STARS
Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (5) 2-0, retired, to win the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany
Caroline Wozniacki beat Lucie Safarova 6-1 6-4 to win the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in Copenhagen, Denmark
SAYING
“It does not really feel like a title win. It is a bit of a shame given that we had a really good fight in the first set. Now it kind of feels strange.” – Philipp Kohlschreiber, who won the Gerry Weber Open when Philipp Petzschner retired with a back injury in the second set.
“This was a day to celebrate German tennis. I don’t think it would have been a problem for me had I lost in a tight match, I would have been proud of my performance. But to give up such a final, and then here, that’s incredibly bitter.” – Philipp Petzchner.
“I’ve had a lot of tournaments, a lot of matches in a row and I was very tired. I wasn’t there like usual. I didn’t play every point like it was my last, like I usually do.” – Rafael Nadal, after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at The Queen’s Club.
“He just said he completely ran out of everything. I must admit the telephone call came as something of a surprise but it is just a measure of the man that he cares so much.” – Chris Kermode, Queen’s Club tournament director, on Rafael Nadal calling him to apologize for the way he played in his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
“The first time I reached the world top 100 was here at Queen’s and today I have beaten the world number one. It was close to my best tennis. It has to be to beat Rafa.” – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
“Ten years from now no one is going to remember who was poor or who was hurt. It will just say ‘Wimbledon title’ and hopefully my name will be on it. That’s all that matters.” – Venus Williams, when asked if a Wimbledon victory for either her or her sister Serena would reflect badly on the women’s game.
“I think I speak for most people in tennis whereas you want her in the game for so many reasons; not only because she wins and she’s a great champion, but she brings pop culture to tennis. She brings crossover appeal and creates storylines even when she’s not trying which, at the end of the day, is a healthy thing for our sport.” – Andy Roddick, welcoming the return of Serena Williams to the court.
“I missed tennis, tennis has been so kind to me. I love this sport, I love my job, it’s good to me and it’s an honor to be a professional athlete. I do hope I’ve given enough to my sport that it means something when I’m not here and hopefully it means more when I am here.” – Venus Williams.
“I am so excited to be healthy enough to compete again. These past 12 months have been extremely tough and character building. I have so much to be grateful for. I’m thankful to my family, friends, and fans for all of their support. Serena’s back!” – Serena Williams.
“I always believed with Rohan we could do really well on the tour and be the force to beat. I’m really happy that we won our last two matches in a match tiebreak; it’s going to make us mentally tougher and believe in ourselves even more. We’re just looking forward to the rest of the year; our goal is to win a Grand Slam title and to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and this is one step forward.” – Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who teamed with Rohan Bopanna to win the doubles at Halle, Germany.
SOGGY COURT
Steady rain forced the finals of two tournaments in Great Britain to be pushed back to Monday. At The Queen’s Club in London, Andy Murray took on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the grass-court title. Sabine Lisicki and Daniela Hantuchova battled for championship at Birmingham.
SEVENTH WIMBLEDON
Should Roger Federer win Wimbledon, he would tie Pete Sampras for winning the grass court title seven times and would provide a huge gambling payoff for a dead man. Gambler Nick Newlife in 2003 placed a bet of USD $2,478 on the Swiss star to win seven Wimbledon titles before the year 2019. Newlife’s bet was made the year Federer won his first Wimbledon. He received odds of 66-to-1, and if should win the payoff would be more than USD $164,000. Newlife died in 2009 at the age of 59, but stated in his will that any winnings from his outstanding bets should go to Oxfam, an international confederation of 15 organizations dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.
SISTERS ARE BACK
All’s right with the tennis world now. Following 11 months of mystery, drama and medical conjecture, reigning Wimbledon champion Serena Williams has returned to tennis and is playing in this week’s AEGON International event in Eastbourne, Great Britain. The 29-year-old has not played since beating Vera Zvonareva in last year’s Wimbledon final. She is joined at Eastbourne by her sister, Venus, who has not played since being injured at the Australian Open in January and has played only two events since Wimbledon a year ago – the US Open and the Australian Open. Serena cut her foot on broken glass in Germany shortly after her Wimbledon triumph, resulting in two operations. This past February she underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot in her lung and also needed treatment for a gathering of blood under the skin on her stomach. In her absence, her WTA ranking has dropped from number one in the world to 25th.
SOMETHING RARE
It was a rare meeting when Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner squared off in the title match of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. It was the first all-German final in Germany since Hans Pohmann defeated Karl Meiler in June 1973 in Berlin. Kohlschreiber won his third ATP tour title and became the fifth German champion at Halle when Petzschner retired with a back injury while trailing 7-6 (5) 2-0. “I never really had that nervous feeling of match point because it was over so quick. So, for that winning feeling, this one was the worst of the three. But I worked hard all week and played well,” said Kohlschreiber, who won in Munich in 2007 and Auckland, New Zealand in 2008. Other German champions in Halle were Michael Stich, Nicolas Kiefer, David Prinosil and Tommy Haas.
SQUEAKER
Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic was clobbered 6-1 6-4 in the final of the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in Copenhagen, Denmark. But it’s a wonder Safarova was even in the title match. In the semifinals, Croatia’s Petra Martic won 10 of the first 11games and led 6-1 4-0 before Safarova began her comeback. The eventual winner, who bounced back from one-set deficits in all of her matches in Copenhagen before the final, did it again, rallying to win 1-6 6-4 6-2. Then came the final, where top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki easily repeated as champion. It was Wozniacki’s fifth title of the year.
SECOND TITLE
The Indo-Pak Express – Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi – captured their second ATP World Tour title, edging Robin Haase and Milos Raonic in a match tiebreak at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. It was the ninth tour-level doubles final for Bopanna and Qureshi. Five of their runner-up finishes came in 2010, including their loss in their first Grand Slam tournament final at the US Open. The champions are currently sixth in the 2011 ATP Doubles Team Rankings, with the top eight teams at the end of the season qualifying for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani immediately congratulated the winning duo. “He said that the whole nation is proud of this tremendous success and wish them a bright future,” a press release from the prime minister’s office said.
SET FOR LONDON’
French Open champion Rafael Nadal is the second player to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which will be held November 20-27 in London. The 25-year-old Spaniard joins Novak Djokovic of Serbia as the first players to qualify for the event, which features the top eight singles players in the world. This is the seventh straight year Nadal has qualified for the year-end finale. Last season he reached his first title match, losing to Roger Federer in three sets. Nadal has been ranked number one in the world for 100 weeks, including the past 55.
SKIPPED OUT
Roger Federer’s decision to withdraw from last week’s Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, incensed tournament officials. A five-time champion of the grass court event, Federer last year signed a career-long commitment to play the tournament. The day after he lost the French Open final to Rafael Nadal, Federer’s manager, Tony Godsick, said the world’s third-ranked player would be missing Halle for the second time in three years. In a statement, Federer said he pulled out of the tournament because of a groin injury.
STRAIGHT IN
Alejandro Falla of Colombia, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, Dudi Sela of Israel and Arnaud Clement of France have received direct entry into this year’s Wimbledon. The 27-year-old Falla last year won the first two sets against defending champion Roger Federer and served for the first-round match at 5-4 in the fourth set before falling. Clement, 33, will be in his 15th consecutive Wimbledon. Three men’s wild cards have gone to British players: Daniel Cox, Daniel Evans and James Ward. The first five women’s wild cards went to Britons Naomi Broady, Katie O’Brien, Emily Webley-Smith, Laura Robson and Heather Watson. Also receiving wild card entries directly into the main women’s draw are Sabine Lisicki of Germany and Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.
American James Blake and two other players were given entries into the men’s draw because of withdrawals. Once ranked fourth in the world, Blake replaced Paul-Henri Mathieu after the Frenchman pulled out of Wimbledon with a knee injury. France’s Florent Serra replaced Richard Berankis and Germany’s Denis Gremelmayr replaced Thiemo de Bakker.
In the women’s singles, Pauline Parmentier replaced former world number one Dinara Safina, with Vesna Dolonts, Anastasiya Yakimova, Olga Govortsova, Patricia Mayr-Achleitner and Kateryna Bondarenko also handed late entries.
SINO-VISION
When Li Na became the first person from Asia to win a Grand Slam singles title, her victory at Roland Garros over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone was watched by a record-breaking 116 million viewers in her native China, becoming this year’s most watched sporting event on television in the world’s largest market. The Roland Garros final attracted almost twice as many viewers in China as the previous high of 60 million viewers who watched the Australian Open final in January when Li Na lost to Belgium’s Kim Clijsters. The average Roland Garros final TV audience in China nearly tripled from Li Na’s semifinal match against Maria Sharapova, which had a viewership of 34.5 million across two different CCTV networks.
SPOTLIGHTED
NBC Sports’ coverage of the French Open men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer earned the best overnight rating for the event in 12 years and was up 63 percent from last year’s men’s final when Nadal beat Sweden’s Robin Soderling. The Nadal-Federer match was the best-watched French Open men’s singles final in the United States since 1999 when Andre Agassi became the last American man to win the clay court event.
SWEDISH STAY-AT-HOME
Robin Soderling won’t be there when Sweden battles defending champion Serbia in a Davis Cup quarterfinal. Sweden’s top player, Soderling said his “intensive match schedule, my sore foot and the overall physical and mental effort makes it impossible to participate” in the tie, which will be held July 8-10 in Halmstad, Sweden.
SINGLED OUT
Tommy Haas has been awarded a wild card entry into the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, to be held in Newport, Rhode Island, July 4-10. Once ranked as high as second in the world, Haas is making a comeback after missing 14 months due to surgery. The German will join a competitive player field at Newport, including American Sam Querrey, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and several rising stars, including Ryan Sweeting and Ryan Harrison, both of the United States, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, and Richard Berankis of Lithuania.
A highlight of the tournament week will be the International Tennis Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will be held on Saturday, July 9. Being inducted into the shrine will be Andre Agassi in the Recent Player Category and Peachy Kellmeyer in the Contributor Category.
SIGNED UP
Former world number one Ana Ivanovic and the 2008 French Open Champion will be in the field for the 2011 Mercury Insurance Open Presented by Tri-City Medical Center. After reaching the Australian Open singles final in 2008, Ivanovic captured her first career Grand Slam tournament singles title by winning the French Open by defeating Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 in the final. Ivanovic, who has won 10 career WTA singles titles, will be making her third career appearance in Carlsbad. She joins Kim Clijsters, another former number one player in the world, as early entries in the 2011 Mercury Insurance Open.
America’s top male player, Mardy Fish, has joined the field for the Farmers’ Classic tennis tournament that will be held July 25-31 at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center. Also in the field are defending champion Sam Querrey and 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro.
SHE’S THAT OLD?
Russia’s Anna Kournikova, perhaps the most famous tennis player never to win a singles title on the WTA tour, has turned 30 years old. While known for her looks as much as her tennis, in 1997 she became the second player in the Open era to reach the semifinals in her Wimbledon debut. She won 16 doubles titles, including the Australian Open in 1999 and 2002, and was ranked number one in the world in doubles in 1999. Kournikova was a member of Russia’s Fed Cup team and competed in the 1996 Olympics. She retired from tennis in 2003.
SWITCHING NAMES
The Tennis Trophy is getting a new name. The ATP tour event will be renamed the Erste Bank Open. Tournament director Herwig Straka said “the change of the main sponsor after a quarter century marks the start of a new era for the event.” Erste Bank took over sponsorship of the USD $650,000 indoor hard-court tournament after longtime sponsor Bank Austria pulled out. The Erste Bank Open will be played October 23-31.
SENIOR FRIENDLY
It was called a “friendly,” a battle of elders pitting Russia against the World All-Stars at the Juan Antonio Samaranch national tennis center in Moscow. Marat Safin defeated Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic 8-4 and Yevgeni Kafelnikov stopped Spain’s Carlos Moya 8-6. The All-Stars pulled even when Moya beat Safin 8-5 and Ivanisevic downed Kafelnikov 8-3. In the decisive doubles, however, Safin and Kafelnikov beat the Spanish-Croatian duo 6-2.
SPORTS AWARD WINNER
The University of California’s Jana Juricova has won the Honda Sports Award as the top college women’s tennis player in the United States, beating out finalists Lauren Dembree of Florida, Maria Sanchez of Southern California and Stacey Tan of Stanford. A native of Slovakia, Juricova won this year’s NCAA singles title, going 36-4 in her junior season. As one of the Honda winners in 12 sports, Juricova is eligible for Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year honors, which will be awarded June 27 in New York.
SAD NEWS
Twice a finalist at Wimbledon, Denmark’s Kurt Nielsen has reportedly died at the age of 80 following a long illness. The Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported the death and Danish media reported a minute’s silence was observed before the semifinal match at the 000 e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nielsen reached the 1953 and 1955 Wimbledon finals, losing to Americans Vic Seixas and Tony Trabert, respectively. Nielsen teamed with Hall of Famer Althea Gibson to win the US Championships mixed doubles in 1957. He won the Danish national championships 49 times, and his grandson, Frederick Loechte Nielsen, is currently Denmark’s top ranked male tennis player.
The head of the Moldovan tennis federation, Igor Turcan, was killed when a car exploded near the federation headquarters in the nation’s capital, Chisinau. Turcan, 38, was passing the parked car when it blew up and burst into flames. Nobody else was hurt in the blast. Turcan died in a hospital of wounds to his legs, stomach and head, according to his deputy, Marina Tauber. Moldova’s Prime Minister, Vlad Filat, said it was an attack, not an accident, aimed at killing Turcan. “I hope that authorities will do their duty and we will soon find out the details, motives and who committed this odious crime,” Filat said in a statement.
STRANGE POINT
Playing in the semifinals of a USD $15,000 Futures event in Sacramento, California, USA, Daniel Kosakowski was at match point when he netted a volley. Not so fast. The chair umpire ruled that Kosakowski’s opponent, Frenchman Antoine Benneteau, had hindered Kosakowski during an exchange at the net by saying “No” when Kosakowski appeared to hit the ball twice. Kosakowski was awarded the point and the 6-3 6-4 victory.
SPONSORS
BNP Paribas, a European leader in global banking and financial services, and its Turkish partner, Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), have become joint title sponsors of the year-ending WTA Championships, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2011, 2012 and 2013, featuring the top eight singles players and top four doubles teams. Under the three-year agreement, TEB-BNP Paribas will become the official bank of the WTA Championships and receive global exposure through on-court branding, broadcast and digital brand exposure; and international marketing and promotion across all WTA platforms, including digital and social media channels. The number one sponsor of world tennis for close to 40 years. BNP Paribas acts as the lead sponsor of some of the largest tennis events, including Roland Garros, the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, five ATP Masters 1000 events, and numerous junior and wheelchair tournaments.
SHARED SUCCESS
Birmingham: Olga Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva beat Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 1-6 6-1 10-5 (match tiebreak)
Copenhagen: Johanna Larsson and Jasmion Woehr beat Kristina Mladenovic and Katarzyna Piter 6-3 6-3
Halle: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi beat Robin Haase and Milos Raonic7-6 (8) 3-6 11-9 (match tiebreak)
SURFING
‘s-Hertogenbosch: www.unicefopen.nl/
Eastbourne: www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/AEGON-British-Tennis-Series/AEGON-International/
Davis Cup: www.daviscup.com/en/home.aspx
Wimbledon: www.wimbledon.com
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$595,000 AEGON International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass
$577,000 UNICEF Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, grass
WOMEN
$618,000 AEGON International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass
$220,000 UNICEF Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, grass
DAVIS CUP
Americas Zone, Group III, at Santa Cruz, Bolivia (clay): Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica
Asia/Oceania Zone, Group III, at Colombo, Sri Lanka (clay): Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Sri Lanka, UAE, Vietnam
Americas Zone, Group IV, at Santa Cruz, Bolivia (clay): Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, US Virgin Islands
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (first week)
$100,000 Guadalajara Challenger, Guadalajara, Mexico, hard
WOMEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (first week)
