And so the tour marches on. We are now in that strange part of the season between Wimbledon and the beginning of the US Open series, when there are a few clay events, plus of course Newport on grass here in the USA. This is rarely a time when the big names step foot on a tennis court, but plenty of dirtballers and lower ranked players were action. Several players notched "firsts" and made breakthroughs, detailed below. Montenegro and Uruguay will make their debut in 2014 Quarterfinalists page.
On Newport's lawns, Lleyton Hewitt showed his career isn't finished yet as he won his 2nd title of the season after not winning since 2010. He beat Karlovic in the final, who himself is having a great season at age 35. Roberto Bautista Agut has now won 2 titles sandwiched around Wimbledon, and on 2 different surfaces. He beat Rosol to win in Stuttgart, in that tournament's final year on clay. And a man who missed many months with an injury not long ago, is in peak form as evidenced by his title in Bastad. Pablo Cuevas beat Sousa in the final to win his first ATP event. He is first Uruguayan to win since '97. On the women's side, more younger Americans are breaking out, although this week they didn't win a title. Instead, in Bad Gastein it went to Andrea Petkovic, who defeated Rogers in the final. This is just more evidence that the German is back, healthy, and in form. And finally, in the first year of a tour stop in Bucharest, the top ranked Romanian and world no. 3 forgot about her Wimbledon injury and survived the field, taking out Vinci in the final. And of course I'm taking about Simona Halep, who hopefully now can a get a couple weeks off and rest before the US Open series.
ATP 250: Bastad, Sweden
Pablo Cuevas (URU) def. 5) Joao Sousa (POR) 6-2 6-1
-Cuevas wins 1st career title! It was also his first final.
-Americans: none
-The Swedes got good play from their wildcards leading us to believe Swedish tennis may not be totally dead. Ymer, an 18-yr-old ranked no. 281, won his first ATP match and Lindell, a 22-yr-old ranked no. 402, did the same, and then was the only man to take a set off Cuevas during the week.
-Radu Albot (MDA), a 24-yr-old qualifier ranked no. 204, won his first ATP match, although he has 12 singles wins in Davis Cup. Moldova is a threat to make Europe/Africa Group I later this year.
-Renzo Olivo (ARG), a 22-yr-old qualifier ranked no. 282, also won his first ATP match, and then went on reach his first quarterfinal by stunning 2-Robredo.
-Lajovic, now ranked no. 71, made his first ATP quarterfinal, beating 4-Janowicz to get there
-Ferrer was the top seed but went out meekly to Berlocq in the quarters
-Cuevas over Lindell in the second round was the only 3rd set tiebreak
-Berlocq was the defending champion but lost to Sousa in the semis
ATP 250: Stuttgart, Germany
3) Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) def. Lukas Rosol (CZE) 6-3 4-6 6-2
-Bautist Agut wins 2nd career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 's-Hertogenbosch
-Titles in back-to-back tour weeks for the Spaniard, who has now won on 2 surfaces as well.
-Americans: none
-Philipp Davydenko (RUS), a nephew of Nikolay, a 22-yr-old qualifier ranked no. 496, won his first ATP tour match
-Yann Marti (SUI), a 21-yr-old qualifier ranked no. 216, also won his first tour match
-Louk Sorensen, an Irish lucky loser, won a match and then took a set off Bautista Agut.
-Local hope 5-Kohlschreiber, was the only seed to miss the quarters, beaten by Rosol 7-6(7) 7-6(9), who went on to reach the final
-The two finalists (Rosol and Bautista Agut) won their quarterfinals in 3rd set tiebreaks, over 4-Lopez and 6-Garcia-Lopez. Also L.Mayer won a 3rd set tiebreak in the first round over Berrer.
-Youzhny had a nice bounce back tournament by reaching the semis before falling to Rosol
-Fognini was the defending champion (and top seed) and made the semis before losing to Bautista Agut.
ATP 250: Newport, RI, United States
3) Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) def. 2) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 6-3 6-7(4) 7-6(3)
-Hewitt wins 30th career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Brisbane
-Americans: 13 of them with 11 in one half of the draw. In all they went 9-13. 7-Sock reached the semis, beating 1-Isner in the quarters. 6-Johnson also reached the quarters. Ram and q-Krajicek won their opening matches while first round losers were 5-Young, Smyczek, Kuznetsov, Harrison (took a set off Hewitt), q-Odesnik, and wildcards Krueger, Thompson, and Ginepri.
-Krueger, a 20-yr-old ranked no. 394, and Thompson, a 22-yr-old ranked outside the top 2000 (think collegiate player) were making their main draw debuts
-Krajicek, a 24-yr-old ranked no. 208, picked up his first ATP win
-Aussie Samuel Groth, who hit the fastest ever serve at a challenger in '12, has finally some headway on tour this year at age 26. He reached his first ATP semi and now owns 8 tour wins.
-Sock also reached his first tour semi, continuing his steady rise.
-It was the 3rd final of the year for Karlovic but he is yet to win one
-The final was the only 3rd set tiebreak
-Mahut was the defending champion but lost to Groth in the quarters
WTA International: Bad Gastein, Austria
4) Andrea Petkovic (GER) def. Q) Shelby Rogers (USA) 6-3 6-3
-Petkovic wins 4th career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Charleston
-It is 2nd win in Bad Gastein ('09)
-Americans: 8-3, q-Rogers came from nowhere to reach the final with wins over 2-Errani, 3-Suarez Navarro, and 7-Giorgi. Min reached the semis with a win over 8-Ka.Pliskova along the way and even q-Falconi notched a win over Larsson.
-I believe it was the first WTA win for 21-yr-old Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan, ranked no. 265, when she beat Tomljanovic
-Rogers won a tiebreak 14-12 over Errani in the semis
-Top seed Pennetta pulled out of the tournament with a foot injury
-Moser, after coming from absolutely nowhere to reach the quarters last year, did notch one win this year, but it was over fellow Austrian wildcard Neuwirth.
-Meusburger was the defending champion but lost to Scheepers in the second round
WTA International: Bucharest, Romania
1) Simona Halep (ROU) def. 2) Roberta Vinci (ITA) 6-1 6-3
-Halep wins 8th career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Doha
-Americans: 0-1, Tatishvili l. to 8-Hercog, though I'm still getting used to calling her an American
-Outside of Halep and Niculescu, who contested a semifinal, the Romanians were a bit of bust of their home tournament. But there was a win for Dinu, a 21-yr-old ranked no. 218, who won her first WTA match with a win over N.Kichenok. Mitu, a 22-yr-old ranked no. 181, made her main draw debut.
-Elitsa Kostova (BUL), a 24-yr-old qualifier ranked no. 211, who has seen Fed Cup action alongside Pironkova, won her first WTA match
-Kristina Kucova (SVK), reached her first WTA quarterfinal and semifinal
-Kovinic became the first Montenegrin to reach the quarters of a WTA event
-Arruabarrena won back-to-back 3rd set tiebreaks en route to the quarters: vs 5-Beck in R1 and Buyukakcay in R2 (8-6)
-Piter beat Mitu (see above) in a 3rd set tiebreak, then was beaten in the same fashion by 8-Hercog, who in turn was beaten in a 3rd set tiebreak by Niculescu
-Finally, 7-Cetkovska outlasted Bertens in 3rd set tiebreak in R2, meaning we had an incredible SIX 3rd set tiebreaks in the tournament's 31 matches.
-Halep successfully defended her title although the tournament was played in Budapest last year
I have completed my lists for the WTA top 10 by birth year and will it posted to the page later this week.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment