Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Benoit Paire beat Pablo Andujar 6-2 6-3 to win the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco
Christian Garin beat Casper Ruud 6-7 (4) 6-4 6-3 to win the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas
Polona Hercog beat Iga Swiatek 6-3 3-6 6-3 to win the Samsung Open presented by Corner in Lugano, Switzerland
Amanda Anisimova beat Astra Sharma 4-6 6-4 6-1 to win the Claro Open Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia
Dennis Novak beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2 6-4 to win the Taiwan Santaizi Challenger in Taipei, Taiwan
SAYINGS
“It’s a huge deal.” – Amanda Anisimova, thrilled about winning her first WTA title, the Claro Open Colsanitas.
“This is the second title of my career, so I’m extremely happy tonight.” – Benoit Paire, following in victory in Marrakech.
“It’s the final, so you give everything.” – Polona Hercog, after winning the Samsung Open.
“Of course, now I want more, so I have to keep working hard and improving every day.” – Christian Garin, after winning in Houston.
“I can’t believe I’m in the final here; it’s unreal.” – Astra Sharma, after upsetting Lara Arruabarrena in the semifinals in Bogota and reaching her first WTA final.
“First time playing together, I really didn’t expect much. Both of us, we have our qualities when we’re playing well. If we started the week well, we knew we could do well and that’s exactly what happened.” – Franko Skugor, after teaming with Jurgen Melzer to win the doubles in Morocco.
“Birmingham is one of the events on the calendar that I look forward to the most. I have beautiful memories from winning the title the past two years.” – Petra Kvitova, announcing she will play the grass-court event again this summer.
SECOND TITLE
It took Benoit Paire four years to return to the winner’s circle. It was worth the wait. The Frenchman overwhelmed Pablo Andujar to win the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco, his first title since Båstad, Sweden, in 2015. His latest triumph also was sweet revenge: Andujar beat Paire in the final of a Challenger event in Marbella, Spain, two weeks ago. Paire had little problem this time, clinching the crown in 66 minutes. He had a much tougher task getting to the final, having to rally from a set down on two occasions, including a first-round win over Alijaz Bedene and a semifinal victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. “The first round and the semifinal against Jo were very difficult,” Paire said. “I’m happy that I was able to get through. This is very important for my confidence and the match against Jo helped me a lot in that aspect. I hope that I can keep it up for the rest of the season.”
SEVEN-YEAR ITCH
Seven years after her last victory, Polona Hercog finally held the winner’s trophy again. Battling against the power of first-time finalist Iga Swiatek, Hercog prevailed in two hours and 16 minutes in Lugano, Switzerland. It was Swiatek’s first loss in her eight finals – the previous seven coming on the International Tennis Federation tour – but her run to the title match in her third WTA-level tournament guaranteed the former Wimbledon junior champion will be in the Top 100 in the WTA rankings. Hercog’s previous titles both came in Båstad, Sweden, in 2011 and 2012. The 17-year-old Swiatek fought evenly through the first two sets, even ripping off a six-game winning streak to level the match at a set apiece and take a 2-0 lead in the third. She would win just one more game as the veteran Slovenian conceded only two more points on her serve the rest of the way. When she committed her 51st error of the day, Hercog had the title on her second championship point. Going into Lugano, Hercog had won just one WTA main draw match this year. She turned around her season with a first-round upset of second-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro to start her run to the title.
SNARES TITLE
Christian Garin became the first player from Chile in 10 years to win an ATP Tour singles title when he captured the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championship. “It was a really intense match today, Garin said after prevailing over Norwegian Casper Ruud. “I think what I did well was to keep playing my game throughout the match.” The 22-year-old is the first player from Chile to win an ATP Tour clay-court event in the United States since Fernando Gonzalez won an all-Chilean final against Nicolas Massu in Orlando, Florida, USA in 2000. Gonzalez was the last Chilean to win an ATP title in Vina del Mar in 2009. Garin survived a three-set battle against Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the opening round, then saved five match points before stopping Jeremy Chardy of France in the second round. He needed three sets to outlast Ruud. “I felt I played a good match, but he was a bit better in the end and deserved the win,” Ruud said. “It’s still a good confidence (booster) for myself to show that I can play at this level.” The loser and his father, Christian Ruud, are the only two players from Norway to ever reach a final at this level.
SHE’S A WINNER
Gaining mental strength with each win, American teenager Amanda Anisimova wrapped up her best week with her first WTA title, beating Astra Sharma in the Claro Open Colsanitas final. “I think this was a pretty big goal because I overcame so many challenges this week,” Anisimova said. “I’m really happy and proud of myself for how I got through them, and winning my first WTA title means so much.” Four of Anisimova’s five matches went the distance. “I don’t think I’ve ever played so many three-set matches in one week, and in so many of them I was down a set,” she said. “That really helped my mental strength.” It was Anisimova’s first clay court tournament in nearly two years. She was sidelined for four months last year with a foot injury. “I’ve played a lot on clay throughout my junior career, and a lot in South America as well,” Anisimova said. “I was feeling very confident, even if I wasn’t able to play the clay season last year because of my injury. I’m really excited to play on clay again because it’s my favorite surface. This is a huge boost for Europe.”
SUPERB COMBO
Playing together for the first time, Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Franko Skugor of Croatia wound up winning the Grand Prix Hassan II doubles, defeating Dutchman Matwe Middelkoop and Dane Frederik Nielsen. Melzer and Skugor survived match tiebreaks in both their quarterfinal and semifinals victories, but swept the final in straight sets. “We had some tough matches at the beginning, but we managed to get through somehow and at the end, as the tournament went on, we just got better and better,” Skugor said. Skugor has now won four ATP Tour doubles titles, three coming with Dominic Inglot last year. Melzer has won 15 tour-level doubles titles with seven different partners. Melzer, who also has won eight ATP Tour singles titles, reached a high ranking of eighth in the world in April 2011.
SET FOR BIRMINGHAM
The first WTA Premier-level grass-court tournament of the year will be a Super-K event. Two former champions, Petra Kvitova and Madison Keys, have entered the Birmingham, Great Britain, event along with Britain’s top-ranked player, Johanna Konta. Kvitova won the title in 2017 and 2018, while Keys captured the event in 2016. Kvitova is seeking to become the second player in the tournament’s 37-year history to win it three times. Pam Shriver, now a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, won the title from 1984 through 1987.
SIGNED FOR NEWPORT
Defending champion Steve Johnson will return to the Dell Technologies Hall of fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, for the fifth straight year. Johnson first competed in the grass court event as a qualifier in 2012. Played on the site where American tennis started in 1881, the Hall of Fame Open is the only ATP tournament on grass in North America.
SPLITSVILLE
Dominic Thiem and his longtime coach Gunter Bresnik have apparently changed their relationship. “We’ve been together 15 years, he will stay on my team,” Thiem said, “but tennis-wise, it’s over.” The Austrian player has worked with several other coaches recently. For a time Galo Blanco was his traveling coach before joining the new Spanish Davis Cup organizer Kosmos. In February, Nicolas Massu began working with Thiem and was on board when Thiem won the Indian Wells Masters title last month. “We had some great training before Indian Wells,” Thiem said of Massu. “We achieved a title and have a great relationship. He has added many good things to my game. He also grew up on clay, which is my favorite surface. I’m expecting good things to happen.”
STANDOUT
Madison Keys left Charleston, South Carolina, USA with more than a tournament title. The American was honored for her anti-bullying efforts, given the Player Who Makes a Difference Award. In 2016 Keys became an ambassador for FearlesslyGIRL, an international organization that encourages girls and young women to be kinder to each other on and off line through school assemblies, on-campus clubs and more. Sponsored by the Volvo Car Open, the award included a USD $10,000 donation to FearlesslyGIRL in Keys’ honor. The Volvo Car Open also recognized the work of WTA Charities with a USD $10,000 donation.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Bogota: Zoe Hives and Astra Sharma beat Hayley Carter and Ena Shibahara 6-1 6-2
Houston: Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi beat Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 3-6 6-4 10-6 (match tiebreak)
Lugano: Sorano Cirstea and Andreea Mitu beat Veronika Kudermetova and Galina Voskoboeva 1-6 6-2 10-8 (match tiebreak)
Marrakech: Jurgen Melzer and Franko Skugor beat Matwe Middelkoop and Fredrick Nielsen 6-4 76 (6)
Taipei: N. Sriram Balaji and Jonathan Erlich beat Sander Arends and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 6-3 6-2
SURFING
Fed Cup: https://www.fedcup.com/
Monte Carlo: http://montecarlotennismasters.com/
Sarasota: http://www.sarasotaopen.com/
Barcelona: https://www.barcelonaopenbancsabadell.com/es
Budapest: https://teniszjegyek.hu/Jegyvasarlas
Stuttgart: https://www.porsche-tennis.de/
Istanbul: http://istcup.net/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
MEN
$6,261,660 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Monte Carlo, clay
$162,480 Kunming Open, Anning, China, clay
$108,320 Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open, Sarasota, Florida, USA, clay
FED CUP
World Group Semifinals
France vs. Romania at Rouen, France, clay
Australia vs. Belarus at Brisbane, Australia, hard
World Group Playoffs
Czech Republic vs. Canada at Prostejov, Czech Republic, clay; United States vs. Switzerland at San Antonio, Texas, USA, hard; Latvia vs. Germany at Riga, Latvia, hard; Belgium vs. Spain at Kortrijk, Belgium, hard
World Group II Playoffs
Russia vs. Italy at Moscow, Russia, clay; Japan vs. Netherlands at Osaka, Japan, hard; Great Britain vs. Kazakhstan at London, Great Britain, hard; Slovakia vs. Brazil at Bratislava, Slovakia, clay
Group II, Round Robin
Americas Zone at Lima, Peru, clay: Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Panama, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago; At Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, hard: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Uruguay, Venezuela
Group III, Round Robin
Europe/Africa Zone at Helsinki, Finland, hard: Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Malta, Algeria, Kosovo, Iceland, Cameroon, Congo; At Ulcinj, Montenegro, clay: Norway, Egypt, Armenia, Morocco, Montenegro, Kenya
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$3,102,730 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain, clay
$662,174 Hungarian Open, Budapest, Hungary, clay
WOMEN
$886,077 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany, clay
$250,000 TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup, Istanbul, Turkey, clay
$125,000 Kunming Open, Anning, China, clay
