Serena Takes No. 1 Ranking But Azarenka Wins Doha

Serena Williams defeated Petra Kvitova on Friday, which assured her of the no. 1 ranking tomorrow, but Victoria Azarenka stole the headlines by overcoming Serena in the Doha final by the score of 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3.

-Azarenka wins her 16th career title, 2nd of 2013, last '13 Aussie Open
-It is her 2nd win in Doha, and she defends her title there from last year
-She is 14-0 on the year
-The only set she lost was in the final

Serena returns to no. 1 in the world.  She last held that spot in Oct '10.  It is her 6th stint as the top ranked player, and she is the oldest to do so.

The top 4 seeds made the semifinals and I beginning to wonder if a bit of "Big 4" is beginning to form. However, Radwanska and Sharapova continued their utter futility against Azarenka and Serena respectively, both losing in straight sets.  I imagine it has been awhile since that occurred in a WTA "Tier I" event, but I don't have the patience at the moment to sift through the internet to find out exactly when.  Most of the quarterfinals were straight sets affairs with only Serena being pushed to 3 by Kvitova.  The Czech was up a break in the 3rd but Serena came back to win 7-5 in the final set.

The men had 3 tournaments this week, one on clay in Latin America, one in the USA, and a 500 in Rotterdam.  The biggest stories were Federer being upset by Benneteau, Nadal breaking through in Sao Paulo, and Raonic winning his 3rd straight San Jose title, just in time for the tournament to end.  I am not as shocked by Benneteau's win as some as the Frenchman led the Swiss two sets to love last year at Wimbledon, and beat him over 3 years ago in Paris Bercy.  Benneteau has also been in quite good form lately.

Finally, as a note of housekeeping, for the present I will not be covering WTA 125 events, such as the first one of 2013 in Cali, Colombia last week, won by Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain.  I am viewing them more as an upper tier of challengers than a lower tier of WTA events and they are not on the WTA calendar at the top of www.wtatennis.com.  Therefore I am also not listing those winners on my champions page.  I will consider to mull this over though and if anyone has huge issue with this, let me know.

Good Stories
-Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) playing well at the age of 31, reaching the QF of Rotterdam, and he is 9-5 on the season
-Steve Johnson (USA) reaching his first career quarterfinal in San Jose with a win over Karlovic.
-Martin Alund (ARG), a 27-yr-old journeyman, qualifying for Sao Paulo and then recording his first ATP tour win and going on to reach the semis. He enters to top 100 in the new rankings.
-David Nalbandian (ARG) reaching his first final since '11 Washington, and showing some nice form in the process with a win over Almagro.
-Robin Haase (NED) after having a very mediocre 2012, reaching the SF in Zagreb, and he's back in the top 50.

Bad Stories
-Juan Monaco (ARG) losing another first round match, now 0-5 in ATP matches this year, though he did win two in Davis Cup.
-San Jose completing a 125-yr run as a tournament and moving to Memphis next year.  That 500 will move to Buenos Aires.

ATP 500: Rotterdam, Netherlands
2) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) def. Julien Benneteau (FRA) 7-6(2) 6-3
-Del Potro wins 14th career title, last '12 Basel
-He did not win indoors until Marseille 51 weeks ago, but now has won 3 of his 4 titles indoors
Defending champion: Roger Federer (SUI) - QF l. to Benneteau
Quarterfinalists: 1) Roger Federer (SUI), 5) Gilles Simon (FRA)-SF, Jarkko Nieminen (FIN), Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)-SF, Marcos Baghdatis (CYP), Martin Klizan (SVK)
Players reaching QF in '12 and '13: Del Potro, Federer, Nieminen

Locals performance: 2-3, first round wins for de Bakker and Sijsling, but a loss by Haase

Americans performance: none
Other notable winners: A pair of winning qualifiers, Matteo Viola (ITA) and Ernests Gulbis (LAT), the latter now ranked 118

Third set tiebreaks: none

ATP 250: San Jose, CA, United States
1) Milos Raonic (CAN) def. 4) Tommy Haas (GER) 6-4 6-3
-Raonic wins 4th career title, last '12 San Jose
-It is his 3rd win in San Jose ('11,'12)
Defending champion: Milos Raonic (CAN) (2x) - defended title
Quarterfinalists: 2) John Isner (USA)-SF, 3) Sam Querrey (USA)-SF, 6) Denis Istomin (UZB), 8) Xavier Malisse (BEL), Alejandro Falla (COL), Steve Johnson (USA)
Players reaching QF in '12 and '13: Raonic, Istomin
Locals performance: A discouraging 8-10 with Isner, Querrey, and Johnson getting 2 wins, q-Smyczek and Russell getting one.  First round losers were Harrison, Sock, Klahn, q-Sweeting, and q-Young.
Americans performance: see above
Other notable winners: Vasek Pospisil (CAN), now 22 yrs old and ranked no. 129
Third set tiebreaks: Hewitt def. Kavcic (R1), Johnson def. Karlovic (R1), Querrey def. Hewitt (R2), Malisse def. Ebden (R2)

ATP 250: Sao Paul, Brazil
1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) def. David Nalbandian (ARG) 6-2 6-3
-Nadal wins 51st career title, last '12 French Open
-He won this same event in '05 (played in Costa do Sauipe), his only other title in South America
Defending champion: Nicolas Almagro (ESP) - QF l. to Nalbandian
Quarterfinalists: 2) Nicolas Almagro (ESP), Carlos Berlocq (ARG), Albert Montanes (ESP), Simone Bolleli (ITA)-SF, Filippo Lorenzi (ITA), Martin Alund (ARG)-SF
Players reaching QF in '12 and '13: Almagro, Nalbandian, Lorenzi, Berlocq
Locals performance: 2-4, wins for 5-Bellucci and Souza, losses for Mello and q-Clezar
Americans performance: none
Third set tiebreaks: Alund def. Chardy (R2), Nalbandian def. Almagro (QF)