The post-US Open tour, for those of you that are paying attention, can be split into two parts: the Asian swing, that heads to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, exotic locales for the adventuresome tourists, to the more traditional Beijing and Tokyo, before heading to Shanghai.

After Shanghai, the tour moves back to Europe and into indoor tournaments since the weather has turned decidedly nippier.  This week, there are two tournaments: in St. Petersburg and in Montpelier (France, not Vermont).  Illya Marchenko “ruined” an all-Russian semifinal, but at least he’s Ukrainian, part of the old Soviet empire.  He, Kukushkin, Youzhny, and Tursunov were in the semifinals of St. Petersburg.

This is a pretty good result for Tursunov.  Once upon a time, Tursunov’s ranking was around 20, and he was one of the higher ranked Russians.  As a Russian, Tursunov speaks pretty good English, most likely due to training in the West.  He’s been a non-factor for the last few years, so a semifinal appearance in any tournament, let alone one in his mother country, has to make him feel good.  Alas, he lost to the higher ranked Mikhail Youzhny who, a year ago, had a nice post-US Open run.

Shame on US commentators who love tennis but love football more and choose to tune out tennis after the US Open.  There are players like Youzhny who flourish after the US Open.  But you want to watch the Cornhuskers or the Trojans, so you think, surely the world gives a bleep about what you think.  You want to get rid of tournaments as if Federer and Nadal were all of tennis.  Maybe we should excise college football and the NFL until you are so bored that you will watch tennis once again.  Try to report on a sport that you put number 1 and not number 4, next time, buddies!

Ivan Ljubicic won Indian Wells earlier in the year.  His euphoric giddy in finally (finally!) winning a Masters 1000 event.  The last time he had this chance was a few years ago when he was flirting in the upper echelons of tennis.  His bald look didn’t quite match Agassi’s pirate Nike appearance from a decade ago, but he seems to be one of the nicer guys on tour, even as he is thinking of retirement more than ever.  Andy Roddick, in his post-match speech at Indian Wells, was surprisingly gracious.  He mentioned that he had heard whispers in the locker room that Ljubicic was contemplating retirement a year ago.  He stuck it out, won his first Master 1000 title (over Roddick) and now seems on the verge of winning Montpelier.

We may not care about Ljubicic, a veteran of the tour, but his career is at that next tier.  He’s no Federer, nor Nadal, nor Murray.  But a guy that can win a dozen titles in his career?  That’s a good, solid career.  Rajeev Ram only wishes he could contend for a dozen ATP 250 titles or better.  The vast majority of the tour players will never get a whiff of an ATP 250 tour title, the lowest of the legitimate rungs of titles.  They’ll toil, hoping to win a Challenger event from time to time, or dig even deeper in the depths of the Futures.

In that respect, Ljubicic has reached a mountain top that exceeds all but the most elite.  He’s up there with a guy like Tim Henman.  Sure, Henman kept flirting with reaching the final of a Slam, be it Wimbledon, or oddly enough, the French Open, and never quite made it.  He won 11 titles in his career, an outstanding career by someone that was not destined to be one of the greats.  Ljubicic has a chance to tie this record in Montpelier.

He faces local favorite, Gael Monfils, who, as you know by K-Swiss commercials, is a big shot.  Monfils beat countryman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in three sets.  Monfils has had a pretty solid post US Open performance too.  He reached the finals of Tokyo only to be decimated by Nadal.  Even so, a nice tournament run.  He’s in the finals of Montpelier and would likely be favored against the Croatian veteran.  Ljubicic beat Albert Montanes going for big shots himself realizing the steady Spaniard would win long rallies.  He’ll opt for a similar strategy against Monfils who, despite his amazing athleticism, plays a form of athletic passive tennis that Murray would be proud of.

Meanwhile, nationalistic fervor is not just confined to Russia.  In Austria, Jurgen Melzer, perhaps Austria’s best player since Thomas Muster, will face fellow Austrian, Andreas Haider-Maurer, who, surprise, surprise, beat Thomas Muster, the 43 year old 1995 French Open winner, in the first round.  Melzer beat Spaniard, Almagro, in the semis to reach the finals, while Haider-Maurer beat resurgent German, Berrer, in the other semi.  Melzer is the likely favorite to win.  This year has been a spectacular year for the Austrian veteran who grew up playing Federer, but toiled in relative obscurity for years.

Next week, the big guns come to play.  In Basel, Federer and defending champ, Novak Djokovic, are the top two seeds while Valencia brings Andy Murray.  The highest ranked Spaniard is Fernando Verdasco (no Nadal in the tournament).  Robin Soderling makes his first appearance.

So far, five of the eight players have been determined for the year-end ATP World Tour Finals: Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, and Soderling.  The next three, were they determined today, would be Berdych, Ferrer, and Roddick.  Each has a relative comfortable lead (although Roddick in injured late in the year, once again).  Youzhny and Melzer have a lot to gain by winning finals that they are both in.  However, there needs to be some outstanding play to reach 8th place Roddick and make the final 8 in London.