Berdych, Monaco, Youzhny Win Titles

Three small tournaments ended yesterday with few top players participating, but those that did emerged with some hardware.  We saw a few unexpected finalists, but in the end two top seeds and one third seed survived.

ATP 250:  Montpellier, France
1) Tomas Berdych (CZE) def. 3) Gael Monfils (FRA) 6-2 4-6 6-3


-Berdych wins 7th career title, last '11 Beijing
-Other QF:  2) Gilles Simon (FRA)-SF, 4) Richard Gasquet (FRA), 7) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)-SF, 8) Jarkko Nieminen (FIN), Nicolas Mahut (FRA), Guillame Rufin (FRA)
-Other seeds:  5) Lopez (R2 l. to Rufin), 6) Mayer (R2 l. to Mahut)
-This tournament was last contested in the fall of '10 and takes the place of the now defunct Johannesburg, won by Kevin Anderson last year
-There were Frenchmen everywhere, 12 of 28 in the main draw, 8 in R2 (in EIGHT different matches), 6 made the quarters, but none won the final
-The first 2 rounds saw just one 3-setter
-Two of my "eye"-men were here, Stebe and Pospisil, both lost in R1.
-Nieminen had a 7-match win streak snapped in the quarters.

ATP 250:  Viña del Mar, Chile

1) Juan Monaco (ARG) def. 7) Carlos Berlocq (ARG) 6-3 6-7(1) 6-1

-Monaco wins 4th career title (all on clay), last '07 Kitzbuhel (4.5-yr drought)
-He had reached 6 finals over that span

-Other QF:  2) Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG)-SF, 5) Albert Montanes (ESP), Frederico Gil (POR), Jeremy Chardy (FRA)-SF, Federico Del Bonis (ARG), Joao Souza (BRA)

-Other seeds:  3) Bellucci (R2 l. to Del Bonis), 4) Andujar (R2 l. to Gil), 6) Giraldo (R1 l. to L.Mayer), 8) Volandri (R1 l. to Souza)

-Robredo's injuries kept him from title defense
-Tournament played in Santiago last year

-Chela the only repeat quarterfinalist
-My "eye"-man Souza does me proud with a quarterfinal appearance.  He is now into the top 100 at #98.
-Fernando Gonzalez was in the draw here, beat Riba before losing to Souza
-Also here no R2 matches went the distance, though 4 did in R1

ATP 250:  Zagreb, Croatia

3) Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) def. Lukas Lacko (SVK) 6-2 6-3

-Youzhny wins 8th career title, last '10 Kuala Lumpur

-Other QF:  4) Ivan Dodig (CRO), 6) Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)-SF, 7) Robin Haase (NED), 8) Ivo Karlovic (CRO), Michael Berrer (GER)-SF, Jurgen Melzer (AUT)

-Other seeds:  1) Ljubicic (R2 l. to Berrer), 2) Bogomolov Jr (R2 l. to Lacko), 5) Seppi (R2 l. to Melzer)

-Dodig's title defence ended with QF l. to Baghdatis, Berrer was within one win of reaching the final for a second consecutive year

-Those two the only quarterfinalists from 2011 who again reached that stage

-My "eye"-man Haase does me proud with a quarterfinal appearance.

The tour is off this week for Davis Cup ties all over the globe.  I'll have a full rundown of that later this week.