Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Belinda Bencic beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4 4-6 6-0 to win the Aegon International in Eastbourne, Great Britain
Denis Istomin beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (1) 7-6 (6) to win the Aegon Open in Nottingham, Great Britain
SAYING
“I feel so happy now. I hope it’s the first (title) and not the last one.” – Denis Istomin, after capturing his first ATP World Tour title.
“This is the biggest day of my career. This is a dream come true. I’m so happy to win my first title. I woke up very nervous this morning, and even in practice I was nervous. But once on the court I tried to fight for every point. I tried my best.” – Belinda Bencic, after winning her first career WTA title.
“He’s a tough player, he’s got a great serve. He hung in there today when it got tough.” – Sam Querrey, after losing the Nottingham final to Denis Istomin.
“I have nothing to prove at Wimbledon. I just want to play relaxed and be satisfied with my results.” – Belinda Bencic.
“Unfortunately I won’t be able to play at Wimbledon because of an injury to my elbow.” – David Ferrer, the tournament’s eighth seed pulling out of the grass-court championships.
“Honestly, it was a great surprise for me because I didn’t remember that I was so close to this achievement. … I like it, though it means that time passes.” — Filippo Volandri, after becoming the third player in two months to capture his 300th career ATP Challenger match win.
“I don’t really like the sport of tennis that much. I don’t love it. It was crazy when I was 14. I was all for basketball and I made the decision to play tennis. I got pushed by my parents and to this day I can still say I don’t love the sport. It is just crazy how things go.” – Australian Nick Kyrgios.
“Doubles is all about communication and Leander (Paes) communicates better than anyone. He’s played the partner game well and his partners play better.” – Mike Bryan on Leader Paes having played with 100 different partners.
“He knows the psychology of doubles, to make his partner feel better. He’s always smiling, giving encouraging tips. He’s brought the best out of Lukas Dlouhy … with Leander they played amazing and won two Grand Slams. You got to give it to the guy. 100 partners is amazing.” – Bob Bryan, who has had only partner his entire career, his twin brother Mike.
“It’s unbelievable to hear that he is playing with his 100th partner because that is some achievement. It shows as a player how easily he can adapt and change with new partners, and it also shows that he has kept himself fit for so many years to achieve this goal. At the age of 42 he is Top 25, which is a great feat and gives an example to everyone that if you keep yourself fit, age is just a number.” – Rohan Bopanna, one of 10 fellow Indians Paes has partnered in doubles.
“Leander is as good as it gets. His desire to work hard and win is why he is one of the best doubles players of all time.” – Raven Klaasen, who was Paes’ partner No. 99.
“He’s undefeated with me.” – Sanam Singh, who won his lone match with Paes in Davis Cup in 2013.
“Leander was the first partner I played with for a whole year. We qualified at the end of the year in Shanghai and it was a very nice experience to be in the top eight teams in the world. … He can make some shots and points that nobody can and it was nice to experience that.” – Nenad Zimonjic.
“I’ve had partners who were shy and I had to give them the security to come out of their shell. I’ve had partners who were very boisterous and loud, but when they come on the court they completely go into their shell. … They are all different individuals and I’ve really loved working with each and every one of them.” – Leander Paes.
SWISS WINNER
Eighteen-year-old Belinda Bencic showed she’s for real. The Swiss teenager captured her first WTA title by crushing veteran Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0 in the third set at Eastbourne, then gave credit to Hall of Famer Martina Hingis. Bencic is coached part-time by Hingis and Hingis’s mother, Melanie Molitor. “Martina gives me a lot of good advice, not just this week but all the time,” Bencic said. “Also I practice with her mom, so she’s my coach when I’m back at home. Of course they have been a big influence on my game.” At 18 years, 109 days, Bencic is the youngest player to win a Premier-level title since Caroline Wozniacki captured New Haven in 2008 at the age of 18 years, 43 days. Bencic benefited at Eastbourne when both Eugenie Bouchard and Caroline Wozniacki retired with injuries while playing the Swiss. The second-youngest member of the WTA Top 100, Bencic improved her career grass-court record to 11-2. Close to tears at the trophy ceremony, Radwanska said: “It was a very tight match and I was just not there in the third set.”
SEIZING THE MOMENT
Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan took the long way to earn his first ATP World Tour title. He did it by beating American Sam Querrey in two tiebreak sets at Nottingham. Istomin lead 5-2 in the second set but serving for the match twice and losing both times. On a roll, Querrey grabbed a 4-1 lead in the second-set tiebreak and appeared on the verge of leveling the match. Istomin had other ideas, winning seven of the final eight points to capture the title. “In the (second set) tiebreak, I forgot about the score and I just tried to play and fight,” Istomin said. “In the end it worked … It would have been unprofessional from my side to lose from 5-2.” Istomin became the first ATP player this year to save a match point en route to a title. That happened in the quarterfinals when Leonard Mayer had a match point before losing to the eventual champion. “I worked for it,” Istomin said of the title. “I’m not coming here to win two rounds. I always come to try to win the tournament.”
STOPPED BY INJURY
An elbow injury has forced David Ferrer to pull out of Wimbledon. “It’s time to get better as quickly as possible,” the Spaniard said on his Twitter page. Ferrer had been seeded eighth, and was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Luca Vanni of Italy. Twice in his career Ferrer had reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. The 33-year-old had played in 50 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments since the 2003 Australian Open.
SIBLING RIVALRY
It was the worst possible draw for Austrian Jurgen Melzer. The 34-year-old veteran played his brother, Gerald, in the opening round of qualifying for a spot in the Wimbledon men’s singles draw. “It’s the worst feeling,” said Jurgen, who won the Wimbledon doubles title with Philipp Petzschner in 2010. “My coach was joking about it (before the draw). I hope it never happens again. Some people like to compete against family, and we do when we play cards or video games, but it’s not the same thing when it’s a tournament match.” Once ranked as high as eighth in the world, Jurgen beat 24-year-old Gerald 6-1 6-4 before losing in the second round of qualifying to Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands. “Neither of us were happy to see the draw,” said Gerald, who has never made the main Wimbledon draw. It was the first time the brothers had met in a professional tournament. Jurgen reached the French Open semifinals in 2010 and the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2010 and 2013.
SAYING BYE TO COACHES
Romanian Simona Halep, trying to get back on track after suffering a number of surprising losses this season, has dropped her coach, Victor Ionita, on the eve of Wimbledon. Ranked third in the world, Halep will work with Daniel Dobre and Darren Cahill during the year’s third Grand Slam tournament.
Saying the parting was “mutually agreed,” Australian Nick Kyrgios has split with coach Todd Larkham in the week before the start of Wimbledon. “It’s never an easy decision to end a coaching relationship … but I feel that this is the right decision for me at this time.” Kyrgios said he will work with Tennis Australia coaches through Wimbledon and will probably hire a new coach after the tournament ends. Larkham had worked with Kyrgios for seven years when he was a junior. He rejoined the team after Kyrgios’ surprising run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year.
SUCCESS
Filippo Volandri became the third player in less than two months to reach the 300-match wins level on the ATP Challenger Tour. The 33-year-old Italian beat Oriol Roca Batalla in the opening round of the Aspria Tennis Cup in Milan, Italy, to reach the threshold. In May, Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan became the second player to win 300 matches on the Challenger circuit, joining Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. Ten days later, Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi posted his 300th match victory with a quarterfinal win in Eskisehir, Turkey.
SEEKING COMEBACK
Mark Philippoussis has twice reached the final of Grand Slam tournaments. But that was more than a decade ago. Now the Australian plants to return to the ATP World Tour as a wildcard entry in the qualifying draw for next month’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. The 38-year-old Philippoussis will be returning to the scene of his final title. He won Newport in 2006, defeating Justin Gimelstob in the final. He retired later that year. Philippoussis reached the final at the US Open in 1998 and at Wimbledon in 2003.
SPANISH FEUD
The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) and the country’s top player are feuding over the appointment of a woman as Davis Cup captain. Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo were dismayed when the federation selected Gala Leon to replace Carlos Moya as Davis Cup captain. The spat has put the players’ participation in next month’s Group I second-round match against Russia in doubt. Spain needs to win the tie to secure a place in the playoffs for the elite World Group, the 16 nations who actually compete for the Cup. “The situation is terrible,” Nadal said. “All these things that are happening cause damage to tennis, to the desire sponsors might have to invest in our sport, to the excitement that kids might have in continuing to play.”
SICK CALL
Caroline Wozniacki played only 13 minutes before withdrawing from her semifinal match at Eastbourne because of back pains. Wozniacki called for the training after the third game in her match against eventual champion Belinda Bencic. Following consultations with the tournament doctor, the former world number one retired from the match. “This is definitely not the way I wanted to win, of course,” the 18-year-old Bencic said. “I’m also a little bit disappointed we couldn’t play a proper semifinal.” Bencic had won all three games played when Wozniacki called it quits. “I’ve had a slight back problem the whole week, basically,” Wozniacki said. “Today it stiffened up more, and I felt like I couldn’t move the way I wanted to and felt pain. I felt really bad for the crowd and everyone who had come out, but there’s nothing really I could do about it.”
SENIOR MOMENT
In 1996, Kimiko Date-Krumm reached the semifinals at Wimbledon. This year, she won’t even reach the women’s singles main draw of the year’s third Grand Slam tournament. The 44-year-old Japanese player lost in the first round of qualifying to Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-4 7-6 (3). When Date-Krumm first played Wimbledon in 1989, Govortsova had not even celebrated her first birthday.
SO SORRY
Great Britain’s Katy Dunne began crying on court after accidentally hitting a ball at a line judge during Wimbledon qualifying. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I dropped my racquet. I told the umpire I didn’t mean to and she said, ‘I know you didn’t, but I have to call the supervisors,’” said Dunne, who is ranked 335th in the world. “For three minutes we were sitting there waiting to hear if I could carry on or not.” It was ruled an accident and Dunne eventually won her first-round match, defeating Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina 7-6 (2) 3-6 6-2. However, Dunne was eliminated in the next round, falling to Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands 6-2 7-5.
SUSPENDED
Spanish tennis federation (RFET) president Jose Luic Escanuela has been suspended for one month by the Spanish government’s disciplinary committee for sports (TAD). Escanuela was punished for failing to collaborate in a probe into RFET’s finances. Spain’s sports council (CSD) says it is attempting to track down what happened to at least 700,000 euros (USD $783,300) that the federation paid out to the Spanish Tennis Foundation and the Spanish Tennis Observatory. The Foundation was set up by RFET to help promote tennis is Spain, while the Observatory is a joint project with a university in Seville to study the sport.
STRAIGHT IN
Great Britain’s Laura Robson has been given a wildcard into the women’s singles main draw at Wimbledon. This comes just one week after Robson returned to the women’s tour after missing nearly 18 months because of a wrist injury. She made her comeback in the qualifying for the Aegon International in Eastbourne, Great Britain, falling in the first round to Daria Gavrilova of Russia. The loss was of little concern to Robson. “To be honest, I think in a way it was a victory to just finish a match and be back on court, back playing tournaments,” Robson said. “It wasn’t easy to be out, that’s for sure. It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, and I’ve had some great people helping me out the whole time in my coach and my team. I’m not expecting to play my best tennis right now. It’s going to take a while. It’s going to take a lot more matches and a lot more practice, and I’m willing to do that.” Robson reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2013, tying her best Grand Slam appearance, a fourth-round showing at the US Open in 2012 when she beat both Kim Clijsters and Li Na.
SO MANY TO THANK
Leander Paes has reached a unique milestone. He has played doubles with 100 different partners in his long career. “It’s nice to play with one of the best doubles players in the world and in history,” Marcel Granollers said after becoming the 100th partner of the 42-year-old Paes. While unique, the feat has been done before. Paes is actually the sixth active player to reach the 100-partners milestone, joining Frank Moser (144), Andre Sa (119), Oliver Marach (109), Carlos Berlocq (104) and James Cerretani (104). And while the former world number one doubles player is the 47th player to reach a century of doubles partners, he is the first member of the club to have won more than 50 titles and 700 match victories. He became just the eighth player to win 700 matches when he won his first-round match at Roland Garros last month. “It means I’ve had a very long career,” Paes commented on the number of partners he has played with. “It’s quite intriguing in an individual sport like tennis to have actually had that many doubles partners.”
STYLISH COMEBACK
How about a tennis ball signed by the last two Brits to win Wimbledon? Andy Murray and his wife Kim have provided just such a prize to a charity raffle. Auctioneers have been unable to put a price on it. The white tennis ball is one of three that was given to Murray by a tennis fan, Gail Sargent, who met Perry in 1994. A decade later she watched a young Andy Murray practicing and decided to give the signed balls to him. Sargent died in 2010 of ovarian cancer. Murray won Wimbledon in 2013, the first Brit to win the grass court championship since Perry in 1936. In Sargent’s memory, Murray decided to auction a ball for charity. He chose St. Peter & St. James Hospice where Sargent spent the last months of her life. Murray and his wife have also donated a ball to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and will keep the third ball. The raffle is open to all at www.raffleplayer.com/andymurray and will run through the end of the grass-court season.
SUPPORTER
Former world number one Ana Ivanovic has been named Ambassador for the Quercus Foundation, an organization that raises awareness and funds to improve the lives of children and young people living in extreme poverty. “I know how important it is for children to have a dream and I am inspired by the Quercus Foundation, which is working to make dreams possible for children in need in underprivileged area,” Ivanovic said. The Serbian star will support the foundation’s current project to raise funds for The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Eastbourne: Carolina Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik beat Yung-Jan Chan and Jie Zheng 7-6 (5) 6-2
Nottingham: Chris Guccione and Andre Sa beat Pablo Cuevas and David Marrero 6-2 7-5
SURFING
Wimbledon: www.wimbledon.com/
International Tennis Federation: www.itftennis.com/home.aspx
ATP World Tour: www.atpworldtour.com/en/
WTA: www.wtatennis.com/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN and WOMEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (first week)
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)
$118,915 Sparkassen Open, Braunschweig, Germany, clay
WOMEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)
$100,000 Lorraine Open 88, Contrexeville, France, clay
