Vinci Wins 3rd Title of 2011

Three tournaments completed this weekend, apart from the full Davis Cup schedule.  The biggest headline is probably Roberta Vinci winning her third title of 2011, triumphing on clay in Budapest over Irina-Camelia Begu 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.  This puts Vinci behind only Wozniacki and Kvitova in titles this year.  This brings the Italian #3 to six career titles, won on three different surfaces, though 4 of them have come on clay.  She also sports 3-0 in 2011 finals.  Also worth mentioning is the young Romanian Begu who made her second final of campaign, losing to Azarenka in the Marbella final.  Yet another bright spot for Romanian tennis.

In a Saturday final in Bastad, Sweden, Polona Hercog won her first career WTA title with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over local favorite Johanna Larsson.  Hercog has been on my radar for the past year or so but I had pretty much given up hope of her being more than a top 100 player after her horrendous start to 2011.  But she has rebounded a bit recently and now has a title to her name.  Larsson also had been slumping up until a couple months ago and now she has been putting in some solid results including a win over Ivanovic at the French Open.

Finally, there was a men's event ongoing this week, the final grass court event of the year, in Newport, RI.  Top-seeded American John Isner won his second career title (first '10 Auckland) by defeating 3-time finalist Olivier Rochus 6-3, 7-6(6).  It is good to see a positive result for Isner, who has been slumping for awhile now after he sort of broke out in late '09/early '10.  He hit 22 aces in the final.