Azarenka and Djokovic Continue Win Streaks, Watson Breaks Through for Britain

Novak Djokovic is coming on strong at the end of the year, which traditionally is one of his stronger seasons, and he now has 10-match winning streak and has reached the final of his last 5 tournaments, winning 3.  His latest victory was open his US Open conqueror, Andy Murray, 5-7 7-6(11) 6-3 in the Shanghai final after saving 5 match points.  This continues a decent run for Andy Murray, and the player of year title could still be up for grabs between those two and Roger Federer, who stays at no. 1 and has now been there for 300 weeks.

-It is his 33rd career title, 5th of 2012, last '12 Beijing
-It is his 12th Masters title, 3rd of 2012, and he is now in sole possession of 4th place all time behind Federer, Nadal, and Agassi.  He moved past Sampras.
-It is his first win in Shanghai, and he has now 7 different Masters events (missing Monte Carlo and Cincinnati).  That ties Federer (missing Monte Carlo and Rome) for most all time.  By reaching the final, he joined Federer in reaching the final of all 9 Masters.
-He trails Federer by 195 points and since Federer won Basel, Paris, and the World Tour Finals last year, I would Djokovic is nearly a lock to finish no. 1.
-The top 4 seeds (Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Berdych) reached the semis.  The last time this happened at a Masters tournament was '10 Toronto.  This has happened only 5 times in Masters history.

In WTA action, Victoria Azarenka is now on a 11-match winning as she backed up her win in Beijing by sweeping through a small tournament in Linz without losing a set.  And it has been a 24-year wait for Great Britain, but finally one of their youngsters broke through with Heather Watson winning the title in Osaka after saving 4 match points.

WTA International: Linz, Austria

1) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) def. 5) Julia Goerges (GER) 6-3 6-4

-Djokovic wins 32nd career title, 4th of 2012, last '12 Toronto
-It is his 3rd title in Beijing
-Other QF:  2) Ana Ivanovic (SRB), Petra Martic (CRO), Sofia Arvidsson (SWE), Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL), Q) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA), L) Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU)-SF
-Other seeds:  3) Cibulkova (w/d), 4) Safarova (R1 l. to Arvidsson), 6) Wickmayer (w/d), 7) Paszek (R1 l. to Mattek-Sands), 8) Lisicki (R1 l. to Mayr-Achleitner)

-Kvitova was the defending champion but did not play this year.
-There were no returning quarterfinalists from last year.  Cibulkova was the defending finalist but had to pull out with an illness.

-Azarenka dropped just 18 games in 5 matches, with 7 of those coming in the final.
-There were just two Austrians in the draw, seeded Paszek lost in R1 and wildcard Mayr-Achleitner upset Lisicki then lost to Martic.
-No Americans were direct entries but Mattek-Sands and Mallory Burdette qualified and each won a match, with Mattek-Sands winning two.  Burdette is a 21-yr-old who just finished playing NCAA tennis and will be up to no. 144 in the world tomorrow.
-Not a lot of great matches in this tournament, just 6 of 31 went to 3 sets.  One could argue the best was Bertens def. Barthel 7-6(3) 1-6 6-1.  Bertens then lost a tight match to Begu 6-4 7-6(7).

WTA International: Osaka, Japan
Heather Watson (GBR) def. Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) 7-5 5-7 7-6(4)

-Watson wins 1st career title, first Brit to win since '88
-She of the '09 US Open girls champ
-Other QF:  1) Samantha Stosur (AUS)-SF, 7) Chanelle Scheepers (RSA), 8) Laura Robson (GBR), Misaki Doi (JPN)-SF, Pauline Parmentier (FRA), Jamie Hampton (USA)
-Other seeds:  2) Zheng (R2 l. to Parmentier), 3) McHale (R1 l. to Chang), 4) Schiavone (R1 ret. to Puchkova), 5) Shvedova (R1 l. to Tanasugarn), 6) Medina Garrigues (R2 l. to Watson)
-Bartoli was the defending champion but did not play this year.

-Stosur was the only returning quarterfinalist, she also reached the final in '11.
-Japanese women went 3-5 with Doi reaching the semis, but none of Morita, Date-Krumm, Nara, and E.Sema won.
-Americans went 2-4 with Hampton getting the only win.  McHale, Glatch, and Cohen suffered opening round losses.
-Chang won back-to-back 3rd set tiebreaks to beat Robson and Stosur, but then lost via that method in the final.
-Watson will break into the top 50 at 49 but she bumps out Robson, who is now 51.

This coming weekend there are a couple of relegation Davis Cup ties in Zonal Group I (the last ties before the final) where the losers are sent down to Group II:

Europe:  Denmark at Finland - The Finns should have the upper hand with Nieminen though the Danes have Wimbledon doubles champ Nielsen.

Asia/Pacific:  New Zealand at Taiwan - No Lu or Wang for the Taiwanese but they should still be the favorites against a lowly-ranked Kiwi squad.