Elina Svitolina Wins In Singapore, Roger Federer Wins No. 99 In Basel – Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Elina Svitolina beat Sloane Stephens 3-6 6-2 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global in Singapore

Kevin Anderson beat Kei Nishikori 6-3 7-6 (3) to win the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, Austria

Roger Federer beat Marius Copil 7-6 (5) 6-4 to win the Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland

Hubert Hurkacz beat Ricardas Berankis 7-5 6-1 to win the Open Brest Credit Aricole in Brest, France

SAYINGS

“I think I have nothing to prove anymore to anyone.” – Elina Svitolina, after beating Sloane Stephens to win the season-ending WTA Finals.

“It means a lot. It has been a long time coming … Any time you make a final, you want to put the history behind you and it was always going to be a tough match.” – Kevin Anderson, after winning his first ATP World Tour 500 title.

“It’s been a crazy year. For me, it’s just been a lot of new experiences. I’m very grateful that I was able to have the opportunities that I had.” – Naomi Osaka.

“I think the four of us, in our groups, we all played really well. I think it’s great for us, and for the younger girls, to kind of prove ourselves.” – Sloane Stephens, noting this was the first time since the round-robin format was reintroduced in 2003 that none of the top four seeded players – Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki, Naomi Osaka and Petra Kvitova – reached the semifinals of the season-ending WTA Finals.

“That’s how life can go sometimes. I think I was a little lucky, maybe.” – Kiki Bertens, who qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals when top-ranked Simona Halep withdrew with a lower back injury.

“At the end of the day, you find a plan, figure out what to do, do your research, and thankfully there are great things now that you can do about it. I’m very proud of how I have been so positive through it all and just kind of tried to not let that hinder me.” – Caroline Wozniacki, revealing that she has rheumatoid arthritis.

“It’s not every day or every tournament that you play three Top-10 players in a row or four Top-10, whatever it is now. So, I just go out there and battle, and play as hard as I can, and whatever happens, happens.” – Sloane Stephens.

SVITOLINA SUPREME

Elina Svitolina figured Singapore was the perfect place to make a statement. That, she did. The Ukrainian beat Sloane Stephens to capture the biggest title of her career, the WTA Finals. “That’s definitely a good statement for myself,” Svitolina said after her three-set victory. “The third set really showed that I was mentally tough.” The champion is the first player to win the title undefeated since Serena Williams accomplished the feat in 2013. “This is the biggest title of my career,” she said. “I played against top players and the best players in the world, and I played great tennis.” The Ukrainian won the first three games of the final set. And when Stephens broke her in the fifth game, Svitolina broke back immediately for a 4-2 lead. She broke her American opponent to wrap up the victory on her first match point. “I thought she played well and it was obviously a tough match from the beginning,” Stephens said. “I was really excited to be here and compete with everybody.” Svitolina has now won 13 of the 15 finals she has played in her career, including the last nine. The last time she lost in a final was in 2016, to Petra Kvitova. After a five-year run in Singapore, the WTA Finals will move next year to Shenzhen, China.

SINGULAR HONOR

The woman ending each year as the top-ranked singles player will receive a trophy named for Chris Evert. The first Chris Evert WTA World No. 1 Trophy goes to Simona Halep of Romania, who ended the year ranked number one in the world for the second straight season. Evert was the first WTA number one player in 1975, when she won 15 titles. The American finished her career in 1989 with 18 Grand Slam tournament singles titles among her 157 career singles titles.

SOUTH AFRICAN STAR

After winning in Vienna, Kevin Anderson became the first singles player from South Africa in more than two decades to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals. By beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the Erste Bank Open final, Anderson joins Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev in the field in London next month. “It has been a huge goal of mine all year to make it to London,” Anderson said. “I have said that right from the beginning. To finally put my name there feels fantastic.” The last South African to make it to the season-ending event in singles was Wayne Ferreira in 1995. Nishikori saved two first set points, before Anderson closed it out with a backhand. The South African won the biggest title of his career when he slammed his 13^th ace of the match to close out the second-set tiebreak. “I was up against an unbelievable opponent in Kei and I really had to play some amazing tennis,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t be more pleased to have kept at it and finally broken through at this level.” Nishikori has lost his last eight ATP World Tour finals since winning in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in 2016.

SWEET SWISS SUCCESS

Calling it a “magical week,” Roger Federer claimed his 99^th career title by winning his hometown event, the Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland. “It’s been a magical week for me, a dream run for me,” said Federer, who struggled early in the week before winning his ninth Basel title. He has played in 12 straight Basel finals. Federer, who was a ball kid at the tournament 20 years ago, defeated Romanian qualifier Marius Copil in the title match. Copil had his biggest week, upsetting sixth-seeded Marin Cilic and third-seeded Alexander Zverev on his way to the final. Still, it was Copil who got the first break, in the third game, before Federer broke back in the sixth, sending the opening set to a tiebreak. Federer took the lead by converting on his third set point. Copil wasn’t through, however, taking the early break in the second set before Federer broke back in the seventh game. He broke Copil again in the ninth game, then served out the victory. It was Federer’s fourth title this season.

SPANISH COMEBACK

Rafael Nadal is planning on returning to the ATP World Tour at the Paris Masters this week. The top-ranked Spaniard has been sidelined with a knee injury. Organizers said Nadal has a first-round bye and will see his first action in the second round. He has not played since retiring in the semifinals of the US Open in September. He had lost the first two sets against Juan Martin del Potro when he halted play. The 32-year-old Nadal then skipped the Asian swing, missing tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai. In Paris a year ago, Nadal reached the quarterfinals where he withdrew against Filip Krajinovic of Serbia because of knee problems.

STOPPED BY INJURY

US Open champion Naomi Osaka not only went winless in her first appearance at the WTA Finals, but had to retire from her third round-robin match with an upper leg injury. “I hurt my left hamstring in the first match,” the Japanese player said. “It was just getting worse and worse every time I played. I just really wanted to try because this is the last tournament, and I felt it was really unfair to everyone that came to watch.” Osaka finished her appearance in Singapore with an 0-3 record.

SICK CALL

Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki revealed that she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis before the US Open. “It turns out that I have an autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, which goes in and attacks your joints,” the 28-year-old Dane said at the WTA Finals in Singapore. “When the body has a lot of fluids in it and you swell up, you get tired, you get exhausted, all these things. In the beginning, it was a shock. You feel like you’re the fittest athlete out there. That’s what I’m known for, and all of a sudden you have this to work with.” Wozniacki won her first grand slam title in January and briefly recaptured the world number one ranking after a six-year hiatus. She said she learned about her condition after Wimbledon when she thought she had the flu. In Montreal in August, she woke up one morning and couldn’t lift her arms above her head. When her doctor ruled out glandular fever, she went for more in-depth testing. “Some days you wake up and you can’t get out of bed, and you just have to know that’s how it is. But other days you’re fine. You don’t even feel like you have it.” Then, with a smile, she said: “I didn’t want to look it up, I didn’t want to Google it, because if you Google stuff you feel like you’re going to die.”

SAD NEWS

A former Wimbledon junior singles champion is dead at the age of 34. Australian media reported that there were no suspicious circumstances in Todd Reid’s death. Reid turned pro in 2002 after winning the junior boys title at Wimbledon. He was ranked third in Australia behind Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis. His best year was 2004 when he reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets. He achieved a career-high ATP World Tour ranking of 105 the same year. Reid quit tennis in 2005 after a series of injuries and illnesses.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Basel: Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor beat Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev 6-2 7-5

Brest: Sander Gille and Joran Vilegen beat Leander Paes and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 3-6 6-4 10-2 (match tiebreak)

Singapore: Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic beat Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 6-4 7-5

Vienna: Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski beat Mike Bryan and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6 (5) 6-3

SURFING

Paris: https://www.rolexparismasters.com/

Zhuhai: http://www.wtaelitetrophy.com/

Milan: https://www.nextgenatpfinals.com/en/

Bratislava: http://www.tennisslovakopen.sk/uvod.html

Mouilleron-Le-Captif: http://www.internationauxdevendee.com/

Limoges: http://www.engieopendelimoges.fr/