Novak Djokovic, Simona Halep Tops At Indian Wells - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Open men’s singles in Indian Wells, California, USA

Simone Halep beat Jelena Jankovic 2-6 7-5 6-4 to win the BNP Paribas Open women’s singles in Indian Wells, California, USA

Aljaz Bedene beat Tim Smyczek 7-6 (3) 3-6 6-3 to win the Irving Tennis Classic in Irving, Texas, USA

SAYING

“I am at the prime of my career. I’m going to try to use every part of this fact to stay where I am and to fight for as many major titles as possible.” – Novak Djokovic, after winning his 50^th career ATP World Tour title.

“A lot depends on how well he serves and returns. We usually play in finals, so we are both peaking at the same time.” – Roger Federer, after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Indian Wells final.

“He has been always the ultimate challenge, with (Rafael) Nadal, depending on which surface I get to play. Obviously Nadal on clay is the toughest one to beat, and Roger on the quicker surfaces. But because they have been so dominant over the years and so consistent and so confident on the court, it’s very difficult to get into the mix and start winning titles against them.—Novak Djokovic.

“I was on the practice court and everything was going well, but literally the last two minutes I went for a serve and felt a super sharp pain in my knee. It was like, ‘OK,’ and I served again. I felt it again. I just came off, and it hasn’t been the same since. … If this were any other event I probably wouldn’t have considered it. But I wanted to give 200 percent. It just wasn’t meant to be this year.” – Serena Williams, after withdrawing before her semifinal match at Indian Wells.

“I have another title, my biggest title now, so it’s amazing.” – Simona Halep, after beating Jelena Jankovic to win the Indian Wells women’s singles.

“I got a little bit tentative and that was my big mistake.” – Jelena Jankovic.

“This was one of those matches where I was happy to get through and happy it was over.” – Roger Federer, after beating Andreas Seppi, who had upset Federer at the Australian Open.

“Our tennis careers are quite short, and you don’t want to have regrets that you did not try your best, you did not really push yourself to the limits. You want to try, give everything you have, and then once you quit the sport, then you say, ‘I’ve done everything I could and it’s my time to go and leave it to the youngsters.’” – Jelena Jankovic.

“Bye bye Wayne … Good riddance.” – Andy Murray, in a tweet after Wayne Odesnik was banned for 15 years after testing positive for a range of performance-enhancing drugs.

“She told me I have to teach her the drop shots, I said, ‘Well, you have to teach me the rest, then.’” – Timea Bacsinszky, after losing to Serena Williams.

“She hits a big forehand, especially on the right side, and I can move and finish off the point. She prepares, I finish. That’s pretty cool to me.” – Martina Hingis, who teamed with Sania Mirza to win the women’s doubles in their first tournament together.

“She’s got probably some of the best hands in the world at the net. For me, I need that. I need someone who can finish the balls off where I set them up. And that’s really it. Like I said, on paper everything looks great, but you still have to go out there. Names don’t do anything. You have to go out and win.” – Sania Mirza.

“I lost that match thinking much more positive things than negative ones.” – Rafael Nadal, after losing to Milos Raonic.

“We came out on fire. I was seeing the ball big and was able to dictate play. Then (losing) my service game in the second set was definitely my fault. I played a very sloppy game and then things started going their way and they started playing better. We hit some big shots at the end and were fortunate to get the win.” – Jack Sock, after teaming with Vasek Pospisil to win the men’s doubles at Indian Wells.

“It’s another milestone. It’s really special. This is a (ATP World Tour) Masters 1000, it’s a huge event. It’s our first Masters title. Hopefully we’ll have many more, but definitely a very good feeling.” – Vasek Pospisil.

“I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis. There’s nothing missing, so all I have to do is go out there and do what I do best.” – Serena Williams, in an interview with writer Rebecca Johnson.

SUPER SERB

It was a battle, but in the end Novak Djokovic showed once again why he’s ranked number one in the world. The Serbian outlasted Roger Federer to win his fourth title at Indian Wells, California, USA, and his 50^th career ATP World Tour crown. With his latest win, the 27-year-old from Serbia now has tied Federer for most titles won at Indian Wells. Federer had won their last two meetings in straight sets, but it was Djokovic who prevailed this time for the second straight year. He also needed three sets to beat Federer in the 2014 final. Federer still holds a slight 20-18 edge in their career battles. “Novak did well to sustain the lead for most of the match,” Federer said. “I think he found an extra gear in the end. Controlled aggression was the key out there.” The two have combined to win eight of the last 12 Indian Wells titles, but this is the first time they have played in consecutive finals. Djokovic broke Federer five times to become the 12^th player in Open Era history to win 50 ATP World Tour titles. He snapped a tie with his coach, Boris Becker, who had 49. Federer cautioned people not to write him off. “I have beat him the last couple times,” Federer said. “It is not like I lost 10 in a row.”

SIZZLING SIMONA

Racing from sideline to sideline, retrieving seemingly every ball her opponent hit, Simona Halep finally prevailed to win the biggest title of her career. When the battle was over, Halep had outlasted former champion Jelena Jankovic to become the first player to win three WTA titles this year. Ranked third in the world, Halep won four of the final five games to close out the 2-hour, 37-minute marathon. “I don’t know how I won today because I didn’t play my best,” the 23-year-old Romanian said. “But I just wanted to fight till the end. Every match was very important for me, for my mind.” In all five times they have faced each other, Halep and Jankovic have battled for three sets. Jankovic served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. “My opponent Simona was unbelievable,” Jankovic said. “She was running like two dogs, left and right for about three hours and at the end I just couldn’t keep up anymore. She is the younger one and she was too good at the end.”

STUNNER

Milos Raonic took another step forward on the path to joining tennis’ Big Four. The Canadian saved three match point and beat Rafael Nadal for the first time, 4-6 7-6 (10) 7-5. “At the moments when I was playing those match points, it didn’t really feel like match points,” the Canadian said. “It was just like another point that I was trying to get through … (I was) just sort of going through the paces at that moment of what do I need to do now, not really signifying it as a match point.” It was the first time Nadal has lost to a Canadian player. Raonic fired 19 aces and saved six of his seven break points faced in the nearly 3-hour battle. He save three match points in the second-set tiebreak. “I feel obviously all sorts of good,” Raonic said. “Obviously there was a lot of ups and downs through that match, and all I could ask of myself was just keep competing and hope to find a way. I got fortunate a few times and it worked out.”

SERENA INJURED

A sharp pain in her knee caused Serena Williams to withdraw from her semifinal match against Simona Halep. “I have done everything,” Williams said, explaining she wanted to continue to play at the event she had boycotted for 14 straight years. “I have just pretty much done everything from taping to research. I even did an injection. I’ve never done an injection before. If this were any other event I probably wouldn’t have considered it. But I wanted to give 200 percent. It just wasn’t meant to be this year.” The world’s top-ranked player said the injury isn’t that bad and she hopes to play this week in Miami, Florida, USA. “It’s just a question of a little time,” she said. “It’s not like I need three or four weeks. I really need just a couple of days and everything will settle down. I have a tremendous amount of inflammation in my knee, and it’s going to go away. Unfortunately, I just need a couple of days.” Halep was the last player to beat Williams, in the round-robin portion of the season-ending BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore last year. Williams got her revenge against Halep in the final of that event.

SORE BACK

A sore back caused Bernard Tomic to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open about five hours before he was to play top-ranked Novak Djokovic in a quarterfinal match. When the withdrawal was announce, fans on stadium court jeered. Tomic has never beaten Djokovic in their three career meetings. Earlier in the tournament Tomic had complained of his back and an aching wisdom tooth. He said his back has been bothering him since a tournament in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in early February. “It’s not easy when you have two parts of the body that are like really in pain,” Tomic said after beating fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis in a fourth-round match. Tomic said he has been advised to rest his back for five or six days.

SURPRISING STAT

Milos Raonic has reached the quarterfinal or better at eight of his last 10 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events. Only Roger Federer has done as well in that period.

SHOCKER

Indian Wells has been very, very good to Flavia Pennetta. The Italian captured the biggest WTA title of her career at the California tournament last year. And while she didn’t repeat the feat this year, she sent shock waves through the draw when she rallied from a set down to upset Maria Sharapova. After losing the first two points while serving at 2-2 in the second set, Pennetta won 10 of the next 13 games to eliminate the second-ranked Sharapova 3-6 6-3 6-2. And it wasn’t that big of a surprise, really. Pennetta has now beaten Sharapova the last three times the two have played, and all five of their career meetings have gone to three sets. It also was Pennetta’s fifth career win over a Top 2 player, knocking off both Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki when they were ranked number one, and Vera Zvonareva and Li Na when they were second in the rankings.

SWEET FAREWELL

Even though he lost his final match on the ATP World Tour, Michael Lammer was thrilled. His partner was an old friend, Roger Federer, as they fell in their doubles match to Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic in a match tiebreak. “It was a great feeling, great match, great atmosphere on Stadium 2,” Lammer said. “All in all it was really a great last match for me. Playing with Roger was really special, and it was a very nice experience.” Lammer has been friends with Federer since he was 10 years old. Now 32, Lammer was a member of Switzerland’s winning Davis Cup team last year, joining Federer, Stan Wawrinka and another childhood friend, Marco Chiudinelli. Lammer’s only ATP World Tour doubles title came in 2009 when he teamed with Chiudinelli to capture the crown in Gstaad, Switzerland.

STOCKING UP

Seeking their fifth consecutive World TeamTennis title, the Washington Kastles are loaded this year. Serena Williams is returning to the Kastles for the first time since 2011, where she will be joining sister Venus Williams and Hall of Famer Martina Hingis. In the WTT draft, the Boston Lobsters had the first pick and took Eugenie Bouchard, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up.

SETTING HISTORY

Andy Murray is now the winningest player from Great Britain. His victory over Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open was the 497^th match win of his career, one more than Tim Henman. The 27-year-old Scott is now three victories away from becoming the 46^th man in the Open Era to reach 500 match wins.

STERLING DEBUT

Playing as a team for the first time, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza collected the top prize. The two bested Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina to win the BNP Paribas Open women’s doubles in Indian Wells. The champions are two of the most successful doubles players on the WTA Tour, Hingis having won 11 Grand Slam tournament doubles titles, two coming in mixed, while all three of Mirza’s Grand Slam trophies are in mixed. Together, they were perfect, not losing more than four games in any set in the fortnight. In the title match, they fell behind Makarova and Vesnina 4-2 in the second set, only to capture the next four games to close out the victory. “Obviously we had partners we played well with, like me last year with Flavia (Pennetta), and changing was a big move,” Hingis said. “I’m very happy it worked out because you never know what to expect.”

SUSPENDED AGAIN

Wayne Odesnik has been suspended from tennis for 15 years because of a second doping violation. The Tennis Anti-Doping Programme and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said urine samples Odesnik submitted in December and January tested positive for multiple banned substances. It was the American’s second doping offense in five years. In a statement, Odesnik said he had “unknowingly ingested a contaminated over-the-counter supplement” was is retiring. The 29-year-old was barred for two years in 2010 after Australian authorities found eight vials of human growth hormone in his luggage at an airport in Brisbane. The ban was reduced to seven months because of “substantial assistance” he provided. “It’s good that he’s off the tour,” Andy Murray said of the suspension.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Indian Wells (men): Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock beat Bolelli and Fognini 6-4 6-7 (3) 10-7 (match tiebreak)

Indian Wells (women): Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-4

Irving: Robert Lindstedt and Sergiy Stakhovsky beat Benjamin Becker and Philipp Petzschner 6-4 6-4

SURFING

Miami: www.miamiopen.com/

Le Gosier: http://open-guadeloupe.com/

Raanana: www.ita.one.co.il/

Davis Cup: www.daviscup.com

International Tennis Federation: www.itftennis.com

ATP World Tour: www.atpworldtour.com

WTA: www.wtatennis.com