The First Roger Federer-Less Grand Slam Since 1999 Starts At Roland Garros - Mondays With Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Stan Wawrinka beat Marin Cilic 6-4 7-6 (11) to win the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open in Geneva, Switzerland

Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev 6-4 3-6 6-0 to win the Open de Nice Cot d’Azur in Nice, France

Caroline Garcia beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-4 6-1 to win the Internationaux de Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France

Kiki Bertens beat Mariana Duque-Mariño 6-2 6-2 to win the Nürnberger Versicherungscup in Nürnberger, Germany

SAYING

It’s a dream come true to be able to win a title in Switzerland, after all these tournaments. To be able to do it here in Geneva, I the event’s second year, is something special. The fans were great. They made a lot of noise today.” – Stan Wawrinka, after winning the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open.

“It was an amazing week for me and this was something … I was not even expecting.” – Marin Cilic, on his run to the Geneva Open final.

“You have so much to win and so much to lose. I played a solid third set and I’m really happy. My arm is a little tired, but I will be OK for Roland Garros on Monday.” – Dominic Thiem, after winning Nice for the second straight year.

“Another title is great. It’s progress, but every tournament is a new chance to develop. But today is a great day for me, especially in front of home fans here in France.” – Caroline Garcia, after winning in Strasbourg.

“People have been asking me to sign pictures from 1999. It’s like another life. But it makes me proud to have been able to come back and be at the same stage 19 years later.” – Mirjana Lucic- Barona, who reached the final in Strasbourg 19 years after she first did it.

“Four tournaments and three finals is not bad for everyone else, but I’m not everyone else.” –Serena Williams, referring to her 2016 record

“We try to play as many tournaments as possible together, so it’s really fun to always have the same partner. For me it’s also important that we not only have a lot of fun on the court but off the court as well.” – Kiki Bertens, after she and partner Johanna Larsson won the doubles in Nürnberger, Germany

SWISS WIN FINALLY

Stan Wawrinka has won two Grand Slam tournaments, is the reigning French Open champion and ranked fourth in the world. Now he finally has won a tournament in his home country of Switzerland. Wawrinka defeated Marin Cilic to win the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open, his third title of the season and his first on clay this year. Cilic took a 4-1 lead in the second set, only to have Wawrinka rally to knot the set a 5-all. In the tiebreak, Cilic had five set points but lost all five. Wawrinka closed it out on his second match point. “Marin is a great player,” Wawrinka said. “He really ramped up the pressure toward the end, with those set points, so it was nice to be able to finish off the match.” The 31-year-old Wawrinka reached the singles final in Gstaad in 2005 and the doubles final in Gstaad in 2004 and 2008, but lost all three times.

STAR ENDS SLAM RUN

After appearing in 65 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, Roger Federer is sitting out the French Open. “I am still not 100 percent and feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready,” the 2009 Roland Garros champion said. “This decision was not easy to make, but I too it to ensure I could play the remainder of the season and help to extend the rest of my career.” Ranked third in the world, the 34-year-old Federer missed the Madrid Open with back problems and lost early at the Italian Open. Federer had played in every Grand Slam tournament since the 1999 US Open. The Swiss star has been troubled by back problems over the past few years, and he underwent a left knee operating after the Australian Open in January. “I remain as motivated and excited as ever and my plan is to achieve the highest level of fitness before returning to the ATP World Tour for the upcoming grass court season,” said Federer, who has won Wimbledon seven times. “I am sorry for my fans in Paris but I very much look forward to returning to Roland Garros in 2017.”

STANDS TALL

Dominic Thiem won the Nice clay-court tournament for the second straight year. This time, the Austrian knocked off German teenager Alexander Zverev in the title match. “It’s been an unbelievably great week,” said Thiem, who has now won three titles this year. “The first time I had to defend a title and I made it. Maybe I played better in the three matches before this, but a final is always special.” It was the first tour final for the 19-year-old Zverev, who led 4-2 in the opening set. But Thiem rallied, took the opening and led 2-0 in the second set. Zverev won six of the next seven games to force a decided. Thiem had a trainer massaged his right arm before the third set. He then won 24 of the 29 points in his rush to victory.

SHOULDER PROBLEM

Caroline Garcia won the Internationaux de Strasbourg, but it was her opponent who made people get out the record books. Garcia dominated qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-4 6-1, not showing any nerves that seem to accompany French players playing on home soil. “I felt very confident going into the final,” Garcia said. “The first set I let her back into it. The first set is super important in tennis for momentum. Because you want to get off to a good start. And I got that today, which helped for the rest of the match.” For Lucic-Baroni, it was her second trip to the Strasbourg final, the last coming 19 years ago when she lost to Steffi Graf. It was my seventh match,” the loser said. “I was a bit slow, a bit tired. It was to be expected. I’m proud to get to the final though.”

SECOND WTA TITLE

Kiki Bertens found the Nürnberber Versicherungscup was just to her licking. The Dutchwoman captured the second WTA singles title of her career, then teamed with long-time partner Johanna Larsson to add the doubles crown to her trophy room. Bertens had no problems in the title match, downing Mariana Duque-Mariño 6-2 6-2 in little over an hour. “I think I played really well today. I was serving good and going for my shots,” Bertens said. “I had really good length to my shots and she couldn’t do much from the baseline. The doubles winners stopped Shuko Aoyama and Renata Voracova 6-3 6-4 for the trophy.

SICK BAY

A right heel injury will sideline Andreas Haider-Maurer for at least five more months. The Austrian has not played since losing in the opening round of the Erste Bank Open in October 2015 and says he won’t return to the tour before October this year for the same event in Vienna. “After two days of training I need a day of rest,” he said. “That’s why I’ve decided now not to rush things and to return to competitive tennis in Vienna at the earliest.”

SENT HOME

Frenchman Constant Lestienne lost his French Open wild card after he was placed under a corruption investigation. The 23-year-old was ready to make his main draw debut in the year’s second Grand Slam tournament. Organizers said Lestienne is under investigation by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) for what the French Tennis Federation (FFT) understood to be a “minor breach of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).” In a statement, the FFT said it revoked Lestienne’s wild card to underline their “zero-tolerance approach to unethical conduct.”

STOSUR HURT

Samantha Stosur is going into the French Open without the match play she was hoping for. That’s because a wrist injury forced her to pull out of the Internationaux de Strasbourg before her quarterfinal match against Caroline Garcia. “I have had some pain in my left wrist for the last few days,” Stosur said. “I tried to practice yesterday and felt a lot of discomfort and unfortunately I can’t take to the court today. I’ve played some good tennis here this week and I’m disappointed I won’t be able to properly defend my title here in Strasbourg.” Garcia won the tournament.

SKIPPING PARIS

Former world number on Caroline Wozniacki and Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic pulled out of the French Open because of injuries. Wozniacki has a right ankle injury, while Bencic, ranked eighth in the world, is out with a lower back injury according to the WTA. Wozniacki a first-round loser at the Australian Open who has tumbled to 34^th in the rankings, suffered another ankle injury last month, forcing her to pull out of the Istanbul Cup tournament and a Fed Cup tie. The 19-year-old Bencic has lost her opening round matches at four of her last five events.

SPLITS WITH COACH

After suffering a double-bagel loss, Tomas Berdych has dropped his coach, Daniel Vallverdu. “My results lately have not been what I expected,” the 30-year-odl Czech said. “As I am not a tennis player at the beginning of his career I have to act quickly when I feel that I need a change.” Ranked eighth in the world a former Wimbledon runner-up, Berdych has been in the Top 10 for the past six years. He began working with Vallverdu, the former hitting partner of Andy Murray, in 2014. Berdych lost to Belgium’s David Goffin 6-0 6-0 in Rome.

SURFACE SWITCH

The grass-court season is growing. Beginning next year, a new grass-court ATP World Tour 250 event will be held in Antalya, Turkey. “ The addition of Antalya in the ATP World Tour calendar from 2017 represents the latest enhancement to the grass court swing following the introduction of the three-week gap between Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year,” said Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman and President. Seven grass courts will be constructed under the guidance of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Next year, the Aegon Open Nottingham, an ATP World 250 grass-court tournament, will return to Eastbourne, taking place the same week at Antalya. To go along with Wimbledon, there will be seven ATP World Tour grass-court tournaments in 2017: the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany; the Aegon Championships in London; the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany; Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, USA; Eastbourne and Antalya.

SHIA IS MAC

Hollywood action Shia LaBeouf will play John McEnroe in a film about the tennis rebel’s rivalry with Bjorn Borg. LeBeouf admitted that he was cast in the role, he had no interest tennis. And he’s not left-handed like McEnroe. But he said it was the love-hate relationship between McEnroe and Borg that intrigued him. “These two men had a whole lot of stuff going on,” LeBeouf said. “There’s 30,000 people in the stands, millions watching (on television) and there are two dudes (McEnroe and Borg). There is something really romantic” about that. “You don’t often see masculine love portrayed honestly.” Icelandic actor Sverrir Gudnason has been selected to play Borg with Stellan Skarsgard cast as his influential coach Lennart Bergelin. The film will be shot in the autumn in Sweden, London, Monaco and New York.

SHARED PEFORMANCES

Geneva: Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey beat Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 6-4 6-1

Nice: Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah beat Mate Pavic and Michael Venus 4-6 6-4 10-8 (match tiebreak)

Nürnberger: Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson beat Shuko Aoyama and Renata Voracova 6-3 6-4

Strasbourg: Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja beat María Irigoyen and Liang Chen 6-2 6-0

SURFING

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

Marseille: www.tennisclubmarseille.fr

Prostejov: www.czech-open.cz/

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

MEN & WOMEN

French Open, Roland Garros, Paris, France, clay (first week)