Federer Beats Djokovic and Wins Dubai, Cibulkova Survives Acapulco

It was quite the week of tennis.  Federer snapped a 3-match losing streak to Djokovic and stays ahead of him 17-15 in the head-to-head.  He came from a set down against Djokovic in the semis and again against Berdych in the final in win in Dubai.  Ferrer did not win Acapulco, but Dimitrov did by winning back-to-back 3rd set tiebreaks against Murray and Anderson in the final for his 2nd title.  Is he finally reaching his potential?  Argentina has a rising star in Delbonis, the man who beat Federer at Hamburg last summer.  He won the smaller event is Sao Paulo and will now be ranked inside the top 50.

In women's action, one of the hotter players of 2014 getting no notice is Zakopalova, but at age 32 she won her 3rd title, outlasting rising Spanish star Muguruza in the Florianopolis final.  And the Aussie Open finalist Cibulkova backed up her run there with success in Acapulco, defeating McHale in the final.  The American was contesting her first career final and is having some nice success recently after a down year in '13.

ATP 500: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
4) Roger Federer (SUI) def. 3) Tomas Berdych (CZE) 3-6 6-4 6-3
-Federer wins 78th career title, last '13 Halle
-It is his 6th win in Dubai ('03-'05,'07,'12)
-He has now won 4 tournaments at least 6 times (Wimbledon, Tour Finals, Halle)
-Americans: 0-1, Russell l. to Stepanek
-Jaziri parlayed a wildcard into a quarterfinal with wins over Sijsling (3rd set tiebreak) and Devvarman
-Six top 8 seeds made the quarters, only Del Potro (see below) and Tursunov (R2 l. to Rosol) did not
-In sad news, Del Potro was forced to retire from his first round match with a wrist injury that sounds serious.
-Djokovic was the defending champion but came up short in the semis against Federer

ATP 500: Acapulco, Mexico
4) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) def. 5) Kevin Anderson (RSA) 7-6(1) 3-6 7-6(5)
-Dimitrov wins 2nd career title, last '13 Stockholm
-He will be a career high #16
-He went 5-0 in tiebreaks and beat Matosevic, Baghdatis, 7-Gulbis, 2-Murray, and 5-Anderson
-Americans: 2-4, depressing, Querrey def. wildcard Hank (MEX) then l. to Anderson, 3-Isner l. to Karlovic (2 tiebreaks), q-Smyczek l. to 6-Simon, l-Young def. Nieminen then l. to 6-Simon
-Dolgopolov reached the semis to continue his productive 2014
-Gulbis def. Goffin in another 3rd set tiebreak
-Nadal was the defending champion, defeating 3x defending champion Ferrer in the final.  Nadal did not play this week and Ferrer had to retire against Anderson in the quarters.
-The tournament switched from clay to hard courts this year

ATP 250: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Federico Delbonis (ARG) def. Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 4-6 6-3 6-4
-Delbonis wins first career title (23-yr-old, now ranked #44)
-Americans: none
-Lorenzi, a 32-yr-old journeymen, played his first ATP semi and first ATP final
-Another 23-yr-old Argentine, Pella, upset 7th seed L.Mayer in 3 tiebreaks.  Mayer and Pella have now played twice and contested 5 sets all tiebreaks, with 4 won by Pella.
-Only two seeds reached the quarters and both (Haas and Monaco) lost to Lorenzi, though Haas had to retire midway through the 2nd set
-Bellucci with another nice result, reaching the semis, in his comeback
-Nadal was also the defending champion here, though the tournament was held a couple weeks earlier last year

WTA International: Acapulco, Mexico
1) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) def. Christina McHale (USA) 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4
-Cibulkova wins 4th career title, last '13 Stanford
-Americans: 5-4, McHale reached her first final with wins over Mladenovic, Date-Krumm, 3-Kanepi, and Garcia.  Tornado Alicia Black, ranked #7 among those born in '98, made her WTA main draw debut as wildcard and had a 6-4 7-5 loss to 6-Jovanovski.  Keys qualified (weird?) and lost to 8-Zhang, and Duval also qualified but def. Melzer (nee Benesova) before losing to Tomljanovic.
-Speaking of Garcia, the 20-yr-old French reached her first WTA quarters and semis, which included a win over 2-Bouchard
-Another tournament, another loss for Schiavone, this time to Zahlavova Strycova, and she is 0-7 in '14
-Errani was the defending champion but did not play, perhaps because the tournament is now on hard courts

WTA International, Florianopolis, Brazil
3) Klara Zakopalova (CZE) def. 2) Garbine Muguruza (ESP) 4-6 7-5 6-0
-Zakopalova wins 3rd career title, last '05 Portoroz (9-yr drought)
-She reached 7 finals between titles
-Americans: 0-1, King l. to Muguruza 7-5 in the 3rd
-Dulgheru qualified and made the quarters, her first since '11 after a long injury layoff
-van Uytvanck, young Belgian ranked #6 among players born in '94, qualified and reached the quarters
-23-yr-old French qualifier Lim won her first career WTA main draw match, defeating Larsson
-Niculescu was the defending champion and the made the quarters before retiring in the 3rd set against Suarez Navarro

Also of note this week, my man Victor Estrella from the Dominican Republic won a challenger in Salinas and will make his top 100 debut at #97.  He is also very close from contending his first major main draw in Paris.