Halep Still On Fire, Upsets Kvitova; Melzer Wins Too

In the week in, week out of the tour, no woman has been hotter during the summer than Simona Halep, who won a Premier title this week in New Haven, CT.  This was her 4th and biggest title of the summer, capped by a win over Petra Kvitova in the final.  The former girls French Open champion will enter the top 20 for the first time.  On the men's side, Jurgen Melzer, came seemingly from nowhere to win in Winston-Salem, NC, knocking off Paire, Tursunov, Querrey, and Monfiles to win his 5th career title.  He had been slumping for awhile and I was beginning to wonder if his relevance was coming to a close.

Good Stories
-Alison Riske (USA), a younger American, has had much success on grass but little elsewhere.  She qualified for New Haven and won a match, albeit over a fellow qualifier.
-Steve Johnson (USA), former NCAA champion, upset Seppi to win 2 matches in Winston-Salem.

Bad Stories
-Maria Kirilenko (RUS) was a finalist in New Haven last year, but skipped that even this.  She went just 2-2 after Wimbledon and is dropping down the rankings.  It looks like she has reached her peak.
-Play of top seeds:  New Haven's top two seeds were beaten in their opening match:  Errani and Kerber.  In Winston-Salem, Isner and Berdych pulled out while Seppi crashed and burned against Johnson.

WTA Premier: New Haven, CT, United States

Simona Halep (ROU) def. 3) Petra Kvitova (CZE) 6-2 6-2

-Halep wins 4th career title, 4th of 2013, last '13 Budapest

Defending champion: Petra Kvitova (CZE) - F l. to Halep

Quarterfinalists: 4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)-SF, 6) Sloane Stephens (USA), Ekaterina Makarova (RUS), Klara Zakopalova (CZE)-SF, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS), Elena Vesnina (RUS)

Players reaching QF in '12 and '13: Kvitova and Wozniacki
Locals performance: 3-2, 2 wins for Stephens before she lost to Wozniacki and one for q-Riske.  Surprisingly few Americans in the draw.

Americans performance: see above

Third set tiebreaks: Makarova def. Wozniak (R1),

*Lisicki was defending champion in Dallas, TX from this week last year, but that tournament is now defunct.

ATP 250: Winston-Salem, NC, United States

9) Jurgen Melzer (AUT) def. 15) Gael Monfils (FRA) 6-3 2-1 ret.

-Melzer wins 5th career title, last '12 Memphis

Defending champion (x2): John Isner (USA) - skipped tournament this year

Quarterfinalists: 6) Sam Querrey (USA), 7) Fernando Verdasco (ESP), 10) Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)-SF, 13) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS), Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE), Ricardas Berankis (LTU)

Players reaching QF in '12 and '13: Querrey and Dolgopolov

Locals performance: 8-10, Querrey got 3 wins and Johnson got two - the former saved 5 match points against Nieminen and advanced, the latter beat #2 seed Seppi; Fish, Blake, and Smyczek won one match, but then Fish retired against Nieminen and pulled out of the US Open ;-(  Sock, Williams, Russell, Reynolds, and l-Kudla lost opening round matches.  Plus Isner pulled out after his run to the Cincy final.  Not as good of a tournament as we would have liked, but not awful.
Americans performance: see above

Third set tiebreaks: Querrey def. Nieminen (R3) (12-10)