STARS
Tommy Haas beat Roger Federer 7-6 (5) 6-4 to win the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany
Alizé Cornet beat Yanina Wickmayer 7-5 7-6 (1) to win the Nürnberger Gastein Ladies in Bad Gastein, Austria
Marin Cilic beat David Nalbandian 6-7 (3) 4-3 default to win the AEGON Championships in London, Great Britain
Lourdes Dominguez-Lino beat Pauline Parmetier 6-3 6-3 to win the Open GDF Suez de Marseille in Marseille, France
Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-3 2-6 7-5 to win his seventh French Open in Paris, France
SAYING
“To have somebody across the net like Roger is a real honor for me. To have that picture with the winning trophy and Roger next to me is something really special, something I’ll obviously never forget.” – Tommy Haas, after he upset Roger Federer to win at Halle, Germany.
“I made a mistake and I apologize. I feel very sorry to the guy. I didn’t want to do that. This is a bad situation for everybody that I really apologize for.” – David Nalbandian, who was disqualified after kicking a sign into a linesman, cutting the official’s leg.
“I should never have lost the first set. So, obviously that hurt. He got momentum after that. He started to serve a bit better. I missed a few more forehands and missed a few chances earlier on in the second. So, it was a tough match for me to lose really… He was aggressive; he was maybe the more inspired player out there today. And that’s why he deserved to win.” – Roger Federer, after losing to Tommy Haas.
“I played well today and came here to play four, five matches. I won them pretty comfortably in those first two or three. I’m feeling really good and I think my form is on the spot where it should be.” – Marin Cilic, after winning the AEGON Championships.
“I was about to lose the second set but I fought so much and tried to stay calm and positive, and that helped. I played well on the important points and that’s how I won in two sets. I really love this tournament. I love the people here and I feel everybody loves me as well. I’m not Austrian, but I feel like I’m Austrian when I’m here.” Alizé Cornet, a Frenchwoman who won the Nürnberger Gastein Ladies.
“I’m disappointed not to win, but she was better than me today and I just have to accept it and play better next time. I’m excited to move onto grass now and hopefully I keep playing well.” – Yanina Wickmayer, after losing to Alizé Cornet.
“I think it’s serious. I just fell down. That’s it. I didn’t do, you know, an exam for the moment, but it sounds very bad. I felt like I broke something or I stretched, you know, a lot of ligaments, I would say.” – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, after hurting his hand at the AEGON Championships.
“Last year it was very special to win here. But defending a title for the first time in my career is definitely very sweet and I’d like to thank my partner Jules (Jean-Julien Rojer) for making it happen.” – Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who won his second straight doubles title at Halle, Germany, this time with Jean-Julien Rojer.
“I really like this tournament. It’s my third time here. It was a little difficult, because Aisam won here last year and earlier in the year, he helped me defend my title in Estoril, so I wanted to do the same back for him. Also, I was told on the court that it was Father’s Day by my partner, so I’d like to dedicate this to my father.” – Jean-Julien Rojer.
“We could not have done better. We did great transitioning from clay to grass. It’s never easy. We got through each match and Max played really well, just as he did in Paris. Today he was the best player on the court. We’re trying to ride the wave as best as we can.” – Daniel Nestor, after teaming with Max Mirnyi to win the AEGON Championships doubles title.
SUSPENSION POSSIBLE
Disqualified during the AEGON Championships final, David Nalbandian could face a suspension in the aftermath of a second fiery meltdown this year. The 30-year-old Argentine was defaulted from the Queen’s Club title match for angrily kicking an advertising board. The board hit a line judge, gashing his leg. After winning the first set against Marin Cilic, Nalbandian lost his serve to trail 4-3 in the second when he kicked the board, which was just in front of line judge Andrew McDougall. The linesman angrily rolled up his trousers to reveal a bloody cut on his leg before remonstrating with Nalbandian. The player was immediately disqualified “due to unsportsmanlike behavior” and Cilic was declared the champion. Nalbandian also lost his runners-up check for USD $56,802 and 150 ATP Ranking points. The ATP World Tour could fine Nalbandian USD $12,638. At the Australian Open in January, the Argentine threw water at a tournament worker. Because of the two incidents, Nalbandian could face an eight-week suspension. “I never intended to hit him (the line judge), it was an unfortunate reaction in which I wanted to let off steam after losing a point,” Nalbandian said. “I had the opportunity to personally apologize to the line umpire for this regrettable act that I am fully responsible for.”
STUNNER
A 34-year-old wild card pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the year when Germany’s Tommy Haas shocked Roger Federer to win the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. “If someone had said to me beforehand that I was going to beat Roger Federer, probably the best player of all time, I would have thought they were mad,” said Haas, who is one year older than the oldest champion, France’s Fabrice Santoro, when he won Newport, Rhode Island, USA, in 2008. Once ranked as high as second in the world, Haas only recently returned to the tour after a 14month absence. In that time, he underwent hip and right shoulder surgery and saw his ranking plummet to 200. “This would normally be the perfect time to retire, but I am not ready. I hope to play on for a long time,” Haas said.
STRAIGHT IN
American Melanie Oudin and Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja are the latest to receive wild card entries into the main draw at Wimbledon. Since reaching the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2009, Oudin has struggled. But she reached the final at the rain-delayed AEGON Classic in Birmingham, Great Britain. Zemlja was awarded the final men’s wild card into the grass court Grand Slam tournament. Others who received wild cards into the men’s singles included former champion Lleyton Hewitt; Tommy Haas, who beat Roger Federer in Halle, Germany, and David Goffin. Joining Oudin in the women’s singles will be Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, Virginie Razzano of France and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.
SUCCESSFUL ALIZÉ
It was a good week at Bad Gastein, Austria, for Alizé Cornet. The Frenchwoman defeated Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer to win the Nürnberger Gastein Ladies, her first title in four years. “This was the tournament I wanted to win this year,” Cornet said. “I can’t believe I didn’t win a title for the last four years, so now it’s all happiness.” It was the second title of Cornet’s career; she won in Budapest, Hungary, in 2008. She is now 2-3 in WTA finals, having lost the title match in Strasbourg, France, last month. Cornet did not lose a set en route to the title, becoming the first player to achieve that feat in the tournament’s six-year history.
SHARAPOVA FLAG-BEARER?
Maria Sharapova could be carrying the Russian flag in the opening ceremonies at the London Olympics next month. Shamil Tarpischev, Russia’s tennis chief, announced the tennis star would get the honor, but Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) won’t make a final decision on the flag-bearer until next month. Carrying the Russian flag is traditionally given to men, such as Greco-Roman wrestler Alexander Karelin and swimmer Alexander Popov. Mutko said: “Maria is an outstanding athlete, a worthy candidate, but she is only one of several candidates for that role. The final decision will be taken by the (ROC) executive board at its meeting on July 10-11.”
SKIPPING WIMBLEDON
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic has withdrawn from Wimbledon because of a persistent right ankle injury. The reached three Grand Slam tournament quarterfinals last year, but has yet to play in one this season. She missed the Australian Open with a lower back injury, and then hurt her ankle in a comeback tournament, forcing her to miss the French Open. Also withdrawing with injuries from the grass court major were Hungary’s Agnes Szavay (back) and Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi (foot). Petkovic was replaced by Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, while Szavay and Kanepi were replaced by Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine and Heather Watson of Great Britain.
In the men’s singles, Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas was replaced by Canadian Vasek Pospisil, who will make his Wimbledon main draw debut.
STEADFAST
If he is forced to play doubles at the London Olympics with his former partner, Leander Paes, then Mahesh Bhupathi will just stay home. The All Indian Tennis Association (AITA) announced that Bhupathi would not be allowed to compete in the Games with his normal partner, Rohan Bopanna, and instead would be paired with Paes. “I have told them I will not partner Leander Paes,” Bhupathi said. “I have told them I am not available if they don’t pick me with Rohan. We have been hoping all year since we decided to partner together that we were going to represent India at the Olympics. At one time Bhupathi and Paes were one of the top doubles teams in men’s tennis. Together they won three Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon in 1999 and the French Open in 1999 and 2001. But the relationship deteriorated and they broke up in 2002. They reunited in 2006 but later broke up again. “We haven’t literally spoken with each other since we played last at the Masters in London in November, so there is no camaraderie, there is no chemistry,” Bhupathi said. “So for me to go back to a fifth Olympics and make up the numbers is not going to be exciting at all. They have kind of killed our Olympic dream.”
SUFFERING
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is hurting and may have to miss Wimbledon. The Frenchman injured the little finger on his right hand when he slipped and fell during a third-round 7-6 (3) 3-6 7-6 (5) loss to Ivan Dodig at the AEGON Championships in London, Great Britain. Last year, Tsonga upset Roger Federer in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
SIX MAKES IT SEVEN
Rafael Nadal won six of the nine games played on a Monday to capture a record seventh French Open title, breaking the mark he shared with Bjorn Borg. Rain had halted the men’s final between the Spaniard and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who was seeking his fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament crown. When they resumed, Nadal wasted no time closing out the victory. “My mental part, probably, on clay is one of the most important things,” Nadal said. “Because you have to run, you have to suffer sometimes, you have to play with more tactics, because you have more time to think, to do things.” Djokovic was attempting to become the first man to be defending champion in all four Grand Slam tournaments at the same time since Rod Laver in 1969.
SET TO RENOVATE
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is going to do a major renovation at the US Open, but it won’t include a roof over center court. Rain has forced the last four US Opens to finish play on a Monday instead of the scheduled Sunday. Players and the media have led a clamor for Arthur Ashe Stadium to be covered. The USTA doesn’t agree. Instead, the massive project, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, will instead focus on new courts and increased seating. The USTA said logistical issues stood in the way of putting a roof over Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world. That means the US Open will be the only Grand Slam tournament without rain protection. Both Wimbledon and the Australian Open have retractable roofs, while the French Open has announced plans to cover its main court. The new plans call for tearing down and replacing Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand court. Other improvements include a viewing deck that would allow spectators to watch players practice in one direction and view tournament matches on courts facing the other way.
SET FOR EASTBOURNE
Andy Roddick hopes to get his grass court game going before he goes to Wimbledon. The American accepted a wild card entry into this week’s pre-Wimbledon tournament at Eastbourne, Great Britain. He decided to play Eastbourne after he lost his opening match at the AEGON Championships, another grass court event in London. “Players talk about the laid-back atmosphere at Eastbourne and I’m really looking forward to putting the finishing touches to my Wimbledon preparations on the grass courts down there,” Roddick said in a statement.
STOLEN WATCH
An employee at the Paris hotel where Rafael Nadal stayed during the French Open has been arrested for stealing a USD $375,000 watch from the Spanish star. An unnamed police source said the thief was a hotel barman who confessed to having entered Nadal’s suite and taken the luxury watch. He showed police where he had hidden the watch along a railway track near his home in the Essonne area south of Paris. Nadal praised police for solving the case so quickly. “The French police have done good work,” Nadal said, adding he was “very happy” the watch had been found. Despite the incident, Nadal praised the hotel. “I cannot say anything wrong about the hotel. They were great for me every time I was there, for the last, I think, eight years. I’ll be back in the hotel next year,” Nadal said. According to the French media, luxury watchmaker Richard Mille had loaned Nadal the watch for the French Open.
SAD NEWS
Barry MacKay, known best as a tennis television commentator, is dead at the age of 76. MacKay was the NCAA singles champion in 1957 while at the University of Michigan. He reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 1959, played on five US Davis Cup teams and helped bring professional tennis to Northern California. He took over as promoter for the men’s tournament in Berkeley, California, USA, in the early 1970s and built it into a top-level event once it moved to San Jose, California. He stopped running the tournament in 1995, which is moving to Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in 2014.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Bad Gastein: Jill Craybas and Julia Goerges beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Petra Martic 6-7 6-4 11-9 (match tiebreak)
Halle: Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer beat Treat Conrad Huey and Scott Lipsky 6-3 6-4
London: Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor beat Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 6-3 6-4
Marseille: Severine Beltrame and Laura Thorpe beat Kristina Barrois and Olga Savchuk 6-1 6-4
SURFING
Birmingham: www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/LTA-summer-grass-court-events/AEGON-Classic/
Marseille: www.opengdfsuez-marseille.com
Eastbourne: www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/LTA-summer-grass-court-events/AEGON-International/
‘s-Hertogenbosch: www.unicefopen.nl/
Wimbledon: www.wimbledon.com/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$503,645 AEGON International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass
$496,538 UNICEF Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, grass
WOMEN
$637,000 AEGON International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass
$220,000 UNICEF Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, grass
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN and WOMEN
The Championships, Wimbledon, Great Britain, grass (first week)