Davis Cup Semis almost done

The ATP tour has had a weeks break since the US Open while the Davis Cup Semi Finals and Play Offs are underway.

The semi final between France and Serbia promised plenty until Novak Djokovic suffered his season ending injury. Still the strong French team was rocked in the first rubber with its second ranked player Lucas Pouille upset by Dusan Lajovic, ranked 80 in the world.

Thankfully for France, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga levelled the tie, beating Laslo Djere, ranked 95.

Disappointing to see the two highest ranked available Serbs - Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic - giving the semi final a miss after fighting to help their nation make it this far.

The fifth ranked doubles pair in the world - Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut - clinched a 2-1 advantage, winning the key doubles over Filip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic.

Australia finds itself in a similar position after three rubbers, losing its first match to Belgium, David Goffin a four set winner over John Millman.

Nick Kyrgios was in a precarious position, down two sets to one against Steve Darcis, before steadying to take the last sets for the loss of only 3 games in total.

The doubles was a clinic put on by world number two John Peers and his partner Jordan Thompson 6-3 6-4 6-0 to defeat Ruben Bemelmans and Arthur De Greef.

Well done Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem for committing to your nations - Croatia and Austria -- in the Davis Cup Play Offs - something a lot of top ten players refuse to do before their individual priorities.

A couple of WTA events have occurred this week - neither featuring the elite players, but each allowing others down the rankings to boost their status somewhat.

In Quebec City, Canada, Lucie Safarova was granted top seeding, ranked 37. She made it through to the semis, as did the third and fourth seeds, Timea Babos and Tatjana Maria respectively.

However, the finalists are Babos and seventh seed Alison Van Uytvanck. Alison knocked out Tatjana and Timea did the same to Lucie in the semis.

Second seed Oceane Dodin had to withdraw from her second round match through injury.

Tokyo has been a qualifiers dream. Three of the four semi final spots were won by them and the final was decided between two qualifiers.

Jana Fett, ranked 123, defeated top seed Kristina Mladenovic in the first round on her way to the semis.

Miyu Kato, raked 171, defeated fourth seed Kristyna Pliskova in the second round en route to the final four.

Zarina Diyas, ranked 100, defeated second seed Shuai Zhang in the second round and eighth seed Yulia Putintseva in a quarter final.

Ultimately Diyas proved too strong for Kato in the final.

Diyas moves 28 spots up to 72 in the world and Kato 48 places to 123.