Roger Federer Wins Mercedes Cup, Takes Over Top Ranking - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Roger Federer beat Milos Raonic 6-4 7-6 (3) to win the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany

Richard Gasquet beat Jeremy Chardy 6-3 7-6 (5) to win the Libéma Open men’s singles in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

Aleksandra Krunic beat Kristen Flipkens 6-7 (0) 7-5 6-1 to win the Libéma Open women’s singles in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

Ashleigh Barty beat Johanna Konta 6-3 3-6 6-4 to win the Nature Valley Open women’s singles in Nottingham, Great Britain

Jaume Munar beat Matteo Donati 6-2 7-6 (2) to win the Citta Di Caltanissetta in Caltanissetta, Italy

Alex de Minaur beat Daniel Evans 7-6 (4) 7-5 to win the Nature Valley Open men’s singles in Nottingham, Great Britain

Ons Jabeur beat Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2 6-1 to win The Manchester Trophy in Manchester, Great Britain

SAYING

“I’m just very happy how I played this week. I never felt bad on the court, to be honest.” – Roger Federer, after winning his 98^th career title and becoming number one in the world again.

“I think we’re both champions.” – Aleksandra Krunic, after beating Kristen Flipkens in the Libérma Open final.

“It is never easy playing a friend, but we are used to playing a lot of French players throughout the year. Of course, it is not my first time, but it is never easy.” – Richard Gasquet, following his win over Jeremy Chardy in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

“I am really happy with my match today. I think I played a good match from the beginning to the end but Richard was just a little bit better than me. He deserved to win.” – Jeremy Chardy.

“I’ve been playing well all week. It’s been building and building and getting better and better each match.” – Ashleigh Barty, after winning in Nottingham.

“The end is closer than ever before. But I also do not know when it’s over.” – Roger Federer, when asked about his retirement.

“I have now asserted diplomatic immunity … in order to bring this farce to an end, so that I can start to rebuild my life.” – Boris Becker, saying bankrupt charges against him in London should be dropped because he has been appointed to a diplomatic post by the Central African Republic.

SUPREME IN VICTORY

Not a bad week. Roger Federer won his 98^th career title and regained the number one ranking after skipping the clay court season. Returning to grass, Federer was supreme, beating Milos Raonic for the 11^th time in 14 meetings in the final while winning his first Stuttgart title. “I’m so happy to win this tournament in my third attempt,” Federer said. “We’ll see if being number one again will probably give me a boost.” The Swiss star is seeking to defend his title in Halle, Germany, this week. He will need to win again if he is to stretch his record-extending streak to 311 weeks atop the rankings. Federer claimed his third title of the season, following the Australian Open and Rotterdam, and now has won 18 grass-court tournaments, including eight Wimbledons. “I think I played very well not having played for a while,” Federer said. “Maybe I was a bit better on the big points.” He broke Raonic in the third game of the match – the only time in the tournament that the Canadian lost his serve. A double-fault by Raonic at 3-4 in the second-set tiebreak paved the was for Federer to close out the victory.

SORRY, JEREMY

Richard Gasquet continued his mastery over friend Jeremy Chardy and won his first grass-court title since 2006. It was Gasquet’s fifth win over Chardy in their six career meets. Gasquet appeared to be in full control when he broke Chardy twice in winning the opening set of the Libéma Open. But Chardy’s game stiffened and he took the second set to a tiebreak, which Gasquet won 7-5. Taking control, Chardy led 5-2 and appeared to be on the verge of sending the match into a third set. But Gasquet saved two set points, leveled the set and forced a tiebreak. There were seven mini-breaks in the first nine points of the tiebreak before Gasquet served an ace to reach double-match point. Chardy saved the first but couldn’t handle a sharp-angled forehand from Gasquet on the second championship point. “It great to win a title again,” Gasquet6 said. “It (has been) two years that I didn’t win. … It’s very tough to win on the ATP World Tour.”

SECOND TITLE

With Johanna Konta fuming over a line call, top-seeded Ashleigh Barty closed out her second career title, beating the home favorite in the Nottingham women’s final. Barty had lost her last three singles finals but appeared to be on her way to victory over Konta when she took a 4-1 lead in the third set. The Brit won the next three games to draw even at 4-4. Barty’s shot to hold for a 5-4 lead appeared to be long, and when neither line judge nor umpire Paula Vieira Souza called it out, Konta got angry. “It’s an absolute joke,” Konta told Souza. “You’re making decisions that affect our lives. Do you fully understand that?” Konta won only one more point as Barty closed out the win with a backhand pass. “I knew that Jo was going to be the toughest test this week, so I’m just really glad that I came through that and it was a really high-quality match,” Barty said. “And it was a really good grass court match, too, in the sense that it was a bit serve-dominant at times.” Konta was trying to become the first British woman to win a singles title at home on grass since Virginia Wade captured Wimbledon in 1977. When she walked off the court, she passed the umpire without shaking her hand.

STRETCHED, BUT VICTORIOUS

Aleksandra Krunic refused to lose. For the second straight match Krunic survived a match point and won her first WTA title, the Libéma Open, outlasting Kirsten Flipkens in three sets that lasted 2 hours, 9 minutes. Krunic survived a match point in her semifinal against two-time champion CoCo Vandeweghe. Then, in the final, she rallied from a set and a break down, breaking Flipkens when the Belgian served for the match at 7-6 (0) 5-4. Krunic won nine of the last 10 games to become the first Serbian to win a WTA singles title since Jelena Jankovic in 2015. Six games into the doubles final the night before, the 32-year-old Flipkens had to retire because of muscle cramping in her leg. “I don’t know how you pulled this off, mate, but the fact that you didn’t show how much pain you were in today makes me respect you more,” Krunic told Flipkens after the singles final.

SLIPS PAST EVANS

Australian Alex de Minaur went one step further this week. The teenager narrowly beat Britain’s Dan Evans to win the Nottingham Challenge Final a week after he reached the title match at Surbiton. Some of de Minaur’s play was outstanding, and when the 19-year-old clinched the opening set with a delicate lob, Evans called out, “Too good.” And that it was. When de Minaur served for the match at 5-4, he was broken. He broke right back, then held to close out the close battle. The victory was de Minaur’s first ATP Challenger title. Evans lost for just the fifth time in 21 competitive matches since returning to the ATP World Tour following his one-year ban after testing positive for cocaine.

SAME PAIRING

One year after suffering a serious knee injury, Bethanie Mattek-Sands will be returning to Wimbledon with her regular doubles partner, Lucie Safarova. Mattek-Sands dislocated her patella and ruptured her patellar tendon during a singles match against Sorana Cirstea at Wimbledon last year. The American underwent surgery and a long period of rehabilitation. With Mattek-Sands sidelined, Safarova paired up with fellow Czech Barbora Strycova and, more recently, Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova. “They haven’t played together for a year due to a series of unfortunate events … but FINALLY some good news: Team Bucie will be back at Wimbledon,” a post on Safarova’s website announced. Mattek-Sands and Safarova won the Australian Open and French Open in 2015 and last year, as well as the US Open in 2016.

SUPER TEAM

Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka will team up to play doubles at the Fever-Tree Championships in London. The wild-card pairing allows the two to get match play just before Wimbledon. Djokovic also took a wild card in singles. Wawrinka, who’s singles ranking has dropped before 250^th in the world, teamed with Roger Federer to win the men’s doubles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

STAYING AWAY

Rafael Nadal wants a little more time to recover after winning a record 11^th French Open title. The Spaniard has withdrawn from this week’s Wimbledon warm-up event, the Fever-Tree Championships, at Queen’s Club. “Queen’s is a great event, I Have happy memories of winning the title in 2008 and I wanted to come back this year,” Nadal said. “But it has been a very long clay court season for me with great results.” It is the third consecutive year Nadal as withdrawn from the Queen’s tournament.

SICK CALL

Two of the biggest names – Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys – won’t be playing in this week’s Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, Great Britain. The 31-year-old Sharapova said she needed rest after reaching the quarterfinals at the French Open. Keys, eight years younger, is skipping the tournament because of an abdominal injury.

SHE’S BACK

China’s Li Na is coming back. The 36-year-old will play invitational doubles with Japan’s Ai Sugiyama at Wimbledon. Li won two Grand Slam tournaments and reached a career-high ranking of number two in the world. The most successful Chinese player in history, Li is often referred to as the pioneer of Chinese tennis. She retired from the WTA Tour in 2014 and now has two children. Others in the invitation doubles field are expected to include Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Kim Clijsters and Lindsay Davenport.

SENTENCED

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) agrees that Sara Errani’s mother mistakenly put a banned drug into the family dinner. That’s no excuse, the CAS said, adding eight months to the Italian player’s ban. After she failed an out-of-competition test, Errani, a Roland Garros finalist in 2012, was suspended for two months in August 2017 by an independent tribunal of the Italian Tennis Federation. She said she consumed letrozole when her mother’s cancer medication somehow found its way into a family meal. CAS ruled that Errani had to be held responsible for her mother’s mistake and increased her ban to 10 months. The two months Errani served last year are deducted from that total.

STOPS COMEBACK BID

Marion Bartoli won’t be making a comeback on the WTA Tour after all. The 33-year-old Frenchwoman, citing pain in her right shoulder during workouts, said her bid to end a five-year retirement is over. She retired after winning Wimbledon in 2013, suffering from a litany of injuries. At the time, she was ranked seventh in the world.

SKIPPING CLAY

Obeying doctor’s orders, Stan Wawrinka won’t be playing tournaments in Båstad, Sweden, and Gstaad, Switzerland, this year. Sidelined for the most part since midway through 2017 and undergoing two knee surgeries last August, the Swiss player had had a rough comeback, winning just four matches in seven tournaments. He has dropped out of the Top 250 in the ATP World Tour rankings for the first time since August 2003. So, when his medical team advised him to avoid frequent surfaces changes, he followed their advice. He is missing the two clay-court tournaments to concentrate on the hard courts in North America leading up to the US Open. “Gstaad means a lot to me and I hope that I can come back to this beautiful tournament in the future,” Wawrinka said. “It’s never nice to withdraw from events, but I need to listen to my medical team and follow their advice. I’ve been working very hard since almost a year to be where I am now and I don’t want to take the risk of any step backwards.”

SAYS HE DIPLOMAT

Three-time Wimbledon champion is claiming diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings, noting he represents the Central Africa Republic as a sports envoy. The 50-year-old German was declared bankrupt by a British court last year in connection to a debt to private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & CO. Becker has recently been pursued for “further assets.” In his latest move, Becker lodged a claim at the High Court in London to halt the case because of his appointment as attaché to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs. He said the post entitles him to immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. “I am immensely proud of my appointment as the Sports and Culture attaché for the Central African Republic,” Becker said. The former French colony is one of the world’s poorest countries and has suffered a string of bloody pollical crises since former President Francois Bozize seized power in a 2003 military coup. In 2013, mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted Bozize, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias.

SEES HARD COURT SUCCESS

The Czech Republic has selected a hardcourt for its Fed Cup final against the United States. “When it comes to the venue, the choice was clear,” Czech captain Petr Pala said, noting his team has won all three finals it has played at Prague’s O2 Arena, site of the November 10-11 battle. “I have consulted the players over the surface and we have picked the time-tested hard Novacrylic Ultracushion.” The final pits the two most successful nations in Fed Cup history. The USA has won 18 trophies and t4he Czech Republic 10, including five as the former Czechoslovakia. The Czechs have won five of the last seven Fed Cup finals.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Caltanissetta: Federico Gaio and Andrea Pellegrino beat Blaz Rola and Jiri Vesely 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5)

Manchester: Luksika Kumkhum and Prarhana G. Thombare beat Naomi Broady and Asia Muhammad 7-6 (5) 6-3

Nottingham (men): Frederik Nielsen and Joe Salisbury beat Austin Krajicek and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6 (5) 6-1

Nottingham (women): Alicja Rosolska and Abigail Spears beat Mihaela Buzarnescu and Heather Watson 6-3 7-6 (5)

‘s-Hertogenbosch (men): Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor beat Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 7-6 (3) 7-5

‘s-Hertogenbosch (women): Elise Mertens and Demi Schuurs beat Kiki Bertens and Kristen Flipkens 3-3 retired

Stuttgart: Philipp Petzschner and Tim Puetz beat Robert Lindstedt and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (5) 6-3

SURFING

Ilkley: www.lta.org.uk/major-events/fuzion-100-Ilkley-trophy/

Halle: www.gerryweber-open.de/tickets/gerry-weber-open-2018/

London: www.lta.org.uk/major-events/fever-tree-championships/