Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Nick Kyrgios beat Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (6) 7-6 (4) to win the Citi Open men’s singles in Washington, DC, USA
Zheng Saisai beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-3 7-6 (3) to win the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California, USA
Diego Schwartzman beat Taylor Fritz 7-6 (6) 6-3 to win the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado or Cinemax in Los Cabos, Mexico
Dominic Thiem beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (0) 6-1 to win the Generali Open in Kitzbühel, Austria
Jessica Pegula beat Camila Giorgi 6-2 6-2 to win the Citi Open women’s singles in Washington, DC, USA
Hyeon Chung beat Yuichi Sugita 6-4 6-3 to win the International Challenger Chengdu in Chengdu, China
Patricia Maria Tig beat Alison Van Uytvanck 3-6 6-1 6-2 to win the Liqui Moly Open in Karlsruhe, Germany
Stefano Travaglia beat Filip Horansky 6-4 2-6 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Sopot Open in Sopot, Poland
OTHER
The Springfield Lasers beat the New York Empire 20-19 to win the World Team Tennis title.
SAYINGS
“I got my first wild card here and now to finish the tournament as the champion is incredible. I reached one big childhood goal today.” – Dominic Thiem, after winning his home tournament, the Generali Open.
“For both of us, it means a lot.” – Coco Gauff, a 15-year-old who teamed with 17-year-old Catherine McNally to win the Citi Open women’s doubles.
“This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. I’ve made massive strides.” – Nick Kyrgios, after winning the Citi Open.
“It’s amazing. I’m excited.” – Jessica Pegula, who won her first WTA singles title at the Citi Open.
“I don’t think we really looked at the scores. I think we just kind of worried about ourselves every single match and our game plan. I think we just executed it really well, and that’s what the scores show.” – Catherine McNally, after teaming with Coco Gauff to win their first WTA title, the Citi Open women’s doubles.
“Don’t tell me her age. I don’t want to know this.” – Hsieh Su-wei, before playing and losing to 17-year-old Catherine McNally in the Citi Open singles quarterfinals.
“I was one step away from losing.” – Maria Sakkari, who saved three match point and rallied from a 6-1 5-2 deficit to upset top-seeded Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals in San Jose.
“I really wanted just to play good and enjoy the moment.” – Anna Kalinskaya, a qualifier who reached her first WTA semifinal by upsetting Kristina Mladenovic in the Citi Open.
SERVING TO SUCCESS
Riding his powerful serve, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios shook off back pain and Daniil Medvedev to win the Citi Open. In a match that featured no service breaks or deuces, Kyrgios slammed 18 aces, including on the final two points to win on two tiebreak sets. “This is a tournament I’m definitely going to play for the rest of my life,” Kyrgios said. Medvedev was broken only twice all week, but lost his only two sets to Kyrgios. “I know how well Nick can play when he wants to play,” Medvedev said. “This week I think he wanted to play and it was tough.” It was the second title of the year for Kyrgios, who also won Acapulco in March. Medvedev lost only one point on serve before the first-set tiebreak. And he served for the set at 5-4. But it was Kyrgios who survived, despite having to take a medical time-out for his back. During changeovers after that, the Australian was stretching and twisting on court. It was Medvedev who took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak, only to have Kyrgios win seven of the next nine points. In the second set, Medvedev continued holding serve easily. He won 80 percent of his service points for the match. But in the tiebreak, it was Kyrgios again, taking a 5-3 lead when Medvedev’s forehand sailed long. For the third consecutive match, when the Aussie reached match point, he asked a fan for advice on where he should hit his serve. He then pounded his 18th ace of the match out wide in the deuce court.
SUPER WIN
This was a super special title for Dominic Thiem. “It is already one of my most beautiful moments ever in my tennis career,” Thiem said after winning the Generali Open, his first ATP Tour title on home soil. “It was one of the most emotional moments because I have a special connection with Kitzbühel. I was here for the first time when I was six on this huge center court. I was watching the tournament many times.” He is only the second Austrian player to win Kitzbühel; Thomas Muster did it in 1993. Five years ago, Thiem reached his first ATP Tour final at Kitzbühel, only to lose to David Goffin. This time, the 25-year-old defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets that included a rain delay. “It was Austrian weather, so I am used to that,” Thiem said. “Maybe I had a little advantage (over) Albert.” Ramos-Vinolas was seeking his second title in as many weeks. He won the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open in Gstaad the week before. “Today is obviously not the best day for me, but I lost against a great opponent on his best surface, in his country, with all the crowd with him,” Ramos-Vinolas said. “So, I think that it has been a great week for me.”
SUPER TEENS
Two American teenagers – 15-year-old Coco Gauff and 17-year-old Catherine McNally – proved to be a winning pair. “I thought this week was super good,” Gauff said after the two captured the Citi Open doubles, beating the fourth-seeded duo of Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollar in the title match. The pair, dubbed “McCoco,” weren’t in the field until five minutes before the doubles draw ceremony. “It was pretty much a last-minute thing to play together,” McNally said. “I was actually thinking about playing with someone else, and then once I knew that Coco was in (the tournament as a qualifier in singles), I decided to play with her.” Tournament owner Mark Ein said he got “one of the best phone calls of his life” and immediately granted the two a wild-card spot in the field. The youngsters didn’t lose a single set in their four matches and none of their sets were particularly close, twice giving up three games in a set. “I think we just worried about ourselves every single match and our game plan,” McNally said. “We just executed it really well, and that’s what the scores show.” After an early exchange of breaks in the title match, strong returning by Gauff in particular led the youngsters to another service break and they never looked back. The second set was a carbon copy of the first, the teens winning the final four games of the match. “I just know that we’re such a good doubles team and we just have chemistry,” McNally said. While neither of them had won a main draw doubles match at the WTA level before, they had teamed up to win the US Open junior girls doubles title last year.
SINGLES TITLIST
Jessica Pegula was confident this time. The 25-year-old daughter of NFL Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula crushed Italy’s Camila Giorgi in straight sets to win her first WTA singles title at the Citi Open. Pegula lost her only other final, last September at Quebec City to France’s Pauline Parmentier. “Quebec hurt a lot,” Pegula said. “It’s something you have to fight through. You can’t overthink it. This final I just felt like I was ready. I felt confident.” The American broke early in each set and wrapped up the title in just under one hour. “It’s extremely gratifying,” the champion said. “The journey makes it all that much sweeter because it’s hard. I really pushed myself this week.” It was Giorgi’s first final since winning in Linz, Austria, last year.
SPRINGFIELD WTT CHAMPIONS
Missing an injured player, the Springfield Lasers turned to a local player, and Evan Song of Las Vegas helped provide the winning points for the World Team Tennis title. The WTT final was played in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and the Lasers trailed the New York Empire 17-15 going into the men’s doubles finale. Song, who had joined Springfield for the playoffs, replacing the injury Enrique Lopez Perez, teamed with Robert Lindstedt to overpower Neal Skupski and Ulises Blanch 5-2 and give the Lasers a 20-19 victory. “Being from Vegas and winning in an event like this, it’s just a dream for me,” Song said. It also was Springfield’s second straight King Trophy, having won last year. New York made the playoffs for the first time in its four years in the league.
SAN JOSE WINNER
China’s Zheng Saisai, known for her stellar doubles play, won her biggest singles title by stunning second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka to capture the Mudabala Silicon Valley Classic. It wasn’t a fluke. The Roland Garros women’s doubles runner-up beat last year’s finalist, Maria Sakkari, in the semifinals in straight sets. Zheng’s consistency in the final proved to be too much for Sabalenka, who won the Shenzhen Open in January. Zheng had one more winner than unforced errors and converted all five break-point opportunities. Sabalenka finally found her game late in the second set, winning three straight games and forcing a tiebreak. Zheng won that 7-3 to clinch the crown.
SIBLINGS STUMBLE
Brothers Andy and Jamie Murray’s stay at the Citi Open ended in the quarterfinals when they lost to the third-seeded team of Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 6-7 (3) 7-6 (6) 10-7 (match tiebreak). “I’m just disappointed that we lost the match,” Andy Murray said. “I think both of us had been serving extremely well up until the (match tiebreak). I would have liked to serve a little bit better in those big moments.” There were no service breaks in the match, but the eventual winners saved a match point on their serve at 5-6 in the second-set tiebreak. Klaasen and Venus also trailed 5-7 in the match tiebreak before winning five consecutive points to close out the one-hour, 57-minute battle. “We played a lot of good tennis,” Jamie Murray said. “It’s good fun to play with Andy again, see him out there competing, fired up to play and playing really well. I guess it was a positive week. Disappointing to lose the way we did, but happens in doubles sometimes.”
SHOE TROUBLES
Stefanos Tsitsipas has been stepping out of his shoes at the Citi Open, and Nick Kyrgios came to the rescue. When the Greek star slides on the baseline to hit his forehand, he drags the inside portion of his left foot behind his body. In nearly every one of his matches in the Washington DC tournament, his left shoe has torn at the laces. In the quarterfinals, Frenchman Benoit Paire threw a temper tantrum after Tsitsipas’ broken shoe caused a delay several times. “I’ve been struggling with (my shoe breaking),” Tsitsipas said. “It always happens in crucial moments like this when I’m really trying hard, giving everything out on the court, trying to get every ball back.” In the semifinal, Kyrgios at first didn’t notice Tsitsipas’ shoe malfunction when he took the court following a changeover in the third set. But once the Australian realized what was happening, he saw a new pair of shoes was being prepped in Tsitsipas’ player box. So, Kyrgios grabbed the new shoe bag and, when handing them to the Greek player, got down on one knee as if he was preparing to put them on his opponent. “I just wanted to speed the process up of getting the shoes to him,” Kyrgios said after the match, which the Australian won. “I know it can be frustrating sometimes when you take too much time and it’s 40-all and a big time in the match,” Tsitsipas said of his shoe problems. “But it’s inside the rules.”
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Francis Tiafoe learned another embarrassing lesson: Never take your eyes off the ball. The young American thought he had won a long point when, with both players at the net, he flicked a backhand volley into the open court. Tiafoe turned and called for his towel when he saw Daniil Medvedev had raced back to the baseline and flicked the ball back over the net for a winner. Despite his glaring error, Tiafoe managed to win that game. Medvedev, on the other hand, won the third-round Citi Open match.
SWAPPING SIGNATURES
Getting away from the Citi Open, Coco Gauff had a chance to meet former First Lady Michelle Obama. The two exchanged autographed pieces of memorabilia before posing for a photograph. The 15-year-old Gauff showed her copy of Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” while Obama held up an autographed tennis racquet. Gauff, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last month, had previously said that Obama was one of her role models. In Gauff’s coping of “Becoming,” Obama wrote, “I wish you courage, strength, joy and love on your journey to become more.”
SEMIFINAL STOP
Talk about a surprise semifinalist. Anna Kalinskaya lost 12 consecutive WTA main draw matches stretching back to Gstaad, Switzerland, two years ago. Yet, the Russian became the first qualifier in the nine-year history of Citi Open to reach the semifinals when she beat Kristina Mladenovic for the first time in her career, 6-4 4-6 6-2. “I played twice against (Mladenovic) and I didn’t play my best,” Kalinskaya said. “So today I really wanted just to play well and enjoy the moment, play point by point. I’m happy that I won. It’s a nice feeling.” Kalinskaya lost her semifinal match to eventual tournament champion Jessica Pegula 6-3 3-6 6-1.
SET FOR CINCINNATI
Two former world number ones – Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams – have received wildcard entries into next week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. “Maria and Venus are two of the greatest champions in tennis history,” tournament director Andre Silva said. “We look forward to both joining our world-class field.” The 32-year-old Sharapova has won five Grand Slam tournament titles. Williams, who is 39, has won seven Grand Slam tournaments and has finished runner-up in another nine majors. Currently ranked 51st in the world, Williams won singles gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and has won three Olympic doubles titles with her sister Serena.
SIDELINED
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will not play the Rogers Cup in Toronto this week because of a forearm injury. The 29-year-old Czech initially injured her forearm while training in Paris before Roland Garros. She has not competed since losing her fourth-round match at Wimbledon last month. “My forearm injury is continuing to cause some problems, so, on the advice of my medical team, I have made the decision not to travel to Canada,” Kvitova said.
SKIPPING MONTREAL
Pain in his right knee has caused South Africa’s Kevin Anderson to withdraw from this week’s Montreal Masters. Ranked 11th in the world, Anderson also withdrew from last week’s Citi Open in Washington, DC, USA. Anderson, who has reached a Grand Slam tournament final in each of the past two years, has been bothered by a right elbow injury for much of the season.
SEEKS HELP
When he reached match point in his Citi Open quarterfinal against Norbert Gombos, Nick Kyrgios asked a fan sitting in the front where he should hit his next serve. Following her advice, the 24-year-old Australian slammed an unreturnable serve to clinch a spot in the semifinals. Immediately after his serve, Kyrgios ran over to the fan and hugged her. He had solicited the advice while waiting for a replay to be shown.
SUSPENDED
A Russian official, Svetlana Teryaeva, has been suspended for six months and fined USD $1,000 for “failing to report a corrupt approach. In making the announcement, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said Teryaeva was approached in July 2017 and offered money to manipulate scores on her personal digital assistant. That would have helped gambler make certain bets. Although Teryaeva refused to cooperate with the gamblers, she was fined and suspended for not telling the TIU about the offer as required by the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). The TIU said four months of the ban and the fine were suspended on the condition she commit no more offenses. She is not allowed to officiate or attend a sanctioned tennis even until October 1, 2019.
An Egyptian tennis player whose brother was banned from the sport for life has been suspended from tennis for alleged integrity violations. The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said 21-year-old Youssef Hossam has been provisionally suspended while it continues its investigation. Last year, Hossam’s brother, Karim, was found guilty of 16 corruption charges that included providing inside information and facilitating betting. Youssef Hossam is ranked 410th in the world.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Chengdu: Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni beat Ji Sun Nam and Min-Kyu Song 6-3 0-6 10-6 (match tiebreak)
Karlsruhe: Laura Arruabarrena and Renata Voracova beat Han Xinyun and Yuan Yue 6-7 (2) 6-4 10-4 (match tiebreak)
Kitzbühel: Philipp Oswald and Filip Polasek beat Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4 6-4
Los Cabos: Romain Arneodo and Hugo Nys beat Dominic Inglot and Austin Krajicek 7-5 5-7 16-14 (match tiebreak)
San Jose: Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke beat Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara 6-4 6-4
Sopot: Andre Begemann and Florin Mergea beat Karol Drzewiecki and Mateusz Kowalczyk 6-1 3-6 10-8 (match tiebreak)
Washington (men): Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus beat Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 3-6 6-2 10-2 (match tiebreak)
Washington (women): Coco Gauff and Catherine McNally beat Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollar 6-2 6-2
SURFING
Montreal: http://www.couperogers.com/en/
Toronto: http://www.couperogers.com/en/
Cincinnati: https://www.wsopen.com/
Vancouver: www.vanopen.com
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
MEN
$6,338,885 Coupe Rogers, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, hard
WOMEN
$2,830,000 Coupe Rogers présentée por Banque Montreal, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, hard
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$6,735,690 Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, hard
$108,280 Odlum Brown Van Open, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, hard
WOMEN
$2,944,486 Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, hard
$100,000 Odlum Brown Van Open, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, hard
