Tennis Frontier

Tag: brisbane international

Roger Federer Joins Elite 1,000 Match Winner Club

Today’s final in Brisbane brought Roger Federer the chance to win his 1,000th match. It also meant he could add win his 83rd title — the most of all active players. With a three-set victory over Milos Raonic, Federer earned all of above. He now joins only two other players who have achieved this feat in the Open Era: Jimmy Connors (1,253) and Ivan Lendl (1,071).

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Click here to discuss Roger Federer’s Brisbane win in the discussion forum.

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Going into the Australian Open, the 33 year old is also now firmly seated at No. 2 in the world, ahead of Rafael Nadal and trailing only Novak Djokovic, both multiple Slam winners. Roger Federer has been in the Top 10 since October of 2002. He also has a tour leading 17 Grand Slam titles though he hasn’t won a Major since 2012. (He last won the Australian Open in 2010.)

Considering he posted a 73-12 record in 2014, Federer is now projected to get past Ivan Lendl late this year or early next year.

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis

January 11, 2015
WTA: Week No. 1

The 2015 tennis season started with multiple events in different cities. Brisbane, Auckland, and Perth in Australia, plus Shenzhen in China were all hosting events. All this serving as warm-up to the first Grand Slam of 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.

The first title of the season went to one of the oldest players on tour. Venus Williams scored her 46th career title in Auckland in a drama-filled three-set encounter against Caroline Wozniacki. The two former world No. 1’s delighted a packed crowd on a bright, windy, sunny afternoon for close to two hours. The final score was 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in favor of Venus.

Ana Ivanovic was in the same position as Venus, but she was competing in Brisbane, the only Premier-level event of the week, though Ana was the second seed and across the net was the top seed again. Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic delivered and made the final in a dream match-up. Both former No. 1’s fought for 2 and 1/2 hours before Maria finished first in the three-set match. The first set alone took over an hour. Final score: 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3.

With Li Na’s retirement, Shenzhen was left without a defending champion in its third year of existance but WTA delivered two Top 10 stars in the form of Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova. In the end, the two stars delivered. Simona Halep won her first title of 2015, and her ninth overall in a little over an hour via straight sets; Petra Kvitova lost the semifinals to eventual runner-up Timea Bacsinszky.

January 10, 2015
Brisbane International – Monday, January 5 – Order of Play & Scores

The night session on Pat Rafter Arena features two matches. Up first, Victoria Azarenka (BLR) takes on Karolina Pliskova, followed by local boy Bernard Tomic, who will play the American Sam Querrey. The full schedule is below.

[Scores added as known. All times are local.]

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Monday, January 05, 2015

Pat Rafter Arena — Start 11:00 am

(4) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) v Madison Keys (USA)

(6) Gilles Simon (FRA) v (WC) James Duckworth (AUS)

(8) Julien Benneteau (FRA) v (WC) Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS)

Not Before 7:00 pm

Victoria Azarenka (BLR) v Karolina Pliskova (CZE)

Bernard Tomic (AUS) v Sam Querrey (USA)

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Click here to discuss the ATP matches in the discussion forum.

Click here to discuss the WTA matches in the discussion forum.

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Show Court 1 — Start 11:00 am

(WC) Jarmila Gajdosova (AUS) v Shuai Zhang (CHN)

(Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) v Sabine Lisicki (GER)

(3) Angelique Kerber (GER) v Caroline Garcia (FRA)

Chris Guccione (AUS) / Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) v (WC) James Duckworth (AUS) / Marinko Matosevic (AUS)

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Show Court 2 — Start 11:00 am

(Q) Daria Gavrilova (RUS) v Alison Riske (USA)

(8) Garbine Muguruza (ESP) v Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)

Jeremy Chardy (FRA) v Andrey Golubev (KAZ)

(2) Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Daniel Nestor (CAN) v Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) / Kei Nishikori (JPN)

(4) Eric Butorac (USA) / Sam Groth (AUS) v Jurgen Melzer (AUT) / Gilles Simon (FRA)

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Court 6 — Start 11:00 am

Rhyne Williams (USA) v Matt Reid (AUS)

Not Before 1:00 pm

(2) Viktor Troicki (SRB) v (6) Denis Kudla (USA)

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) v Christina McHale (USA)

(Q) Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) v (Q) Madison Brengle (USA)

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Court 14 — Start 11:00 am

Frank Dancevic (CAN) v Lukasz Kubot (POL)

(3) Marsel Ilhan (TUR) v Marius Copil (ROU)

Jelena Jankovic (SRB) / Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) v Raluca Olaru (ROU) / Shuai Zhang (CHN)

(2) Raquel Kops-Jones (USA) / Abigail Spears (USA) v Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) / Alexandra Panova (RUS)

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Steven Pisano / Marianne Bevis

January 4, 2015
Serena Williams Bags Brisbane

Serena Williams secured her first title of 2014 defeating Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Brisbane International.

Williams, the world No. 1, took the match 6-4, 7-5 in 98 minutes to send out a clear warning to her rivals in the build up to the Australian Open.

She took the first set without facing a single break point and capitalized on an unforced error from Azarenka to break in the seventh game. The Belarus World No. 2 was offered no opportunity to restore parity and could not get back into the set.

Azarenka raised the stakes in the second set, twice breaking Williams and was in pole position to level things up after jumping out to a 4-2 lead before Williams broke back.

At 5-5, the American broke again to edge out in front and then served out the match to take the title.

The win extended a run of successive victories to 22 and Williams didn’t drop a set during the entire tournament.

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Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Francisco Carbajal

January 4, 2014