STARS
Ivan Dodig beat Michael Berrer 6-3 6-4 to win the PBZ Zagreb Indoors in Zagreb, Croatia
Kevin Anderson beat Somdev Devvarman 4-6 6-3 6-2 to win the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg, South Africa
Tommy Robredo beat Santiago Giraldo 6-2 2-6 7-6 (5) to win the Movistar Open in Santiago, Chile
FED CUP
World Group
Italy beat Australia 4-1 at Hobart, Australia
Russia beat France 3-2 at Moscow, Russia
Czech Republic beat Slovak Republic at Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Belgium beat United States 4-1 at Antwerp, Belgium
World Group II
Spain beat Estonia 4-1 at Tallinn, Estonia; Germany beat Slovenia 4-1 at Maribor, Slovenia; Serbia beat Canada 3-2 at Novi Sad, Serbia; Ukraine beat Sweden 3-2 at Helsingborg, Sweden
Group I
Europe/Asia Zone, at Eilat, Israel: Belarus and Netherlands promoted to World Group II playoffs April 16-17; Denmark and Latvia relegated to European/African Zone Group II for 2012
Americas Zone, at Buenos Aires, Argentina: Argentina promoted to World Group playoffs April 16-17; Mexico and Chile relegated to Americas Zone Group II for 2012
Asia/Oceania Zone, at Nonthaburi, Thailand: Japan promoted to World Group playoffs April 16-17; India relegated to Asia/Oceania Zone Group II for 2012
Group II
Asia/Oceania Zone, at Nonthaburi, Thailand: Indonesia promoted to Asia/Oceania Zone Group I in 2012
SAYINGS
“Extremely happy about this 10th title. Ten is a very nice number and it feels good to lift the trophy again.” – Tommy Robredo, after winning the Movistar Open, his 10th career tournament title.
“I am a bit disappointed as I served for the match at 5-3. I think my lack of experience played a part at that time. I maybe got a bit tense and it went against me. On the other hand, I am very happy about the match we played. I gave everything I had, I played with all my heart and, in the end, Tommy won the match and was the better player.” – Santiago Giraldo, after losing the title match to Tommy Robredo in Santiago, Chile.
“There’s so many emotions running round right now. Not only winning a tour title, but winning it here in South Africa is a great experience and memory I’ll have for the rest of my life.” – Kevin Anderson, after winning the SA Tennis Open in his native Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Africa is my mother country with my parents being from Kenya. It’s an honor to win my maiden title here in Africa.” – Adil Shamasdin, who teamed with James Cerretani to win the SA Tennis Open doubles.
“I was giving her far too many free points, I wasn’t serving well, and I wasn’t really being aggressive on the court and I was giving her the opportunity to hit the first ball, and I think the court really suited her today.” – Maria Sharapova, after losing badly to Virginie Razzano as France took a 2-0 first-day Fed Cup lead over Russia.
“I am really happy that I managed to help Russia get this victory, and I would like to say a big thank you to Svetlana, as she really helped me in this doubles match and I think we had a really good match, and I am just so happy.” – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, after replacing Maria Sharapova and leading Russia to a come-from-behind Fed Cup victory.
“Winning the first one is probably the toughest that you’ll ever come across, but it’s a matter of don’t let the English public take hold of you and say you’re a failure because he’s certainly not that.” – Rod Laver, predicting Andy Murray will win three or four Grand Slam tournaments.
SUB FOR SHARAPOVA
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova took over for Maria Sharapova and led Russia to a come-from-behind Fed Cup victory over France. It was the first time that a team had rallied from a 2-0 deficit. Playing her first Fed Cup match in three years, Sharapova was crushed by Virginie Razzano on the first day of the two-day competition. So Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev turned to Pavlyuchenkova and the 19-year-old responded with winning tennis. She defeated Alize Cornet, then, after Svetlana Kuznetsova knotted the tie at two matches each, the two teamed to win the decisive doubles match. Russia will now face two-time defending champion Italy at home in the semifinals in April. Italy advanced by crushing Australia 4-1.
STUBBS FAREWELL
It was not a happy ending for Rennae Stubbs. The doubles specialist retired from tennis when Australia lost its first-round World Group Fed Cup match to Italy 4-1. Stubbs had vowed to play on only as long as Australia’s Fed Cup campaign continued. Jarmila Groth surprised everyone by upsetting Francesca Schiavone to give Australia the first point. It also was the team’s last point. “(It was) a very difficult day,” Australian captain David Taylor said after his country’s first World Group encounter since 2004.
SWEDE RETURN
Sweden’s Joachim Johansson is reportedly planning on returning to tennis after a nearly two-year break from the sport. Also known by his nickname Pim-Pim, Johansson has not played an ATP tour match since the 2009 Stockholm Open. He retired from the sport because of a shoulder injury, saying it would not go away. According to the Swedish media, however, Johansson will make his comeback at an ATP Challenger tournament in Bergamo, Italy. The Swede’s last appearance was last year when he lost to Argentina’s Leonard Mayer in the first round of Davis Cup play. Johansson was a US Open semifinalist in 2004 and was ranked ninth in the world in 2005.
SANIA STUMBLE
India has been relegated to Group II of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone after losing 2-1 to Chinese Taipei. Sania Mirza, who fought through a hamstring problem to win two of the three singles matches she played, did not suit up for the relegation tie. With Mirza sidelined, Ashvarya Srivastava and Poojashree Venkatesha were unable to provide much resistance as Juan Ting-Fei beat Srivastava 6-3, 6-3 and Chan Chin-Wei stopped Venkatesha 7-5, 6-1 at the National Tennis Centre in Thailand. Mirza once was ranked 27th in the world, but has since slipped to number 135.
SAYING GOODBYE
Mara Santangelo is retiring from the WTA tour because of a foot injury. The Italian was ranked as high as 27th in singles and fifth in the world in doubles, but she has not played since Wimbledon in 2009 because of a foot injury. “Unfortunately, for my whole career my foot was hurting me. I was born with a deformity and from a young age doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to play tennis at a high level. The fact I succeeded and realized my dream is fantastic,” Santiago said. “I tried to start playing tennis again after some operations, but since I was still feeling pain, I’ve decided to stop. I have so many wonderful memories from tennis: my title in Bangalore, victory in Fed Cup and Roland Garros … Now my future is full of big projects.”
SAFE
Zimbabwe Davis Cup player Mlandeli Ndlela has made it out of Egypt. Ndlela, who was in Egypt to compete in an International Tennis federation (ITF) Futures tournament, was among the 18,000 passengers who were stranded at Cairo airport in an attempt to escape the volatile protest that have rocked that country. According to Daniel Ndlela, the player’s father, Ndlela flew from Cairo to Dubai, Qatar, on Emirates Airlines, from where he got a connecting flight to South Africa. Ndlela was Zimbabwe’s sole representative in the ITF Futures tournament, which was called off after violence broke out in the North African country. The mass protests started on January 25 in an effort to force President Hosni Mubarak out of office.
STOPPED BY INJURY
American twins Bob and Mike Bryan withdrew from the Brasil Open because of an injury to Bob’s left shoulder. Tournament organizers said Bob will be out for up to a month after being injured while playing mixed doubles at the Australian Open last month. Organizers said Bob Bryan played his final three matches at the Australian Open only after “’taking high doses of pain medication.” The brothers won their fifth Australian Open men’s doubles title and 10th Grand Slam tournament championship.
SUPER SHOT
The crowd came to see Goran Ivanisevic, but the talk after the match was all about Filip Polasek’s unbelievable shot. The Slovakian has won a couple of tournaments in his career, with his best results coming in doubles. He and his partner Igor Zelenay were the “other team” in their first-round match against Ivanisevic, the former Wimbledon champion who was playing in an ATP tournament for the first time since he retired in 2004, and his fellow countryman Marin Cilic. With Ivanisevic serving, the Croatian team was attacking with both players at the net, forcing Zelenay and Polasek into the backcourt. Then, while standing with his left side toward the net, Polasek swung his racquet backwards around his back. The racquet struck the ball and sent a winner down the line. Even his opponents stopped and applauded, then bowed toward Polasek for the crazy shot that helped him and his partner to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win.
STAYING HOME
Malaysia followed New Zealand’s lead and pulled out of this past weekend’s Fed Cup women’s team tennis event after failing to find enough players it felt were good enough to compete. The Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) said it had reviewed some players, but found none suitable for the Group II Asia/Oceania competition held at the National Tennis Centre in Nonthaburi, Thailand. “We had a look at a few players, including two Swedish-based Malaysian-born talents, but they were not good enough,” LTAM executive secretary Ibrahim Abu Bakar told Malaysia’s New Straits Times. “We withdrew from the tournament mainly because we could not get the best players to represent the country.” Earlier, New Zealand pulled out of the competition, stating it couldn’t find players to make it competitive.
SLIPPING
The number of fans watching the Australian Open on television Down Under fell for the second straight year. The year’s first Grand Slam tournament drew an average of 934,000 viewers in Australia’s five main capital cities, down 20 percent down from last year’s 1.17 million, which itself was down 20 percent from the 2009 average of 1.47 million. That’s a 36 percent drop in two years. The compelling woman’s three-set final between Belgium’s Kim Clijsters and China’s Li Na was watched by more people than saw Novak Djokovic win the men’s final by defeating Andy Murray. The women’s final outdrew the men’s title match by 21 percent – almost 300,000 people – despite being held on Saturday, the night of the week when the fewest people watch TV. Viewership of the men’s final was down 42 percent from a year ago when Roger Federer beat Murray in straight sets. This tournament drew a crowd of 651,127 – which was down only slightly from last year’s record attendance of 653,860.
STILL HELPING OUT
No longer playing on the WTA circuit, Elena Dementieva took time recently to team up with fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva in a mixed doubles match in Moscow to benefit the Absolute Help Foundation and Serpukhov City Orphanage. The exhibition, called Tennis Stars for Children, featured Dementieva and Andrei Olkhovskiy against Likhovtseva and Igor Kunitsyn. The charitable beneficiary of the match was the Absolute Help Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to implementing charity programs and projects for children in the areas of education, public health, sport and other fields in Moscow. Sixty children from the local orphanage were present at the match and attended a photo and autograph session with players as well as receiving gifts from Gulfstream Security Systems and the Russian Tennis Federation. A gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Dementieva won Russia’s Female of the Year Award in 2001. She won 16 WTA titles and had a career-high ranking of No.3 in the world.
SETTLED
The US Open and Olympus have settled their lawsuit and the camera company will remain an official sponsor of the year’s final Grand Slam tournament. Olympus will also remain the title sponsor of the US Open Series that leads to the Grand Slam tournament in Flushing Meadows. The USTA had sued Olympus for USD $11.65 million, saying the company wanted to get out of its sponsorship agreement for 2011. Olympus and the USTA have been partners since 2003. In 2007, they extended their partnership through 2013. The contract allowed Olympus to opt out of the last two years of the deal, which it did. The USTA said Olympus also tried to shed commitments for 2011.
SKIP NEXT YEAR
While tournament champions are quick to return to the scene of their triumph the following year, Dmitry Tursunov doesn’t want to follow tradition. The 28-year-old Russian earned USD $7,200 when he won the rain-delayed Singapore ATP Challenger. Now, Tursunov doesn’t want to defend his title next year. Under ATP rules, players ranked in the top 50 on the men’s tour are not allowed to play in ATP Challenger tournaments. Tursunov is currently ranked 150th in the world after jumping 47 spots with his victory. “My goal is to get into the top 100,” Tursunov said. “I’ll set a different goal if I get there, but right now I need to win two to three tournaments to get back into the top 100. Hopefully I’ll be ranked high enough so I won’t have to come back.”
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Johannesburg: James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin beat Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram 6-3 3-6 10-7 (match tiebreak)
Santiago: Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares beat Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach 6-3 7-6 (3)
Zagreb: Dick Norman and Horia Tecau beat Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-3 6-4
SITES TO SURF
Rotterdam: www.abnamrowtt.nl/
San Jose: www.sapopentennis.com
Costa do Sauipe: http://tenisbrasil.uol.com.br/brasilopen/
Paris: www.opengdfsuez.com/
Pattaya City: www.pentanglepromotions.com/pattaya-open-2010.html
Midland: www.DowCorningTennisClassic.com
Cali: www.campestrecali.com
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$1,565,000 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, hard
$531,000 SAP Open, San Jose, California, USA, hard
$442,500 Brasil Open, Costa do Sauipe, Brazil, clay
WOMEN
$618,000 Open GDF Suez, Paris, France, hard
$220,000 PTT Pattaya Open, Pattaya City, Thailand, hard
$100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic, Midland, Michigan, USA, hard
$100,000 Copa Bionaire, Cali, Colombia, clay
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$1,226,500 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, hard
$782,400 Open 13, Marseille, France, hard
$544,330 Copa Claro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, clay
WOMEN
$2,050,000 Dubai Tennis Championships, Dubai, Qatar, hard
$220,000 XIX Copa BBVA Colsanitas, Bogota, Colombia, clay
$220,000 Cellular South Cup, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, hard