A Week For Top Seeds

Six tournaments were contested this week, four ATP and two WTA, and the top seed walked away with the trophy in FIVE of them.  Serena Williams kept her winning streak going (now 12 games) just days after Wimbledon by bringing home the week's biggest title in Stanford, and she did so without losing a set.  Sara Errani became the first Italian to win 4 titles in one season as has been almost unstoppable on clay.  John Isner successfully defended his grass court title in Newport and may have refound his good form from earlier this year as he is back in his home country.  Janko Tipsarevic continues to show that his 2011 season complete with appearance as an alternate in the World Tour Finals wasn't a fluke as he won his first career clay title in Stuttgart.  David Ferrer matched Federer's '12 season by winning his 5th title of the campaign in Bastad, and they have come on three different surfaces.  And finally, the only non-top seed to win was Marin Cilic, who wins his 3rd title on home soil with a win in Umag, and has now, like Ferrer, won 2 titles in 3 tournaments.

WTA Premier: Stanford, CA, United States

1) Serena Williams (USA) def. L) Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 7-5 6-3

-Serena wins 43rd career title, 4th at 2012, last '12 Wimbledon
-It is her 2nd Stanford title
-Other QF:  2) Marion Bartoli (FRA), 3) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK), 5) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL)-SF, 6) Chanelle Scheepers (RSA), 9) Sorana Cirstea (ROU)-SF, Urszula Radwanska (POL)
-Other seeds:  4) Jankovic (R2 l. to Vandeweghe), 7) Martic (w/d), 8) Erakovic (R2 l. to Radwanska)
-Serena successfully defended her title.

-Bartoli and Cibulkova were returning quarterfinalists from last year.

-Likely due to the Olympics, this tournaments was played 3 weeks earlier than last year.
-This is a nice result for Vandeweghe (esp. after a loss in qualifying), and maybe she is back on track to be a decent player.  Remember she reached the QF in '10 Tokyo before having an abysmal '11 season.
-There were 8 Americans in the draw and they went 11-7 with Serena and Vandeweghe combining for 9 of the wins.  The other two went to wildcards Nicole Gibbs and Mallory Burdette.

-Wildcards, qualifiers and lucky losers actually combined to win 6 first round matchs, wildcards went 3-0 in round 1 with Larcher de Brito getting the third win.

WTA International: Palermo, Italy
1) Sara Errani (ITA) def. 8) Barbora Zahlalova Strycova (CZE) 6-1 6-3

-Errani wins 6th career title, 4th of 2012, last '12 Budapest
-Other QF:  3) Julia Goerges (GER), 5) Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP), Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU)-SF, Alexandra Cadantu (ROU), Laura Robson (GBR)-SF, Q) Estrella Cabeza Candela (ESP)
-Other seeds:  2) Vinci (R2 l. to Robson), 4) Medina Garrigues (R1 l. to Camerin), 6) Hercog (R1 l. to Begu), 7) Cornet (R2 l. to Cadantu)
-Medina Garrigues' title defense failed in round 1.

-Errani and Begu were both in the quarters in '11.
-This tournament is being played one week earlier than last year.
-Robson reached her first WTA quarterfinal and semifinal.
-There was one American in the draw, the last direct entry Julia Cohen, and she beat Dushevina in her first round match.
-Italians not named Errani went just 2-5.  Errani is having a better, but somewhat similar to the year Vinci had last year when she won 3 titles on 3 surfaces.

ATP 250: Newport, RI, United States

1) John Isner (USA) def. Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 7-6(1) 6-4

-Isner wins 4th career title, last '11 Winston-Salem

-It is his 2nd win in Newport

-Other QF:  2) Kei Nishikori (JPN), 6) Ryan Harrison (USA)-SF, Dudi Sela (ISR), Rajeev Ram (USA)-SF, Q) Benjamin Becker (GER), Q) Izak van de Merwe (RSA)

-Other seeds:  3) Raonic (R2 l. to Becker), 4) Istomin (R1 l. to Smyczek), 5) Bogomolov (R1 l. to Querrey), 7) Young (R1 l. to Russell), 8) Muller (R1 l. to van de Merwe)

-Isner successfully defended his title.

-Isner was the only returning quarterfinalist from last year.

-Young and Bogomolov continue to have abysmal 2012 campaigns.  Remember early in '11 those two each beat Murray at a hard court Masters.
-Americans had an amazing tournament, going 16-8 with 3 losses to each other.
-Wildcards (Hewitt and Sock) and qualifiers (Becker, Smyczek, van de Merwe, Bubka) combined to go 5-1 in the first round and 10-6 overall
-Is Hewitt finally healthy?

-The best match in R1 was Harrison def. Bemelmens 7-6(8) 6-7(5) 7-5

ATP 250: Stuttgart, Germany

1) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) def. 2) Juan Monaco (ARG) 6-4 5-7 6-3

-Tipsarevic wins 3rd career title, last '11 Moscow
-It is his first title on clay

-Other QF:  Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)-SF, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)-SF, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (GER), Dustin Brown (GER), Bjorn Phau (GER), Q) Pavol Cervenak (SVK)

-Other seeds:  3) Tomic (R2 l. to Bellucci), 4) Andujar (R2 l. to Garcia-Lopez), 5) Haase (R1 l. to Rosol), 6) Davydenko (R1 l. to Brown), 7) Kubot (R1 l. to Stebe), 8) Haas (R2 l. to Cervenak)

-Ferrero was the defending champion, but played Bastad instead this week.

-Cervenak and Stebe were the repeat quarterfinalist from '11.  It shocked me when I read that.
-This tournament, like many others in July this year, is being played one week early.
-One of my "eye"-men performed well (Stebe), another not so much (Haase)

-Germans had a nice tournament, going 8-7 with three reaching the quarters.

-Brown over Davydenko went 9-7 in the 3rd set tiebreak.

ATP 250: Bastad, Sweden

1) David Ferrer (ESP) def. 2) Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-2 6-2

-Ferrer wins 16th career title, 5th of '12, last '12 's-Hertogenbosch
-Other QF:  3) Albert Ramos (ESP), 6) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)-SF, Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP), Tommy Robredo (ESP), Jan Hajek (CZE)-SF, Jurgen Zopp (EST)

-Other seeds:  4) Nieminen (R2 l. to Hajek), 5) Kukushkin (R1 l. to Gimeno-Traver), 7) Volandri (R2 l. to Zopp), 8) Ungur (R1 l. to Robredo)

-Soderling was the defending champion, but hasn't played since.  He beat Ferrer in the final.

-Ferrer and Almagro were both in the quarters in '11.
-This tournament was also played one week earlier than usual.
-Zopp, a name you may know if you read Davis Cup zonal group results, reach his first ATP quarterfinal.

-It is good to have Robredo back on tour, and a QF result to boot.

-My "eye"-man Souza of Brazil beat Zeballos before losing to Robredo.

-The Swedes Ryderstedt and Lindell went 0-2.

ATP 250: Umag, Croatia

2) Marin Cilic (CRO) def. 4) Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-4 6-2

-Cilic wins 8th career title, 2nd of 2012, last '12 London (Queen's)

-It is his first clay title, the first 6 titles of his career were on hard courts

-Other QF:  1) Fernando Verdasco (ESP)-SF, 3) Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)-SF, 5) Carlos Berlocq (ARG), Matthias Bachinger (GER), Wayne Odesnik (USA), Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS)

-Other seeds:  6) Ferrero (R1 l. to Pavic), 7) Klizan (R2 l. to Bachinger), 8) Roger-Vasselin (R1 l. to Odesnik)

-Dolgopolov was the defending but lost to Cilic in the semis, the man he beat in the '11 final.

-Cilic, Dolgopolov, and Berlocq were all in the quarters in '11, as was Ramos, who reached the quarters in Bastad this week.

-This tournament was played three weeks earlier than last year.

-Pavic, the young Croat who beat Ferrero, is now ranked inside the top 500 and beat Haase the week before Wimbledon.

-Kuznetsov won the boy's Wimbledon title in '09 and is now ranked 128.

-Another unknown player reaching the second round was Marco Trungelliti (ARG), a 22-yr-old ranked 250 in the world appearing in his first ATP main draw.

-Veic and Dodig both lost in round 1 so along with Pavic and Cilic, the Croats went 6-3.

Also, in Davis Cup Africa Zonal Group III, Tunisia (behind top 100 player Jaziri) defeated Cote d'Ivoire and Benin defeated Zimbabwe to reach Europe/Africa Zonal Group II.  Hard to believe a country like Benin could reach this round but the top African teams (Morocco and Egypt) managed to stave off relegation last year (and they were relegated this year) so it was a golden opportunity for some of the lower ranked African nations.  Namibia, Kenya, Algeria, and Ghana also competed but did not make it out of pool play.