Sveta and Kolya! (YC)

Mornin.' The action is heating up in Beijing, with Maria Sharapova out after a dismal performance against Peng Shuai, who won 6-2,6-4, and two of our favorite under-the-radar performers, NIkolay Davydenko and Svetlana Kuznetsova, once again revealing their opportunistic streaks.

In my imagination, Davydenko and Kuznetsova are a brother-sister team. Although Kuznetsova has won two majors and Davydenko has a pair of  Masters Series 1000 titles to his name, both have a tendency to drop their weapons and run for the hills when an intense, Grand Slam firefight erupts.

Then, when things are winding down (as they often do after a major, especially the US Open), or the smoke has cleared and calm descended on the battlefield, they come rushing back, guns blazing, to do enough damage to maintain their rankings.

Of course, they're officially "top players" - no doubt about that. But each of them knows how to game the system, and that's no crime. Hail, it may not even be intentional. One recurring theme these past few weeks has been the importance of being able to seize an opportunity, and that's just what these two players do. And let's not forget that they have to beat  bunch of people to accomplish that; it isn't like they're stealing those Ws. So more power to them. As much of a beef as we may have with seams or oddities in the ranking system, it certainly ensures a degree of integrity. There's only one way to improve your ranking; by collecting those Ws that are up for anyone to grab.

-- Pete