Novak Djokovic Ties Rafael Nadal Record with Masters 1000 Win - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Novak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 6-4 to win the Mutua Madrid Open men’s singles in Madrid, Spain

Kiki Bertens beat Simona Halep 6-4 6-4 to win the Mutua Madrid Open women’s singles in Madrid, Spain

Ricardas Berankis beat Andrew Harris 7-6 (5) 6-2 to win the Busan Open Challenger in Busan, Korea

Pablo Cuevas beat Quentin Halys 7-5 3-6 6-2 to win the Open du Pays d’Aix in Aix En Provence, France

Lauren Davis beat Ann Li 7-5 7-5 to win the FineMark Women’s Pro Tennis Championship in Bonita Springs, Florida, USA

SAYINGS

“This is as important and as good as it gets.” – Novak Djokovic, after winning the Madrid Open.

“He deserved the victory, he played unbelievable. I couldn’t do much.” – Stefanos Tsitsipas, after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Madrid Open final.

“I think after every title you feel something, of course. Sometimes it’s a lot of emotions. Sometimes it is really happiness. Sometimes it’s just like not believing. But right now, I don’t know yet how I feel.” – Kiki Bertens, after winning the Madrid Open women’s singles title.

“I think I played wrong, and I’m upset about that. I played stupidly today. I did everything that she liked.” – Simona Halep, following her loss to Kiki Bertens.

“I think that it’s more normal what is happening right now than what happened in the past 14 years. I think I have tennis ahead of me. I have time ahead of me.” – Rafael Nadal, the “King of Clay” who has not won a clay-court tournament this year.

“I never complain about (reaching a Masters) 1000 semifinal. It’s a very good result. I beat three very good players and I lost 6 and 6 to Djokovic. I know that I won’t beat these players every day.” – Dominic Thiem, after losing to Novak Djokovic.

“Emotionally it was very tough; it was one of my toughest wins.” – Stefanos Tsitsipas, after upsetting Rafael Nadal.

“I have not played well enough. I’ve won a lot for many years on this surface, but this year it hasn’t been like that.” – Rafael Nadal, after losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“(It’s) frustrating, clearly. Losing with match points is the worst, so that’s how I feel. But nevertheless, if I take a step back, it’s all good.” – Roger Federer, following his loss to Dominic Thiem.

“You always left everything on the court, in every single match. It’s a privilege for me to be here playing against you in your last match.” – Alexander Zverev, applauding David Ferrer after ending the Spaniard’s 20-year career at the Madrid Open.

“People have been telling me if I get to the semis here, I can stay number one. I wanted to do that, but I was thinking about it while I was playing, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing.” Naomi Osaka, after losing to Belinda Bencic in the Madrid quarterfinals.

“Tennis is about winning or losing. I have been able to win a lot for a lot of years on this surface. And this year it seems that’s not the way and I am really close to it, but not managing to win. You just have to accept it and I have to accept it naturally. But to accept things does not mean to not try to change things. But during all my life, I think I have taken the victories very naturally and with a lot of normality. With the losses I’ll do the same. It will be normal and I’m going to accept it naturally.” – Rafael Nadal, who has yet to win a tournament in 2019.

“Andre Agassi. He is my idol; I grew up watching his matches. I was seeing him playing in the biggest stadiums, and that was my dream, competing in front of many people and winning big tournaments.” – Elina Svitolina, when asked who was her biggest childhood idol.

SUCH DOMINATION

Novak Djokovic came away from the Madrid Open with the one that that everyone else feared: his confidence. “I feel like this tournament win was very important for my level of confidence because after the Australian Open I wasn’t playing my best, I wasn’t finding the right game and the consistency on the court in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo,” Djokovic said. “I felt like I was close and needed a little bit of a push, so to say.” He got the push and more by winning the his 74^th career title and 33^rd Masters 1000 win, tying Rafael Nadal’s record. He gained his latest title with a convincing win over Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached the final by upsetting Nadal. On this day, Djokovic was dominating, winning the first three games of the match and never allowing Tsitsipas an opportunity to get back in the battle. “I was just dictating the play,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t really give him too much time to set himself up for a ball or try to come into the net. I tried to play fast. I tried to play deep. I tried to change the pace and direction of the ball, and it has worked well.”

STRONG PERFORMANCE

With a little bit of luck, Kiki Bertens won the biggest title of her career, the Madrid Open, by stopping Simona Halep. Bertens became the first woman to win Madrid without dropping a set. In the eighth game of the second set, Bertens hit a ball that was going way out. But Halep was unable to get out of the way and the ball hit her, giving Bertens the point. “Sometimes you need a little luck,” said Bertens, who beat four Grand Slam tournament winners during the week: Jelena Ostapenko, Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens and Halep. “I am really proud of this week,” Bertens said. “I played some good tennis and will be number four in the world on Monday. It is just all amazing things.” At number four, Bertens has become the highest-ranked Dutchwoman in history. The defeat was extra painful for Halep, who would have regained the number one ranking had she won the title. “She deserved to win the title because she played really good tennis throughout the whole week,” Halep said of her conqueror.

SHOCKING RAFA

The list still might be short, but Stefanos Tsitsipas has joined the growing list of players who have beaten Rafael Nadal, the “King of Clay,” on the slow red surface. Tsitsipas controlled play against the Spaniard, beating Nadal for the first time in four meetings. Until his Madrid Open victory, Tsitsipas had never won a set off the veteran left-hander. “Today’s victory is just an unbelievable feeling,” the winner said. “I can’t really explain it further.” The eighth seed won the first set before Nadal leveled the match at a set apiece. But Tsitsipas regained control and, despite Nadal’s valiant fight to remain in the match in the final game, the Spaniard made two errors that sabotaged his attempt. “I didn’t have a good feeling today to do the things I wanted to do, and that’s all,” Nadal said. “I was clear what I had to do to today, but tonight I wasn’t capable of doing it.”

SWISS BEATER

Twice Roger Federer had match point. He could cash in neither as Austria’s Dominic Thiem ended Federer’s first clay-court tournament in three year in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open. At first, it was all Federer. The Swiss star sped out to a 4-1 lead within the first 15 minutes of the match. The steady Thiem won the second-set tiebreak 13-11, saving two match points to force a decider. The Austrian got the first break, going up 2-1 in the third, but Federer broke back to pull even at 4-4. Thiem broke right back, then served out the victory. Even though he came out on top, Thiem was impressed with Federer’s game. “Roger is playing really well on clay, so I am really happy,” Thiem said. “He’s so special, maybe the best player ever in tennis. It’s so tough every single time you play against him, it’s pure beauty how he plays the game, every point against him is a challenge.”

Right after losing to Thiem, the 37-year-old Federer announced he was going to play this week in Rome, where he has finished runner-up four times and never won the tournament.

SAYONARA

David Ferrer ended his 20-year career when he lost to Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Madrid Open. The 37-year-old Spaniard had announced earlier that Madrid would be his final event. “I’ll never forget this day,” Ferrer, with his wife and son by his side, told the cheering crowd. “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve always wanted to end my career like this. I couldn’t keep playing at the level that I wanted, but I’m very happy and very proud of my career.” Ferrer finished with 27 singles titles, fifth-best among active players behind Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Ferrer’s 733 match wins is fourth-best among active players. During the post-match ceremony, messages from other players were shown on the large screens with most praising Ferrer’s toughness and “never-give-up” on-court attitude. Ferrer lost to Nadal in the French Open final in 2013, his only appearance in a Grand Slam tournament title match. He was ranked as high as third in the world and was among the top 10 for seven seasons. Ferrer also was a member of three Spanish Davis Cup championship teams,

STILL SCORING

Just because Roger Federer didn’t get past the quarterfinals in Madrid doesn’t mean he didn’t add another item to the record books. Federer became only the second player in the Open Era to win 1,200 matches when he beat Frenchman Gael Monfils in the third round. The Swiss star trails only American Jimmy Connors, who holds the record with 1,274 match wins. Connors also is the all-time titles leader with 109 crowns. Federer has won 101 tournaments. The only other man to win 1,000 or more matches was Ivan Lendl, who finished his career with 1,068. The closest active player is Rafael Nadal, who goes into this week with 938 match wins. The only other active player in the top 10 Open Era match wins leaders is Novak Djokovic, who is eighth with 856.

SWITCHING COACHES

After losing his first-round match at the Madrid Masters, Grigor Dimitrov split with his coach Dani Vallverdu. “After three great years, we will be going our separate ways,” Dimitrov said. “We had some career highlights and amazing moments on court.” The two began working together in 2016, with the Bulgarian reaching a career-high ranking of third in the world in 2017. He currently is just barely in the Top 50. Vallverdu previously coached Tomas Berdych and was a longtime member of Andy Murray’s team.

SWEETS

Former WTA player Jill Craybas has joined Maria Sharapova in peddling sweets. Craybas, who retired from the sport in 2013, has founded her own gourmet chocolate line. After her retirement from tennis, the American studied under a top pastry chef/chocolatier in France. She has since developed a recipe for a ganache in which honey is the sweetener, Part of the proceeds from each sale goes to Project Apis m, which funds and directs honey bee research to enhance honey bee health and vitality. Her chocolates come in four flavors: pure dark, coffee, clove and chili.

SELECTED

Great Britain’s Jamie Delgado has been appointed player relations consultant by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Delgado, who replaces Andre Sa, will have an on-site representative role to strengthen the ITF’s communication with players, coaches, agents, the tours and tournaments. Other ITF players representatives are Rennae Stubbs and ITF board members Mark Woodforde and Mary Pierce.

STARTS NEW GROUP

Lower-ranked players have started a group in order to take legal action against the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and that organization’s World Tennis Tour. United Tennis has been grated official legal status in Geneva, Switzerland, and will operate as a non-profit organization to defend tennis players. While not a formal union – that would require acceptance from the WTA, ATP and ITF – United Tennis will try to protect athletes in the sport. Lower-ranked players sent a letter, signed by about 670 players, to the ITF protesting its new World Tennis Tour. Under the new rules, lower-ranked players lost all ATP points earned at ITF events, thus losing the opportunity to enter and play ATP tournaments.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Aix En Provence: Kevin Krawietz and Jurgen Melzer beat Frederik Nielsen and Tim Puetz 7-6 (5) 6-2

Bonita Springs: Alexa Guarachi and Erin Routliffe beat Usue Maitane Arconada and Caroline Dolehide 6-3 7-6 (5)

Busan: Hsieh Cheng-Peng and Christopher Rungat beat Toshihide Matsui and Vishnu Vardhan 7-6 (7) 6-1

Madrid (men): Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau beat Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem 6-2 6-3

Madrid (women): Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova beat Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan 6-3 6-1

SURFING

Rome: https://www.internazionalibnlditalia.com/

Heilbronn: https://www.neckarcup.de/de/home.html

Trnava: www.tcempire.sk

Geneva: https://banqueericsturdzagenevaopen.com/

Lyon: https://openparc.com/