Andy Murray Shocks Novak Djokovic; Serena Williams Wins In Rome - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-3 to win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia men’s singles in Rome, Italy

Serena Williams beat Madison Keys 7-6 (5) 6-3 to win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia women’s singles in Rome, Italy

Sergiy Stakhovsky beat Lu Yen-Hsun 46 6-3 7-6 (7) to win the Le Coq Seoul Open Challenger in Seoul, South Korea

Katerina Siniakova beat Anastasija Sevastova 7-6 (4) 5-7 6-0 to win the Empire Slovak Open 2016 in Trnava, Slovakia

Rogerio Dutra Silva beat Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3 6-1 to win the BNP Paribas Primrose in Bordeaux, France

SAYING

“It’s mostly great players have won this event. So I’m very proud to have my name on the trophy.” – Andy Murray, after winning the Rome Masters.

“Well done, Andy. You did a great job today. You were just too good.” – Novak Djokovic, during the on-court trophy presentation after he lost to Andy Murray.

“It feels great. It’s not like I was playing every week. So that’s kind of how I look at it. But it feels great to win a title, especially on clay.” – Serena Williams, noting she has only played four tournaments since she won her last tournament title nine months ago.

“No matter how many times you play Serena, you always go in and you can just feel her presence. That’s always an extra thing that you have to be worried about during the match. But for me today it really wasn’t so much about how big the tournament was or anything like that. It was really just wanting to go out and do my best and give my best performance.” – Madison Keys, after losing the Rome final to Serena Williams.

“I’m so proud of you. You can get to world number one.” – Serena Williams, talking to Madison Keys after beating her fellow American in the Rome women’s final.

“The finals of a Masters series on clay is something that’s a new experience for me. It’s nice to still be sort of achieving new things and reaching new goals at this stage of my career.” – Andy Murray.

“I actually thought I could really do a good result in Paris. Now, after the last couple of weeks, it’s been more difficult. I see my chances as, you know, as not great.” – Roger Federer, after losing his third-round match in Rome to Dominic Thiem.

“We didn’t play our best at the same time. That’s not typical. Usually one of us is playing well. That helps the team a lot. Two of us are playing well, it usually goes our way.” – Venus Williams, after she and her sister Serena lost their first-round doubles match in Rome.

“We haven’t played doubles in a while. Obviously we would love to play in the Olympics.” – Serena Williams.

“Tennis gives me all that I want and to tennis I would give back all that I have.” – Li Na, who has been named the official global ambassador for her hometown tournament, the WTA Wuhan Open.

“We don’t force anyone to take part in the Olympic Games. We only want people in our team who want to be there and prepared to abide by what that team means.” – Kitty Chiller, Australia’s Olympic chef de mission, warning that the behavior of tennis star Nick Kyrgios us being monitored to judge his suitability for Australia’s team for the Rio Olympics.

SCOT TRIUMPHANT

What a birthday gift Scotland’s Andy Murray gave himself. On his 29^th birthday, Murray defeated Novak Djokovic to win the Rome Masters for only his third career clay court title. The only other British man to win the Italian tournament was Pat Hughes in 1931. Against the world’s top-ranked player, Murray was brilliant. He pressured Djokovic right from the start and grabbed a 3-1 lead to start the match. With an ace down the T, Murray took a 5-2 advantage, then closed out the opening set with a forehand drop-shot winner. With an occasional light rain falling, Djokovic complained to the referee while leading the second set 2-1. Later, he was heard telling the chair umpire, “I don’t want to play anymore,” adding: “My friend, it’s been raining for an hour.” Murray didn’t seem to mind the conditions, and finally broke Djokovic in the fifth game of the second set. After that, Murray seemed to control the action with his big serve, changing speeds and spins on his ground strokes, and winning points at the net. It was the first time in their five career meetings on clay that Murray had come out on top. And Djokovic had to fight fatigue following consecutive draining wins over Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori. “It was a week with a lot of emotions, a lot of hours on the court,” Djokovic said. “It wasn’t easy to be fresh today and have the strength to play with Andy. He was just too good today and he deserved it.” Tournament officials presented Murray with a birthday cake during the trophy presentation. He had already given himself a special reason to celebrate.

SERENA TRIUMPHS

When Serena Williams wrapped up her week in Rome with the big trophy, it brought out the record books. It was Serena’s first tournament title in nine months, since Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, last summer. She won her fourth Italian Open crown by stopping Madison Keys in the first all-American clay-court final since Serena won her first French Open crown in 2002, when she beat her older sister Venus. It was the first all-American final on the WTA tour in nearly four years, when Serena beat Coco Vandeweghe in Stanford, California, USA, in 2012. And it was the first all-American final in Rome since Billie Jean King defeated Julie Helman in 1970.

Records aside, Williams won her 13^th title on clay, the most for any active player on the WTA. But the victory didn’t come easy. Keys began by breaking Williams in the opening game of the match, setting the tempo for the first set, which Serena pulled out in a tiebreak 7-5. The world’s top-ranked player then streaked out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, breaking her 21-year-old opponent in the first and third games. Keys wasn’t through, however, as she broke Serena’s serve twice more, including when Williams was serving for the match at 5-2. But if Serena couldn’t serve it out, she showed she had a winning return game. She broke Keys once more to close out her 70^th career title – the fifth woman in history to reach that mark and trail Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Margaret Court, all of whom are in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. And while she hit four few winners than Keys, 13-17, Williams had eight fewer errors than her opponent and converted all but one of her six break point chances.

Then, the 2016 women’s champion thrilled the crowd even more by doing her on-court interview in Italian.

SHOULDER PROBLEM

The reigning Australian Open champion, Angelique Kerber, pulled out of this week’s Nuremberg Open because of a shoulder problem. “So sad that I cannot compete in front of my fantastic home crowd,” Kerber tweeted. She has seen a specialist since she lost in the Italian Open, but there is no indication the injury will prevent her from playing at Roland Garros next week.

SKIPPING PARIS

Trying to focus on the grass-court season, Juan Martin del Potro will skip the French Open. Having returned to tennis in February after missing almost a year with his third operation on his wrist, del Potro said he decided “the smartest move is to start my preparation for the grass season.” The 2009 US Open champion has not played at Roland Garros since 2012.

SHORT STAY

Dominic Thiem made sure Roger Federer’s stay at the Rome Masters was brief. The Austria knocked off the Swiss master 7-6 (2) 6-4 in a third-round match. After receiving a first-round bye, Federer said he was surprised to get past his second-round opponent, Alexander Zverev, in straight sets. Rome was only the fourth tournament of the season for Federer, who underwent knee surgery in early February. “My body’s just not ready,” Federer said before turning his thought to Paris and the French Open. “I’m going to have a meeting with my team, talk about options we have, stay in Rome, Paris or go back to Switzerland,” he said. “Should I rest, train, do some more physio? All that stuff needs to be discussed, but I’m so happy I didn’t get hurt this week.” While admitting there was a chance he would not have won if Federer was 100 percent, Thiem said it was still “very nice” to beat the 17-time Grand Slam tournament winner. “When he started, I was 10, 11 years old,” Thiem said. “First of all, it was already very big for me to play against him in Brisbane, and now to beat him, even that he was not 100 percent, it’s very nice for me.”

SICK BAY

A thigh injury forced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to withdraw from the Rome Masters. The seventh-seeded Frenchman suffered the injury during a training session. “I was sick when I left Madrid for two days, and I came here and I tried to play a little bit to see how it goes,” Tsonga said. “This morning I just stretched a little bit my adductor. I’ll take a rest and try to recover for the next step.” That would be the French Open, which begins its two-week run at Roland Garros on May 22.

SERVING AS AMBASSADOR

Li Na has a new title. The two-time Grand Slam tournament champion has been named global ambassador for her hometown tournament, the WTA Wuhan Open. The 34-year-old is charged with raising the tournament’s profile internationally and grow tennis in Asia. “My hometown Wuhan is where I started my tennis career,” Li said. “Enabling more ordinary people to play and enjoy tennis will extend my tennis career and fulfill the original intention of the Wuhan Open.” Li retired from tennis in 2014 and is expecting her second child. Her daughter turns one year old next month.

SNUBS OLYMPICS

Bernard Tomic says he’s too busy to play in the Rio Olympics this summer, thank you. “With a heavy sense of regret, I have made the difficult decision to not play with the Australian tennis team as they pursue an Olympic medal in Rio,” the 23-year-old Tomic said in a statement. “I have always proudly represented my country in Davis Cup and given my all when wearing the green and gold. But on the basis of my extremely busy playing schedule and my own personal circumstances, I am regrettably unable to commit to this year’s tournament.” Instead of the Olympics, Tomic will play an ATP event in Los Cabos, Mexico. Tomic was not a shoo-in to on the Australian team because of his behavior. He has been heavily criticized after holding the racquet the wrong way when he received a serve on match point in the Madrid Open.

Joining Tomic in Los Cabos will be Austrian Dominic Thiem. At 22, Thiem is the youngest player in the top 20 of the rankings. “There are many reasons” he is not going to play in the Olympics, he said. “Maybe I’m going to explain it another time.” Earlier this year Thiem told Austrian TV he considers Grand Slam tournaments and Masters series tournaments more important that the Olympics in tennis, adding, “Other sports are more important at the Olympics, and that’s OK.”

SHOWDOWN

Will Nick Kyrgios be on Australia’s Olympic team? Tennis Australia (TA) and the Australian Olympic Committee appear headed for a showdown over that possibility. Shortly after Australian Olympic team’s chef de mission Kitty Chiller said Kyrgios needed to improve his behavior to be selected, Tennis Australia backed the 21-year-old player. “It’s unfortunate that he’s been included unfairly in recent discussions on player behavior that have not involved him,” TA president Steve Healy said in a statement. Both Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic were warned by Chiller about their behavior. Kyrgios responded by saying: “If you don’t want two of the best players in Australia to represent your country, so be it.” Kyrgios was given a suspended ban by the ATP last year for an off-color comment he made at a tournament. And he was booed by his home crowd at the Australian Open in January when he had a running battle with the chair umpire. But Healy says Kyrgios has been working hard to rehabilitate himself. “His performances this year have been markedly improved and it’s obvious he’s showing more maturity,” the TA head said. “Nick deserves the opportunity to concentrate on his tennis without any additional distractions.”

SPLITSVILLE

After two years, Andy Murray has ended his working relationship with his coach Amelie Mauresmo. “I’ve learned a lot from Amelie over the past two years,” the Scottish star said in a statement. “She’s been a calming influence in the team and we’ll miss having her around.” With her on his team, Murray has won seven titles and reached two Australian Open finals. But the 28-year-old has not added to his Olympic gold medal and US Open title he won in 2012 as well as capturing Wimbledon in 2013. “Dedicating enough time along with the travel has been a challenge for me,” said Mauresmo, who has not been on the ATM World Tour regularly with Murray since she gave birth to her son Aaron last August. Like Murray, the 36-year-old Mauresmo won Wimbledon – in 2006.

SISTERS STUMBLE

It just wasn’t to be. Playing doubles together for the first time since the US Open in 2014, the Williams sisters – Venus and Serena – lost their first-round match at the Italian Open to Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-1 7-5. Still, the American pair showed flashes of the skills that saw them win 21 titles together, including consecutive Olympic gold medals. Venus – who played and won her opening singles match a few hours before she took to the court for doubles – admitted that fatigue could have played a part in her doubles loss. “I haven’t done that in a long time,” she said. “But I knew what was going to happen going into it. Even if you get tired, you have to try to ignore it. … Hopefully I’ll have that problem for two weeks in the French Open. That would be an awesome problem to have.” The sisters are hoping that their combined singles rankings will gain them direct entry into the 32-team doubles draw at the Rio Olympics.

SALE SIGN

John McEnroe has put his Long Island estate up for sale for USD $14.5 million. Besides having a stretch of white sand beach, the home features eight bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, casual and formal dining areas, library, office, sunroom and a tennis court. Appropriately for the tennis star known for his outburst, “You cannot be serious,” the home is located at 11 Squabble Lane. Despite the asking price, the Hamptons retreat doesn’t crack the current top 10 for single-family home prices in the 11968 ZIP code.

SHARED PEFORMANCES

Bordeaux: Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom beat Guillermo Duran and Maximo Gonzalez 6-1 3-6 10-4 (match tiebreak)

Rome (men): Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan beat Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock 2-6 6-3 10-7 (match tiebreak)

Rome (women): Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-1 6-7 (5) 10-3 (match tiebreak)

Seoul: Matt Reed and John-Patrick Smith beat Gong Mao-Xin and Yi Chu-Huan 6-3 7-5

Trnava: Anna Kalinskaya and Tereza Mihalikova beat Evgeniya Rodina and Anastasija Sevastova 6-1 7-6 (4)

SURFING

Geneva: http://banqueericsturdzagenevaopen.com/

Nice: www.opennicecotedazur.com/

Nürnberger: www.nuernberger-versicherungscup.de/en/news/index_eng.html

Strasbourg: www.internationaux-strasbourg.fr/en

Paris: www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html