Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-0 to win the Miami Open presented by Itaú men’s singles in Miami, Florida, USA
Serena Williams beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-0 to win the Miami Open presented by Itaú women’s singles in Miami, Florida, USA
Nikoloz Basilashvili beat Lukas Lacko 4-6 6-4 6-3 to win the Electra Israel Open in Raanana, Israel
Ruben Bemelmans beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6 (6) 6-3 to win the Orange Open Guadeloupe in Le Gosier, Guadeloupe
SAYING
“I go through moments of doubt as everybody else. But it’s important to keep those moments short … That’s what happened today. I just gathered my thoughts and all the energy into right direction, and that helped.” – Novak Djokovic, after beating Andy Murray in the Miami Open final.
“I just have to try and keep working hard and see if there are a few things I can do differently which might help. He was stronger than me at the end for sure.” – Andy Murray, following his three-set loss to Novak Djokovic.
“It feels really good to have eight under my belt. I can’t say I thought I would win eight, especially in the beginning of the week.” – Serena Williams, after easily winning her eighth Miami Open title.
“I can probably count on one hand (the times) that I’ve gotten in a groove like that.” – John Isner, after serving 13 aces in his quarterfinal victory over Kei Nishikori.
“Serve, I didn’t have any chance.” – Kei Nishikori, after falling to John Isner in their Miami Open quarterfinal.
“I like her attitude. I like how she gets pumped up. I like how she fights. I like how she plays. I think it’s fun to watch and different. It’s a refreshing type of game.” – Serena Williams, saying how much she enjoys the play of Simona Halep.
“It’s very important. It means I’m the third one. But when Serena (Williams) is number one, you don’t really want to think you can be number one. It’s tough to think about that when she’s still playing.” – Simona Halep, when asked if she was proud to be ranked third in the world.
“We’ve played them in four pretty big matches. We’ve played teams as much as 20 times, 25 times, so the rivalry is young. But if we keep meeting in finals … They’re going to be seeded number two now with those big results. When we meet, it will be in big matches, and that can only add to a nice rivalry.” – Bob Bryan, referring to the Bryan brothers’ new rivalry with Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil.
“It’s always fun against these guys. They bring a lot of energy. Hopefully the fans are enjoying it. We like to do that and help out, bring the energy to the doubles. I think a lot of spectators like watching.” – Jack Sock, about playing Bob and Mike Bryan.
SLUGFEST
Novak Djokovic took away Andy Murray’s legs and his confidence. Then he took away his latest Miami Open title, besting the Scot 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-0. “I could not ask for a better start of the season, winning three big titles,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully I’m able to use this for the clay court coming up. That’s extremely important for me obviously leading up to French.” Djokovic became the first man to win both Indian Wells, California, and Miami, Florida, in the same season three times, having also done so in 2011 and 2014. It was the fifth Miami Masters title for the world’s top-ranked man. He also increased his career record against Murray to 18-8, the Scot last beating Djokovic in the Wimbledon final in 2013. Murray matched his Serbian opponent point for point as they traded four service breaks in the first eight games of the match. And after Djokovic won the first-set tiebreak, Murray leveled the match by taking the second set. But the heat, humidity and Djokovic proved too much for Murray. “It was just very tough, brutal conditions for both of us,” Djokovic said. “We tried to stay mentally tough, both of us, and kind of hang in there, battle and wear down the other player physically.” Murray’s winning game failed to show in the third set. “I just managed to play the third set the way I was supposed to,” Djokovic said.
SUPER SERENA
Carla Suárez Navarro hung right with Serena Williams through the first four games of the Miami Open women’s final. After that, the world’s top-ranked woman ripped through the next 10 games to become just the fourth WTA player in the Open Era to win the same tournament eight times, joining Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf. Williams has not lost a competitive match since October, when she fell to Simona Halep in the round-robin phase of the WTA Finals. She went on to beat Halep in the finals in Singapore, and also beat the Romanian in a hard-fought semifinal on the hard courts in Miami. It took just 56 minutes to Williams to dominate Suárez Navarro, who won just five points in the second set. “WhenI play with Serena I know that she’s the best,” Suárez Navarro said. “She has the game to make me play bad. But this time I believed in me, in how I’m playing the other matches. I tried. I tried until the last point, but it was tough and difficult for me.” It was Serena’s third straight Miami victory. She also won three straight Miami titles form 2002-04 and back-to-back titles in 2007-08. With her 66th career WTA title, Williams is one shy of Billie Jean King for sixth on the Open Era all-time list.
Graf won nine titles in Berlin, Evert won eight at Hilton Head, and Navratilova achieved the feat in seven different tournaments – including nine Wimbledon titles. Navratilova holds the record, winning the Chicago tournament 12 times. Asked if she might win four more at Miami to tie Navratilova’s record, Serena appeared horrified at the thought. “I hope not because I would still be here and I would be how old?” she said, counting on her fingers. “No. Let’s pray that I don’t get to 12.”
Serena became the eighth player in WTA history to win 700 matches, an exclusive club that is led by Navratilova (1,442). “I didn’t know I had 700 wins,” Williams said. “I just want to keep doing, doing the best that I can. Just staying positive and winning as much as I can.”
SHARED VICTORY
This time it was the Brothers Bryan who came out on top. Bob and Mike Bryan outlasted fellow American Jack Sock and his Canadian partner Vasek Pospisil 6-1 1-6 10-8 (match tiebreak) to win their fourth Miami title and claim revenge after losing to Sock and Pospisil two weeks ago in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, California, USA. It was the twins’ 33rd ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown and their 105th title as a team. “It hasn’t been the greatest way to start the year, but to win here in Miami, a Masters 1000, a tournament we consider one of the biggest tournaments outside of the Slams against a team that’s been really hot and played us tough over the last year, it did really mean a lot,” Mike Bryan said. The Bryans lost just one point on serve in the entire first set. But Sock and Pospisil broke early in the second set and dominated play to pull even at a set apiece. The Bryans led 7-2 and 8-4 in the match tiebreak until Sock and Pospisil pulled even at 8 all. Two points later, the 36-year-old brothers celebrated their latest victory.
STILL PERFECT
Since they teamed up, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have been perfect. They followed up their Indian Wells doubles triumph by capturing the Miami Open, defeating the second-seeded pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 7-6 6-1. It wasn’t as easy as it looks. The Russian pair raced out to a 5-2 lead, only to have Hingis and Mirza win eight straight games to surge ahead 7-5 3-0. “The most important thing is that we never stopped believing we’re a great team,” Hingis said of the early deficit. “They played a great set to get us to that position, 5-2 down. Then we just tried to stay in there and get our chances. We just built on every point, which is what we did well last week too.” Indian Wells and Miami are the first two tournaments Hingis and Mirza have played together. They have won 10 straight matches with dropping a single set. Despite the loss, Makarova and Vesnina will take over the top spot in the rankings, taking over for Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. Hingis and Mirza will move into the number three spot.
SCOT SUCCESS
Andy Murray reached a milestone in his run to the title match in Miami. His fourth-round victory was his 500th ATP World Tour career match win. The 27-year-old Scot told BBC Sport that it was fitting to reach the milestone while in Miami, where he does most of his training. “I’ve been through quite a lot of pain on that court in the last few years,” Murray said. “I hope I can use this as motivation to win some more … There’s different ways of judging the success of someone’s career, but winning 800-900 matches is something that’s happened very rarely and a difficult thing to do, so it gives you something to aim at.”
STARTLED BY DECISION
The Tunis Tennis Club (TCT) wants the ATP World Tour to explain why the men’s tennis organization canceled the Tunis Open. The TCT president, Slimen Zoubeidi, called the ATP World Tour’s move “unfair and unexpected.” The ATP World Tour said the Tunis tournament was canceled because of the terrorist attack at Bardo Museum. “The ATP, which had initially promised us verbally to reconsider its decision, last Thursday announced its final decision to cancel the tournament,” Zoubeidi said. The TCT president said he was surprised at the decision “especially as Tunisia has been organizing successfully several sports, cultural and social events as well as tennis-related activities, such as the African Youth Championships, the elections of the African Confederation and meetings of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) executive board” The president of the Tunisian Tennis Federation, Selma Mouelhi, also blasted the cancellation. “Would the ATP have taken this decision if the same thing occurred in Europe?” Mouelhi asked. “Terrorist attacks had also hit many countries but not sports event has been canceled.”
SWITCHES NATIONALITY\
Nigeria is the latest country to come up with a Russian-born tennis player. Melissa Ifidzhen is expected to make her debut for Nigeria this week at the ITF/CAT African U18 Championships being held in Cairo, Egypt. According to Sani Ndanusa, president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), the 16-year-old Ifidzhen’s father is Nigerian and mother is Russian. Ndanusa said she started to play tennis at the age of five and was a member of the Russian National U12 Team. She reportedly has won several titles, including the European Championship in 2010. She also was the Russian U12 champion that same year. A few months ago Ifidzhen reached the final in both singles and doubles of the Steinfort Tennis Europe Junior U16 Open held in Luxembourg. “Women’s tennis in Nigeria will undoubtedly develop to a great height because of the influence of a global star prospect of Melissa,” Ndanusa said. “Her profile is absolutely wonderful because this is the type of profile that superstars like Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova post as a junior player and we can only hope that she gets to the top in the next few years.”
SELECTED
Former ATP World Tour player Martin Blackman will take over for Patrick McEnroe as general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association (USTA). Blackman won the USTA boys’ 16s national title when he trained as a junior alongside Andre Agassi and Jim Courier with coach Nick Bollettieri. He also was a member of two NCAA championship teams at Stanford. As a pro. Blackman reached a career-best ranking of 158th in 1994. He coached at American University, was director of a junior training center in College Park, Maryland, USA, and worked for the USTA for two years before starting a tennis academy in Boca Raton, Florida. McEnroe held the position for 6½ years.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Le Gosier: James Cerretani and Antal Van der Dulm beat Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop 6-1 6-3
Miami (men): Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan beat Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock 6-3 1-6 10-8 (match tiebreak)
Miami (women): Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 7-5 6-1
Raanana: Mate Pavic and Michael Venus beat Rameez Junaid and Adil Shamasdin 6-1 6-4
SURFING
Davis Cup: www.daviscup.com
Katowice: http://katowiceopen.com/pl
Charleston: www.familycirclecup.com/
Houston: www.mensclaycourt.com/index.php
Casablanca: www.gphassan2tennis.com/
Monte Carlo: http://montecarlotennismasters.com/
Bogota: www.copaclarocolsanitas.com/
Napoli: www.atpnapoli.com/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$488,225 Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championship, Houston, Texas, USA, clay
$478,398 Grand Prix Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco, clay
WOMEN
$665,900 Family Circle Cup, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, clay
$226,750 Katowice Open, Katowice, Poland, hard
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$3,605,210 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Monte Carlo, Monaco, clay
$116, 791 Capri Watch Cup, Napoli, Italy, clay
$100,000 Sarasota, Florida, USA, clay
WOMEN
$226,750 Claro Open Colsanitas, Bogota, Colombia, clay
FED CUP
World Group
Semifinals
Czech Republic vs. France at Ostrava, Czech Republic, hard
Russia vs. Germany at Sochi, Russia, clay
World Group Playoffs
Italy vs. United States at Brindisi, Italy, clay
Australia vs. Netherlands at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, clay
Poland vs. Switzerland at Zielona Gora, Poland, hard
Canada vs. Romania at Montreal, Quebec, Canada, hard
World Group II Playoffs
Serbia vs. Paraguay at Novi Sad, Serbia, hard; Slovakia vs. Sweden at Bratislava, Slovakia, clay; Japan vs. Belarus at Tokyo, Japan, hard; Argentina vs. Spain at Buenos Aires, Argentina, clay
Group II
Asia/Oceania Zone at Hyderabad, India, hard: India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Pacific Oceania, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan
