Surprises on Clay and Suarez Navarro

When Berdych and Fognini reached the finals of the ATP tournaments this week, where they were each the top seed, against unseeded competition, it looked like an easy victory for the pair.  But the both came up empty.  In Munich, Fognini fell to a qualifier, Martin Klizan.  However, Klizan has won an ATP title fairly recently and has beaten Tsonga at the US Open and was only ranked outside the top 100 because he missed some time with injury last fall.  In Oeiras, Portugal, Berdych was beaten by Carlos Berlocq, who overcame a first set bagel to win his second title in as many years.  In WTA action, also in Oeiras, Carla Suarez Navarro marched through the field relatively untested until she got a very effort from a resurgent Kuznetsova in the final.  Her game has been rising over the past few months, but I was surprised to learn this was her first WTA title!

Also, for a second consecutive week, there were no Americans in action.

ATP 250: Munich, Germany
Q) Martin Klizan (SVK) def. 1) Fabio Fognini (ITA) 2-6 6-1 6-2
-Klizan wins 2nd career title, last '12 St Petersburg
-He rises 50 spots to no. 61 in the world
-Americans: none
-The Germans got an excellent tournament from 24-yr-old qualifier Struff, who reached his first ATP quarter and semi which included a win over Lopez
-Qualifiers (Bellucci, Klizan, Ramos, and Struff) went 4-0 in round 1 and 3-1 in round 2 (Ramos the loser).  Also Berankis, a lucky loser, reached the quarters.  All told, qualifiers and lucky losers compiled a 13-5 record (includes l-Berrer).
-Berankis (8-6 in R2 vs. Melzer) and Klizan (7-2 in R2 vs Youzhny) won 3rd set tiebreaks
-Youzhny continues to struggle in 2014 where he is now 3-7
-Haas was the defending champion, falling to Klizan in the semis

ATP 250: Oeiras, Portugal
Carlos Berlocq (ARG) def. 1) Tomas Berdych (CZE) 0-6 7-5 6-1
-Berlocq wins 2nd career title, last '13 Bastad
-He is now ranked inside the top 50 at no. 48
-Americans: none
-The Portuguese played decent at their home tournament with wildcards Machado and Elias winning and the latter getting to the quarters.  However, their no. 1 Sousa was knocked out in R1 by L.Mayer
-Qualifiers also had success in Oeiras with L.Mayer reaching the quarters and Gimeno-Traver the semis
-Moldova had a representative in the main draw: Albot but he lost his first match to Hanescu
-Wawrinka was the defending champion, defeating Ferrer in last year's final but not did not play this year with all his other success

WTA International: Oeiras, Portugal
1) Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) def. 7) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 6-4 3-6 6-4
-Suarez Navarro wins 1st career title!  It was her 6th WTA final
-Americans: none
-Kuznetsova reached her first final since '11 Dubai and was vying for her first title since '10 San Diego
-Jabeur, the young but getting older Tunisian, got a main draw win, but it was against Portuguese wildcard Koehler
-Suarez Navarro double bageled Zahlavova Strycova in R2.  Safarova double bageled Rybarikova in R1 but only after losing the first set.
-And yet another tournament where some qualifiers enjoyed success.  Two of them, Begu and Bacsinszky, met in the quarters, with Begu advancing.
-Vesnina defeated Jovanovski in an epic 3rd set tiebreak 9-7 on her way to the semis
-Pavlyuchenkova was the defending champion but she did not play this year