Not a real tourney for real masters

Both professional women’s and men’s tennis seasons will end after a year with pure euphoria, desolation and especially, good playing.For women’s singles, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is promoting the Sony Ericsson Championship, in Madrid, Spain which started Tuesday and ends Sunday.

The championship reunites the best eight players in the current year.

Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova, Anna Chakvetadze and Maria Sharapova, who replaced Venus Williams’ due to illness, are momentarily the attraction for the capital of Spain, not only because of their outside beauty, but also because of their performance on the court.

Henin will eventually be the champion of the tournament, as she had a magnificent season, establishing herself as the No. 1 in the world and the most consistent player throughout the year. She won nine trophies – two of them Grand Slams (Roland Garros and U.S. Open).

For the men, it was disrespectful not to include David Nalbandian in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters Cup that starts Monday in Shanghai, China.

Nalbandian, who ascended 16 places to be ranked No. 9 in the last two weeks, left his spot (he was going to be a bench player, waiting for one of the eight players above of him to quit) because he was tired and unwilling to wait.

Good for him. It doesn’t make sense not to be participating in the last tournament of the year and not to be recognized by the ATP, when he won the last two ATP Master Series – one in Madrid, and one in Paris, and was the last Master Series Cup Champion.

His place will be taken by Tommy Robredo.

Absolutely, Nalbandian’s presence would have made an impact on top players, such as No. 1 Roger Federer (to me, the best tennis player the history), No. 2 Rafael Nadal or No. 3 Novak Djokovic. Nalbandian beat all of them in the last 14 days.

It’s a shame that Nalbandian will not be there. He won’t be able to defend the title that he won last year.

We are sure to have good tennis, but as an obsessive fan, it could be better.