Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Australian Open
Men’s singles: Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 7-6 (5) 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-0
Women’s singles: Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6-3 7-6 (5)
Men’s doubles: Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-4
Women’s doubles: Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova beat Chang Yung-Jan and Zheng Jie 6-4 7-6 (5)
Mixed doubles: Martina Hingis and Leander Paes beat Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor 6-4 6-3
Boys’ singles: Roman Safiullin beat Hong Seong-chan 7-5 7-6 (2)
Girls’ singles: Tereza Mihalikova beat Katie Swan 6-1 6-4
Boys’ doubles: Jake Delaney and Marc Polmans beat Hubert Hurkacz and Alex Molcan 0-6 6-2 10-8 (match tiebreak)
Girls’ doubles: Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova beat Katharina Hobgarski and Greet Minnen 7-5 6-4
Men’s Wheelchair singles: Singo Kunieda beat Stephane Houdet 6-2 6-2
Women’s Wheelchair singles: Jiske Griffioen beat Yui Kamiji 6-3 7-5
Quad Wheelchair singles: Dylan Alcott beat David Wagner 6-2 6-3
SAYING
“This tournament by far has been my most successful tournament in my life, in my career. I enjoy playing here, enjoy coming back.” – Novak Djokovic, after winning his fourth Australian Open in five years and fifth overall.
“Standing here with 19 championships is something I never thought would happen. I went on the courts with just a ball and a racquet and hope, and that’s all I had.” – Serena Williams, who at 33 became the oldest woman to win the Australian Open singles title.
“He played fantastically well after the first few games of the fourth set. He was going for everything and hitting the lines (and) there’s not much you can do in that situation.” – Andy Murray, after losing the men’s singles final to Novak Djokovic for the third time in five years.
“I haven’t won against her many times, but if I’m getting to the stage of competing against someone like Serena, I’m doing something well.” – Maria Sharapova, after losing to Serena Williams for the 16th straight time.
“Growing up I wasn’t the richest, but I had a rich family in spirit and support. Standing here with 19 championships is something I never thought would happen.” – Serena Williams, after winning her sixth Australian Open and 19th career Grand Slam tournament title.
“I’m paying the price of finishing off the (2014) season with Davis Cup, not having a bigger off-season.” – Stanislas Wawrinka, admitting he was emotionally drained coming into this year’s Australian Open as the defending champion.
“I love the competition. I love playing against the best, and at the moment she is.” – Maria Sharapova, talking about her rivalry with Serena Williams.
“I would love to get to 22. I mean 19 was very difficult to get to. Took me 33 years to get here, so … I would love to get there.” – Serena Williams, when asked if she would tie Steffi Graf by winning 22 Grand Slam tournament women’s singles titles.
“It’s always tough getting to a final stage of an event where it’s down to two players and you end up become the one that’s going home with the smaller trophy, there’s no doubt about it. No matter how you played, well or not, whatever the score line is, it’s always tough. But it will be alright.” – Maria Sharapova.
SUPER SERB
For the fifth time in his career, Novak Djokovic lifted high the men’s singles champion trophy at the Australian Open. For the fourth time in his career, Andy Murray ended up the year’s first Grand Slam tournament with the runner-up trophy – three times to Djokovic. “Novak has won five times here now, there’s no disgrace, obviously, in losing to him,” Murray said. Ranked number one in the world, Djokovic ground down his sixth-ranked opponent, winning 12 of the final 13 games. Djokovic had a trainer attend to his right thumb in the first set, appeared to hurt his leg in the third set, and seemed to lose his concentration when fans jumped onto the court during the match. It made no difference in the outcome. “I had a crisis at the end of the second, beginning of the third, I needed some time to regroup,” the victorious Serb said. “I just had weakness, I couldn’t call for medical because I had no reason.” Djokovic’s fourth Australian Open title in the last five years gives him eight major crowns, the most in the Open Era and one behind Australia’s Roy Emerson, who dominated in the 1960s. “I would like to congratulate Novak on his fifth Australian Open,” Murray said. “Fantastic, an incredible record, and thoroughly deserved. I will try to come back next year and hopefully have a slightly different outcome in the final.”
SERENA AGAIN
This time it was somewhat of a struggle, but the end result was the same. Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova for the 16th straight time to capture her sixth Australian Open and 19th career Grand Slam tournament women singles title. The world’s top-ranked woman broke her tie with 18-tikme major champions Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert and is now just three behind Steffi Graf. It was the first Australian Open women’s final in a decade to feature the world’s top two players, and Sharapova made it a close one, fighting off two match points before succumbing to her American rival. Williams rocketed 18 aces, a number of them coming on key points as the Russian struggled to stay in the match. Rain interrupted play for 13 minutes in the opening set before organizers closed the roof. Williams, who had been suffering from a cold for most of the fortnight, said she became sick when she left the court, and that may have helped her. “I had a really bad cough and I ended up throwing up,” she said. “I was able to clear my chest out because I couldn’t breathe a little bit.” Williams had not won in Australia since 2010, but immediately began looking at the next major, the French Open. “I want to win Roland Garros,” she said.
SHE’S BACK
Martina Hingis won her second Australian Open mixed doubles title to go along with three singles and four women’s doubles trophies she has collected Down Under. The former world number one from Switzerland teamed with India’s Leander Paes to win the mixed doubles, stopping Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor of Canada. “After 20 years being back on the court … who would have thought,” Hingis said after winning her first Grand Slam tournament title since returning from retirement. “It’s more than I could ever dream of.” Hingis first played the Australian Open in 1995 and won the singles championships in 1997, ’98 and ’99. She won the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi, who at one time teamed with Paes as one of the world’s top men’s doubles teams. Hingis and Paes plan to team up again at Roland Garros in May.
SENIOR SLAM
Age turned out to be a winner at this year’s Australian Open. Serena Williams at age 33 years and 127 days became the oldest winner of the Australian women’s title in the Open Era. It turned out she wasn’t the only “senior” picking up a trophy at this year’s first Grand Slam tournament.
Martina Hingis and Leander Paes paired up to win the mixed doubles. Hingis is 34, while Paes in an “ancient” 41. The two praised each other, with Paes saying “our understanding of each other is amazing. Martina is such a smart tennis player and she knows exactly what movements I’m going to do (and) I know what movements she’s going to do.” Hingis and Paes plan to team up again at Roland Garros.
SERVING UP DOLLARS
While in Australia, Serena Williams filmed a television commercial to raise awareness about motor neuron disease (MND), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The ailment affects the nerve cells controlling the muscles that enable people to move, speak, swallow and breathe. When she accepted the winner’s trophy, Williams received a huge cheer from the crowd when she announced she was increasing her donation for the cause from 100 Australian dollars for every ace she hit in the tournament to $200. Williams led the women with 88 aces, good for 17,600 Australian dollars, or USD $13,675.
STRUGGLING STAN
Stan Wawrinka was returning to the scene of his biggest triumph one year after winning his first Grand Slam tournament men’s singles title. And while he reached the semifinals and battled eventual champion Novak Djokovic for five sets before falling, it was a struggle for the Swiss star. The 29-year-old Wawrinka, calling the semifinal a “strange” match, said he was physically up for the battle but found it mentally hard to focus in clutch moments. “I told my coach before the match and already yesterday that I was mentally completely dead and no battery,” Wawrinka said, noting he teamed with Roger Federer to give Switzerland its first Davis Cup title and, consequently, felt he didn’t have enough rest in the shortened off-season. “Tough to focus on what I want to do,” he said. “Tough to focus on my game. And that’s what happened today.” While Wawrinka won two sets in the semifinal – the first two sets Djokovic dropped in the tournament – the 2014 champion failed to win a single game in the fifth set. “It was not the best match, for sure,” Wawrinka said.
SECURITY TO RESCUE
A security guard talked a protestor who jumped out of the stands onto the court during the Australian Open men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. The demonstration caused a brief delay in play during the second set. Australian Open organizers said two people were arrested. “Security responded immediately. Both were quickly removed with minimal disruption to play,” organizers said in a statement. The two were demonstrating against Australia’s tough policy against asylum-seekers. Since Prime Minister Tony Abbott took office in 2013, the government has denied resettlement even if they are found to be genuine refugees. Djokovic said the disruption bothered him. “It’s not easy to keep the concentration 100 percent all the way through,” the eventual champion said. “There was this interruption with people coming into the court. It was a long delay. I was a set and a break up serving. I lost that serve. (Murray) started going through the ball more, being more aggressive, better player on the court.” Murray won the second set in a tiebreak, losing the final in four sets.
SINGLES CHAMPIONS
Russia’s Roman Safiullin and Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova captured singles titles at the Australian Open. Safiullin broke Hong Seong-chan’s serve in the penultimate game of the opening set, then held his serve the rest of the way to beat his South Korean foe 7-5 7-6 (2) for the boys singles title. Mihalikova won five consecutive games after Britain’s Katie Swan took a medical timeout to win the girls singles 6-1 6-4. Swan was leading the second set 3-0 when she left to the court and received treatment for a right thigh injury. “When she went to the medical, I sat in the chair and said, ‘OK, Tereza, come on, win this in two sets,’” Mihalikova said. “I started to believe in myself, and I’m happy I did it.”
SHARING A TITLE
American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic had never played together before. In fact, they had never even practiced together. Now they are Australian Open women’s doubles champions, teaming up to defeat Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan and China’s Zheng Jie. “Actually we didn’t even really know which side we were going to play,” Mattek-Sands said. “We started off on the opposite sides, (then) we switched. I think we switched again. It was pretty spur of the moment.” It was the first time a new pairing had won a Grand Slam tournament title since Nathalie Dechy of France and Russia’s Dinara Safina won the US Open. Mattek-Sands missed six months last year while recovering from hip surgery. “In the off-season it was literally, ‘Let’s play Australian Open.’” She said. “I know some teams kind of plan for the year a little bit. For me, you know, I want to get a chance to see how my hip felt, see how my body felt.” It turned out that Mattek-Sand’s husband, Justin, is friendly with Safarova’s coach. “I had some partners where it took really a long time to find a good combination and to play well, but I think we pretty much (clicked) right away, we played well,” said Safarova, who reached the Wimbledon singles semifinals last year. And they bonded in the locker room sharing tea each morning. It’s the first Grand Slam tournament title for Safarova, while Mattek-Sands won the 2012 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Horia Tecau of Romania.
SWEET ITALIAN WIN
Thanks to Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani, Italians have won plenty Grand Slam tournament women’s doubles titles. Until now, not so on the men’s side. Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini became the first all-Italian pair to win a major men’s doubles title in almost 60 years when they beat Frenchmen Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in Melbourne. The last all-Italian pair to win a Grand Slam tournament men’s doubles title was Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola at Roland Garros in 1959 – nine years before the Open Era began. “To do this with Fabio is unbelievable,” Bolelli said. “I think we did something amazing. Now I think we’re thinking about the (Barclays) ATP (World Tour) Finals is one of our goals.” That year-ending event pits the season’s top eight teams against each other.
SHOULDER PROBLEMS
Marin Cilic won’t be defending his Zagreb Indoors title this week. Organizers said Cilic has been forced to withdraw from the Croatian tournament “due to a shoulder injury,” the same right shoulder problem that caused him to miss the Australian Open. The 23-year-old Croatian won the Zagreb title in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014. The reigning US Open champion has not played since the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November.
SWINGING AGAIN
American Mardy Fish, who hasn’t played on the ATP World Tour since 2013, will play doubles with Mark Knowles at this week’s RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas. Fish was ranked as high as fourth in the world before health issues forced him off the tour. The 33-year-old also plans to play at Indian Wells, California, USA, in March. Knowles and Fish teamed up to win the Citi Open doubles in Washington, D.C., in 2010. Last year Knowles and American Ryan Harrison reached the Championships of Dallas final where they fell to Australians Sam Groth and Chris Guccione in straight sets.
SEARS SHIRT
Kim Sears was in the spotlight during her fiancée Andy Murray’s last two matches. When Murray took on Tomas Berdych in the semifinals, the cameras caught the 27-year-old Sears apparently making expletive-laden remarks at Berdych’s team. Murray was quick to defend Sears, saying, “In the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret.” With cameras ready to roll, Sears showed up at the final wearing a T-shirt that read “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content.”
SURFING
Quito: www.ecuadoropenquito.com
Midland: www.dowcorningtennisclassic.com
Montpelier: www.opensuddefrance.com/
Zagreb: www.zagrebindoors.com/
Dallas: www.tennischampionshipsofdallas.com
Rotterdam: www.abnamrowtt.nl/
Sao Paulo: www.brasilopen.com.br/
Memphis: www.memphisopen.com/
Fed Cup: www.fedcup.com
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$557,473 Open Sud de France, Montpelier, France, hard
$557,473 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia, hard
$493,310 Ecuador Open Quito, Quito, Ecuador, clay
$100,000 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA, hard
WOMEN
$100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic, Midland, Michigan, USA, hard
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$1,805,410 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, hard
$505,655 Brasil Open 2015, Sao Paulo, Brazil, clay
$659,070 Memphis Open, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, hard
FED CUP
World Group
First Round
Canada vs. Czech Republic at Quebec City, Canada, hard
Italy vs. France at Genoa, Italy, clay
Poland vs. Russia at Krakow, Poland, hard
Germany vs. Australia at Stuttgart, Germany, hard
World Group II
First Round
Netherlands vs. Slovakia at Apeldoorn, Netherlands, clay
Romania vs. Spain at Galati, Romania, hard
Sweden vs. Switzerland at Helsingborg, Sweden, hard
Argentina vs. United States at Buenos Aires, Argentina, clay
Group I
Europe/Africa Zone at Budapest, Hungary, hard: Pool A: Serbia, Hungary, Austria; Pool B: Great Britain, Ukraine, Turkey, Liechtenstein; Pool C: Belarus, Portugal, Bulgaria, Georgia; Pool D: Belgium, Croatia, Israel, Latvia
Americas Zone at San Luis Polosi, Mexico, hard: Pool A: Brazil, Colombia, Chile; Pool B: Paraguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia
Asia/Oceania Zone at Guangzhou, China, hard: Pool A: Japan, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, South Korea; Pool B: Thailand, Kazakhstan, China, Chinese Taipei
Group II
Europe/Africa Zone at Tallinn, Estonia, hard: Pool A: Bosnia/Herzegovina, Estonia, Ireland, Slovenia; Pool B: Egypt, Finland, Luxembourg, South Africa
Asia/Oceania Zone at Hyderabad, India, hard: India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Oman, Pacific Oceania, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan
