Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Roberto Bautista Agut beat Lucas Pouille 6-3 6-4 to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Juan Martin del Potro beat Kevin Anderson 6-4 6-4 to win the men’s singles at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco, Mexico
Fabio Fognini beat Nicolas Jarry 1-6 6-1 6-4 to win the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Lesia Tsurenko beat Stefanie Voegele 5-7 7-6 (2) 6-2 to win the women’s singles at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco, Mexico
Martin Klizan beat Darian King 6-3 6-3 to win the Oracle Challenger Series men’s singles in Indian Wells, California, USA
Sara Errani beat Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 6-2 to win the Oracle Challenger Series women’s singles in Indian Wells, California, USA
SAYING
“I beat three Top 10 guys in the same tournament, which is very important for myself.” – Juan Martin del Potro, after winning in Acapulco, Mexico.
“I can take a lot of confidence going into Indian Wells and Miami, two tournaments I really enjoy playing. I feel like I’m playing really good tennis.” Kevin Anderson, who lost the Acapulco final to Juan Martin del Potro.
“I played very good, very aggressively. I didn’t give him all the court, all the control of the game. I played very good tennis tonight.” – Roberto Bautista Agut, following his winning the Dubai Duty Free Championships.
“I think he was very solid, played some great tennis when he had to.” – Lucas Pouille, paying tribute to Roberto Bautista Agut after losing the Dubai final.
“It was amazing.” – Lesia Tsurenko, after winning the women’s singles in Acapulco.
“It was very painful to retire from Acapulco and it’s very hard as well to not play in the USA. I will miss you and I will do everything that’s possible to be back there in 2019.” – Rafael Nadal, after suffering yet another injury.
“They are both amazing events, but coming back from a big surgery after having played a few tournaments, I have discussed with my team that it is best for me to build on the progress and go back to practice.” – Stan Wawrinka, announcing he will skip Indian Wells and Miami to continue treatment for a knee injury.
“Tennis needs him. Tennis is not the same without Andy Murray.” – Boris Becker, three-time Wimbledon champion, talking about the former world number one player.
“I would be banned for six years and been on every paper and news channel for the next month.” – Nick Kyrgios, saying what his fate would have been had he thrown his racquet that nearly hit a ball person before slamming into the umpire’s chair, as did Daria Gavrilova. She escaped punishment and went on to beat Madison Brengle 4-6 6-3 6-3.
“Double standards everywhere,” – Coco Vandeweghe, apparently supporting Kyrgios.
SPANIARD REIGNS
Roberto Bautista Agut won his first ATP 500 title when he stopped Lucas Pouille in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final. “This tournament is very special,” the Spaniard said. “I think the past winners are the best tennis players in the era. That makes me so happy.” Bautista Agut is the first Spaniard to win Dubai since Rafael Nadal in 2006. His eighth career title was his second of 2018, having captured the Auckland Classic in January. Bautista Agut becomes the first player outside of the Top 10 in the rankings to triumph in Dubai since Fabrice Santoro won in 2002. Pouille was competing in his third ATP final in four events. The loss keeps him from moving into the Top 10 for the first time.
SUPREME IN ACAPULCO
Juan Martin del Potro’s seventh straight win over Kevin Anderson gave the Argentine his 21st career ATP title, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel. The title is del Potro’s biggest in years and it is the earliest he has won a tournament since the 2014 season. On his way to the final, del Potro beat Mischa Zverev, four-time Acapulco winner David Ferrer, sixth-ranked Dominic Thiem and fifth-ranked Alexander Zverev before taking on Anderson, who was ranked eighth in the world. Anderson has yet to beat del Potro with all of their matches taking place on hard courts. The winner blasted 12 aces and held serve throughout the match while breaking Anderson twice. “His serves are so strong but I got lucky in the important moments of my return games, and I broke just twice and that was the key of the match,” Del Potro said. Anderson had his eight-match winning streak snapped. “As always, I’ll pick myself up,” the South African said. “I’ll try to learn as much as I can from tonight’s match.”
SECOND STRAIGHT
Just three points for defeat, Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko rallied to successfully defend her Abierto Mexicano Telcel title in a three-set battle. Stefanie Voegele was only three points from winning the title when Tsurenko forced a tiebreak. After that, it was all Tsurenko as she took command in the two-hour, 45-minute marathon. “It was such a special tournament for me, winning here for the second time,” Tsurenko said. “This is just an unbelievable feeling for me to be here.” It was Tsurenko’s fourth career WTA Tour title, despite hitting 10 double faults as losing serve six times. Playing in her first final, Voegele had her serve broken seven times.
SIXTH TITLE
Shocked by winning just one game in the first set, Fabio Fognini rallied to win his sixth career title, beating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in three sets. The victorious Italian then dedicated his Brasil Open win to Italian soccer star Davide Astori, who died earlier on Sunday. “This trophy is for Davide Astori,” Fognini said at the presentative ceremony. Astori, who played 14 times for Italy, was found dead in his hotel room in Udine, Italy, where his team was to play a match. Jarry, playing in his first ATP Tour final, needed just 22 minutes to win the opening set. But Fognini called on his experience and solid clay court game to capture his first title since Gstaad last year. “Even though I lost the first set easily, I kept fighting, and this was important because it was a final,” Fognini said. Jarry was trying to become the first Chilean to win an ATP World Tour title since Fernando Gonzalez in 2009. “I always work to reach higher and higher, to be the best version of myself,” Jarry said. “Now I am getting good results. I hope to keep going up. I think I can give more, much more.”
SIDELINED
A leg injury has forced Rafael Nadal to pull out of the Indian Wells and Miami Open tournaments. A three-time winner at Indian Wells and five times a finalist at Miami, Nadal aggravated his leg injury during a training session that forced him to pull out of last week’s tournament in Acapulco. “Unfortunately, the injury I suffered in Acapulco before starting the tournament is the same area as the one suffered in Melbourne,” Nadal said. “I won’t be able to play in Miami or Indian Wells as I need to recover.” The 31-year-old Spaniard has not competed since retiring from his Australian Open quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic in January. The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California, USA, begins this week, while the Miami Open follows two weeks later. Nadal began the year ranked number one in the world. He recently lost the top spot to Roger Federer.
SICK BAY
Former world number three Stan Wawrinka has joined Rafael Nadal on the sidelines for the two big American hard-court tournaments. The 32-year-old Swiss said he is still recovering from a persistent knee injury. Wawrinka suffered first-round losses last summer at both Queen’s Club and Wimbledon. He then took off the remainder of the year to recover. He returned to competition at the Australian Open in January but was hobbling when he lost in the second round. “I’ve enjoyed being back on tour playing matches, and this gives me even more motivation to go back on the practice court,” Wawrinka said. “My goal is to find my highest level again, and in order to do that I will keep working hard every single day.”
Two Frenchmen will also miss Indian Wells with knee injuries. Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will skip the hard-court tournament.
SUPER CHANGES
If the International Tennis Federation (ITF) board has its way, the Davis Cup will be changed in a major way. Instead of playing four times a year at home sites, the board endorsed a proposal that would feature 18 nations playing over one week at the same site. “This is a complete game-changer for the ITF and for tennis,” ITF President David Haggerty said. “Our board has supported a bold and ambitious plan for the future of Davis Cup by BNP Paribas.” The plan still has to be approved by the ITF annual General Meeting when it meets in August in Orlando, Florida, USA. A two-thirds majority will be required for final approval. Under the plan, the World Cup of Tennis Finals will be played over seven days in November in the traditional week of the Davis Cup Final. The Finals will feature a round-robin format followed by a quarterfinal knockout stage. Each tie will consist of two singles and one doubles played over best-of-three sets. There would be no change to the format of zone group competition. Zone Groups I and II would continue to play home-and-away ties during the traditional three weeks in the calendar. The massive changes would hopefully have the top players in the world play Davis Cup annually.
SURPRISING RUN
Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri had a fairytale run at the Dubai Duty Free Championships before running into Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut in the semifinals. Jaziri became the first Arab player since 2002 to reach the penultimate round in Dubai. “It’s a tough one. I was not ready today physically 100 percent like I wanted,” Jaziri said after his 6-3 6-4 loss to Bautista Agut. “I gave everything on the court.” Jaziri started the week by upsetting top-seeded Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round. Against Bautista Agut, who eventually won the tournament, Jaziri took a 4-1 second-set lead. But the Spaniard won the next five games to close out the victory. “He made me play every ball,” Jaziri said. “It’s not easy to play someone like him. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
SAFEGUARDS REINFORCED
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced a partnership with Sportradar in a move that it says is reinforcing its safeguards against corruption. Sportradar is a sports-data specialist who already supply live scores from low-level tournaments to the ITF and to betting sites. Under the new agreement, Sportradar will run an electronic fraud detection system.
SELECTS 15 FOR GRANTS
Fifteen players from 13 countries will be the first recipients of the ITF International Junior Player Grants. The money is a contribution towards the players’ competition-related expenses with the aim of helping them make the transition from the junior ranks to the professional circuits. Receiving USD $25,000 grants will be Nicolas Mejia of Colombia; Uisung Park, South Korea; Jurij Rodionov, Austria; Emil Ruusuvuori, Finland; Chun Hsin Tseng, Taipei; Violet Apisah, Papua New Guinea; Emiliana Arango, Colombia; Kaja Juvan, Slovenia; Sada Nahimana, Burundi; Maria Gabriela Rivera Corado, Guatemala; and Wang Xinyu, China.
Receiving grants of USD $12,500 will be Nick Hardt, Dominican Republic; Philip Henning, South Africa; Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, Colombia; and Ajeet Rai, New Zealand.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Acapulco (men): Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares beat Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6 (4) 7-5
Acapulco (women): Tatjana Maria and Heather Watson beat Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 7-5 2-6 10-2 (match tiebreak)
Dubai: Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau beat Jamie Cerretani and Leander Paes 6-2 7-6 (2)
Indian Wells (men): Austin Krajicek and Jackson Withrow beat Evan King and Nathan Pasha 6-7 (3) 6-1 11-9 (match tiebreak)
Indian Wells (women): Taylor Townsend and Yanina Wickmayer beat Jennifer Brady and Vania King 6-4 6-4
Sao Paulo: Federico Delbonis and Maximo Gonzalez beat Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak 6-4 6-2
SURFING
Indian Wells (BNP Paribas): https://bnpparibasopen.com/
Irving: https://irvingtennisclassic.com/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
MEN
$7,913,405 BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, California, USA, hard (first week)
WOMEN
$7,107,445 BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, California, USA, hard (first week)
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$7,913,405 BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, California, USA, hard (second week)
$150,000 Irving Tennis Classic, Irving, Texas, USA, hard
WOMEN
$7,107,445 BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, California, USA, hard (second week)
