Tennis Frontier

Category: News

General Tennis News from the Tennis Frontier

Nadal Wins Inaugural Rio Open 500

Everything old is new again. As Rio de Janeiro brings ATP 500 tennis back to the Carioca city, Rafael Nadal defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine, 6-3, 7-6(3) in the inaugural Rio Open. The old was Nadal winning on clay. The new was the tournament, and the renewed play by Dolgopolov of the Ukraine, who has been a rising star, though with troubles along the way.

The Ukrainian upset David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro to get to the final. His quirky style of play may have been recently served by joining forces with another “eccentric” player, Fabrice Santoro, the Frenchman who is also known as “The Magician.” It seems a coaching choice made in heaven. A Kiev native, Dolgopolov wore a black ribbon on his chest, and spoke in his final remarks of the struggles of the people in his country, to sustained applause. Brazil has also suffered unrest in recent months.

For Nadal, it was his 62nd title, his 43rd on clay. After a huge battle with Pablo Andujar in the semifinals yesterday, it was not completely clear that Nadal would win today. But some things never change. Nadal wins again on clay, but Dolgopolov comes out of it with renewed encouragement.

[divider]

In the women’s final, Kurumi Nara defeated the No. 1 seed, Klara Zakopalova, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. It was the first WTA title for the 22-year-old Japanese player.

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

February 24, 2014
Venus Still Formidable in Dubai

Venus Williams won her 45th title today, defeating France’s Alize Cornet, 6-3, 6-0, in the Dubai Open. Williams, 33 years old, hadn’t won a title in 16 months. Her recent battles with illness, and her age, have put her career in question. However, the seven-time Grand Slam Champion and former world No. 1 put all of her skills on display today. The French woman, Cornet, who was the vanquisher of Venus’s sister yesterday, had little answer to the big serving American, who was having a very strong day.

Cornet scored the upset and was the surprise finalist over world No. 1 Serena Williams. As Venus said, “I was expecting to be playing Serena, but Alize played an amazing game in the semis, so congratulations on that.”

Venus staved off retirement questions for another tournament, and proved she still has more than a little game.

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

February 23, 2014
Halep Takes Doha

Simona Halep, the 22-year-old Romanian who made a splash last year by winning six titles on the WTA Tour, has won her biggest one yet at the Qatar Open, beating Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the final, 6-2, 6-3.

For the first time, Halep beat 3 Top 10 players on her way to the trophy, including Kerber (No. 9), having already dispatched Sara Errani (No. 7), and Agnieszka Radwanska (No. 4.)

Despite four break point opportunities, Kerber was unable to break Halep in the match.

“It’s tough to play against a player like Simona,” Kerber said. “I was trying to play my game plan, but it was not easy … she hit the balls very well and on the line.”

“I just want to be focused for every point, to fight for every point,” Halep said. She will rise to a career-high No. 9 when the rankings come out on Monday.

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): robbiesaurus

February 17, 2014
Nishikori Repeats in Memphis

Japan’s Kei Nishikori defeated the big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic, 6-4, 7-6(0) today in Memphis to successfully defend his U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships.

“It’s amazing to defend a title for the first time, especially here,” Nishikori said. “I had a great memory from last year and I’m playing great.”

The win gave Nishikori his fourth ATP World Tour title. He has taken Michael Chang as his new coach and improves to 11-2 this season.

Nishikori secured an early break in the third game of the match and despite 20 aces from Karlovic, he took the second-set tiebreak at love, and the final in 90 minutes.

“He’s really fast,” Karlovic said. “He hits winners from any position on the court. That’s his game. He returned really well.”

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

February 17, 2014
Berdych Ends Drought; Wins Rotterdam

Tomas Berdych made short work of Marin Cilic today, beating him 6-4, 6-2 to win the ABN AMRO tournament in the Netherlands. This is his first trophy in 16 months, having gone all of last season without a title. He was the only player in the Top 10 last year without one.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” Berdych said. “It’s been a while, actually 16 months since I won a title. To win a title in Rotterdam it’s a nice bonus. I’m extremely happy with the way I handled it throughout the week. I’ve been serving pretty well, which has been the strong part of my game.”

It was indeed serving that gave the Czech the advantage. He recorded nine aces and had an 82% first serve stat. The downfall for Cilic was 22 unforced-errors. The match was over in 75 minutes.

Cilic, who is newly coached by Goran Ivanisevic, is now 14-4 on the season, a strong start, despite the loss today.

“It was a tough one today,” said Cilic. “What made the difference in the end was that Tomas served really well …. Overall I think the tournament was great. I played great tennis and enjoyed it here. I had a great run of nine [straight] wins and I hope to make that run soon again.”

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

February 17, 2014
Ferrer Makes History in Buenos Aires

David Ferrer became the first player to win three consecutive titles at the Copa Claro in Argentina today, defeating Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-3. The win gives him a 7-0 head-to-head over the Italian. It also snapped a run of losses in finals by the Spaniard (his previous seven), while ending what has been a very good run of fortune for the Italian.

Ferrer led 3-0 to start the final, before Fognini evened things to 3-3. The Spaniard broke to win the first set, and broke again at the start of the second.

Fognini was contesting the final for a fifth straight clay-court tournament and looking to win his fourth title. He triumphed last week at the Royal Guard Open Chile, the opening tournament of the Golden Swing, and entered Buenos Aires at a career-high No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Sunday’s loss snapped Fognini’s 10-match winning streak and marked just his second loss in his last 25 clay-court matches. For Ferrer, who goes back up to No. 4 on Monday, this is his 21st career title, 11 of those coming on clay.

[divider]

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

February 17, 2014
Fognini Dispatches Mayer in Vina del Mar

Fabio Fognini clinched his third career title and first of 2014 in a comfortable straight sets win over Leonardo Mayer at the Royal Guard Open, Vina del Mar, Chile.

The 6-2, 6-4 scoreline was secured on the back of a strong service game with Mayer only winning seven points against the Italian’s serve.

Fognini raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set and Mayer, who was playing his first tour final, was never able to recover. He was broken again in the third game of the second set as Fognini stormed toward the title.

Fognini squandered two match points in the ninth game, but it proved to be a short-lived respite for his Argentine opponent as victory was sealed in the following game.

[divider]

Cover Photo: carine06, Creative Commons Licence

February 10, 2014
Gael Monfils Wins the Open Sud De France

Gael Monfils defeated fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3 6-4, en route to winning his fifth career title at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Monfils never looked in danger of losing his service game, banging down nine aces and didn’t face a single break point during the match.

His overall dominance was further highlighted by 34 winners to top seeded Gasquet’s 17.

“This is unbelievable for me,” said Monfils. “I had some back problems at the beginning of the week and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play.”

Monfils has had a stellar start to the season, his only two defeats of 2014 coming to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

[divider]

Cover Photo: Christian Mesiano, Creative Commons

February 10, 2014
Cilic Defeats Haas to Win in Zagreb

Croat Marin Cilic won his fourth Zagreb title defeating top seed Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-4.

Cilic got off to a slow start and was broken in the opening game by the 35-year-old Haas before recovering to take five of the next six games to seize control of the opening set. Haas was unable to recover and the remainder of the set played out to serve with Cilic taking it 6-3.

The second set was closely contested with Haas having an opportunity to break for a 4-2 lead. He wasn’t able to capitalize and Cilic fought back by holding serve and then broke Haas to jump out to a 5-3 lead.

Haas did manage to save one match point but Cilic brought proceedings to an end at the second attempt.

The victory gave Cilic his tenth career title and first since returning from a drug suspension.

[divider]

Cover Photo: angela n (Creative Commons License)

February 9, 2014
Davis Cup Results

Great Britain moved into the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup for the first time in over 27 years following Andy Murray’s defeat of Sam Querrey to clinch the tie over their American hosts. Murray had already defeated Donald Young in an earlier singles rubber.

The crucial breakthrough for the British team came when unheralded James Ward shocked Querrey to put the UK in the driving seat going into the final day.

Full Results:

Czech Republic 3; Netherlands 2
Japan 4; Canada 1
Germany 4; Spain 1
France 5; Australia 0
USA 1; Great Britain 3
Argentina 1; Italy 3
Kazakhstan 3; Belgium 2
Serbia 2; Switzerland 3

[divider]

Cover Photo: Carine06, Creative Commons License (James Ward, GB)

February 3, 2014