Argentina, Croatia Into Davis Cup Final - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Christina McHale beat Katerina Siniakova 3-6 6-4 6-4 to win the Hashimoto Sogyo Japan Women’s Open Tennis in Tokyo, Japan

Océane Dodin beat Lauren Davis 6-4 6-3 to win the Coupe Banque Nationale in Québec City, Québec, Canada

Alessandro Giannesi beat Dustin Brown 6-2 6-3 to win the Pekao Szczecin Open in Szczecin, Poland

Rebecca Sramkova beat Martina Trevisan 6-3 4-6 6-1 to win the Engie Open de Biarritz Pays Basque in Biarritz, France

DAVIS CUP

World Cup Semifinals

Argentina beat Great Britain 3-2 at Glasgow, Scotland

Croatia beat France 3-2 at Zadar, Croatia

World Cup Playoffs

Switzerland beat Uzbekistan 3-2 at Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Belgium beat Brazil 4-0 at Ostend, Belgium; Australia beat Slovakia 3-1 at Sydney, Australia; Canada beat Chile 5-0 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Russia beats. Kazakhstan 3-1 at Moscow, Russia; Spain beats India 5-0 at New Delhi, India; Germany beat Poland 3-2 at Berlin, Germany; Japan beat Ukraine 5-0 at Osaka, Japan

Group I

1^st Round Playoffs

Americas Zone: Colombia beat Dominican Republic 4-1 at Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

Europe/Africa Zone: Netherlands beat Sweden 5-0 at Båstad, Sweden

2^nd Round Playoffs

Asia/Oceania Zone: New Zealand beat Pakistan 5-0 at Christchurch, New Zealand

Europe/Africa Zone: Portugal beat Slovenia 5-0 at Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Group II

Finals

Americas Zone: Venezuela vs. Peru at Barcelona, Venezuela, hard

Asia/Oceania Zone: Chinese Taipei beat Thailand 3-2 at Nonthaburi, Thailand

Semifinals

Europe/Asia Zone: Bosnia/Herzegovina beat Lithuania 5-0 at Vilnius, Lithuania; Belarus beat Denmark 4-1 at Minsk, Belarus

SAYING

“I don’t even want to put my trophy down – I just want to hold it all the time.” Christina McHale, during the trophy presentation after she won in Tokyo, Japan.

“It’s very special for me. This is a very nice tournament; I feel like I’m in France because the people are very friendly and supportive of me.” – Océane Dodin, after winning in Québec City.

“We’ve played together for so long that not every week can be perfect. But this week was proof that if you’re having fun, you have good results. I hope we can take this momentum into Asia.” – Andrea Hlavackova, after she teamed with Lucie Hradecka to win the doubles in Québec City.

“I’m very proud of how I fought, I did fantastic. I fought for every point, tried as best as I could. That’s all you can do.” – Andy Murray, after losing to Juan Martin del Potro in the opening match of the Great Britain-Argentina Davis Cup World Group semifinal.

“I cannot imagine this moment in my career. This was the type of match I was missing when I was at home.” – Juan Martin del Potro, who has missed most of the past several years while undergoing four wrist surgeries, after beating Andy Murray in a five-set Davis Cup semifinal match.

“Things kind of worked, and isn’t it nice when things just work out?” – Alla Kudryavtseva, after beating Eugenie Bouchard in Québec City.

“Johan has got a great thing going here. When it’s about kids getting the opportunity to play tennis, we all chip in.” – Martina Navratilova, who was on hand for the opening ceremonies at the Johan Kriek Tennis Academy in Florida, USA.

SWINGING IN THE RAIN

Christina McHale beat the rain and Katerina Siniakova to win the Hashimoto Sogyo Japan Women’s Open Tennis in Tokyo. “I’ve been coming to this tournament for a few years now and I really love it here,” she told the crowd during the trophy presentation. “Thanks to all the fans and everyone here for sticking through all the rain delays – we’ve had a few, especially today.” The 24-year-old American trailed Siniakova when the final was suspended by rain in the second set, Siniakova just three games away from victory. When play resumed, Siniakova held for a 4-3 lead before McHale rallied to win her first WTA title. In the final set, McHale jumped out to 4-0 lead before her Czech opponent rallied to pull within one game at 5-4. McHale won when Siniakova’s backhand sailed wide. McHale spent more than 13 hours on court during the week, going the distance in all five of her matches. The only other time she reached a WTA final was at Acapulco two years ago. Siniakova, who also lost the final in Båstad this summer, was unable to hide her disappointment at being able to win her first title. “I’m here in the final for the second time and unfortunately it was really tough for me,” she said, “so I’m a little sad. But Christina played really well, so congratulations to her.”

SCARED WINNER

Océane Dodin of France is a first-time singles champion on the WTA tour. The 19-year-old beat American qualifier Lauren Davis in the Coupe Banque Nationale final to become the youngest champion in the history of the Québec City tournament. Ranked 132^nd in the world going into the tournament, Dodin will crack the Top 100 for the first time in her career. She also is the first teenager to win a WTA title in 2016. After winning the first set, the eventual champion jumped out to 3-0 lead, and then faltered. “In the second set I scared myself,” she said. “I had a lot of chances to get a big lead and go up 4-0 and 5-2, but my nerves got the best of me.” In the final, Dodin had 31 winners to just 26 unforced errors. “It was a very tough match, very difficult,” the French teenager said. “She plays very well and runs everywhere. I’m just trying to improve my game, so I’m there for every point, focused on my serve. That helped me so much in this match.” Dodin twice reached the second round of major tournaments in 2015, but until Québec, she had never won a main draw match outside the Grand Slam events. Now she has a title.

SQUEAKING THROUGH

Four experienced doubles players who were the top two seeded teams battled for the title in Québec City, with two-time Grand Slam tournament champions Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka outlasting Russians Alla Kudryavtseva and Alexandra Panova in a pair of tiebreaks. “With the no-ad scoring and super tiebreaks, it’s very rare to get an easy match on the WTA tour these days,” Hlavackova said. “So that experience helped today. We didn’t have a good record in tiebreaks, super tiebreaks or no-ads before Québec, so we took this tournament to try to change that. We did, and we’re very happy about it.” With their latest title, Hlavackova and Hradecka move up to the fifth spot on the Road to Singapore leaderboard with a good chance of qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global for a second straight year.

SET FOR LONDON

US Open champion Stan Wawrinka has qualified for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the fourth straight year. Ranked third in the world, Wawrinka is the third player to qualify for the event, which will be held November 13-20 in London, Great Britain. “At the beginning of the season it is always my goal to be in the Top 8 and qualify for London,” Wawrinka said. “It is great to be able to secure a spot once again this year after a fantastic two weeks in New York.” The US Open was Wawrinka’s third Grand Slam tournament title in three years. He won the Australian Open in 2014, beating Rafael Nadal in the title match, and Roland Garros in 2015, where he bested top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who also fell to the Swiss star at the US Open. Wawrinka has reached the semifinals on all three previous visits to the Finals.

STOLEN RECORDS

Leaked medical records show four WTA players have been approved to use banned drugs because of medical problems. The Russian hacker group allegedly responsible for leaking World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) records of Serena and Venus Williams has also released records of Petra Kvitova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The Williams sisters were among the 29 athletes whose record were released in the first round of leaks. Kvitova has asthma and received therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) starting in 2009 for albuterol and formoterol. Mattek-Sands received TUEs for hydrocortisone and initially for DHEA, a banned anabolic agent. The DHEA was subsequently revoked by WADA, the only time a TUE has been approved by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and subsequently turned down by WADA since the ITF began running the program. Mattek-Sands appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was rejected again. WADA’s director general called the attack on its system “retaliation” for the agency’s investigation into a state-sponsored Russian doping system. The Russian government has denied any involvement. WADA also said none of the athletes named in the leaks have been shown to commit a doping violation.

SWITCHES RESULTS

When they met at the Rio Olympics, it was Andy Murray who beat Juan Martin del Potro for the gold medal. This time, it was a Davis Cup tie on the line. And this time it was del Potro who won. Del Potro ended Murray’s 14-match Davis Cup winning streak in the opening match of the five-match tie, 6-4 5-7 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-4, in a battle that took 5 hours, 7 minutes. It was the longest match of both players’ careers. Del Potro broke Murray in the seventh game with a forehand winner down the line, giving the Argentine a 4-3 lead. He served out for the match, finishing it off with an ace. “It was very fine margins,” Murray said. “That happens in tennis and sport sometimes. It could have gone either way.” It was the first time Murray had lost a home singles match in Davis Cup.

Argentina won the semifinal when Leonardo Mayer stopped Daniel Evans 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 in the decisive fifth match. Mayer was substituting for del Potro after Argentina’s top player had played the first two days, outlasting Murray in the singles, then teaming with Mayer to lose to brothers Andy and Jamie Murray 6-1 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the doubles.

The Davis Cup final, which will be played Nov. 25-27, will pit Argentina against Croatia, which advanced by beating France 3-2. France played without its top two singles players, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, both of whom are injured. Argentina has never won the international team event, finishing runner-up in 1981, 2006, 2008 and 2011.

STILL STRUGGLING

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard is still struggling to return to the WTA’s Top 10. She lost a second-round match at the Coupe Banque Nationale to Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2 6-3. “The crowd was amazing. It was a sold-out match today, and it was very nice to play singles in a full stadium,” Kudryavtseva said. “I was in trouble in the second game, but I was able to come up with good shots on break points. From then on I kind of rolled. Talk about being in the zone. I was hitting my shots very well and it was just working. It was just electric, and I love how engaged the crowd was, though sadly they were engaged against me. But it was still nice to have the full-house atmosphere, and by the end I really felt like they appreciated the level of tennis I was playing.”

STRONG REBUKE

The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is under fire for including a Canadian national as the fourth player on the Pakistan squad for a Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I tie against New Zealand. With its top player, Aisam Ul-Haq Quereshi, boycotting the tie, the PTF named Asad Nawazish as its fourth player. Under Davis Cup rules, Pakistan would have faced disqualification by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) if it had sent only a three-man team. The tie was played in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the referee disqualified Nawazish and refused to allow him to play because his Pakistani passport had expired a few years ago. “He had traveled to New Zealand on his Canadian passport,” one source in the PTF confided. Mushaf Zia, a former Pakistan player, said the whole episode was an embarrassment since Asad had not even bothered to get his Pakistani passport renewed yet was sent to New Zealand for the tie.

STANFORD GOODBYE

Catherine Bellis, also known as CiCi, is turning pro instead of playing college tennis at Stanford. The 17-year-old made up her mind after reaching the third round of the US Open, which is a $140,000 payday for professional players. Though Grand Slam rules stipulate a player must declare themselves professional before the start of the tournament, the USTA has previously allowed players to keep prize money after turning professional. Bellis is currently ranked 120^th in the world. “I’ve been working really hard,” Bellis said, “and all my hard work is beginning to pay off right now. But I think I can do whatever I want to in tennis. If I keep working hard, I think I can be one of the best players in the world.” At the US Open, Bellis beat Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland and fellow American Shelby Rogers before losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-1.

SAYING I DO

Two ATP World Tour players were married on the same day earlier this month. Andreas Seppi of Italy married Michela Bernardi in Oreisei, Italy. In Bourron-Marlotte, France, Paul-Henri Mathieu of France wed his longtime girlfriend Quiterie Camus. They were married by the bride’s mother, the deputy mayor of Bourron-Marlotte.

SHE’S HELPING

Martina Navratilova turned up at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA, for the opening ceremonies at the John Kriek Tennis Academy. Kriek, a two-time Australian Open champion, and Navratilova, who won 59 Grand Slam titles in her career, played an exhibition match to launch the PGA National as one of the more elite tennis academies in the United States. “To take a 6-year-old to where they get to 10, and they start playing in tournaments and just blossom into wonderful human beings because of tennis, it’s just extremely rewarding,” said Johan Kriek, reflecting on his new tennis academy.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Biarritz: Irina Khromacheva and Mryna Zanevska beat Cornelia Lister and Nina Stojanovic 4-6 7-5 10-8 (match tiebreak)

Quebec City: Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka beat Alla Kudryavtseva and Alexandra Panova 7-6 (2) 7-6 (2)

Szczecin: Andre Begemann and Aliaksandr Bury beat Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom 7-6 (3) 6-7 (7) 10-4 (match tiebreak

Tokyo: Shuko Aoyama and Makoto Ninomiya beat Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith 6-3 6-3

SURFING

Moselle: www.moselle-open.com/

St. Petersburg (men): www.spbopen.ru/

St. Petersburg (women): www.kamelzon.ru

Kaohsiung: www.oectennis.com/

Guangzhou: www.guangzhouopen.org/

Seoul: www.koreaopentennis.com/