Roddick, Paszek Are Friends of Grass

Andy Roddick has been out of form for a good while, mostly since his bout with mono and subsequent loss to Lu at Wimbledon in '10.  But his fans now have a glimmer of hope as Roddick accepted a wildcard into Eastbourne and won the tournament, knocking off the defending champion Seppi in the final.  Tamira Paszek has done very little on the tour since reaching the quarters at Wimbledon last year, but now refinds pleasure of the grass, surviving the loaded field at Eastbourne.  This is now 2 of 3 years that the packed Eastbourne women's event has been won by an unseeded player (Makarova won in '10).  About 2-1/2 years ago, Nadia Petrova lost only one game to Clijsters at the Aussie Open, then proceeded to reach the quarters at nearly every tournament she played through the clay season before retire in the French Open QF.  She did win in College Park, MD last year, but now is back to no. 20 in the world after winning in 's-Hertogenbosch, so maybe she is finally back to full speed after injury.  And finally, also at that tournament, David Ferrer showed he is again a man for all surfaces, winning his 2nd grass title to go along with 9 clay and 4 hard court titles.

WTA Premier: Eastbourne, United Kingdom

Tamira Paszek (AUT) def. 5) Angelique Kerber (GER) 6-0 6-3

-Paszek wins 3rd career title, last '10 Quebec City (1 yr 9 mon drought)

-Other QF:  4) Marion Bartoli (FRA)-SF, 7) Lucie Safarova (CZE), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS), Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL), Klara Zakopalova (CZE)-SF, Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)

-Other seeds:  1) Radwanska (R1 l. to Pironkova), 2) Kvitova (R1 l. to Makarova), 3) Wozniacki (R1 l. to McHale), 6) Ivanovic (w/d), 8) Hantuchova (R2 l. to Paszek), 9) Cetkovska (R2 l. to Zakopalova)

-Bartoli was the defending champion and reached the semis.

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Bartoli was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year.

-Despite the fact that the last direct entry was ranked no. 66, Dubois, Robson, Watson, and Scheepers each won a match

-Finally a QF result for Pavlyuchenkova, her last was '11 Beijing

-British players went 2-3 for the tournament.

ATP 250: Eastbourne, United Kingdom

6) Andy Roddick (USA) def. 3) Andreas Seppi (ITA)

-Roddick wins 31st career title, last '11 Memphis (1.5-yr drought)

-Roddick has won at least one title in 12 consecutive years

-Other QF:  7) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER), Fabio Fognini (ITA), Ryan Harrison (USA)-SF, Steve Darcis (BEL)-SF, Denis Istomin (UZB), Q) Marinko Matosevic (AUS)

-Other seeds:  1) Gasquet (R2 l. to Matosevic), 2) Granollers (R2 l. to Istomin), 4) Tomic (R2 l. to Fognini), 5) Benneteau (R1 l. to Lu), 8) Andujar (R1 l. to Baghdatis)

-Seppi reached the final in his title defense.

-Seppi was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year.

-Just two British entered with Ward losing to Matosevic and Baker beating Young before losing to Kohlschreiber.  Baker goes to 2-2 in Wimbledon warmups.

-The best match in R1 was Harrison def. Pospisil 3-6 7-6(2) 7-6(6)

ATP 250: 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

1) David Ferrer (ESP) def. Q) Philipp Petzschner 6-3 6-4

-Ferrer wins 15th career title, 4th of 2012 (on 3 surfaces), last '12 Acapulco

-Other QF:  Gilles Muller (LUX), Xavier Malisse (BEL)-SF, Benoit Paire (FRA)-SF, Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA), Tatsuma Ito (JPN), Igor Sijsling (NED)

-Other seeds:  2) Troicki (R1 l. to Malisse), 3) Melzer (R2 l. to Ito), 4) Haase (R1 l. to Pavic), 5) Giraldo (R1 l. to Muller), 6) Nieminen (R1 l. to Sijsling), 7) Bogomolov (R1 l. to Roger-Vasselin), 8) Kubot (R2 l. to Paire)

-Tursunov was the defending champion, but lost to Petzschner in R1.

-Malisse was the only player to reach quarters in both '11 and '12.
-Petzschner is showing nice grass form, reaching Halle final last year and the semis this year, now the final of this tournament, and remember he took two sets off Nadal at Wimbledon in '10.

-Seeds went a combined 7-7 in this tournament and includes the 5-0 by Ferrer.

-Haase's conqueror was 18-yr-old Croat qualifier Mate Pavic ranked no. 640 in the world, participating in his first ATP main draw.  Remember Haase also lost to a lowly ranked Algerian at Casablanca.

-The Dutch only entered Haase and Sijsling.  The former bombed but the latter reached the QF.

WTA International: 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

8) Nadia Petrova (RUS) def. Q) Urszula Radwanska (POL)

-Petrova wins 11th career title, last '11 College Park
-Other QF:  3) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK), 6) Roberta Vinci (ITA), Francesca Schiavone (ITA), Kim Clijsters (BEL)-SF, Sofia Arvidsson (SWE), Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL)-SF

-Other seeds:  1) Stosur (R1 l. to Flipkens), 2) Errani (R1 l. to Bondarenko), 4) Pennetta (R2 l. to Radwanska), 5) Kirilenko (R1 l. to Schiavone), 7) Jankovic (R1 l. to Arvidsson)

-Vinci reached the QF in her title defense.

-Vinci and Cibulkova were both in the quarters in '11.
-Radwanska the younger reached her first WTA final.

-Clijsters withdrew before playing her semifinal match after beating Schiavone (now 12-0 record) 6-3 7-6(7).

-Qualifiers went an unbelievable 8-4 with Gavrilova beating Wickmayer before losing to Flipkens, and Amanmuradova was the only R1 loser.

-Dutch women went just 1-2, Rus winning and Bertens losing.

Also, in Davis Cup Americas Zonal Group III, Guatemala defeated Costa Rica and Haiti defeated Bahamas in the group finals and they will advance to Group II.  Participants who failed to make it out of the round robin stage where Aruba, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago (hosts), and the US Virgin Islands.  It is an immediate to Group II for Haiti while Guatemala replaces the Netherlands Antilles, which is no longer a country but part of the Netherlands.  There is no longer a Group IV in the Americas Zone.