekend, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the Japan Open – his third title of the year. After four months off, Gasquet went to the semifinals in Metz where he lost to Monfils and the quarterfinals in Malaysia where he lost to Fernando Verdasco.
• Nikolay Davydenko was tops in Malaysia.
• Albert Montanes won the BCR Open in Romania.
• All is not bad for the Brits with Murray’s drop in the rankings. Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming won the doubles title at the Open de Moselle.
• Rafael Nadal and Kobe Bryant model new track jackets for Nike (New York Mag)
• Speaking of Nadal, he returns to the tour in Beijing after pulling out of the Thailand. The Spaniard advanced to the semifinals where he took a pretty-bad beating from the surging Croat, Marin Cilic. He lost 6-1 6-3.
• The Chinese held a farewell party for Marat Safin. I am sure there were tears (China Daily)
• Juan Monaco leads the tour in clay court wins with 28 this year. (Buenos Aires Herald)
• Spain will host Switzerland in the first round of Davis Cup next year (Latin American Herald Tribune)
• Federer pulled out of Japan Open and the Shanghai Masters due to fatigue. Murray withdraws from Shanghai (Open Court)
• There is rift in Australia (or misunderstanding) between Lleyton Hewitt and up-and-comer Bernard Tomic. I guess Tomic used the swine flu as an excuse not to hit with Hewitt. The Aussie youngster denies it, but it would be kind of hysterical if it turns out to be true (The Age)
• Simon exposed (Crazy World of Tennis)
  

(Image: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)

Fourth-seed Gael Monfils and seventh-seed Marat Safin have both pulled out of the tournament. Monfils suffered a wrist injury – possibly from all the diving from his previous match. With the Frenchman’s pullout, Steve Darcis received a walkover into the quarterfinals. Safin pulled out due to a back injury and was replaced by lucky loser Rik De Voest of South African.

French qualifier Nicolas Mahut took out fifth-seed Marin Cilic. Juan Carlos Ferrero posted win #401 and took out eleventh-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-4. Ferrero will play the Belgian qualifier Xavier Malisse in a battle of the veterans. The two have surprisingly have never met in an ATP match.

On the doubles side, second-seeds Mike and Bob Bryan were taken out by British wildcards Colin Flemings and Ken Skupski (pictured). Wesley Moodie and Mikhail Youzhny took out the third-seeds Bruno Soares and Kevin Ullyett. The Croatian duo over Ivo Karlovic and Lovro Zovko upset Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa.

Andy Murray, Gilles Simon and Ivo Karlovic restored order on the singles side by getting through their second-round matched. Simon was able to get passed wildcard and Bulgarian phenom Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(7) 7-6(5). He will now face Mikhail Youzhny, who got passed Marcos Baghdatis in the round of 16. Youzhny leads their head-to-head matchup 2-0 and beat the Frenchman at Wimbledon in 2007.

(Image: EFE, Aegon Championships)