Schiavone Ends Title Drought, Serbia Wins Team Cup

The last time Francesca Schiavone won a title, she kissed the dirt on Court Philippe Chatrier and became one of the most surprising major champions ever.  Here we are, 101 weeks later celebrating her next title, in Strasbourg, France.  She had such a miserable start to the year that she is now just 13-14, but this result gives hope she may be able to ride a decent draw deep into Roland Garros yet again.  At the most prestigious event of the week, Agnieszka Radwanska blitzed through a "relatively" easy field to win the WTA Premier event in Brussels without a set.  Nicolas Almagro defended his title in Nice, but perhaps the story of that tournament was American qualifier Brian Baker, competing in his first ATP main draw since 2005, reaching the final.  He is now ranked inside the top 150 and has a wildcard at the French Open.  Finally, at the world team cup in Dusseldorf, Serbia swept to the title behind Tipsarevic and Troicki.

WTA Premier: Brussels, Belgium
1) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) def. Simona Halep (ROU) 7-5 6-0


-Radwanska wins 10th career title, 3rd of 2012, last '12 Miami
-It is her first career clay title
-Other QF:  4) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK), 8) Kaia Kanepi (EST)-SF, Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL), Sofia Arvidsson (SWE)-SF, Q) Urszula Radwanska (POL), Alison van Uytvanck (BEL)
-Other seeds:  2) Bartoli (R2 l. to U.Radwanska), 3) Kerber (w/d), 5) Vinci (w/d), 6) Jankovic (R1 l. to Halep), 7) Peng (R1 l. to Arvidsson), 9) Pavlyuchenkova (R1 l. to Scheepers), 10) Petrova (R2 l. to Pironkova)
-Wozniacki elected not to defend her title this year.  Peng was the finalist last year.
-Arvidsson was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year, though Schiavone (SF) successfully took her talents to Strasbourg.
-Halep, who overcame a 1st set bagel against Cibulkova in the QF, is now 0-3 in WTA finals.
-van Uytvanck is an 18-year-old Belgian, who qualified and won a match at this tournament last year.  When I last ran the rankings (after Miami), she was #7 among players born in 1994.
-Wickmayer was the only other Belgian to win a match, bowing out to Cibulkova in R2.

ATP 250: Nice, France

3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP) def. Q) Brian Baker (USA) 6-3 6-2

-Almagro wins 12th career title, 2nd of 2012, last '12 Sao Paulo

-All his titles have come on clay, this is 4th year he has won at least 2 titles.

-Other QF:  1) John Isner (USA), 2) Gilles Simon (FRA)-SF, Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)-SF, Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ), Steve Darcis (BEL), Q) Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)

-Other seeds:  4) Monfils (R2 l. to Baker), 5) Tomic (R2 l. to Kukushkin), 6) Haase (R1 l. to Ferrero), 7) Istomin (R2 l. to Davydenko), 8) Fognini (R1 l. to Darcis)

-Almagro successfully defended his title.  It was the 4th successful defense of his career.

-Almagro was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year,.

-The scoreline of Ferrero's win over Haase was 4-6 7-6(6) 7-6(6)

-Only 4 French entered, and only Nice native Simon won a match over a non-French, reaching the semis.
-Young was also year, but continued his horrific 2012 with a first round loss to Bellucci.

WTA International: Strasbourg, France

2) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) def. Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-4 6-4

-Schiavone wins 5th career title, last '10 French Open

-Four of her titles have come on clay

-Other QF:  4) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP), Pauline Parmentier (FRA)-SF, Johanna Larsson (SWE), Sloane Stephens (USA)-SF, Ayumi Morita (JPN), Q) Alexandra Panova (RUS)

-Other seeds:  1) Lisicki (R1 l. to Parmentier), 3) Kirilenko (R1 ret. to Stephens), 5) Barthel (R1 l. to Panova), 6) Erakovic (R1 l. to Morita), 7) Zakopalova (w/d), 8) Paszek (R2 l. to Larsson), 9) Wozniak (R1 l. to Peer)

-Petkovic was the defending champion but is injured.

-Medina Garrigues was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year.

-This is the best result for Cornet in a very long time.

-Seeds not named Schiavone went just 2-7 in the tournament.
-This is the first tour semifinal for Stephens, also young American Davis qualified.
-Only 4 French players entered, but all won their first round match (Foretz Gacon, Razzano) with Cornet and Parmentier playing an all-French semi.

ATP Team Cup: Dusseldorf, Germany

Serbia def. Czech Republic 3-0
  -Tipsarevic def. Berdych 7-5 7-6(8)
  -Troicki def. Stepanek 2-6 6-4 6-3
  -Tipsarevic/Zimonjic def. Berdych/Cermak 6-3 6-1

-Other teams:  Red Group:  Argentina (2-1), USA (1-2), Japan (0-3)  Blue Group:  Germany (2-1), Russia (1-2), Croatia (0-3)

-Other players:  ARG - Berlocq, Chela, L.Mayer, Brzezicki; USA - Roddick, Blake, Harrison, JPN - Soeda, Ito, Sato; GER - F.Mayer, Kohlschreiber, Petzschner, Kas; RUS - Bogomolov, Kunitsyn, Tursunov; CRO - Dodig, Zovko

-Germany defeated Argentina in last year's final.  Both teams came in 2nd in their group this year.

-USA won only one singles match, Harrison def. Ito

Bring on the French Open!