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The Top 10 Roger Federer U.S. Open Match Wins – THAT WERE NOT FINALS!

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Roger Federer is no longer an ATP tennis pro. There are only memories now, which fans can relive in the book “On This Day In Roger Federer History” (for sale and download here: https://a.co/d/6QxSxTV)

Federer won the men’s singles title at the U.S. Open a record-tying five times – and lost two other finals. But what are Federer’s greatest U.S. Open match victories that were NOT finals? Here are the top 10 for consideration from the pages of the “On This Day In Roger Federer History” book.

September 1, 2019: In just 79 minutes, Roger Federer defeats David Goffin 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in what eventually becomes known as his 89th and final U.S. Open match victory. Federer wins more than double the amount of points than the No. 15 seed 83 points to 39 and Goffin only wins six points in the third set. Writes Neil Schlecht on the USOpen.org website, “It was an unqualified, one-sided demolition of the former world No. 7. After the briefest flirtation with a slow start, in which Federer was broken in his second service game—a lull that lasted a single game and all of three minutes—the Swiss was never tested again.” Says Federer, “I’ve got to say that David didn’t have his best day. I know he was struggling,” says Federer, after the match. “When I was up, all of a sudden, a break, I felt like he was starting not to play the same way anymore or like I’d known him from previous times.”

September 1, 2018: In a highly anticipated third-round match at the U.S. Open, Roger Federer hits one of the signature shots of his career, going around the net post to hit a winner against Nick Kyrgios in his 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 third-round victory. The shot is hit at 3-3 with Kyrgios serving with the advantage and Federer races to an angled forehand drop shot and hits a forehand that is just inches off the ground, around the post and inside the court for an incredible passing shot winner. Says Federer of the shot; “You don’t get an opportunity to hit around the net post very often, because in practice, you can’t really train them. The net is out further and the court is more narrow, so for a shot like this to happen in a practice, you will be running into a fence and you will hit it into the net. So these shots can only really happen on a big court where you play with the single posts in the doubles alley. I have hit a few throughout my career, and, sure, they are always fun…I definitely think it was a special one, no doubt about it.”

September 2, 2008: In a three-hour, 32-minute five-set, fourth-round match, featuring 60 unforced errors and plenty of media-described “guttural yells,” Roger Federer advances into the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open with a 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 decision over Russia’s Igor Andreev. Federer credits the rowdy Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd for his rare on-court animations – “that feeling of going crazy” – as the four-time defending champion staves off the upset bid. Chuck Culpepper of the Los Angeles Times describes the Federer-Andreev affair as “a long, stirring slog of a match” that “had Federer as a sort of mini-Connors impersonating a jackhammer and vibrating his body in a double fist pump after a pivotal break of service in a fifth set.” Says Federer to the media of his five-set effort, “I was really happy because in five sets you go through different stages of feelings, of playing well, playing bad. And in the fifth set you try not to make that many errors, and hopefully you’ll get off on a good start. That’s exactly what happened. I was just really pleased with my fighting spirit.”

September 3, 2007: “That’s awesome. Come on. What have I done?” is Roger Federer’s response when presented by media when told that he wins an incredible 35 straight points on his serve in his 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 fourth round night-match victory over Feliciano Lopez. Federer trails 0-40 in the first game of the third set before reeling off his streak that ends in the final game of the match. “I was feeling great on the serve, my God,” says Federer. “I was serving well and playing aggressive, and things really turned around for me. Yeah, it was an awesome match. I really enjoyed it because he did play very well. Right off the bat was hitting his best shot, and that was tough for me. I was relieved when I got that second set, no doubt.”

September 4, 2014: Roger Federer saves two match points and comes back from a two-sets-to-love deficit to defeat Gael Monfils 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Federer fights back from the brink facing two match points serving at 4-5, 15-40 in the fourth set. “Not sure I have ever saved match point before in a Slam,” Federer says. “If that hasn’t happened, I’m unbelievably happy that it was today, because I knew I could play better after the first couple of sets. I believed I could turn it around from the get-go when the third set started, and I’m so happy the crowd got into it.”

September 6, 2008: With Tropical Storm Hanna heading towards New York, Roger Federer is able to beat the weather, and Novak Djokovic, and advance into his fifth straight U.S. Open final with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 victory, in a reprise of the previous year’s U.S. Open final. Federer is fortunate to finish his match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the other men’s semifinal match between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray is started on Louis Armstrong Stadium and not completed, Murray holding a two-sets-to-one lead before the rains cancel play for the day. “I’m happy I got my match through,” Federer says in his courtside interview. Of his form in his win, Federer tells reporters in his post-match press conference, “I definitely had moments during today where I thought, ‘This is how I would like to play every time.’ So it was a very nice feeling to get that that feeling back.”

September 7, 2006: Saying “The score says it all. The match could have gone either way,” Roger Federer edges James Blake 7-6(7), 6-0, 6-7(9), 6-4 in a high-energy night match in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. “It was tough,” Federer says. “It was a match of extremely high quality. It takes a lot for two people hitting the ball so hard. I was happy with my game. I didn’t make many unforced errors. I pretty much could rely on my serve except for a couple of match points here and there. With so much back and forth, it turned out to be a real thriller.”

September 9, 2004: Resuming their U.S. Open quarterfinal match postponed the previous night due to rain, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi battle through very windy conditions before Federer wins in five sets 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Federer leads by two-sets-to-one before rain delays the conclusion of their match. ”Today it felt like you were playing out on a field, where there is no wind breakers,” says Federer. ”So this has been one of the toughest experiences I’ve had with the wind in a match situation, especially in such a big one. So I’m happy to have coped well with that.”

September 9, 2009: In a match that first appears to be a routine romp, turns into a dog-fight as Roger Federer fends off the late surging Robin Soderling 6-0, 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6 (6) to advance into the semifinals of the U.S. Open, his 22nd consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearance. Federer wins the first two sets in just 59 minutes and is just two points from a straight-sets victory in the third set, before Soderling wins the third-set tiebreaker to extend the match. Soderling actually holds a set point at 6-5 in the fourth-set tiebreaker to extend the match to a fifth set, but Federer holds on, winning the last three points of the match. “It was so close towards the end. It’s a great relief to come through, because Robin started playing better and better as the match went on,” Federer says after the match. “I knew he’d be tough, but the beginning was way too easy. He found his way into the match.” The win gives Federer a 12-0 record against Soderling, including his win over him in the French Open final earlier in the year.

September 13, 2009: Roger Federer executes perhaps the signature shot of his career, slamming a “tweener” passing shot winner past Novak Djokovic in his second-to-last point of his 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-5 semifinal victory at the U.S. Open. ‘That’s why it’s the greatest shot I ever hit in my life,” says Federer. “I was in a difficult position, I had nothing to lose. We (practice that) a lot actually but it never works.” Says Djokovic, “On those shots, you just say, ‘Well done, too good.’ What can you do?” Writes Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times of the famous shot, “On the next-to-last point of the match, Federer hit what he called the best shot of his life. Djokovic was serving and seemingly in control of the point, standing at the net and watching for his just-hit lob to land out of Federer’s reach. Except Federer materialized at the baseline just when the lob landed. With his back to the net, Federer swung the racket between his legs — and hit a clean winner past Djokovic. The crowd roared, and Federer’s forehand return winner that followed on match point was anticlimactic.”

Venus Williams Captures Wuhan; David Ferrer Wins Malaysia – Mondays with Bob Greene

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Mondays with Bob Greene

 

STARS

Venus Williams beat Garbiñe Muguruza 6-3 3-0 retired to win the Dongfeng Motors Wuhan Open in Wuhan, China

David Ferrer beat Feliciano Lopez 7-5 7-5 to win the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Nao Hibino beat Donna Vekic 6-2 6-2 to win the Tashkent Open in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Jan-Lennard Struff beat Jerzy Janowicz 5-7 6-4 6-3 to win the Open Orléans in Orléans, France

Tim Smyczek beat Denis Kudla 1-6 6-1 7-6 (7) to win the Tiburon Challenger in Tiburon, California, USA

 

SAYING

“It’s no secret I’ve played injured most of the year – whether it was my elbow, my knee or, in the final moments after a certain match in Flushing, my heart.” – Serena Williams, announcing she was ending her season by withdrawing from the China Open and the WTA Finals.

“I feel very happy, because I have never played so well at this tournament. I played my best match of the week in the final.” – David Ferrer, after winning the Malaysian Open.

“I’m glad nobody told me before. I would have been a little bit nervous.” – Venus Williams, after she beat Julia Goerges to become only the ninth woman in the Open Era to win 700 matches.

“All players have small injuries during the year because we play a lot. It’s just here it (Achilles tendon) was getting worse. That’s why I stopped today. I didn’t think it would become like this. I just don’t feel well with my tendon right now.” – Simona Halep, after retiring in her opening match at the China Open.

“It was a great week. To win the tournament and have the 700th … some great moments this week.” – Venus Williams, who won her 47th career WTA title at Wuhan, China.

“This is a sad day today. I’m very sorry I had to retire today, but I had a really amazing week here in Wuhan.” – Garbiñe Muguruza, after retiring from the Wuhan Open final while trailing Venus Williams 6-3 3-0.

“We get along off the court, we get along on the court, we complement each other’s games. I think that’s really it. We have good chemistry. We’re good friends. I think on the court it shows as well. We trust each other in tough moments.” – Sania Mirza, on why she and Martina Hingis make such a good doubles team.

“Every week is a new week. You really have to start from zero each time.” – Martina Hingis.

“If I could, I’d give my win to Serena at the US Open. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.” – Venus Williams, after beating Roberta Vinci in Wuhan, the player who upset Serena Williams at the US Open.

“I didn’t expect this result at the beginning of the week. I can’t believe it. I was just focusing on my service games against all of my opponents and trying not to get broken, playing aggressive and not changing my game from the first round to here. So I’m just really happy with the result.” – Nao Hibino, who won the Tashkent Open in only her second WTA tournament.

“At some point we will lose a match, but it’d be pretty cool to go undefeated forever.” – Treat Huey, on how he and Henri Kontinen have won eight straight matches and two tournaments since teaming up.

 

­­­STAR CALLED VENUS

Just like old times, Venus Williams is back on top. The 35-year-old American won her 47th WTA career title – her biggest in five years – by beating Wimbledon runner-up Garbiñe Muguruza in the Wuhan Open. It came when Muguruza retired after losing her serve for the second time in the second set. “It’s not easy when you don’t play your best,” Williams told Muguruza at the trophy celebration, “and I probably didn’t have a chance if you felt well.” It was Williams who appeared to be the most severely injured as she began the match with both thighs heavily taped and had a slight limp. The two traded service breaks before Williams won the last five games the two played, wrapping up the first set, then taking a 3-0 lead in the second. That’s when Muguruza, wearing braces on both ankles, called it quits. Williams posted her 700th career match victory when she stopped Germany’s Julia Goerges in the second round, then increased the total to 704. It wasn’t easy, however. She needed three sets to outlast British qualifier Johanna Konta in the quarterfinals, then saved a match point in her semifinal victory over Italy’s Roberta Vinci.

Williams is only the ninth player to reach 700 match wins on the WTA tour in the Open Era. Martina Navratilova leads with 1,442, followed by Chris Evert 1,309, Steffi Graf 902, Virginia Wade 839, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 759, Lindsay Davenport 753, Serena Williams 737 and Conchita Martinez 738.

 

SEASON OVER

Serena Williams has had enough. The world’s top-ranked woman withdrew from this week’s China Open in Beijing and the WTA Finals in Singapore, the last two tournaments on her schedule. “I am taking a proactive step and withdrawing from tournaments in Beijing and Singapore to properly address my health and take the time to heal,” Serena said in a statement. The 34-year-old has not played since her upset loss in the semifinals of the US Open in September. Despite her staying home, Williams will still end the year as the top-ranked player. “I’m really sorry for Serena, but Serena is Serena,” said Roberta Vinci, the Italian who shocked Williams in the US Open. “(She is) still a great player also if she doesn’t play.” Winner of 21 Grand Slam tournament singles titles, Serena said she has been playing the entire season with injuries. “My journey in tennis this year has been at times exhilarating, at times disappoint,” Williams said in a statement carried by organizers of the China Open. “I’m a fierce competitor and I want to compete as well as I can for as long as I can. This is a very difficult decision, but one ultimately made because of the love of the game.”

 

SPANISH FLING

Two Spaniards meeting on the final Sunday for the title isn’t all that unusual. And David Ferrer winning is also no surprise. The 33-year-old Ferrer won the Malaysian Open, the 25th title of his career and fourth this year, by beating Feliciano Lopez. It was Ferrer’s 50th ATP career final. He won earlier this year in Doha, Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco. Ferrer had not lost to Lopez since 2009, but it was Lopez who started strong and grabbed an early break. Ferrer quickly broke back, then broke his fellow Spaniard again in the 12th game to close out the set. Ferrer again broke in the 12th game in the second set. “Feliciano is a good tennis player, but an even better person,” Ferrer said. “I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.”

 

SINGAPORE PROBLEM

With top-ranked Serena Williams on the list, injuries and illnesses are depleting the field for the season-ending BNP Paribas WTA Finals, scheduled to be played in Singapore later this month. Going into the first week in October, only three players had qualified for the elite eight-player singles field: Serena, second-ranked Simona Halep of Romania and Maria Sharapova. The third-ranked Russian pulled out of the China Open after injuring her forearm in Wuhan. Halep retired in her opening China Open match with a left ankle injury. “I have pain in my Achilles. It’s getting worse,” Halep said. “I thought that it was getting better and I could play, but, no, I don’t want to force it.”

They aren’t the only walking wounded.

Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki complained of dizzy spells in her second-round Wuhan Open loss to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. “I started feeling dizzy already in the second set and I just tried to push through it,” Wozniacki said. Also retiring from second-round matches at Wuhan were Victoria Azarenka, another former world number one, and Swiss star Belinda Bencic. Azarenka was a set and a game down when she retired with a thigh injury she said she picked up in training. Bencic, who upset Serena Williams in Toronto, also retired with an injured left thigh.

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard hasn’t played since suffering a concussion when she fell in the dressing room at the US Open. Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon winner, was diagnosed with glandular fever this year. Germany’s Sabine Lisicki will miss the rest of the year with a knee injury. On a bright note, Venus Williams is winning, but she suffers from the immune system disorder Sjogren’s Syndrome.

 

SWITCH IN LEADERS

The winning continues for Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. The captured their seventh WTA doubles title of the year by besting Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open. The victors weren’t perfect, dropping serve three times. But they took just 69 minutes to annex their latest trophy. Hingis and Mirza have won their last three tournaments, stretching their streak to 13 consecutive matches – all in straight sets. “We give our best every match, that’s why we’re winning in straight sets,” Mirza said. “If we slack a little bit, you end up in a super tiebreak, and it’s a toss-up. Every team is as good as the other.” Hingis has won 48 career WTA doubles titles, while Mirza has won 30.

 

SUCCESSFUL

Japan’s Nao Hibino came out on top when two young players battled for the title at the Tashkent Open. The 20-year-old Hibino did not drop a set the entire tournament and handily beat Croatian teenager Donna Vekic in the Tashkent final. Hibino is just the 10th Japanese woman to win a WTA tournament. Playing in only her second WTA main draw, Hibino’s on-court speed caused problems for Vekic, who also appeared to be frustrated by the noisy crowd which frequently held up play in the Uzbekistan capital. “I couldn’t do anything, she was just playing really well,” the 19-year-old Vekic said. “She was very solid and getting all the balls back. I tried to break her rhythm, but I couldn’t.”

Hibino was named for one of the other nine Japanese players to win WTA events, Naoko Sawamatsu. Other Japanese winners were Kazuko Sawamatsu, Etsuko Inoue, Kumiko Okamoto, Mana Endo, Ai Sugiyama, Akiko Morigami, Kurumi Nara and Kimiko Date-Krumm, who has the most WTA titles of them all: eight.

 

SETTLING SCORE?

Venus Williams may have been settling a score on behalf of her younger sister when she took on Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the Wuhan Open. It was Vinci who upset Serena Williams in the semifinals of the US Open last month, ending Serena’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam, capturing all four major titles. If Venus was trying to settle a score, it didn’t come easily. Vinci rallied from a 1-4 deficit in the third set to actually have match point against the seven-time Grand Slam tournament champion. “I mean (there were) a lot of ups and downs,” Venus said. “I hope that on a day when I’m playing how I’d like it’s a more straightforward match. She’s definitely tricky. She finds a way to hang in there.” Williams finally prevailed 5-7 6-2 7-6 (4).

 

SHARAPOVA HURT AGAIN

Maria Sharapova is having a hard time playing, let alone winning. The Russian retired with an arm injury in the third set of her opening match at the Wuhan Open. It was the first time Sharapova had played in nearly three months. Ranked third in the world, Sharapova missed the entire hard-court season, including the US Open, with a leg injury.

 

SABINE STOPPED

A knee injury has forced Germany’s Sabine Lisicki to call it a year. “We have tried everything, but my knee isn’t ready,” the 2013 Wimbledon finalist wrote on her Facebook page. “The current state of play is that I won’t play any more tournaments this season.” Lisicki complained of knee pain during the US Open where she lost to Simona Halep. Lisicki has been treated by Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt, the Munich-based doctor who has treated many athletes, including sprinter Usain Bolt. “The doctors, my team and I have all worked hard to get me back fit as soon as possible and I will be back by the start of the new season at the latest,” she said.

 

STREAKIN’

Treat Huey and Henri Kontinen continued their winning ways. The Filipino-Finnish partnership posted their eighth consecutive win and second title in as many weeks, capturing the Malaysian Open. The winners topped Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram in the final 7-6 (4) 6-2. “It’s definitely not what we expected when we teamed up two weeks ago,” Kontinen said of the tandem’s immediate success. “We have been playing well and it’s very important to get along on and off the court.” It was Huey’s third title of the year, while Kontinen won his fifth title of the season.

 

SENT INDOORS

It took a move indoors for Jonathan Erlich and Colin Fleming to win their first team title. Because of torrential rain at the Shenzhen Open, they had to play two matches, beating Gong Mao-Xin and Michael Venus 6-2 6-4 before being sent to an indoor court where they stopped Chris Guccione and Andre Sa 6-1 6-7 (3) 10-6 for the title.

The singles final between top-seeded Tomas Berdych and fourth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was delayed until Monday. “It is what it is,” Berdych said of the conditions. “We can’t do anything about the weather. Many years ago I played a final on a Monday and it was very similar to today. Otherwise, we’d have to call it off and there would be no winner.”

 

STILL WINNING

It was an exhibition tennis match, but with a lot of politics on the side. Novak Djokovic and Rafael had a big payday in Bangkok, Thailand, meeting before a sold-out crowd in a match dubbed “Back to Thailand.” The event was organized by the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand to boost confidence in the country’s safety after a bombing left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured. After the two were photographed in colorful Thai silk jackets, Djokovic beat Nadal 6-4 6-2 and the two split USD $4.1 million. In their formal attire, the players visited the ornate Grand Palace and met with the junta leader, Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led a May 2014 coup and installed himself as prime minister. “I’m glad that two of the world’s best tennis players are here in Thailand,” Prayuth said. “This will get more people to come to Thailand.” Both Djokovic and Nadal were last in Thailand in 2008 for the Thailand Open. Nadal lost in the semifinals and Djokovic to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.

SET FOR ABU DHABI

Police in Miami have dropped charges of trespassing and resisting arrest against Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic. The 22-year-old was arrested in July and charged after police were called to his Miami hotel room where he was having a party. Tomic’s lawyer said the charges were dropped because of inconsistencies in reports lodged by hotel security and police.

 

SAYS PAY UP

A court has ordered convicted child molester Bob Hewitt to pay USD $1.2 million to a former player who accused Hewitt of repeatedly sexually abuse in the 1970s. US District Judge Denise J. Casper gave Hewitt until November 2 to show why he should not pay the default judgment to Heather Crowe Conner. “The damage and loss he inflicted on me isn’t about money,” said Conner, who lives in Massachusetts, USA. “But I’m thankful the judge recognized the harm and is holding him responsible.” The judge said the assaults began in 1975 when Connor was 14 and lasted until about 1979. Connor was a high school star when Hewitt offered to coach her for free in 1975. She went on to become a national collegiate tennis champion in 1982 and later played on the WTA tour. The 75-year-old Hewitt is currently confined to his home in South Africa while appealing a six-year prison sentence for raping two South African girls and indecently assaulting another he coached in the 1980s and ‘90s. Connor currently is a high school teacher.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Kuala Lumpur: Treat Hey and Henri Kontinen beat Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 7-6 (4) 6-2

Orléans: Triston Lamasine and Fabrice Martin beat Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 6-4 7-6 (2)

Shenzhen: Jonathan Erlich and Colin Fleming beat Chris Guccione and Andre Sa 6-1 6-7 (3) 10-6 (match tiebreak)

Tashkent: Margarita Gasparyan and Alexandra Panova beat Vera Dushevina and Katerina Siniakova 6-1 3-6 10-3 (match tiebreak)

Tiburon: Johan Brunstrom and Frederik Nielson beat Carsten Ball and Matt Reid 7-6 (2) 6-1

Wuhan: Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-3

 

SURFING

Beijing: www.chinaopen.com.cn/

Tokyo: www.rakutenopen.com/

Sacramento:www.sacchallenger.com/

Mons:www.ethiastrophy.be/fr/accueil

Shanghai:http://en.shanghairolexmasters.com/

Tashkent:http://www.tennis.uz/

Tianjin:www.tianjinopen.com/

Linz:www.generali-ladies.at/

Hong Kong:www.hktennisopen.hk/p/en/

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

MEN

$3,944,715 China Open, Beijing, China, hard

$1,397,250 Rakuten Japan Open, Tokyo, Japan, hard

$100,000 Sacramento Challenger, Sacramento, California, USA, hard

$119,188 Ethias Trophy, Mons, Belgium, hard

 

WOMEN

$4,720,380 China Open, Beijing, China, hard

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

 

MEN

$7,021,335 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai, Shanghai, China, hard

$125,000 Uzbekistan Cup, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, hard

 

WOMEN

$226,750 Tianjin Open, Tianjin, China, hard

$226,750 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open, Hong Kong, China, hard

$226,750 Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria, hard

 

Venus Williams

Roger Federer, Serena Williams Capture Western & Southern Titles – Mondays with Bob Greene

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Mondays with Bob Greene 

 

STARS

Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic 7-6 (1) 6-3 to win the men’s singles at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Serena Williams beat Simona Halep 6-3 7-6 (5) to win the Western & Southern Open women’s singles in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Dudi Sela beat John-Patrick Smith 6-4 7-5 to win the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open men’s singles in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Johanna Konta beat Kirsten Flipkens 6-2 6-4 to win the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open women’s singles in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

 

SAYING

“I’ve got the confidence, I’ve got the matches, and I’m actually still feeling really fresh even after this week because the matches have been rather short. Because I didn’t play both tournaments (Montreal and Cincinnati), I can really pace myself next week and see how much practice I actually really need.” – Roger Federer, after winning his record seventh Western & Southern Open title.

“It’s now the fifth time I’ve been in this final. I guess I’ll have to wait until Roger retires.” – Novak Djokovic, after losing the Western & Southern Open final for the third time to Roger Federer.

“I prefer to have this pressure than the pressure of not winning. Not everyone can handle that pressure, but I’m OK with it. I would rather be in this position than another one.” – Serena Williams, saying she is looking forward to the start of the US Open where she will be going for the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988.

“Doesn’t matter the way he played because I was playing so good today.” – Feliciano Lopez, after upsetting Rafael Nadal.

“I was there during the whole match with the right intensity, with the right attitude, doing the things that I have to do, trying to be more aggressive, trying to go to the net more often. That’s what I did.  But today I played against an opponent that he played a fantastic match, I think.  He played the best match ever against me, without a doubt.” – Rafael Nadal, following his loss to Feliciano Lopez.

“I let him know – I made it pretty clear that he can’t be doing that. If he’s got a problem, he’s got to say it in private. The way he went about it definitely wasn’t the right thing.” – Thanasi Kokkinakis, speaking about Nick Kyrgios’s on-court remarks to Stan Wawrinka.

“Clearly it was very disappointing and not great for the sport, one that I think many players have tried to build up and make it a good image. We want kids to be wanting to get into this sport, I guess, because it’s a nice sport, it’s clean, it’s fair, and all these things. I don’t think there should be any room for that kind of talk.” – Roger Federer, speaking about the Nick Kyrgios on-court statement.

“Our sport is a gentleman’s sport. It’s a sport about respect.” – Rafael Nadal, on the Nick Kyrgios affair.

“Obviously it’s the talk of the locker room, and everybody has their opinion. But I think that we all agree that he definitely crossed the line by a long shot. We’re not used to that kind of talk in tennis.” – Roger Federer.

“In a nutshell, my Dad created the ideal environment for me to compete. He gave me the space I needed and in his own quiet way brought out the best in me by not asking me to be more than myself. As great as he was as a coach, he was even greater as a father. He read to us and sang to us and took us swimming and … took us to church.” – Chris Evert, speaking about her father, Jimmy Evert, who died at the age of 91.

 

SEVENTH TITLE

Playing at the top of his game, Roger Federer knocked off top-ranked Novak Djokovic to win his second straight and record seventh Western & Southern Open title. “I knew coming into the match he was going to be aggressive,” said Djokovic, who has never won the Cincinnati tournament. “No question about it. So I tried to handle it. I did well until the tiebreak in the first set. After that, he was just the better player.” Federer lost only 13 points on his serve as he attacked through the match, winning 15 of 21 net points in the first set. “I tried to really mix it up on his second serve and I was hoping to serve good enough myself to keep me out of trouble.” He did both. Federer raced through the first-set tiebreak, then earned the only break of the match in the second game of the second set. “He had that one bad game at the beginning of the second set, which made the difference in the match,” the Swiss maestro said. The victory moved Federer back into the second spot in the world rankings, meaning he and Djokovic can’t meet in the US Open until the title match.

 

SERENA’S SECOND

Stumbling yet again to start a match, Serena Williams got her game in gear to beat Simona Halep and capture her second straight Western & Southern Open. Williams lost her serve to begin the match – something that has happened frequently in the last couple weeks – as Halep jumped out to 3-1 start. The deficit seemed to awaken the 33-year-old Williams, who ripped through the final five games of the opening set. And while she traded early service breaks with her opponent in the second set, Williams stepped her game up to another level in the tiebreak, wrapping up the victory in 69 minutes. “I think that playing Simona really tested me, and I felt like I was up for the challenge and up for the test,” Williams said. It was the fifth title of the year for the top-ranked American, including victories at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Williams will be seeking a calendar sweep of the four Grand Slam tournaments at the US Open, which begins August 31. The win also was the 69th career title for Williams, moving her ahead of Evonne Goolagong and into fifth place on the all-time list.

 

SPANISH TWIST

Roger Federer was expected to play Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open. Instead, he faced another Spanish left-hander, Feliciano Lopez, who beat his more famous countryman for only the fourth time in 13 meetings. It was the first time the 33-year-old Lopez had beaten Nadal twice in a row, having prevailed on the hard courts in Shanghai last year in their last meeting. “It means a lot when you beat such a good player like him,” Lopez said. “It’s not a normal match.  It’s something different and the atmosphere there when you play against Rafa, it’s always something special.” Nadal needed six set points before capturing the opening set. Lopez broke Nadal early, then held to level the match at one set apiece. Neither waivered on serve in the deciding set or on the first two points of the tiebreak. After that it was all Lopez, who completed the victory with his 14th ace of the match.

 

SWISS MISS-ING

Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic retired from her Western & Southern Open match against Lucie Safarova after dropping the first set 6-2. “I wasn’t 100 percent, and to beat Lucie or even compete against her you have to be 100 percent,” said Bencic, who shocked top-ranked Serena Williams in her remarkable run to the Rogers Cup title the previous week. “I didn’t want to retire. This was the first I’ve ever had to retire.” Bencic said she stopped playing because of her right forearm, which had bothered the 18-year-old for some time. “I hope it gets better,” Bencic said. “Every match it was getting tighter and tighter. I was hoping that a lot of (therapy) would help, but I couldn’t do it.” The Swiss miss is scheduled to play this week at New Haven, Connecticut.

 

SHARAPOVA SITS

Citing a leg injury, Maria Sharapova pulled out of the Western & Southern Open. “It’s not ideal preparation for New York, but that’s the circumstance and I obviously want to give myself the best chance to be healthy there,” the second-ranked Russian said. “That’s the wisest move right now.” Sharapova has not played since losing in the semifinals at Wimbledon in early July.

 

STREAKS

The Western & Southern Open remains the only one of the nine ATP Masters 1000 championships that Novak Djokovic has not won. But another streak was broken. In the previous six tournaments where Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka have met, the winner of their battle has gone on to win the title.  Not so this time. For the fifth time in his career Djokovic has finished runner-up in Cincinnati, losing to Federer in 2009 and 2012 as well as this year, and to Andy Murray in 2008 and 2011.

 

STOPPED BY ILLNESS

After finally winning a match, Venus Williams had to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open because of an illness. The older Williams sister had lost her previous two first-round matches – at the WTA Istanbul Cup and the Rogers Cup in Canada – before prevailing in her opener against Zarina Diyas in straight sets. But the 35-year-old fell ill later that evening and withdrew before her scheduled match against another former world number one, Ana Ivanovic. So far this year Venus Williams has posted a 23-10 record with one singles title, that coming back in January at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

 

SHE’S BACK

Returning to competition following a year-long recovery from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, American Vicky Duval was given a wild-card entry into the US Open qualifying. Two years ago, Duval knocked the 2011 champion, Samantha Stosur, out of America’s premier tennis event. Then, after reaching the second round of Wimbledon as a qualifier in 2014, she announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer and went home to treat the disease.  She recently won two singles matches at a USD $25,000 event in Landisville, Pennsylvania, USA, her first tournament back.

Also awarded wild-card entries into the women’s qualifying are Americans Robin Anderson, Usue Arconada, Tornado Alicia Black, Raveena Kingsley, 15-year-old Claire Liu, Jessica Pegula and Bernarda Pera.

 

STRAIGHT IN

Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who has won three Grand Slam tournament doubles titles this year, has received a wild-card entry into the women’s singles main draw at the US Open. The 30-year-old American won the women’s doubles with Lucie Safarova at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. She also teamed with fellow American Mike Bryan to win the mixed doubles in Paris.

Others receiving wild-card entries into the women’s singles main draw were Louisa Chirico; Samantha Crawford, the 2012 US Open girls’ champion; two-time NCAA singles champion Nicole Gibbs; 2015 USTA Girls’ 18s winner Sofia Kenin; 2015 NCAA singles champion Jamie Loeb; and 2013 USTA Girls’ 18s winner Sachia Vickery; along with Oceane Dodin of France.

 

STAYING HOME

Ken Nishikori will apparently be heading into the US Open without a warmup tournament. The Japanese star withdrew from the Western & Southern Open in an attempt to overcome a hip injury. While he hasn’t advanced past the quarterfinals at the first three Grand Slam tournaments this year, Nishikori would be one of the favorites at the US Open, where he reached the title match a year ago. Nishikori has posted a 34-8 record this year, winning two titles and rising in the rankings to fourth in the world.

 

STAY THE COURSE

If it wasn’t for bad luck, Mardy Fish would have no luck at all. The 33-year-old American missed 18 months of tennis because of a heart condition. Then, by winning his first match since 2013 – a 6-2 6-2 victory over Viktor Troicki after losing his first three matches of the season – Fish “earned” a meeting against the world’s second-ranked player, Andy Murray. “He’s pretty fantastic so far,” Fish said before playing the Scot. “He’s won a ton of matches. He’s won more matches than anyone this year, so he’ll be tough.” Murray was just that, winning 6-4 7-6 (1), but not without being pushed. Fish left it all on court – as he no doubt will in his farewell appearance at the US Open, which beings its two-week stint on August 31.

 

SLIPPING DANE

It wasn’t that Caroline Wozniacki lost to Victoria Azarenka at the Western & Southern Open. After all, it was the fifth consecutive win for Azarenka over her Danish opponent. What was most distressing for Wozniacki was that it was her third consecutive opening round loss against three different opponents in three weeks. After taking a wild card into the Bank of the West Classic, Wozniacki lost her opening round to Varvara Lepchenko. She then played a mandatory event in Toronto, Canada, losing in the first round of eventual champion Belinda Bencic. That was when Wozniacki questioned the WTA rules she believed “pushed” her to play although injured. Azarenka played almost flawless tennis in the first set in beating the former world number one 6-0 6-4. “I felt like the first set I was playing really, really well, and executing my game,” Azarenka said. “She’s the type of player you just can’t beat 6-0, 6-0 though. You know she’s going to turn it up. She started playing more aggressively in the second set and it was definitely getting tougher and tougher out there. But I stayed strong and stayed aggressive, and I was able to turn it around in the end.”

 

SERVING UP ACES

Sisters Venus and Serena Williams have sold their New York City apartment to a lawyer for USD $2.1 million. Ted Wells, co-chair of the litigation department at the New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison firm, and his wife Nina, a former secretary of state of New Jersey, bought the one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 1,800-square foot apartment in the city’s Garment District. The Williams sisters purchased the apartment in 2005 and reportedly will net USD $750,000 on the sale. The NFL hired Wells to investigate the Miami Dolphins bullying scandal in 2013 and the recent Deflategate incident involving the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady.

 

SENIOR MOMENT

Two former world number ones, Mats Wilander and John McEnroe, will be joined by Mansour Bahrami, Henri Leconte and Tim Henman at the ATP Champions Tour season finale in London’s Royal Albert Hall in December. Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall concludes the ATP Champions Tour season and is played over five days.

 

SAD NEWS

Jimmy Evert, the father of Hall of Famer Chris Evert and a tennis coaching legend in his own right, is dead at the age of 91. The tennis director at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for nearly 50 years, he taught all five of his children to play the sport. The tennis facility was renamed the Jimmy Evert Tennis Complex in 1997. A fine player himself, Jimmy Evert was an All-American at Notre Dame in the 1940s and reached as high as 11th in the United States rankings. He took over as coach at Holiday Park in 1948. Among his students were Jennifer Capriati, Harold Solomon and Brian Gottfried. But his best student was his daughter Chris, who won 18 Grand Slam tournament singles titles. Besides Chris, Jimmy Evert is survived by his wife of 62 years, Colette; brother Jerry and his wife Audra; sister-in-law Ruth; son Drew and his wife Penny; daughter Jeanne Dubin of Delray Beach, Florida, USA; son John and his wife Mary of Boca Raton, Florida, USA; daughter Clare Evert-Shane and husband Steven; 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Cincinnati (men): Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic 6-2 6-2

Cincinnati (women): Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan beat Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5 6-4

Vancouver (men): Treat Huey and Frederik Nielsen beat Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus 7-6 (4) 6-7 (3) 10-5 (match tiebreak)

Vancouver (women): Johanna Konta and Maria Sanchez beat Raluca Olaru and Anna Tatishvili 7-6 (5) 6-4

 

SURFING

Winston-Salem: www.winstonsalemopen.com/

 

New Haven: www.ctopen.org/

New York: www.usopen.org/

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

MEN

$683,705 Winston-Salem Open, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, hard

 

WOMEN

$731,000 Connecticut Open, New Haven, Connecticut, hard

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

MEN and WOMEN

US Open, New York, New York, hard (first week)

 

Roger Federer
Roger Federer

The Revival of Spanish Tennis on Grass

by

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

Waking up and scrolling through the pages of my book “On This Day In Tennis History” – or swiping from your Iphone via the mobile app – always delivers an interesting nugget about tennis history.

June 15 was no different.

It was interesting to read that on June 15, 2008, Rafael Nadal won his first career grass court title when he defeated Novak Djokovic 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the final of Queen’s Club in London. The seven-year anniversary of this hallmark title came a day after Nadal won, once again on grass, in an almost equally-important tournament win in Stuttgart. Nadal’s confidence has been in shatters this year, his ranking dropping to his current perch of No. 10 and astonishingly not winning any of the spring European clay court championships and suffering on his second loss ever at Roland Garros to Djokovic in the French Open quarterfinals. When Nadal won at Queens in 2008, he went on to win his first Wimbledon title three weeks later, defeating Roger Federer in one of the greatest tennis matches of all time. Will this grass court title Stuttgart catapult Nadal back to a consistent winning form? We shall see.

It was also remarkable to also read about Nadal’s seven-year grass court anniversary that when he won at Queen’s Club in 2008, he was the first Spaniard to capture a grass-court title since Andres Gimeno won the title in Eastbourne, England in 1972. It seems remarkable that for 36 years, no Spanish player won on a grass court, although the grass court season was only four weeks long since 1988. Up until 1974, three of the four major championships (Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens) were played on grass and two majors were played on grass from 1975 until 1987 (Wimbledon and Australian Open.)

However, since Nadal’s win at Queens in 2008, Spain has won seven ATP singles titles on grass. Nadal added three more grass titles since then – the 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon titles and his 2015 title in Stuttgart. David Ferrer won the title in s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands in 2012 and Roberto Bautista Agut took the title there in 2014. Feliciano Lopez also won the title in Eastbourne in 2013 and 2014.

What these victories tell me is something that is reflective in the book “The Secrets of Spanish Tennis” by Chris Lewit (for sale here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559491/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_q1UFvb0QPEW8Y via @amazon) – the Spanish players are becoming more and more successful on faster surfaces after having most of their success primarily on clay.

Presenting Lewit with these figures on Spanish success on grass courts, Lewit reinforced Spain’s recent focus on training on faster court surfaces.

“Historically, Spanish players have struggled to compete on faster surfaces but since the late 80’s and early 90’s, that trend started to change,” Lewit said. “Players like Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero had great success on faster surfaces, and coaches in Spain started to train players on more of a balance of fast and slow courts. Today, modern Spanish players are adept at multiple surfaces and leading Spanish academies are installing more and more hard courts.”

An interesting perspective Lewit put forward was that for developing players, in the opinion of most elite tennis coaches, is that it is easier to transition one’s game from slow clay courts to faster surfaces than vice versa. With American tennis players primarily playing on faster hard courts, this would, in theory, explain while Americans have struggled for decades on clay courts, while clay court players from Europe and South American have found relatively more success on faster surfaces like grass, hard courts and indoors.

“Whereas 20 or 30 years ago, the typical Spanish training center would be purely clay court training, most high performance centers nowadays have a good amount of hard courts and rotate the players regularly to play on both,” Lewit said. “In addition, the younger modern generation of Spanish coaches are teaching players to play closer to the baseline and fight more for court position, as opposed to the traditional Spanish style of giving ground and moving very deep into the backcourt. Modern Spanish players will give ground more reluctantly than their predecessors.”

Keep your eyes on how the Spaniards do on the slick grass of Britain the next few weeks and on the fast U.S. hard courts this summer. Will it prove to be the surface of redemption for Rafael Nadal?

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Madison Keys, Coco Vandeweghe Enter Wimbledon With Titles – Mondays with Bob Greene

by

Americans Sweep Women’s Titles, Spaniards the Men’s Events

 

Mondays with Bob Greene

 

STARS

Feliciano Lopez beat Richard Gasquet 6-3 6-7 (5) 7-5 to win the Aegon International men’s singles in Eastbourne, Great Britain

Madison Keys beat Angelique Kerber 6-3 3-6 7-5 to win the Aegon International women’s singles in Eastbourne, Great Britain

Roberto Bautista Agut beat Benjamin Becker 2-6 7-6 (2) 6-4 to win the Topshelf Open men’s singles in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands

Coco Vandeweghe beat Zheng Jie 6-2 6-4 to win the Topshelf Open women’s singles in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands

 

SAYING

“I’m so incredibly happy.” – Madison Keys, after earning her first WTA title, upsetting Angelique Kerber in the Aegon International women’s final.

“It’s always not easy when somebody is serving like she did the whole match.” – Angelique Kerber.

“I was trying to not think too much and play my game point by point. It was the same nervousness as every match.” – Roberto Bautista Agut, after winning his first ATP World Tour level title.

“I feel like I’m a contender for the tournament. I feel like if things click here, I should be able to win the tournament; whereas at Roland Garros I feel like I’m slightly more dependent on (Nadal). – Roger Federer, on his chances to win Wimbledon.

“I do feel different having Boris (Becker) on my side, having a player who made a mark in this sport, especially in this tournament. This is his surface. This is his home. This is where he feels most comfortable. I think here where he had most success in his career, we can have a great two weeks together.” – Novak Djokovic, talking about his coach Boris Becker, a three-time Wimbledon champion.

“I don’t see farther than today. I have a tough first round against (Martin) Klizan. For the last two years I lost in the first and second round … I start from the first round in every surface. You can imagine even more here on grass.” – Rafael Nadal, when asked who would be his biggest threat at Wimbledon.

“Personally I feel that I am doing things better. It is true that for the last couple of years I didn’t play lot of matches on grass, but I am confident that I can do it again. I am not talking about winning, (rather) talking about play better than what I did the last couple of years on grass.”

“Eventually age will catch up. It just hasn’t happened to her yet.” – Martina Navratilova, talking about Serena Williams, who Navratilova picked to win Wimbledon.

“Just to be across the net from him, just handling the ball is an exciting day for me.” – Francis Tiafoe, America’s top-ranked junior after practicing with world number one Rafael Nadal.

“That was a lot of fun. Serena and I had a good time with some of our other friends.” – Caroline Wozniacki, who joined Serena Williams for a break in Miami, Florida, USA, with family and friends after suffering early defeats at Roland Garros.

“Now, after being 10 months with you, falling asleep, waking up in your arms, looking in those beautiful Bambi eyes, I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. … So now today I have taken all my courage together to go down on my knee in front of you. I love you to the moon and back, and I promise to be always faithful and honest with you. So I ask you in front of all these people: do you want to marry me?” – Martin Emmrich, proposing to Michaella Krajicek following her first-round victory at the Topshelf Open.

“Yes.” – Michaella Krajicek’s response.

“It means the players trust me hopefully and it means something was done right in the past two years with the previous Council. Hopefully we can work forward in the same way.” – Sergiy Stakhovsky, who was re-elected to the ATP Players Council for another two-year term.

 

SEVEN-TIME CHAMPION

American Madison Keys surprised fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber to win her first WTA title at Eastbourne, Great Britain. “It’s incredible to be able to win here,” said a delighted Keys, who became the first American to win the Wimbledon grass-court warm-up tournament since Chanda Rubin did it in 2003. “Hopefully there will be many more to come,” the 19-year-old from Florida said. Not only was it her first title, it was the first time Keys had reached a final on the WTA circuit. And she did it with power, hammering 17 aces, including one serve timed at 126 miles per hour, the fastest on the WTA circuit this year and in the all-time top five. Keys ended with 60 winners in her victory over the favored German. Kerber was playing in her 11th final; she has won four titles. “It was a tough final,” Kerber said. “Of course I’m disappointed. I’d be lying if I said no. I’ll now just take my energy by myself and focus on Wimbledon.” Keys needed four match points in the final game before grabbing the title when Kerber netted a shot with her 48th unforced error of the day. “I had great matches, I had these battles,” Kerber said. “I need to speak with my coach about this match, take the positive things and make sure that I will make a better result next time. It was really just like two, three points at the end.”

At 19 years old, Keys is the first teenager to win a WTA title since Caroline Wozniacki captured New Haven, Connecticut, USA, in 2009. She is the youngest player ranked in the top 50 and is the youngest American to win a singles title since Vania King in Bangkok, Thailand, in October 2006.

 

STARS AND STRIPES

Talk about surprises. Joining Madison Keys as a first-time winner on the WTA tour was Coco Vandeweghe, who took the Topshelf Open grass-court title by beating China’s Zheng Jie in the final. It was the first time two American women have won titles in the same week since February 2002. Vandeweghe had to qualify for the main draw and ended up reaching her second WTA final. The first came at Stanford two years ago when she lost to Serena Williams. Ranked 69th in the world, Vandeweghe fired eight aces and was dominant on serve, breaking her Chinese opponent in the third and fifth games of the first set, and again in the third game of the second set. The match took 70 minutes. “I got the first set and I thought to myself: one set to the good, one more to go,” Vandeweghe said. “Try and get the early break now and keep the pressure on her.” She did just that.

 

SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE

Feliciano Lopez had a couple firsts in successfully defending his Aegon International title at Eastbourne. It was the first time in his career that he had won a tournament in successive years and the first time he had beaten Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who was top-seeded in the grass-court Wimbledon warm-up event. “The way I play here is completely different from when I play on the other surfaces around the world,” Lopez said. “That’s really one of the most important things.” The 32-year-old Lopez is the first player since 2001 to reach consecutive grass-court finals prior to Wimbledon. He was runner-up to Grigor Dimitrov at The Queen’s Club. Gasquet was seeking his third Aegon International crown, having won in 2005 and 2006 when the event was held in Nottingham, Great Britain. There was little to separate the two players, with two breaks giving the Spanish left-hander the opening set and Gasquet winning the tiebreaker in the second. The third set went with serve until Lopez broke to lead 6-5, then served it out for his fourth career title.

 

SPANISH DOMINATION

While two Americans won the women’s events last week, it was two Spaniards who captured the men’s singles, with Roberto Bautista Agut winning his first title at ‘s-Hertogenbosch by beating Benjamin Becker. It was the German who dominated early in the battle, breaking Bautista Agut twice behind his big serve. But the Spaniard took control in the second-set tiebreak and consistently won rallies in the decisive set. Bautista Agut had to be tired coming into the final. The previous day he had finished the remainder of a quarterfinal match against defending champion Nicholas Mahut before triumphing over Jürgen Melzer in a three-set semifinal. “I feel so happy because I’ve been playing very well this year, but I didn’t have a trophy at home,” Bautista Agut said. “I was focused on taking it.”

 

STEADY ON COURSE

Novak Djokovic played down his wrist injury and says he will definitely be seeking his second Wimbledon title. The Serb had been troubled by the right wrist problem since Monte Carlo in April and recently pulled out of a Wimbledon warm-up event. The 27-year-old said he felt the injury may have been in danger of flaring up due to his moving from a clay surface to grass courts, and that that was the reason he pulled out of an exhibition match in London. “It’s the first time that I have problems with the wrist,” Djokovic said. “I started feeling it before Monte Carlo tournament started. I played Monte Carlo under strange conditions, under a lot of pain. I decided to skip Madrid, which was a good decision because I played pain-free in Rome and Roland Garros. Right now I don’t feel any pain. But I felt like when I’m changing surfaces, especially from clay to grass, in the opening few days of the practice here got a little bit of a strange sensation in the wrist. Now its fine, so hopefully it can stay that way.” Ranked second in the world behind Rafael Nadal, Djokovic was bumped up in the Wimbledon seeding to the top spot. Nadal was seeded second. However, Djokovic has won just one Grand Slam tournament title in the last two years and has lost in five of his last six major finals, including earlier this month at Roland Garros.

 

SISTERS SLIP, BUT SURVIVE

The Chan sisters – Hao-Ching and Yung-Jan – survived a stunning second-set loss to capture the women’s doubles in Eastbourne. The Taiwanese pair were leading 6-3 5-1 when their opponents, Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta, rallied to fight off four match points before finally leveling the match at a set apiece. The Chan sisters, however, regrouped and took the deciding match tiebreak 10-5. “Today was a tough match and even though we were leading 5-1 in the second set, they were fighting a lot to come back and I think we did well to get through the final set,” Chan Yung-Jan said. “It was an amazing tournament and we had a great week. It’s a great feeling to win a second title with my sister,” Chan Hao-Ching said.

 

STARTING LATE

Marina Erakovic and Arantxa Parra Santonja failed to win a game in the opening set in their doubles final at the Topshelf Open. But they rallied to capture the title, beating Kristina Mladenovic and Michaella Krajicek, pulling even at a set apiece when they captured the tiebreaker 7-5, then winning the match tiebreak 10-8.

 

SPECIAL WIN

It was the fourth doubles title of the season for Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, but this one was different and very special. “To win an ATP World Tour title in front of the Dutch crowd is very nice,” said Rojer, a Dutch native. “We’ve been working hard – that’s the main thing. We try to keep improving every time.” Rojer and his Romanian partner also have won in Zagreb, Casablanca and Bucharest this year. They also reached the final in Rotterdam. For Tecau, winning the Topshelf Open is becoming a habit. He won last year’s tournament with partner Max Mirnyi and had previously teamed with Robert Lindstedt to win in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2009 and 2012.

 

SIMONA’S OK

Simona Halep says she has recovered from the right shoulder muscle injury that forced her to withdraw from a warm-up grass-court tournament and is ready for Wimbledon. She is seeded third at the All England Club after reaching the final at Roland Garros. “I’m looking forward to go very far in this tournament,” the Romanian said of the year’s third Grand Slam event and the only one played on grass. She has never been past the second round at Wimbledon. But she has reached the second week of the last three majors – getting to the fourth round at last year’s US Open, the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January and the title match at Roland Garros earlier this month.

 

SERENA STILL UPSET

Serena Williams may be favored to win her sixth Wimbledon title, but she is still fuming about her short stay in Paris. Plus, she has had a habit of slipping in big venues this year. Williams last won Wimbledon in 2012, but has yet to increase her major total this year, losing a fourth-round match to Ana Ivanovic at the Australian Open in January and suffering an embarrassing second-round loss to young Garbiñe Muguruza at Roland Garros. The latter was one of the worst defeats of Serena’s career. Asked how quickly she had put the French Open loss behind her, Serena said: “Who says I was over it? Yeah, I doubt it. Knowing me, no.” She also was snubbed by the All England Club when it picked the person to play the first match on Centre Court on Tuesday. Traditionally that honor goes to the defending women’s champion. But last year’s winner, Marion Bartoli of France, retired right after winning, so it was thought that the committee might pick its 2012 champion. Instead, the tournament picked Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, who beat Serena in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year en route to the final, where she lost to Bartoli. “She was in the final last year, so she was two sets closer than I was. So why not?” Williams said of the committee’s selection. “For me, you have to be ready to play on any day.”

 

SHOULDER STOPPER

In her first match on English grass since winning Wimbledon last year, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli was losing to a 15-year-old junior in an exhibition in Liverpool on Thursday when she quit the match because of a right shoulder problem. The 29-year-old Bartoli, who retired from tennis a month after her Wimbledon triumph, agreed to play in the Liverpool Hope University International Tennis exhibition. She was trailing 15-year-old Jodie Burrage 7-5, 3-2 when she called it quits. Bartoli will be doing commentary for BBC at this year’s Wimbledon.

 

STEADY RECORD

Agnieszka Radwanska may not have considered it an upset when she was toppled in the opening round at Eastbourne by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. After all, Radwanska’s trips to the Wimbledon grass-court warm-up event have been dramatically shortened since she won the tournament in 2008. She has now lost in the first round four times and has not won a match at Eastbourne since she reached the quarterfinals in 2011. She apparently hasn’t needed the work on grass. Last year she reached the Wimbledon semifinals; the year before she lost to Serena Williams in the title match of the year’s third Grand Slam tournament. “The first match (on grass) is always tricky,” Radwanska said. “Well, it was a great match before Wimbledon to get used to it … I just hope I can do the same good results (at Wimbledon) this year.”

 

SAY YES, MICHAELLA

Michaella Krajicek may have been on the losing end of the doubles final at the Topshelf Open, but she left the Dutch tournament with the best trophy of all – an engagement ring. A Netherlands native, Krajicek had won her first-round singles match when German doubles specialist Martin Emmrich stepped onto the court. Emmrich and Krajicek have been an item since they met at the same tournament last year. This time, Emmrich took a microphone, got down on one knee and proposed. Krajicek, whose half-brother Richard won Wimbledon in 1996, said yes. “It was a huge surprise,” Krajicek said. “We met here one year ago and I think it’s such a very special place to do it. I just knew I was for sure going to say yes. That was all I knew in that moment.”

 

SEASON ENDED

Once again Tommy Haas has had his career halted by injury. The German right-hander has had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder performed by Dr. David Altchek in New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. “It’s been a struggle since the beginning of the year, obviously, and I’ve already had to retire in matches, which is never fun,” Haas said. “Unfortunately it’s an injury I’ve already had before that was fixed, but my sub-scapular tendon is torn again. It’s a big step backwards in a long process, but I want to hopefully come back again at some point and finish my career on my own terms when I’m ready for it. I’ll try everything I can.” Haas has been ranked as high as second in the world during his career, which has seen him win 15 titles. The 36-year-old German twice has won the Comeback Player of the Year award and is currently the oldest player ranked in the Top 100. He has reached four Grand Slam tournament semifinals, including Wimbledon in 2009. He won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It will be the fourth operation on his right shoulder and he is expected to not return until next year. “I’m still totally convinced I’ve good matches and tournaments ahead of me,” Haas said.

 

SICK BAY

A wrist injury has caused Great Britain’s Laura Robson to miss the WTA tour while she recovers. “I went through a very, very depressed stage,” said the 20-year-old Robson. “I didn’t go on any tennis websites because I was so jealous of everyone able to play.” Now, she said, she’s “past that stage” and plans on starting to hit sponge balls by August. “At the moment it’s kind of a day-to-day thing in terms of pain and how the inflammation is going, but rehab seems to be coming along nicely,” she said. Robson has only played one full match this year, losing to Kirsten Flipkens at the Australian Open in January. And she plans on playing the Australian Open next year. “I’d still like to be able to play some matches at the end of this year and get some competitive tennis in before Australia,” Robson said. “I’m basically going to be playing some very small tournaments to try and get my ranking up again.” She will be at Wimbledon this year, but only as part of the BBC commentary team.

 

SPOKESPERSON

Garbiñe Muguruza has been tabbed as an up-and-comer after posting several big wins this season, including one at Roland Garros over Serena Williams where she eventually reached the quarterfinals. And the young Spaniard is beginning to reap the rewards. She just signed a deal to become a brand ambassador for the Japanese car manufacturer Mazda.

 

SAYS MAURESMO WRONG CHOICE

Virginia Wade is the last Brit to win the Wimbledon women’s singles title. Now she disagrees with the coaching choice made by the last Brit to win the Wimbledon men’s singles crown. “Mauresmo was a total shock,” Wade said of Andy Murray’s decision to hired Amelia Mauresmo as his coach. “I thought they were all fooling around. “I think again he’s maybe trying to mess with everybody. … She was a great player, she’s a great person. I think she was a little fragile mentally because she had the capabilities of beating everybody. She’s laid back, she’s a very nice, mature person. But I can’t work it out at all.” Wade seems to be alone in her assessment as a vast majority of players approve of the move.

 

SELECTED

Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and American John Isner have been elected to the ATP Player Council for the first time. Elected to a two-year term, the council is comprised of a number of returning members as well. Players ranked in the top 50 who were elected are Kevin Anderson of South Africa, Isner, Wawrinka and Frenchman Gilles Simon. Those ranked from 51 to 100 are Jürgen Melzer of Austria and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine; ranked in top 100 in doubles: Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Bruno Soares of Brazil; at-large: American Eric Butorac  and Andre Sa of Brazil; alumni: Yves Allegro; and coach: Claudio Pistolesi. The council’s first meeting will be held in New York City prior to the US Open where the president and vice president will be elected. Roger Federer, who has served as council president since 2008, decided not to run for a fourth consecutive term.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Eastbourne (men): Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot beat Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares 7-5 5-7 10-8 (match tiebreak)

Eastbourne (women): Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan beat Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta 6-3 5-7 10-7 (match tiebreak)

‘s-Hertogenbosch (men): Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau beat Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky 6-3 7-6 (3)

‘s-Hertogenbosch (women): Marina Erakovic and Arantxa Parra Santonja beat Michaella Krajicek and Kristina Mladenovic 0-6 7-6 (5) 10-8 (match tiebreak)

 

SURFING

Wimbledon: www.Wimbledon.com

Wimbledon Tennis: www.wimbledontennis.co.uk/

Braunschweig: www.sparkassen-open.de

Contrexeville: www.open88.org

ATP: www.atpworldtour.com

WTA: www.wtatennis.com

International Tennis Federation: www.itftennis.com

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

MEN and WOMEN

Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Great Britain, grass (first week)

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

MEN

Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Great Britain, grass (second week)

$144,861 Sparkassen Open, Braunschweig, Germany

 

Madison Keys
Madison Keys

WOMEN

Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Great Britain, grass (second week)

$100,000 Lorraine Open 88, Contrexeville, France, clay

Ana Ivanovic, Grigor Dimitrov Win First Grass-Court Titles, Roger Federer His 14th – Mondays With Bob Greene

by

Mondays with Bob Greene

 

STARS

Roger Federer beat Alejandro Falla 7-6 (2) 7-6 (3) to win the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany

Grigor Dimitrov beat Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (8) 7-6 (1) 7-6 (6) to win the Aegon Championships in London, Great Britain

Ana Ivanovic beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3 6-2 to win the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, Great Britain

Pablo Carreno Busta beat Facundo Bagnis 4-6 6-4 6-1 to win the Challenger Citta’ di Caltanissetta in Caltanissetta, Italy

 

 SAYING

“I really enjoy winning titles. It is what I play for, to play and receive a standing ovation at the end.” – Roger Federer, after winning the Halle, Germany, title for the seventh time.

“He’s the king of kings of tiebreaks. “ Alejandro Falla, after losing to Federer in two tiebreak sets,

“Obviously I knew what I had to do today out on the court, and (Feliciano Lopez) is one of those competitors that when it comes to fast surfaces, he’s always very tricky to play. I just fought hard and left everything out on the court. That that was my main goal. I achieved what I was looking for.” – Grigor Dimitrov, after beating Feliciano Lopez to win at Queen’s Club.

“It’s tough to lose when you play such a great match. Overall it was a great week for me. It has been a great preparation for Wimbledon, and hopefully in Eastbourne next week I can do well again. It’s true that I’m feeling great.”  — Feliciano Lopez.

“I’m thrilled. A childhood dream come true. Twelve years ago I went to school in Halle. I lived here for two or three years and played for the club. With my mom passing a few years ago, I dedicate this title to her. This is such a special moment for me. – Andre Begemann, who teamed with Julian Knowle to win the doubles at Halle.

“It’s very special to play Roger (Federer) and to beat (him) in a final. I really enjoyed playing with Andre and we got our first title together in our first tournament.” – Julian Knowle, after he and Andre Begemann won the Halle doubles title.

“It was a very tough match. They didn’t give us many chances on their serve. We managed to hang in there. At the end, we played some great points in both tiebreakers. It was good to take the lead early on and manage to keep that all the way.” – Alexander Peya, after teaming with Bruno Soares to win the Queen’s Club doubles.

“We played a good match. We didn’t lose serve. We just obviously didn’t quite get it done at the end.” – Jamie Murray, who with John Peers lost the doubles final at Queen’s Club.

“I know it’s a little unorthodox, but if it works for him, that’s what matters the most.” – Ana Ivanovic, on Andy Murray hiring Amelie Mauresmo as his coach.

“It’s bold, it’s fun, it’s something we’re all going to be talking about and good for Andy. He’s come up with his mother as his coach from a very young age, so he’s comfortable hearing from both genders about his tennis.” – Jim Courier, on Murray taking on a female as his new coach.

“It is not the gender of the coach that is important, it is the strength of the relationship between the coach and the player that will make the partnership work. Women have coached men for years, going back to Bobby Riggs and Eleanor Tennant. What is important is that this is what Andy feels is best for his current situation.” – Billie Jean King.

“I’m sure everyone’s intrigued to see how it’s going to play out and what she’s going to bring to his game’ – Stosur

“It’s unusual for a men’s player to be coached by a female, but he obviously sees there’s going to be some benefit. For me to pick a coach I couldn’t care less if they were male or female, so long as I think they’re going to be doing a good job.” – Samantha Stosur.

“She’s smart, she’s got a great game and Andy’s not going just to pick somebody for no reason. He’s going to have done his homework. So it’s a matter of him putting it together in his brain, and if she can add something there I think it’s a great choice. Most people will probably be surprised, but it may well work.” – Pat Cash.

 

SEVEN-TIME CHAMPION

Fourteen times in his career Roger Federer has won a grass-court title, seven of them coming on the green carpet at Wimbledon. The Swiss master captured the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, for the seventh time Sunday by edging Alejandro Falla in two tiebreak sets. “I am very pleased with my performance,” Federer said. “I work hard and travel the tour to win these titles and not lose in the quarters or semifinals. With all the success I have had in the past, I need to aim for titles. I think I deserved the title this week.” Falla agreed. “He’s the king of kings of tiebreaks,” said Falla, who became the first player from Colombia to reach a grass-court tournament final. It was Falla who sent the first set to a tiebreak. Federer served at 5-3, only to be broken. The two traded service breaks to open the second set. “To win in a tiebreak is always a bit special; the euphoria, the emotion comes out,” Federer said. “I was able to deal with Falla’s strengths in the final and also (Kei) Nishikori’s in the semifinal.” It was the ninth time Federer has reached the Halle title match and his 79th career win. “I’ve left a little bit of my heart here,” Federer said. “I’m very pleased now to go to Wimbledon.”

Federer’s winning ways in tiebreakers didn’t help him repeat his performance of 2005 in Halle and 2003 in Vienna, the only two times he has won both singles and doubles in the same tournament. Federer and compatriot Marco Chiudinelli lost the Halle doubles final in a 12-10 match tiebreak to Andre Begemann of Germany and Julian Knowle of Austria after the two split the first two sets 1-6 7-5.

 

SIGNATURE GRASS VICTORY

Ana Ivanovic called it the perfect preparation for the upcoming Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon. Everyone else called it a win – Ivanovic’s first title on grass. “I couldn’t ask for better preparation (for Wimbledon) than to win my first title on grass,” the Serb right-hander said after defeating the Czech Republic’s Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in straight sets. Told that she was following in the footsteps of former winners at Edgbaston in Birmingham, Great Britain, such as Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, Ivanovic said: “It definitely feels very special, not just to win my first title on grass, but to put my name next to champions like that.” Then she added, “Hopefully they can help me with my smashes.” A few missed overheads was the only downside to her impressive performance. She dictated play by standing just at or inside the baseline, forcing the action. Zahlavova Strycova broke Ivanovic to begin the match. After that it was Ivanovic who dominated, building a 4-1 lead in the first set and a 5-1 advantage in the second. It also was Ivanovic’s biggest title since she won the French Open in 2008. She has won six other WTA titles since her victory in Paris, but they all were smaller tournaments with less total prize money. Sunday’s victory was Ivanovic’s 37th match win of the season, the most in the WTA.

 

SURFACE SWEEP

It may have been a tight victory at Queen’s Club, but it made Grigor Dimitrov the first player since Roger Federer and David Ferrer in 2012 to win titles on three different surfaces in the same year. His three-tiebreak win at the Wimbledon grass-court warm-up event follows triumphs on hard courts in Acapulco and clay in Bucharest. “It’s been amazing to be here and win the tournament,” Dimitrov said after his latest title. “I’m really happy to go through the match and win it in such a way.” And that was close. After losing the first tiebreak 10-8, he tied the score with a 7-1 tiebreak win in the second set, then captured the third tiebreaker 8-6. “I was one point away, so it’s disappointing, but this is tennis,” Spain’s Feliciano Lopez said. “I have to congratulate Grigor because he was a terrific fighter.” At 23 years old the youngest player in the ATP’s Top 20 rankings, Dimitrov celebrated his victory by running to the side of the court and giving his racquet to Chris Kermode, the ATP president who gave Dimitrov his first wildcard entry to The Queen’s Club tournament five years ago when Kermode was tournament director of the London event. Lopez had a match point at 5-6 in the second set. But his huge forehand return on a second serve banged into the net and Dimitrov went on to hold serve and send it into another tiebreak.

Dimitrov’s victory was cheered on by his girlfriend and French Open champion, Maria Sharapova.

 

STRAIGHT IN

Young American Taylor Townsend and Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva were given wild cards into the women’s main draw at Wimbledon. Playing in her first Grand Slam tournament main draw at Roland Garros, Townsend battled her way into the third round. She was runner-up in the girls’ singles to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic at Wimbledon last year. Zvonareva, who missed almost 18 months due to illness and a shoulder injury, also was given a wild card into the women’s doubles, where she will partner Martina Hingis. Other wildcards announced earlier went to Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and three British players: Naomi Broady, Tara Moore and Samantha Murray.

 

SHE’S BACK

Victoria Azarenka is expected to return to the WTA tour at Eastbourne this week following a three-month absence because of a foot injury. The 24-year-old Belarusian has not played since March, who she attempted a comeback after missing two months with the injury. “I’ve worked hard to rehabilitate my injury and to get fit for my return,” said Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open winner who is currently ranked eighth in the world. “The grass courts are world class, which will give me the best possible start to the second half of the season and the perfect preparation for Wimbledon.”

 

SHOCKER AT HALLE

It wasn’t that Rafael Nadal didn’t know about Dustin Brown’s huge game on grass. It’s just that the world’s number one player couldn’t get past the man he had called “very dangerous.” Just four days after winning a record ninth Roland Garros title, Nadal was thrashed 6-4 6-1 by Brown in his first match at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. “I lost today because my rival was playing better than me,” Nadal said. “And at the same time, as I said yesterday, the transition from clay to grass is difficult, especially when you arrive a little bit tired and not at 100 percent. But I tried my best.” Ranked 85th in the world and into the tournament with a wild card, Brown became the lowest ranked player to defeat a world number one since American Mardy Fish – ranked 98th at the time – upset Roger Federer at Indian Wells, California, USA, in 2008. Brown, who has had much better success in doubles than singles, limited Nadal to just 10 points in the second set. “I’ve had a lot of great wins before, but this was my first time playing a world number one at home in Germany and on grass, my best surface,” he said. Brown then lost the next match to fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

 

STUMBLE IN LONDON

Andy Murray is the reigning Wimbledon champion and home favorite at the Aegon Championships at The Queen’s Club in London, where he has won the title three times. Tell that to Radek Stepanek. The Czech veteran recorded his first Top 10 win in nearly two years to shock Murray 7-6 (10) 6-2. “Beating him is actually a great win for me,” Stepanek said. “When you play the best ones, you’re going to come out with your best. I think that’s what I did today. Definitely it’s special to play on grass in England after he won Wimbledon and he won the Olympics here.” Murray was the defending champion at the Wimbledon warm-up event, which he also won in 2009 and 2011.

 

SHARING A SIDE

Thanks to a wildcard from the All England Club, Martina Hingis will be playing Wimbledon for the first time in seven years. The Swiss star, who won Wimbledon singles in 1997, will be playing doubles only at the famed grass court Grand Slam tournament. Hingis also won doubles at Wimbledon, teaming with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998. This time, her partner will be Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, a former doubles winner and singles runner-up. Hingis last played at Wimbledon in 2007, when she lost in the third round of singles. She hasn’t played doubles at the All England Club since 2000. Hingis has been playing doubles this year with Sabine Lisicki, but the German is now concentrating on singles.

Also being granted a wildcard entry into the men’s singles main draw is Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

 

SWITCH SNAFU?

Just as Rafael Nadal was ready to capture the men’s title at Roland Garros for the fifth consecutive year, viewers in Great Britain had to change television channels to stay tuned. The match was televised on ITV1 – or at least most of the match was. But two points into what turned out to be the final game, ITV1 announced it was going to show a newscast and the tennis was being moved to ITV4, a digital-only channel that not everyone can see. ITV insisted it had made viewers aware of the changeover several times in advance. “The coverage on ITV 4 overlapped for several minutes to ensure viewers need not miss any action,” the company said. “We apologize for any inconvenience the change in channels caused to any viewers.” For those who didn’t or couldn’t switch, Nadal won 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4.

 

SPLITTSVILLE, PERHAPS

Australia’s Daily Telegraph is reporting that the two-year relationship with tennis star Victoria Azarenka and singer Redfoo may be growing chilly, if not cold. According to the newspaper, Redfoo is planning on making music in Australia where he is a judge on a TV show, while Azarenka returns to the WTA tour this week at Eastbourne, Great Britain. The two were seen together wearing matching chunky glasses at a musical performance in Sydney, Australia.

 

SEEMINGLY FORGETFUL

Just because he has won 17 Grand Slam tournament singles titles doesn’t mean Roger Federer is a master of the moment. In his semifinal match, Federer apparently forgot the score. When Kei Nishikori hit a backhand into the net on match point, Federer quickly returned to the baseline, preparing to serve again as Nishikori approached the net to shake hands. “It was the first time in my career in over a thousand matches,” Federer said of his faux pas.

 

SELES ENGAGED

Monica Seles, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and billionaire Tom Golisano say they are getting married. Both live in Florida and have been dating since 2009. During her career, which was interrupted for two years after she was stabbed on court by a man from the audience, Seles won nine Grand Slam tournament singles titles. She retired in 2003. The 72-year-old Golisano is the founder of Paychex, the second largest payroll processor in the United States. He is a one-time owner of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, made an unsuccessful bid for baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 and is currently trying to purchase the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills. He also was a candidate for governor of New York State in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

 

SAME TRIO

For the second straight year three tennis players have been named to Forbes magazine’s list of the Top 100 World’s Highest Paid Athletes. And, for the second straight year, Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Serena Williams are the only women to make the list. For the 10th straight year Sharapova is the top-earning female athlete with USD $24.4 million. That puts her 34th on the Top 100 list. Li Na is 41st with earnings of USD $23.6 million, while Williams is 55th with USD $22 million. In compiling the list, Forbes includes prize money, endorsements, exhibitions and appearance fees paid out between June 1, 2013, and June 1, 2014. The list is topped by boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned USD $105 million in two fights during the year. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal was third with USD $80 million and National Basketball Association (NBA) star LeBron James third with earnings of USD $72.3 million. The top male tennis players were Roger Federer seventh with earnings of USD $56.2 million, Rafael Nadal ninth with USD $44.5 million and Novak Djokovic 17th with earnings of USD $33.1 million.

 

STOPPED FOR LIFE

A Russian who was found guilty of betting and match-fixing has been banned from playing professional tennis for life. The Tennis Integrity Unit said 27-year-old Andrey Kumantsov was found guilty of 12 charges committed from 2010 through 2013. Kumantsov, who had been ranked as high as 261 in the world, has not played a match this year. He has career earnings of USD $103,856. Details of how Kumantsov broke the rules were not given.

 

SIGNED TO HELP

British tennis has signed veteran coach Bob Brett to help with player development in Great Britain. The 60-year-old Australian has previously coached Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Marin Cilic, among others. Brett will oversee all aspects of the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) high performance program in a bid to develop “a consistent stream of players who can be competitive at the very highest level,” according to LTA chief executive Michael Downey.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Birmingham: Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears beat Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 7-6 (1) 6-1

Caltanissetta: Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Enrique Lopez-Perez 6-3 6-3

Halle: Andre Begemann and Julian Knowle beat Marco Chiudinelli and Roger Federer 1-6 7-5 12-10 (match tiebreak)

London: Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares beat Jamie Murray and John Peers 4-6 7-6 (4) 10-4 (match tiebreak)

 

SURFING

Eastbourne: www.lta.org.uk/

‘s-Hertogenbosch: www.topshelfopen.nl

Wimbledon: www.Wimbledon.com

Wimbledon Tennis: www.wimbledontennis.co.uk/

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

 

MEN

$686,314 Aegon International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass

$581,864 Topshelf Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, grass

 

WOMEN

$644,900 Aegon International, Eastbourne, Great Britain, grass

$226,750 Topshelf Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, grass

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

MEN and WOMEN

Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Great Britain, grass (first week)

 

Ana Ivanovic
Ana Ivanovic

Canadian Pospisil makes first ATP 250 quarterfinal as Lopez, Benneteau and Davydenko post first round wins

by

Singles draw kicks into high gear tomorrow as top four seeds Ferrer, Monaco, Nishikori and Dolgopolov start campaigns; Doubles top seeds move into quarters

Canadian number two and world No.122 Vasek Pospisil posted his first ever second round victory in an ATP 250 series tournament when he defeated qualifier Michael Yani of the USA 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 50 minutes on Centre Court to move into the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2012 held here at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

Canadian Vasek Pospisil in Kuala Lumpur

Pospisil, who came into the tournament as the lowest ranked direct acceptance, is making the quarterfinal of an ATP 250 tournament for the first time, and will face the winner of the second round match between second seed world No. 11 Juan Monaco and wild card Jimmy Wang.

“It’s been a great tournament for me. I have had a few good matches and hopefully I can keep my level. I lost to Monaco in straight sets early this year but whomever I play, it will be tough and hopefully I play as well as I did today,” said the Canadian.

Fifth seed Feliciano Lopez also made it through to the second round after a hard fought 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Slovakian Lukas Lacko in one hour and 40 minutes on Centre Court.

Surprisingly, Lacko took an early lead and was up 3-0 in the first set before the world No. 32 Spaniard hit his stride and the Slovakian disintegrated to lose six straight games and the set.

In a tight second set, both men played at a very high level and with the excited crowd very much behind him, fifth seed Lopez held on to end the contest with an exquisite drop shot in the tenth point of the tie-break.

“I didn’t start very well and took some time to adjust. But after the third game I played better and better and took six games in a row. The second set was close as (Lacko) played well from the middle onwards,” said the 31-year-old, who celebrated his birthday last Thursday.

Lopez will meet Dutchman Igor Sijsling in tomorrow’s second round match, with the duo having never met before.

“I have not played him before but I am expecting another tough match because we have to accept that everyone plays very good at this level,” added Lopez.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Julien Benneteau served sweet revenge for his Indian Wells defeat earlier this year to Australia’s Matthew Ebden by winning 7-5, 6-2 in their second round singles encounter today that lasted one hour and 14 minutes.

Tournament seventh seed and world No.34 Benneteau is playing the tennis of his career and will pose a serious threat in the quarterfinal, where he will meet the winner of tomorrow’s encounter between fourth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov and Alejandro Falla.

The 2009 singles champ Nikolay Davydenko struggled a little in his first round match today against lucky loser Sanam Singh of India, but prevailed 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 43 minutes on Centre Court.

There were times it felt the 31-year-old Russian was still getting used to the court as he struggled to return the tenacious world No. 373 Indian’s serve, but when it mattered, his class showed as he wrapped up victory in straight sets.

“The Centre Court is a bit slow and you need time to have preparation. I made a lot of mistakes in control. Sometimes I have a few good shots, and then I make mistakes and I don’t know why,” said the slightly frustrated Russian after the match.

Davydenko will meet Uzbek Denis Istomin in tomorrow’s second round match, with the former world No.3 having beaten Istomin earlier this year on the clay courts of Nice in May.

“We played in Nice and I played a little bit better there. If I play tomorrow like how I played today, I have no chance. I will need to play better and be fit,” said Davydenko, who made the semifinals of the ATP 250 Moselle Open just last week.

Istomin had booked his path to the second round by easily disposing of sixth seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 6-2 in just 73 minutes, marking his second victory in 2012 over the Spaniard after February’s win on the hard courts of the Apia International in Sydney.

Colombian Alejandro Falla moved into the second round when American Rajeev Ram pulled out with an injury as their Centre Court match was poised at 7-6 (7-4), 4-2 in favour of the Colombian. Falla will face number four seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in tomorrow’s second round match.

Meanwhile, in the day’s first match on Court 1, world No. 90 Alex Bogomolov Jr. of Russia defeated qualifier and doubles specialist Dominic Inglot of Great Britain 7-5, 6-3 in just 66 minutes.

“He’s got a good serve and he places it well, but I didn’t face a break point against him so that was good,” said 29-year-old Bogomolov, who made the tough decision of switching nationalities from American to Russian this year to fulfill his dreams of playing in the Olympics and Davis Cup.

He will now face top seed David Ferrer for a spot in the quarterfinal and said of the match: “I’ve played a lot of top ten players this year. It is good and bad. Bad because someone has to go out, but positive also because we see how we match up against the top guys.”

STARS DESCEND TO COURT IN SECOND ROUND OF MALAYSIAN OPEN, KUALA LUMPUR

Top seeds David Ferrer, Juan Monaco, Kei Nishikori and Alexandr Dolgopolov will all take to centre court for the second round of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2012 at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil tomorrow.

The first match on Centre Court scheduled for 1pm sees second seeded Argentinean world No. 11 Monaco make his long awaited Malaysian Open debut against wild card Jimmy Wang of Chinese Taipei.

Next up, in-form Denis Istomin, who beat sixth seed Pablo Andujar, takes on 2009 singles champion Russian Davydenko, who struggled a little with the pace of the Centre Court today, for a spot in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Fourth seed world No. 20 Ukrainian Dolgopolov will take on Colombian Alejandro Falla in the third centre court match starting not before 3pm, with the latter confident of matching his higher ranked 23-year-old opponent.

“Dolgopolov is a favourite but I feel I can play well against him. It was a close match the last time and we both know each other’s games. I have to play my best to beat him,” said 28-year-old Falla.

Next, third time participant and third seed Kei Nishikori of Japan plays his much anticipated second round encounter with Spaniard Albert Ramos, who showed terrific form in beating qualifier Julian Knowle in the first round. The match is scheduled to start not before 6.30pm.

Top seed world No. 5 David Ferrer makes his 2012 tournament debut against Alex Bogomolov Jr. in the day’s final and most anticipated match on Centre Court starting not before 7.30pm.

TOP SEEDS THROUGH IN DOUBLES AS ALL QUARTERFINAL MATCHES SET TO BE CONTESTED TOMORROW

In the doubles draw today, top seeds and 2009 tournament champions Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland eased into the quarterfinals with a straightforward 6-1, 6-3 win over Malaysian doubles wild card pairing of Mohd Assri Merzuki and Syed Mohd Agil Syed Naguib.

The top seeds rarely got out of second gear and allowed their teenage debutants to warm to the challenge and put up a good show for the home crowd, especially at the start of the second set.

The Polish duo will face the Canadian-Indian surprise package of Vasek Pospisil and Sanam Singh in tomorrow’s quarterfinal match.

German pairing of Michael Kohlmann and Frank Moser also moved into the doubles quarterfinals after a come from behind super tie-breaker victory over the Philippine-Great Briton pairing of Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot, winning 5-7, 6-3 (11-9) in one hour and 29 minutes.

The result could be considered an upset as Huey and Inglot are ranked higher in the ATP doubles ranking and the German duo have only played as a pair three times before back in 2008. They will meet second seeded Italian-Brazilian pairing of Daniele Bracciali and Marcelo Melo in tomorrow’s last match on Court 1.

In the first of the four quarterfinal doubles matches played tomorrow, fourth seeds Julian Knowle of Austria and Slovakian partner Filip Polasek take to Court 1 against the Great Briton pairing of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.

In the only other final quarterfinal, Nikolay Davydenko and Belgium partner Dick Norman will attempt to beat the odds as they face third seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Brazilian Bruno Soares.

Tickets for tomorrow are priced at RM15 (RM10 for students) for regular seating, RM20 for reserved seating and RM50 for VIP seats. Tickets can be purchased at the tournament official website www.malaysianopentennis.com.

The tournament is supported by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia and sponsors that include Rado, CNN International, the DoubleTree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur, Wilson, 100 Plus, the Albukhary Foundation, Astro and the ATP World Tour’s Premier Partner Corona. The event is sanctioned by the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia.

Benneateau to seek redemption against Ebden as duo post their first round victories

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Fifth and sixth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Pablo Andujar start singles campaigns tomorrow, along with 2009 champion Nikolay Davydenko; Top seeded doubles also set to feature against Malaysian wild card pairing

Seventh seed and world No. 34 Julien Benneteau of France booked his spot as expected in the second round of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2012, as he overcame a first set scare to defeat Argentinean Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes at the Centre Court of the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today.

The 30-year-old Benneteau let slip a 4-2 lead in the first set, allowing the world No. 49 Berlocq to break him twice to come back, but the higher ranked Frenchman held his composure in the tie-break to take charge of the match.

The second set saw the Argentinean put up little fight as Benneteau broke him twice, including in the ninth and final game, to take the set.

“I made some mistakes on serve in the first set and he came back. But I played a great tie-break and I think it was the difference in the match,” said the Frenchman.

Benneteau will now face Matthew Ebden in the second round, seeking redemption after his loss to the Australian in three sets at the Indian Wells ATP World Tour Masters in March.

“I lost to Ebden earlier this year at Indian Wells and hopefully it is different this time around,” said Benneteau, who has played in six ATP finals but never won a title.

Matthew Ebden in action in Kuala Lumpur

Australian world No. 63 Matthew Ebden had earlier swept past wild card Russian Philip Davydenko 6-0, 7-6 (6-3) in one hour and 17 minutes to move into the second round.

Ranked outside the top 1000, the 20-year-old nephew of 2009 champ Nikolay Davydenko was on course for a whitewash at 2-5 down in the second set, but the Russian picked up his game, led by his sweeping backhand, and came back strongly to even lead 6-5 on serve. However, the set eventually went into a tie-break with Ebden taking the victory.

The 24-year-old South Africa-born Ebden lost in the first round at Kuala Lumpur last year, but enjoyed his best ever ranking this year and will once again pose a strong threat to the seventh seed Benneteau tomorrow.

Spaniard Albert Ramos continued his fine form this year with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 victory over qualifier Julian Knowle of Austria in 69 minutes on Centre Court.

World No. 48 Ramos controlled the match from the start as Knowle’s inexperience in singles (the doubles specialist is playing in an ATP singles main draw for the first time in seven years) showed when the 38-year-old struggled with his service throughout the first set.

Leading 4-2 in the second set, it may have looked like Knowle, the oldest player in the tournament, was going to push the tie into a decider, but Ramos, who served 14 aces in the match, broke him twice on the trot to wrap the match up and book his second round spot against third seed Kei Nishikori of Japan.

Five first round doubles matches were played today, with the Great Briton pairing of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins becoming the first to book their quarterfinal spot after a straightforward 6-3, 6-2 victory in 55 minutes over the Dutch-Colombian pairing of Igor Sijsling and Alejandro Falla.

The British duo, who are playing some of the best tennis of their career this year, lost in last year’s quarterfinal to the top seeds in the tournament, but have a more favourable draw this year and will likely meet the fourth seeded Austrian-Argentinean duo of Julian Knowle and Filip Polasek.

Tournament stalwart and 2009 singles champ Nikolay Davydenko got off to a winning start in his doubles campaign, partnering the 6”8’ power serving Belgium Dick Norman as they defeated the Russian-Uzbek pairing of Mikhail Elgin and Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-0 in 50 minutes.

Third seeded doubles pair Alexander Peya of Austria and Brazilian Bruno Soares broke little sweat in defeating the Malaysian-Chinese Taipei wild card entry of Si Yew Ming and Jimmy Wang 6-2, 6-2 in 52 minutes on Centre Court to book their quarterfinal appearance.

The Asian scratch pair started strongly, but their confidence petered out by the fifth game, when they first got broken and subsequently struggled for form and communication.

Peya and Soares, meanwhile, were serving strongly and focused their returns toward the lesser ranked Malaysian to wrap up a comfortable victory.

Speaking after the match, the Malaysian said: “Overall I think we played okay, but mistakes on a few important points cost us. Given more time, we could have forged a better partnership.”

Meanwhile, second seeded Italian-Brazilian pairing of Daniele Bracciali and Marcelo Melo also moved on as predicted to the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw after defeating the American duo of Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour.

In the day’s final match on Centre Court, the Canadian-Indian scratch pairing of Vasek Pospisil and Sanam Singh upset the odds when they overcame their more experienced opponents James Cerretani of the USA and Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 24 minutes.

The duo, who at the last minute replaced the pairing of Jurgen Melzer and Juan Monaco after the former pulled out of the tournament after a left quadricep injury, formed a formidable partnership, with Singh serving well and Pospisil proving dangerous at the net.

Lopez, Andujar and Davydenko to kick off singles campaigns tomorrow

Four first round singles matches and two second round singles matches will be played tomorrow in the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2012.

Fifth seed Feliciano Lopez takes to court against Slovakian Lukas Lacko tomorrow, with the left-handed Spaniard, ranked 34 places higher at No. 32, the favourite to win in their first encounter together.

Meanwhile, sixth seeded Spaniard Pablo Andujar, has a tricky encounter with resurgent Uzbek Denis Istomin. The duo both reached their career high ATP ranking of No. 33 this year, in September and August respectively, and are currently ranked only four places apart, with the higher ranked Andujar at No. 42.

The 2009 Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur singles champion Nikolay Davydenko will also feature in singles tomorrow as he meets Sanam Singh of India in the first round.

The 24-year-old Singh, who had lost to Michael Yani in the qualifiers, was the Lucky Loser chosen to replace Slovak Martin Klizan, who pulled out of the tournament after winning the St. Petersburg Open last week.

Thirty-one-year old world No. 44 Davydenko should be in good form after making the semifinal of the ATP 250 Series Moselle Open last week, where he lost to top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in three sets.

In the day’s first match on Centre Court, Colombian Alejandro Falla will take on American Rajeev Ram, with the duo having met only once before in 2009, where Ram claimed a first round victory in the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships held in the US.

Among the two 28-year-olds, Falla is currently ranked higher in the ATP rankings at No.61, having dropped eleven spots in the last week, while Rajeev climbed five rungs to No. 93.

Meanwhile, Great Briton qualifier and doubles specialist Dominic Inglot will have his work cut out for him in his first round match as he comes up again world No. 90 Alex Bogomolov Jr of Russia in the day’s first match on Court 1.

In an intriguing encounter and the first second round match being contested, both Michael Yani and Canadian Pospisil will attempt to secure their best ever finish in an ATP tournament by reaching the quarterfinals.

Qualifier Michael Yani played splendidly to defeat higher ranked US wild card Brian Baker yesterday while Canadian number two Pospisil was leading Austrian Jurgen Melzer by a set before the eighth seed pulled out with injury.

The 22-year-old Pospisil is currently ranked world No. 122 while 31-year-old circuit veteran Michael Yani is much lower in the ATP rankings at No. 238.

The other second round singles tie sees Matthew Ebden attempt to repeat his March Indian Wells victory over French seventh seed Julien Benneteau.

Two first round doubles matches will also take place tomorrow, with top seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland taking on Malaysian wild card debutants Mohd Asri Merzuk and Syed Agil Syed Naguib. The Polish duo have a great record in the tournament, emerging champions in 2009, and with a combined ATP doubles rank of No. 21, they are favourites to win this year.

Also playing are the German pairing of Michael Kohlmann and Frank Moser, who face the Philippine-Great Briton duo of Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot for a spot in the quarterfinal.

Singles top seeds David Ferrer, Juan Monaco, Kei Nishikori and Alexandr Dolgopolov are scheduled to start their campaigns on Thursday.

Earlier today, the number one and two seeds Ferrer and Monaco took part in a spectacular photo shoot on the roof of the Intermark building in KL, where the duo played tennis on the skyscraper overlooking the Petronas Twins Towers.

The tournament is supported by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia and sponsors that include Rado, CNN International, the DoubleTree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur, Wilson, 100 Plus, the Albukhary Foundation, Astro and the ATP World Tour’s Premier Partner Corona. The event is sanctioned by the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting the official website, www.MalaysianOpenTennis.com.

USA’s Performance At The Australian Open Is Gimpy

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Metaphorical, wasn’t it, as Andy Roddick limped off court, having waved the white flag after going down two sets to one to Lleyton Hewitt and grimacing through several games with a hamstring injury.

How gimpy was the overall U.S. performance at this opening Grand Slam of the season? When the day was done, John Isner was beaten as well, leaving no American men in the round of 16 since the beginning of the Open Era of tennis in 1968.

Gone: Roddick in the second round with yet another injury as he marches, or rather hobbles, toward his 30th birthday.

Gone: No. 8 ranked Mardy Fish, down in straights to Colombia’s Alejandro Falla in the second round.

Gone: Isner, beaten 6-1 in the fifth set by lefty ace-serving Feliciano Lopez in the third round.

And the rest of the U.S. cast of characters are gone as well: Ryan Sweeting, though he looks as if he might have a very good year, young Ryan Harrison, Michael Russell, Donald Young, Jesse Levine, and qualifiers Denis Kudla and Alex Kuznetsov.

On the women’s side, only two of 10 U.S. players remain in the draw — Serena Williams and, surprisingly, Vania King.

This was the start of what was hoped would be a breakthrough year for a number of young American women, and one might argue that 19-year-old Christina McHale, her ranking already at No. 43, had her breakthrough in 2011.

But she was thumped out of the Aussie Open in the third round by No. 13 seed Jelena Jankovic by 6-2, 6-0 with an extremely disappointing performance.

There are other young Americans from whom more is expected by the very heavily funded USTA development program — Madison Keys, 16; Sloane Stephens, 18, Irina Falconi and Alison Riske, both 21; and Jamie Hampton, 22. And for most of them their losses shouldn’t be seen as total failures. They are evolving players who should get better. Still, U.S. tennis fans can be impatient and the toe tapping is well under way for most of this young talent.

Let’s go back a week. The U.S. had just six men players in the Australian Open qualifying tournament, and that alone speaks to disappearing depth. Kudla and Kuznetsov qualified with Denis losing in five to the soon-to-be-retired Tommy Haas in the main draw while Alex drew No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal and went down quickly in three.

The other four in the qualifying produced just two wins, both by Tim Smyczek, who was beaten in the final round in a quest for a main draw spot. Robby Ginepri, Michael Yani and Rajeev Ram? All down in straight sets in the opening round.

On the women’s side, there were 12 in the qualifying with Riske, Hampton and Varvara Lepchenko going through. Only Hampton won a main draw round, beating career minor leaguer Mandy Minella of Luxembourg and then getting blasted 6-0, 6-1 by Maria Sharapova. No great shame in losing there, but the USTA had hoped for a lot more fight than she delivered.

Serena is doing what was expected and, though she’s a longshot to win the tournament because of her succession of injuries, she’ll almost certainly make the second week. King, who turns 23 on Feb. 3, has been a slow developer and, though she upset No. 15 seed Anastasia Pavlyochenkova in the second round, she won’t be favored to get by Ana Ivanovic in the third.

That would leave just one U.S. player out of a total of 22 entered in the main draws.

So what do you deduce? To begin with, it’s not a good start to the year. Last year, Roddick, because of injury, played the fewest matches since his first full-time season, and if this hamstring injury has indeed been lingering since December, that’s not a good signal of his recuperative abilities at age 29.

Mardy Fish? It has been a good year and a half since he became the svelte Mardy and he’s run up an excellent won-lost record and achieved top-10 status. But his performances in the Slams are largely disappointing. There was a quarterfinal finish at Wimbledon last year, where he beat Tomas Berdych and lost to Nadal, and who knows how far he might have gone with a cozier draw. But he was out in the second round of the 2011 Aussie Open (Tommy Robredo) and round of 16 at the U.S. Open (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga). Tough opponents, yes. But still . . . Big players score big results in big moments.

Isner? Two five-setters in a row was devastating. I think he can reach top-10.

Is there another top-10 talent out there on the U.S. women’s side? McHale is the best of the young Americans right now, but I still don’t see elite talent there. Keys is the X factor. She got slapped down pretty hard by Jie Zheng in the opening round (6-2, 6-1), scoring only 35 points in 15 games. But she’s only 16! We still have to see how she holds up physically with an intensified tournament schedule.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

Jankovic Signs With Fila; Stosur Pairs Up With ASICS: This Week in Tennis Business with Justin Cohen

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Jankovic signs endorsement agreement with Fila

Just this week, former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic signed a sponsorship deal with Fila, who has a long history in the tennis industry including being a sponsor of the Sony Ericsson Open, the BNP Paribas Open and the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. Fila is also the footwear licensee of the Championships at Wimbledon. For the past three years, the Serbian was wearing Anta. “I have always been attracted to Fila’s fashion-forward designs and especially appreciate their commitment to infusing our sport with beauty and fashion,” said Jankovic. “Fila has such a rich tennis history and it is an honor to be wearing the same brand as the stars I admired as a child.” During the past six years in which Jankovic has been ranked in the Top 20, she has won 12 singles titles, one doubles title and is a former Wimbledon mixed doubles champion with Scot Jamie Murray. “We are thrilled to add former #1 ranked Jelena Jankovic to the Fila family,” said Gene Yoon, Chairman of Fila. “Her on-court and off-court style is consistent with the tennis champions that have worn the Fila brand since the 1970s. As we enter the 101st year of the Fila brand, our commitment to the sport that has been such an important part of our history will be strengthened by relationships with world-class athletes like Jelena.”
 

Stosur signs multi-year sponsorship deal with ASICS

Australian Samantha Stosur, the 2011 US Open singles champion, has signed up as an ASICS ambassador in a multi-year deal starting this month. Stosur, who previously wore Lacoste clothing and ASICS shoes for the past two years, will now wear ASICS apparel entirely from head to toe throughout the tennis season. “I am really excited to join the ASICS team. I’ve actually worn their shoes for a couple of years, so now to be fully kitted out is really exciting for me and I am really looking forward to getting the year started,” said Stosur.
 

Venus withdraws from Australian Open

Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams recently announced on her website that she has withdrawn from next week’s Australian Open. “I regret to announce that I am withdrawing from the 2012 Australian Open. After several months of training and treatment, I am making steady progress to top competitive form. My diet and fitness regimen have allowed me to make great strides in terms of my health and I am very close to being ready to return to WTA competition. I have every intention to return to the circuit in February,” said Williams. The 31-year-old last played a competitive match at the 2011 US Open where she withdrew from her second round match against Sabine Lisciki. It was at that tournament that Williams announced she struggles from the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s syndrome.

Azarenka signs long-term partnership with Wilson

World No. 3 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus has signed a long-term partnership with Wilson Sporting Goods, a Chicago-based company. “I’m extremely excited to be changing to Wilson’s new Juice racket. The power and spin that I feel with this racket is insane and I look forward to seeing what I can do with it,” said Azarenka. Every time Azarenka hits the courts, she will be seen with a new Wilson Juice tennis racquet, a matching new blue Tour tennis bag and exclusive Wilson Emotisorb shock absorber. “She is a very powerful player, with a dynamic personality and we are very thrilled to have her join the Wilson family,” said Renaud Vallon, Global Tour Director for Wilson.
 

European Broadcasting Union wins Wimbledon extension through 2014

After winning a very spirited bid, the European Broadcasting Union has retained its status as the global distributor of The Championships Wimbledon through 2014. The contract has been awarded through IMG Media in its capacity as the official production partner. Eurovision will now provide a full range of services for the international broadcast community during the two weeks of the grass court Grand Slam event. This will include global delivery of the world feed in HD, plus a 10-court package for the European market, also shown in HD. “We are delighted to be renewing and extending our agreement with IMG and the AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis Club). The EBU has more than 60 years of experience in putting sports programming exactly where broadcasters and federations want it in a seamless, reliable and cost-effective way. This contract demonstrates how we continue to meet those needs in a constantly evolving technical world,” said Stefan Kuerten, Director of European Broadcasting Union Sports & Business. The 2012 Wimbledon Championships will take place from June 25-July 8.
 

Feliciano Lopez becomes sponsored exclusively by Wilson

On Tuesday, Wilson Sports Goods announced they have extended their long-term partnership with ATP World Tour star Feliciano Lopez to now include apparel and footwear. The relationship makes Lopez one of their highest ranked players who will be exclusively wearing Wilson gear from head to toe. The 30-year-old from Spain, who is currently ranked No. 19 in the world, has been playing with Wilson racquets since his days in the juniors. Starting at next week’s Australian Open, he will debut Wilson’s new 2012 spring apparel collection and new footwear, as well as Wilson’s new Juice racquet. “I’ve played with Wilson rackets throughout my professional career, and they consistently are innovating for us players and also making some cool looking frames,” said Lopez. “Now as a head to toe Wilson athlete, I am especially excited about the style and uniqueness of the apparel and footwear collections. I have total trust in the brand and the Wilson team. With the awesome apparel and footwear, I feel well equipped to enter the 2012 season.” “Feliciano is a greatly respected player on tour, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have him now wearing our apparel and footwear,” said Claire Ortiz, Global Business Director for Wilson Apparel. “His strong work ethic and commitment to the game make him a great ambassador for Wilson. We’re committed to designing and developing apparel and footwear collections with the most cutting edge technology and fashion forward style. Our dedication to this sport parallel Feliciano’s relentless perseverance, and we look forward to furthering this new exclusive Wilson partnership on tour.”
 

USTA to honor Grassroots Tennis Champions with National Awards in New Orleans

On Tuesday, the United States Tennis Association announced ten award winners to be honored during the USTA Community Tennis Development Workshop (CTDW), which will be held from January 13-15 in New Orleans at the Sheraton Hotel. The honorees will be recognized in a variety of categories for their dedication to growing the game of tennis at the grassroots level. The award winners include: Tennis for Fun Program (Tampa), Cindy Harkins (Longwood, Fla.), Justin DePietropaolo (Chester Springs, Pa.), Houston Tennis Association, Rita Gladstone (Port Orange, Fla.), Jim Neal (Niskayuna High School, Niskayuna, N.Y.), Jim Solomon (Hall High School, West Hartford, Conn.), Fred Wells Tennis & Education (Minneapolis), Mary and Frances Youth Center/Lobs & Lessons (Richmond, Va.) and the Central Texas Tennis Association.
 

ATP ACES For Charity grant presented to Canterbury Tennis in Auckland

During the Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand on Monday, the second of the 2012 ATP ACES For Charity grants was presented to Neil Prior, CEO, Canterbury Tennis. ATP Executive Chairman & President Brad Drewitt was present at the ceremony to award a $10,000 check to Prior. Canterbury Tennis, nominated by the Heineken Open aims to rebuild its tennis centre at Wilding Park after the devastating earthquake in February 2011 severely damaged all 33 of its outdoor courts. Of the 110 non-profit clubs affiliated to Canterbury Tennis, five suffered extensive damage with nearly all of their courts destroyed, and an additional nine suffered considerable damage. The organization is hoping to re-open its tennis centre by late 2012.
 

ATP ACES Charity grant presented to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Sydney

World No. 18 Richard Gasquet and ATP International Vice President Alison Lee presented the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation with a $10,000 check as a part of the ATP ACES For Charity program on Monday at the Apia International Sydney in Australia. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, affiliated with the Apia International Sydney more than five years now, is the world’s largest charitable supporter of Type 1 diabetes research, investing over $100 million globally per year. Funds raised by JDRF’s participation in the tournament will be used for Australian medical research, and the partnership further encourages people with Type 1 diabetes to participate in activities that can improve their overall health. The No. 3 seeded Frenchman participated in a clinic with children suffering from juvenile diabetes prior to the presentation.
 

Milos Raonic commits to 2012 Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport

The Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, R.I., have a lot to look forward to this summer after 2011 ATP World Tour Newcomer of the Year and 2012 Aircel Chennai Open champion Milos Raonic committed to the tournament on Monday. Ranked No. 25 in the world, the Canadian joins American John Isner as early commitments to this year’s player field. The tournament takes place on the historic grass courts at the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum from July 9-15. “No doubt, Milos Raonic is one of the most exciting rising stars on the ATP World Tour. We are glad to see his season off to a great start, and we are quite pleased to be able to welcome him to Newport in July,” said Mark L. Stenning, Tournament Director. “With Milos Raonic and John Isner already committed to the field, fans can anticipate a great week of tennis, and we’re looking forward to announcing more top players as well.” Tournament tickets are on sale now on tennisfame.com or by calling 866-914-FAME (3263). In celebration of this exciting start to the season, an “Early Bird – Early Rounds” ticket offer is available from now through January 22. To save 10% on all tickets for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sessions, use promo code EARLY2012.
 

del Potro will not play Argentina’s first round Davis Cup tie against Germany

According to La Nacion, former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro announced that he will not play in Argentina’s first round Davis Cup tie against Germany on an indoor clay court. His coach, Franco Davin, said that the decision was made based on the demands of the calendar and that he does not want the big-serving Argentine to make the fast transition from the Australian hard courts to indoor clay courts then back to European indoor hard courts.

The decline of Andy Roddick to take him out of top 20

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It will be more a footnote — though an important footnote — than some great piece of American tennis history, but Andy Roddick, for the first time in nearly 10 years, will fall out of the ATP’s top 20 when the new rankings come out Monday.

Andy Roddick

Roddick, currently at No. 15, will drop to about No. 22, maybe 21, after his opening-tournament loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Cincinnati 1000 early this week.

At this point in Roddick’s career, he’s probably a lot less interested in his week-to-week ranking than just staying injury free and able to compete.

Still, 10 years is a very long run in the top 20 and his absence from that group for the first time in a decade is significant. He had first cracked the top-20 at No. 18 on Aug. 20, 2001, 10 days shy of his 19th birthday, and had become one of the game’s longer fixtures in that benchmark group.

He’s dropping out because, having reached the semifinals at Cincinnati a year ago, he had 360 points to defend. His first-round loss this year is worth just 10 points, so he’s losing 350. He does, however, have a chance to recoup some ground next week at the new ATP-250 at Winston-Salem, possibly back into the top 20.

Injuries are crushing his ability to regain form and he’s played only 31 matches this season, on his way possibly to the fewest matches he will have played in a single season since his rookie year of 2000.

He has just returned from an abdominal injury, taking the predictable rust into Cincinnati. He hadn’t played since Wimbledon, where he lost in the third round to Feliciano Lopez in straight sets.

Several players have had this long a run in the top 20, and, like others, Roddick’s tenure there is largely due to his consistency over 10 years. In addition, he broke into the top 10 at No. 9 on Nov. 4, 2002, and spent nine weeks at No. 1 in 2003.

The inactivity this year, and to some extent in 2010, has hurt his ranking. He tumbled out of the top 10 on April 4 of this year. This season, he has a won/lost record of 21-11 with a title at Memphis and a runner-up finish at Brisbane to start the year, but went out in the round of 16 at the Australian Open and round of 32 at Wimbledon. He didn’t play the French Open.

Roddick is going to use the Winston-Salem tournament to, hopefully, find his groove before the U.S. Open, where he won his only major, in 2003.

A summary of the first week of Wimbledon – Mondays with Bob Greene

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STARS

 

Wimbledon

(First Week)

 

Tsvetana Pironkova beat second-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-3

 

Sabine Lisicki beat third-seeded Li Na 3-6 6-4 8-6

 

Bernard Tomic beat fifth-seeded Robin Soderling 6-1 6-4 7-5

 

Tamira Paszek beat sixth-seeded Francesca Schiavone 3-6 6-4 11-9

 

Feliciano Lopez beat eighth-seeded Andy Roddick 7-6 (2) 7-6 (2) 6-4

 

Lukasz Kubot beat ninth-seeded Gael Monfils 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3

 

Melinda Czink beat 10th-seeded Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-4

 

OTHER

 

Paul Capdeville beat Pierre-Ludovic Duclos 7-5 6-1 to win the Jalisco Open in Guadalajara, Mexico

 

DAVIS CUP

 

Americas Zone Group III: Barbados and Bolivia promoted to Group II for 2012; Jamaica and Honduras demoted to Group IV.

 

SAYING

 

“I was very calm, but inside I was bursting.” – Bernard Tomic, a qualifier from Australia, after upsetting fifth-seeded Robin Soderling and becoming the first 18-year-old man since 1990 to reach Wimbledon’s fourth round.

 

“When he’s healthy, he must be in the top five … So will be a very tough opponent for me. I know that. I’m not lucky to play against (Juan Martin) del Potro in the round of 16.” – Rafael Nadal, talking about his fourth-round opponent.

 

“I’m moving well, and I’m using all of my arsenal. I thought today was a particularly good performance on my serve.” – Roger Federer, after his straight-set third-round victory over David Nalbandian.

Bernard Tomic

 

“From the bright side, I hung in there in the important moments. I stayed emotionally stable, believing that I can win, and that’s what matters the most.” – Novak Djokovic, who outlasted Marcos Baghdatis in a third-round match.

 

“Probably the opinion of the past champions, they have more troubles between each other. Is different. But for me the rivalry is only inside the court. Doesn’t affect the rest.” – Rafael Nadal, disagreeing with Jimmy Connors’ assertion that today’s players are too soft because they are friends off the court.

 

“It was not against them. It was just that we played a very long first set, and I was exhausted and I was tired and I was feeling worse and worse. … I normally never act like that. I felt at this point I had to get all this frustration out and start again.” – Marion Bartoli, after telling her parents to leave the stands at her match.

 

“You keep moving forward until you decide to stop. At this point I’ve not decided to stop so I’ll keep moving forward.” – Andy Roddick, after being upset in the third round.

 

“Don’t bet against me.” – Serena Williams, when asked about her chances of winning her third consecutive Wimbledon title despite missing more than 11 months with injuries and illnesses.

 

“I’m feeling better and glad to be still in the tournament. I just need that rhythm that I have been missing and keep serving like I did today.” – Serena Williams, after winning her third-round match.

 

“I’ve got to play relaxed, have fun. That’s when I play my best tennis. I think I can play really well when I do that. I don’t really want to stop now after you’ve done it. You really want to keep going. That’s what I’m going to do.” – Bernard Tomic, following his upset of fifth-seeded Robin Soderling.

 

“He’s a nice kid who just doesn’t fear too much. He just goes out and plays. I think that’s a strength in one way, because you just play your game and you don’t really think about your surroundings.” – Xavier Malisse, talking about his next opponent, 18-year-old Bernard Tomic.

 

“Very impressed. First time I have seen him play live. I tell you, a star in the making. I really liked the way he played, his composure. I expect a lot more from him.” – Boris Becker, commenting on Bernard Tomic.

 

“The goal is the second week.” – John Isner, who didn’t make it, instead losing in the second round to Nicolas Almagro.

 

“My ranking, for me, it’s not an issue. I’ll get wild cards into a certain amount of tournaments that I’ll want to play anyway. As I’ve always said, your ranking takes care of itself. Once you’re actually in the tournament, if I can play at that level consistently, then my ranking’s the furthest thing from my mind.” – Lleyton Hewitt.

 

“Before, my tennis was a priority, I was 100 percent focused on it. But the older you get, the interest for other things. Now I want to spend more time with friends and family.  Of course, this does not mean that my career is over, I would love to be on top again.” – Jelena Jankovic, a former world number one player, after she lost in Wimbledon’s first round.

 

SENT TO COURT 2

 

WTA CEO Stacey Allaster said she was “disappointed” that four-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was sent to Court 2 for her second-round match. Williams insisted that the world’s two top-ranked men, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, would never be scheduled for a court outside either Centre Court or Court One. “Serena Williams is a four-time Wimbledon singles champion, the defending champion of Wimbledon, and a 13-time Grand Slam singles champion. I share her disappointment,” Allaster said in a statement. The All England Club noted frequent interruptions caused by rain had forced some court changes but denied there was any bias against either Serena or sister Venus, a five-time Wimbledon winner. Venus also has played on Court 2 this year. “They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason. I haven’t figured it out yet.” Serena said. “Maybe one day we’ll figure it out. They (Nadal and Djokovic) are never moved across. Actually, Venus and I have won more Wimbledons together than a lot of the players or by ourselves in doubles even. I don’t make it a big issue, but I think at some point maybe I should.”

 

STOPPED AT THE BORDER

 

Novak Djokovic is missing one member of his entourage at Wimbledon. Great Britain has refused to allow Djokovic’s white toy poodle into the country. “He is upset he can’t bring Pierre to Wimbledon and he is pleading with the authorities to let the dog in,” a source close to the player said. “Whenever he can, he takes the dog with him. He is genuinely upset. For him this is a very serious issue.” Djokovic was photographed with the dog in Paris during Roland Garros, and both were on the cover of the July edition of fashion magazine L’Uomo Vogue. The poodle even has his own Twitter page.

 

SCREECHING

 

Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, wants to put a stop of the grunting, yelling, shrieking, crying or high-pitched yelping found on the courts at Wimbledon. Ritchie was quoted in The Telegraph of London saying tournament officials would “prefer to see less grunting” at the grass court Grand Slam tournament. “We have discussed it with the tours and we believe it is helpful to reduce the amount of grunting. We are one tournament in a global circuit. But we have made our views clear and we would like to see less of it.”

 

SENT OFF

 

Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli caused widespread amazement during her third-round match when she demanded her parents leave Court 12 while she was playing. Bartoli, who was runner-up at Wimbledon in 2007, is coached by her father, who gave up his career as a doctor to mentor her. When Bartoli trailed 3-4 in the final set against Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, she told her parents to leave the stands. “I was so tired and exhausted that really I had to express my emotions somehow,” the player said. “I saw them right after the match, my parents, and they understood completely. It was not against them. It was just that we played a very long first set, and I was exhausted and I was tired and I was feeling worse and worse. I normally never act like that.” Bartoli won the match.

 

STOP PROTEST

 

Demonstrators were stopped Saturday from entering the Wimbledon tennis championships by police, causing a backup of thousands of fans who were waiting to get inside the gates. The 14 protesters from the Spanish-based 15M movement, wearing yellow T-shirts reading “real democracy now,” had tins of paint and banner-making equipment hidden in their bags. Sources said they were seeking to protest Madrid’s economic policies. It was feared they might have been targeting the match involving the world’s number one player, Rafael Nadal of Spain, the defending Wimbledon men’s champion. Club officials kept the gates closed for an extra 45 minutes while they assessed the nature of the threat. The group was removed from the queue and left peacefully.

 

SOFIA, HERE WE COME

 

The WTA Tournament of Champions will move next year from Bali to a new venue in Sofia, Bulgaria. The tournament features the six highest-ranked players who have won a title during the year, but who have not qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships. Bali will stage the event for the last time November 2-6 this year before the tournament moves to the Arena Sofia for three years beginning in 2012. Bulgaria has not hosted a WTA tournament in 22 years.

 

STOPPED

 

Li Na’s run at Wimbledon was much shorter than at the year’s first two Grand Slam tournament. At Roland Garros earlier this month, Li became the first player from Asia to win a major singles title. In January, she was runner-up at the Australian Open. But at Wimbledon Li wasted two match points before losing to wild-card entry Sabine Lisicki of Germany 3-6 6-4 8-6.

 

Cashing in on her success in Paris, the 29-year-old Li reportedly signed an endorsement deal with Daimler AG to endorse its Mercedes Benz that is worth about USD $1.5 million annually for three years. Li’s agent, Max Eisenbud of IMG, acknowledged a deal had been struck, but he would not confirm the numbers. Li Na’s other endorsement deals include Nike, Rolex, Spider Tech and Haagen Dazs. She is expected to pull in about USD $10 million in endorsement money this year, which would rank her second in women’s tennis only behind Maria Sharapova, who makes about USD $25 million a year and is the highest earning female athlete in the world.

 

SAY IT RIGHT!

 

Germany’s Julia Goerges gets upset when people call her “gorgeous.” Her name, after all, should be pronounced “Gur-ges” with a hard “g” in each case – like “gurgle.” Umpire Graeme Jones had problems with pronouncing Goerges’ name, most of them variations of “gorgeous” and all tickling the spectators. Finally Goerges had enough and corrected the umpire. “Honestly, I don’t really like it,” the 22-year-old brunette said. “It’s just that people sometimes read my name and can’t pronounce it because they haven’t heard it before, especially in America. You can make the joke once, but you don’t have to do it two or three or four times in a row. It’s getting to really annoy me. … I want to show what I can do in tennis and it has nothing to do with how you look on court. If you’re good-looking on court, it doesn’t win any matches.” Goerges lost in the third round.

 

SOFTIE SERENA

 

Jack Marshall of Scunthorpe in northern England helped reveal the softer side of Serena Williams. The 5-year-old was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2009. His mother Tracy contacted a number of celebrities via Twitter to help spread awareness of his illness and raise money to support him and other sufferers. “I read his story and my heart kind of went out for him,” Williams said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ That was one thing, I thought if I made it to Wimbledon, I wanted to invite Jack out. The youngster watched Williams win her second-round match. “I got to meet him yesterday. It’s just been so amazing, his whole story, to be so small to have such courage,” Serena said. “He calls me his best bud, so I love it.”

 

SERIOUSLY

 

It was 30 years ago when John McEnroe screamed at a Wimbledon umpire, “You cannot be serious.” Called “Superbrat” by the British tabloid media, McEnroe’s outburst came in a first-round match against fellow American Tom Gullikson, who was serving in the opening set when a McEnroe shot was called out. Approaching umpire Edward James, McEnroe said: “Chalk came up all over the place, you can’t be serious man.” Then, his anger rising, the left-hander yelled: “You cannot be serious. That ball was on the line. Chalk flew up. It was clearly in. How can you possibly call that out? Everybody knows it’s in in the whole stadium and you call it out? You guys are the absolute pits of the world, you know that?” James then politely announced: “I’m going to award a point against you, Mr. McEnroe.” The umpire later docked McEnroe another point for racquet abuse. After he beat Bjorn Borg to win the first of his three Wimbledon titles, McEnroe became the first singles champion to not be made an honorary member of the All England Club.

 

SET FOR TORONTO

 

Sisters Venus and Serena Williams are heading to Canada this summer. “Venus and I are thrilled to come to Toronto this summer to play at Rogers Cup,” Serena said. For the first time, Rogers Cup will be a virtual combined event with the men playing in Montreal and the women in Toronto at the same time, August 5-14. Previously the two events were played on successive weeks. “They’re really excited to get back on the court and play a lot of tennis over the next couple of years,” tournament director Karl Hale said of the Williams sisters. “They’re hungrier than ever to get out and achieve on the tennis court, which will be good for Rogers Cup.”

 

SHORTER, THANKFULLY

 

For the second straight year, Nicolas Mahut and John Isner faced each other in the opening round of Wimbledon. A year ago, the two battled their way into history as Isner needed more than 11 hours to win. Isner repeated his victory, but this time he needed only 2 hours, 3 minutes to wrap up a 7-6 (4) 6-2 7-6 (6) clash in fading daylight and move into the second round. “I’m just really thrilled to have won that third set,” Isner said, “because if I lose that third set, then chances are we don’t finish. You know, our match goes to a second day.” Last year, they battled for three days.

 

SMASH FOR JOPLIN

 

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is donating USD $100,000 to the city of Joplin, Missouri, USA, to assist with disaster relief efforts in the tornado-stricken community. The USTA is committed to helping rebuild Joplin High School and its tennis courts, which were demolished in the storm. In addition, the USTA will bring SmashZone, the interactive fan attraction featured annually at the US Open, to Missouri Southern State University in an effort to help boost the spirits of the children and families affected by the disaster. The USTA contribution consists of a USD $25,000 donation from the USTA Missouri Valley Section, a USD $25,000 donation from USTA National, and a USD $50,000 grant for refurbishment of the high school tennis courts and technical assistance. In addition to its $100,000 donation, the USTA is working with tennis manufacturers and retailers to collect additional donations including equipment and tennis gear for the Joplin High School tennis team.

 

SPIFFY GARDENS

 

A battle with his gardener over money has prevented Boris Becker from selling his villa in Spain. The gardener claims the three-time Wimbledon champion owes him nearly USD $400,000 for the upkeep of the grounds. A court has decided to hold the debt against the villa, meaning it will be claimed against any eventual sale of the property. “There is a lawsuit and we are fighting it,” Becker said. “They wanted more money than they were supposed to get. It is my house and hasn’t been taken.” Becker is asking USD $24 million for the property, which has been on the market since 2007. He wanted to gardens in pristine condition for the benefit of potential buyers. Becker now lives in Switzerland with his wife Lilly but is currently staying at his home in Wimbledon.

 

SHOWING OFF

 

In partnership with Fila, the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, has unveiled a new exhibit to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the brand that has been worn by many great champions of tennis, including Hall of Famers Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Monica Seles. “At the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, our mission is to preserve and showcase the history of tennis, with the goal of honoring the legends and inspiring tennis fans,” said CEO Mark L. Stenning. “From Borg’s Wimbledon victories to Seles’ French Open title, Fila has been an integral partner in great moments in tennis history and we are pleased to celebrate their milestone anniversary by showcasing the brand’s rich history to our visitors.” The special exhibit was unveiled in mid-June and will be changed throughout the year as part of Fila’s year-long celebration of the centennial anniversary of the brand. The exhibit includes design sketches as well as dramatic photos of Fila players in action. A wooden Fila tennis racquet and polo shirts worn by Hall of Famer Boris Becker are also part of the display.

 

SAD NEWS

 

Lance Lumsden, one of the best tennis players to come out of Jamaica, has died at the age of 71. According to his nephew, Richard Lumsden, the former Davis Cup player had been undergoing treatment for cancer . Lumsden played at Southern Illinois University in the early 1960s and was one of the first Jamaicans to play tennis on the international circuit in the modern era. In 1968, the first year of the era of Open tennis, he played the world number one, Australia’s Rod Laver, in the first round of the French Open in Paris. Lumsden competed in Davis Cup under the flag of the Commonwealth Caribbean. In 1966, Lumsden and Richard Russell defeated Venezuela 3-2, the first time the Commonwealth Caribbean had won a Davis Cup tie. In the following tie against the United States at the St Andrew Club in Kingston, Lumsden and Russell beat the top-ranked American doubles team of Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell 6-4 7-9 14-12 4-6 6-4. It was the first time the Commonwealth Caribbean had won a Davis Cup match against the United States. Although the United States won the tie by 4-1, the doubles victory by Lumsden and Russell in May 1966 is still regarded as one of the finest hours in the history of tennis in Jamaica and the Caribbean. After retiring from tennis, Lumsden settled in Vienna, Austria, where he married and raised a family. He leaves sons Joris, Marco and Robin, the latter the current honorary consul of Jamaica to Austria.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

 

Guadalajara: Vasek Pospisil and Bobby Reynolds beat Pierre-Ludovic Duclos and Ivo Klec 6-4 6-7 (6) 10-6 (match tiebreak)

 

SURFING

Wimbledon: www.wimbledon.com

Braunschweig: www.nordlb-open.org/

Turin: www.sporting.to.it/

The Lawn Tennis Association: www.lta.org.uk/

Tennis Brit: www.tennisbrit.co.uk/

Bastad: http://women.swedishopen.org/

Budapest: www.budapestgrandprix.hu/joomla15/

Newport: www.tennisfame.com/

Pozoblanco: www.tennispozoblanco.com/

Davis Cup: www.daviscup.com/

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

 

(All money in USD)

 

MEN

 

Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)

$163,300 Braunschweig, Germany, clay

$122,000 Turin, Italy, clay

WOMEN

 

Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)

 

SENIORS

 

Volkswagen Senior Classic, Turin, Italy, clay

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

 

MEN

 

$441,500 Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, grass

$120,800 ATP Challenger Ciudad de Pozoblanco Open, Pozoblanco, Spain, hard

 

WOMEN

 

$220,000 Collector Swedish Open Women, Bastad, Sweden, clay

$220,000 Poli-Farbe Budapest Grand Prix, Budapest, Hungary, clay

 

DAVIS CUP

 

World Group

Quarterfinals

 

Sweden vs. Serbia at Halmstad, Sweden, hard

Argentina vs. Kazakhstan at Buenos Aires, Argentina, clay

United States vs. Spain at Austin, Texas, USA, hard

Germany vs. France at Stuttgart, Germany, clay

 

Group I

 

Americas Zone, 2nd round: Ecuador vs. Canada at Guayaquil, Ecuador, clay; Uruguay vs. Brazil at Montevideo, Uruguay, clay

 

Asia/Oceania Zone, 2nd round: China vs. Australia at Beijing, China, hard; Japan vs. Uzbekistan at Kobe, Japan, hard; playoffs: New Zealand vs. Philippines at Taranaki, New Zealand, hard

 

Europe/Africa Zone, 2nd Round: Italy vs. Slovenia at Arzachena, Italy, clay; South Africa vs. the Netherlands at Potchefstroom, South Africa, hard; Switzerland vs. Portugal at Berne, Switzerland, hard

 

Group II

 

Americas Zone, 2nd round: Peru vs. Dominican Republic at Lima, Peru, clay; Paraguay vs. Venezuela at Asuncion, Paraguay, clay; playoffs: El Salvador vs. Netherlands Antilles at Santa Tecia, El Salvador, clay; Puerto Rico vs. Haiti at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, hard

 

Asia/Oceania Zone, 2nd round: Korea vs. Pakistan at Gimcheon, Korea, hard; Thailand vs. Indonesia at Nonthaburo, Thailand, hard; playoffs: Syria at Hong Kong, hard; Pacific Oceania vs. Iran at Guam, hard

 

Europe/Africa Zone: 2nd round: Great Britain vs. Luxembourg at Glasgow, Scotland, hard; Hungary vs. Belarus at Godollo, Hungary, clay; Bosnia/Herzegovina vs. Estonia at Tuzla, Bosnia/Herzegovina, hard; Denmark vs. Latvia at Fredericksburg, Denmark, clay; playoffs: Ireland vs. Tunisia at Dublin, Ireland, hard; Bulgaria vs. Cyprus at Sofia, Bulgaria, carpet; Lithuania vs. Morocco at Vilnius, clay; Greece vs. Monaco at Thessalonica, Greece, clay

 

Group III

 

Africa Zone at Cairo, Egypt, clay (round-robin in four pools; two nations promoted to Europe/Africa Zone Group II for 2012): Algeria, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe