STARS
Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic 6-4 3-0 retired to win the Western & Southern Open men’s singles at Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Maria Sharapova beat Jelena Jankovic 4-6 7-6 (3) 6-3 to win the Western & Southern Open women’s singles at Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Daniel Munoz-de la Nava beat Nicolas Pastor 6-4 2-6 6-2 to win the Zucchetti Kos Tennis Cup in Cordenons, Italy
Carlos Moya beat Richard Krajicek 6-3 6-2 to win the Optima Open in Knokke-Heist, Belgium
SAYING
“I would have obviously liked to have won by finishing the match, but it happens sometimes. I have to look at the week as a whole. It’s been a very good week. Coming in here I had played badly in Montreal, so I needed to have a good week. Regardless of the match today, I was happy with the way that it had gone. Glad I managed to win today, but unfortunate the way it happened.” – Andy Murray, who won the Western & Southern Open when Novak Djokovic retired in the second set with a shoulder injury.
“The reason (I retired) is shoulder pain. I just could not serve. I served an average 90 miles per hour the first serve, and I could not play forehands. I could have maybe played another couple of games, but what for? I cannot beat a player like Murray today with one stroke.” – Novak Djokovic, who retired with an injured shoulder in the final at Cincinnati.
“There is no good loss, that’s for sure. The good thing is there’s a week, eight days to the start of the Open. I’m confident I can recover and be ready for the U.S. Open.” – Novak Djokovic, after retiring with an injured shoulder in the final at Cincinnati.
“We kept breaking each other in the beginning. It felt like one of us played a few good points and than the other one and the levels were up and down throughout the match. So I’m just fortunate that at the end of the day I’m the winner.” – Maria Sharapova, after beating Jelena Jankovic to win the women’s singles in Cincinnati.
“I am just trying to solidify my spot, trying to make guys think that I belong, and trying to convince myself I belong as well.” – Mardy Fish, after losing to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals at Cincinnati, one day after beating Rafael Nadal.
“If anything, it’ll make them better, maybe because I have more opportunity to rest up and get 200 per cent healthy, which could be a very dangerous thing.” – Serena Williams, when asked is her injury that forced her to withdraw at Cincinnati would affect her chances of playing the US Open.
“Two weeks of rehab was not enough to heal this injury. Obviously I’m very disappointed. I trained very hard this summer and felt in a good shape to play the US Open. Now there is nothing else I can do than to rest and have treatment every day.” – Kim Clijsters, who withdrew from defending her women’s singles title at the US Open because of a partial tear of her left stomach muscle.
“I think I made 37 unforced errors; normally I’m seven or eight in a match. It happens. You have good patches and some rough patches. I’m going to come back and win a lot of matches in the future. Of course I’m disappointed and I would have liked to win, but it’s only this week. Life goes on.” – Caroline Wozniacki, after losing to 19-year-old Christina McHale.
SETTING RECORDS
Andy Murray won for the second time at Cincinnati after Novak Djokovic retired from the title match with an injured right shoulder. “It’s unfortunate that I had to finish this way,” Djokovic said. “I apologize to the tournament and I apologize to the people who came here today to watch the match. I really tried, but it didn’t make sense for me to continue.” Murray was in control of the match, leading 6-4 3-0 when Djokovic called it quits. The Serb had received treatment to his shoulder at the end of the first set. Murray also beat Djokovic when he won the Cincinnati tournament in 2008. “It was really a good week after I struggled last week,” Murray said. “I didn’t drop a set and beat some very good players from pretty much the first round onwards.” It was only the second loss of the year for Djokovic, whose victories this season have included the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
SHARAPOVA VICTORIOUS
In a topsy-turvy final that saw 16 breaks of serve, Maria Sharapova came out on top, beating Jelena Jankovic 4-6 7-6 (3) 6-3 to win the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. With two former number ones facing each other, Sharapova raced out to a 4-1 lead, and then collapsed. Jankovic took the next five games and the opening set as her Russian opponent aided the Serb’s cause with five double-faults. The second set was riddled with unforced errors – 27 from Sharapova and 21 from Jankovic – before the Russian took the tiebreak 7-3, forcing a third set. The first six games of the third set were all service breaks. Sharapova then won the next three games and her second title of the year and 24th of her career.
STOMACH PROBLEMS
A stomach injury has halted Kim Clijsters’ bid to win her third consecutive US Open women’s singles title. The defending champion withdrew from the year’s final Grand Slam tournament because of a partial tear of her left stomach muscle sustained during first match at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. She also said she would skip tournaments in Japan and China scheduled for September and October. The 28-year-old Belgian, a three-time US Open champion and reigning Australian Open champion, has played only five matches over the past five months during which she has nursed shoulder, wrist, ankle and foot injuries.
SICK BAY
The last big hard court tournament before the US Open, the Western & Southern Open, had the feel of an infirmary. Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament after aggravating a right toe injury, while a left hip injury caused China’s Peng Shuai to pull out of the event. Williams will carry a 12-match winning streak into the US Open, tying her for the longest on the WTA Tour this year. She had entered Cincinnati after winning her last two tournaments.
In the men’s singles, Andreas Seppi retired during his match against Juan Martin del Potro; Ivan Dodig retired while playing Gael Monfils; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez retired against Julien Benneteau; Tomas Berdych retired from his semifinal against Novak Djokovic. The men’s singles title match ended when Djokovic retired with a sore shoulder in his battle against Andy Murray.
STEAMING
Andy Roddick lost more than the match when he was upended by Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7 (5) 7-5 6-1 in a first-round match at Cincinnati. The American also lost his cool. Roddick was given a warning by the chair umpire when she slammed his racquet to the court after dropping the second set. Then, in the second game of the third set, he double-faulted to give Kohlschreiber a break point. Roddick smacked the ball into the stands in frustration and was docked a point and the game. After arguing with the umpire, Roddick lost the next three games before holding for a 5-1 deficit. His German opponent closed out the victory one game later. “I think he did the right thing, but it’s tough to call,” Kohlschreiber said of the umpire’s decision to dock Roddick a point. “I tried to stay calm. I thought, hopefully he’s not playing his best tennis now because he’s so pumped.”
SPEAKING BIG $$$
Mardy Fish is in line to win the largest payout in tennis history is he wins the US Open men’s singles title. The top-ranked American clinched the 2011 Olympus US Open Series men’s title when he beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the second round at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. If he won the US Open, which begins its two-week run on August 29, Fish would take home a record USD $2.8 million — $1.8 million for winning the US Open and a $1 million bonus for winning the US Open Series. Two players have done just that. Kim Clijsters took home $2.2 million in 2005 when she captured both the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series. Roger Federer collected the biggest paycheck in tennis history in 2007 – USD $2.4 million – when he won both titles.
Serena Williams is the leader of the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge women’s standings, but Agnieszka Radwanska could overtake her by winning the New Haven Open at Yale this week.
SCHOOL DAYS
Yale University has come to the rescue of the women’s tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut. The Ivy League school has become one of five major sponsors of the New Haven Open at Yale, now that Pilot Pen has ended its 15-year run as title sponsor. “Yale fully understands that as goes the image of New Haven, so goes the image of Yale,” tournament director Anne Worcester said. “I think Yale understands the benefit of this tournament to this city and this region, economically and in terms of image and reputation.” By committing its money and name to a professional sporting event, Yale is in a unique position. Charles Harris, a sports marketing expert, said: “I can’t say it’s never happened before, but it’s certainly very rare. Usually it’s companies that sponsor university events, and this is almost the reverse of that.”
SHOCKER
A 19-year-old American, Christina McHale, pulled off one of the biggest shockers at Cincinnati when she stunned the world’s top-ranked player, Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4 7-5. The youngest player in the Top 100, kept the ball in play with a mix of flat and loopy shots to stay in a point until Wozniacki made an error. The final game of the match was a perfect example. With McHale serving, Wozniacki hit a backhand long, a forehand wide before netting a backhand return. That gave McHale a match point, and she cashed in on it immediately when her Danish opponent hit a forehand off the racket frame. It was the first time McHale had played any player who was ranked in the top four in the world. “You guys really helped me,” McHale told the crowd in her on-court interview. “I still can’t believe it right now. I’m trying to soak it all in, I’m so excited.”
SO HOT
There was an easy explanation on why Rafael Nadal showed up for his second-round match with two bandaged fingers on his right hand. “I got burned. I had a little bit of accident in a restaurant a few days ago,” Nadal said. “It was an accident. The plate was very, very hot and I got burned.” The fingers –index and middle – were blistered and Nadal kept them wrapped until midway through his semifinal match against American Mardy Fish. On one changeover, a trainer removed the bandage from his middle finger. It didn’t change what was happening on the court, however, as Fish upset Nadal.
SPLITSVILLE
Despite being number one in the world, Caroline Wozniacki has been in a slump lately. So she got rid of the only coach she has ever had, her father Piotr. “I am no longer her coach,” Piotr Wozniacki told the Ekstra Baldet newspaper in Denmark. “Who will be the new one? I promised I wouldn’t say.” He said they decided to make the change after Wozniacki lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon in June. Since then she has failed to win a match, losing both her openers at Toronto and Cincinnati. “From morning to night, we have heard how Caroline should play. Now we are trying something else. I am Caroline’s father and I will always support her,” said Piotr Wozniacki, a former professional footballer. Despite being ranked number one in the world, Wozniacki has been knocked for not winning a Grand Slam tournament title.
SIGNED
French Open champion Li Na and Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova will play in the mixed-teams Hopman Cup in January in their preparation for the Australian Open. Li, who became the first player from Asia to win a Grand Slam tournament singles title, will be joined by 19-year-old Wu Di of China, while Kvitova’s Czech Republic partner will be ninth-ranked Tomas Berdych. The Australian pair will be Lleyton Hewitt and Jarmila Gajdosova.
SETTING THE DRAW
The draw for the 2012 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas will take place September 21 in Bangkok, Thailand. The draw will take place during the 2011 ITF annual general meeting, which is being held September 21-23. Seeding of the teams for 2012 will be based on the latest ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking, which will be published on September 19 following the World Group semifinals and playoffs, as well as Zone Group ties on September 16-18. The top two seeds in the 2012 World Group will be the 2011 finalists.
SPECIAL MATCH
The International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHoF) celebrated the 130th anniversary of the first National Lawn Tennis Championships – now the US Open – by staging a re-enactment, complete with players in old-fashioned sportswear. The first tournament was held in August 1881 on the grass courts at Newport, Rhode Island. The re-enactment, held on the ITHoF historic grass courts on August 20, had Hall of Famer Bud Collins serving as chair umpire and John Winthrop Sears, the 81-year-old grandson of 1881 champion Richard Sears, in attendance. Twenty-five players – all men – entered the singles draw in the first tournament. Richard Sears won the final in straight sets, defeating William Glyn of Britain, who just happened to be in Newport on vacation and decided to enter the event. The tournament was deemed a success, having turned a profit of USD $4.32.
STRAIGHT IN
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, who won the US Open men’s singles 10 years ago, has been given a wild card into this year’s Grand Slam tournament. Others who were awarded main draw wild card entries into the men’s singles include Americans Robby Ginepri, Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock, Bobby Reynolds and Donald Young, along with Julien Benneteau of France. Johnson is the reigning NCAA champion, while Sock won his second consecutive USTA Boys’ 18s title, which means an automatic wild card berth.
USTA Girls’ 18s champion Lauren Davis was awarded a women’s singles main draw wild card, along with fellow Americans Jill Craybas, Jamie Hampton, Alison Riske, Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens. Other wild-card entrants include Australia’s Casey Dellacqua and France’s Aravane Rezai.
In addition, the USTA also announced the wild card entries into the US Open qualifying tournament, which is being held this week at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Wild cards for the women’s singles qualifying went to Wimbledon girls’ singles champion Ashleigh Barty of Australia, 2010 US Open girls’ singles champion Daria Gavrilova of Russia, and Americans Julia Boserup, Nicole Gibbs, Krista Hardebeck, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Taylor Townsend. The final wild card was earned by Robin Anderson, who won the US Open National Playoffs women’s singles.
Receiving direct entry into the men’s singles qualifying via wild cards are Americans Mitchell Frank, the 2011 USTA Boys’ 18s runner-up; Bjorn Fratangelo, 2011 French Open boys’ singles champion; Marcos Giron, 2011 Easter Bowl champion; Bradley Klahn, Daniel Kosakowski, Denis Kudla, Tennys Sandgren and Rhyne Williams. For the second straight year, Blake Strode won the US Open National Playoffs men’s singles to gain a wild card berth in qualifying.
SENIOR CHAMPION
With help from John McEnroe, Carlos Moya won his second ATP Champions Tour title by beating Richard Krajicek 6-3 6-2 in the Optima Open title match in Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Moya wasn’t scheduled to be in the tournament, but was a late entry when McEnroe injured his left hamstring and had to pull out of the event. It was Moya’s second straight senior title, having won in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in May. When they were on the ATP World Tour, Moya and Krajicek met twice, with the Spaniard winning both on clay.
SHENZHEN GAMES
Chinese Taipei’s Lee Hsin-han and Chan Chin-wei won the mixed doubles gold medal at the World University Games being played in Shenzhen, China. The Taiwan pair needed only 61 minutes to down Aliaksander Bury and Sviatlana Pirazhenka of Belarus in the gold medal match. Earlier, Lee Hsin-han had teamed with Hsieh Cheng-peng to win the men’s doubles told medal. Lim Yonkyu of South Korea won the men’s singles, defeating Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia in the final 6-3 6-3.
SEEKING APPEAL
Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse have appealed to Switzerland’s supreme court to end a two-year investigation into whether they broke anti-doping rules. The Court of Arbitration for Sport says the players have asked the Swiss Federal Tribunal to rule that CAS has no authority to judge them. CAS said a hearing has been scheduled for September 12. Wickmayer, who is ranked 21st in the world in women’s singles, and Malisse, 54th in the ATP Tour rankings, both were banned for one year in 2009 when a Belgian doping tribunal ruled they failed to give details of their whereabouts for drug testing. Both at the time were playing sanctioned events. They have been able to play because a different Belgian court granted injunctions against the bans.
STARTS ACADEMY
David Lewis, former New Zealand Davis Cup captain, will be the coaching director at Ivan Lendl’s tennis academy in South Carolina. The Lendl International Junior Tennis Academy is for students aged from 6 to 17. “Ivan and I have been in discussions for a few months and he knew I was interested in an opportunity to coach juniors in the United States,” Lewis said. “We share the same philosophy and worth ethic, so it is a perfect fit.” As a player, Lewis reached a high ranking of 152nd in the world. His brother Chris reached the Wimbledon final in 1983, losing to John McEnroe. Another brother, Mark, coached Michael Stich to the 1991 Wimbledon title.
SINGER EXTRAORDINAIRE
The US Open will help celebrate singer Tony Bennett’s 85th birthday. A huge tennis fan, Bennett will be feted at the Open’s president’s box before the opening ceremonies on Monday, August 29. Bennett will autograph a special bottle of Moet & Chandon, which is sponsoring the US Open for the first time. The bottle will then be auctioned for charity during a special reception. Other celebrities will also autograph bottles that will be auctioned to raise funds for the United States Tennis Association’s charity, USTA Serves, which is dedicated to helping at-risk and disabled children through tennis.
SURVIVOR AID
Eight of the world’s top 10 women players will compete in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo next month, hoping to bring cheer to Japan’s earthquake survivors. Only Kim Clijsters, who is sidelined with a stomach injury, and Francesca Schiavone will miss the tournament. “My heart is always with those who were affected by the earthquake disaster in March this year,” Wozniacki, the defending champion, said in a statement. “I was hoping to come to Japan and do something to cheer you up.” China’s Li Na, the first person from Asia to win a Grand Slam singles title, said: “I was deeply saddened by the terrible disaster. I have always loved the fans in Japan, and I continue to think about you during these difficult times.”
STANDING TALL
Perhaps the best-known tennis coach in the world, Nick Bollettieri will be recognized by the Tennis Industry Association on August 27 when he will be inducted into the TIA Tennis Hall of Fame in New York. Bollettieri started the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in 1978, developing a style and method of coaching and training that has revolutionized tennis instruction. His Bradenton, Florida, USA was the first major tennis boarding school, and it changed the way tennis was taught at the elite junior level. He has coached 10 players who were ranked number one in the world: Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Previous Tennis Industry Hall of Fame inductees include Howard Head (2008), Dennis Van der Meer (2008), Alan Schwartz (2009), and Billie Jean King (2010). Plaques of Tennis Industry Hall of Fame inductees are on permanent display at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Cincinnati (men): Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes beat Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6 (4) 7-6 (2)
Cincinnati (women): Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova beat Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova 6-4 3-6 11-9 (match tiebreak)
Cordenons: Julian Knowle and Michael Kohlmann beat Colin Ebelthite and Adam Feeney 2-6 7-5 10-5 (match tiebreak)
SURFING
Dallas: www.texastennisopen.com/
New Haven: www.newhavenopen.com/home/default.sps
Winston-Salem: www.winstonsalemopen.com/
Manerbio: www.tennismanerbio.com/
New York: www.usopen.org/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
MEN
$553,125 Winston-Salem Open at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, hard
$100,000 Edizione A. Savoldi-Marco Co-Trofeo Dimmidisi, Manerbio, Italy, clay
WOMEN
$618,000 New Haven Open at Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, hard
$220,000 Texas Tennis Open, Dallas, Texas, USA, hard
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN and WOMEN
US Open (first week), New York, New York, USA, hard