Michael Llodra beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 62 in the final of the AEGON International men's singles draw at Eastbourne, a bracket that is largely an afterthought to the much more prestigious concurrent women's event held at Eastbourne.

Most notable in this story is the recent arrival to the Llodra camp of 2006 Wimbledon Ladies' Singles champion Amelie Mauresmo, who began coaching Llodra on his grass court play last week at Queen's Club.  Mauresmo was the closest thing the WTA Tour had to a serve-and-volleyer in recent times, and her grass court skills and know-how are likely incomparable among recently retired players.

Mauresmo was always extremely popular among players on both tours. She played doubles with an incredible array of partners on the WTA, and was constantly popping up in photos of French ATP players as well (please take note of Gasquet's ridiculous pose).

The only other woman I can recall ever coaching an ATP player was Tatiana Naumko, whom last I heard was coaching Galina Voskoboeva.  Naumko coached Andrei Chesnokov for much of the early 90s, as mentioned in this article from The New York Times.  You can tell right away in that piece that it was an extremely different time.  Best-of-five matches were frequent, and Newsweek had enough money to sponsor a tournament.

Lost in the  hype over the imminent arrival of Wimbledon was Ekaterina Makarova's incredible run to her first career title, winning the prestigious AEGON International at Eastbourne with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Victoria Azarenka in the final.

Makarova was not even seeded in qualifying, but won the three matches needed to make it to the main draw. 

Once there, she reeled off five straight set victories, all against opponents currently ranked inside the WTA Top 20 (Flavia Pennetta, Nadia Petrova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Samantha Stosur, Victoria Azarenka).  What's more, Makarova didn't so much as drop a set against any of them.

Makarova played patient yet aggressive tennis throughout the weak, hitting dipping passing shot after dipping passing shot off her deceptively powerful lefty forehand wing.

Eastbourne likely has the toughest field of any 32-player outdoor tournament in the entire WTA calendar.  For Makarova to come out of qualifying to win it, without so much as dropping a set, should serve notice that there could be massive things coming from her career in the very near future.

(Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images)

Marion Bartoli, disheveled and praying during her quarterfinal victory Thursday over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in Eastbourne.  Bartoli won the match 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5).

It may never be pretty, but nobody else outside of the Williams sisters knows how to win on a grass court like Marion Bartoli does .  And yet the bookmakers have her at 100/1.

nd when you realize that this is her first tournament since April, the numbers are even more unbelievable.

Here's a look at her domination thus far, by the numbers:

If she wants to, Clijsters will win this tournament.  It's that simple.