Wozniacki Ends Title Drought, and a Wild Hamburg Tournament

The tour's "in between" season continued with perhaps its crown jewel, Hamburg, on the docket for this week.  But saw also saw the first hard court event since Miami, in Istanbul and Bogota.  It was another week for up and comers, and below you can read about Zverev and Konjuh.  But it was Leonardo Mayer who ended up with the biggest hardware, besting Ferrer in the Hamburg final, keeping the Spanish no. 2's title count at 1.  Caroline Wozniacki hadn't won a title since late last fall, but she remedied that by defeating Vinci in the Istanbul final, as the Italian was a her second consecutive final.  Speaking of consecutive finals, Karlovic reached 2 finals on 2 surfaces in 2 weeks, but came up one match short for the 4th time this year against Bernard Tomic, who won in Bogota.  And after a year or more of slumping, the once promising Mona Barthel won a title, winning in Bastad over Scheepers.  (Both men's finals featured third set tiebreaks.)

ATP 500: Hamburg, Germany
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) def. 1) David Ferrer (ESP) 6-7(3) 6-1 7-6(4)
-L.Mayer wins first career title! at age 27
-He previous contested the '14 Vina del Mar final
-Americans: none
-The story of the week was 17-yr-old wildcard Alexander Zverev (GER), who won his first ATP main draw match then won 3 more, going all way to the semis before Ferrer stopped him in his tracks.  The '13 French Open boys runner-up beat Haase, Youzhny, Giraldo, and Kamke.  He will rise 124 places in the rankings to no. 161.
-It was not a good week for seeds in Hamburg.  Just 2 of the 16 (Ferrer and Kohlschreiber) reached the quarters.
-Younger players reaching the round 16 were Zverev, Thiem, Lajovic, and Krajinovic (22-yr-old Serb who once made the semis in Belgrade)
-There were a number of 3rd set tiebreaks: Paire def. Golubev R1 (7-4), 16-Seppi def. Monaco R2 (7-3), Brown def. 9) Verdasco R2 (10-8), and the final
-Fognini was the defending champion and was the second seed but lost his opening match to Krajinovic, winning just 4 games

ATP 250: Bogota, Colombia
Bernard Tomic (AUS) def. 2) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 7-6(5) 3-6 7-6(4)
-Tomic wins 2nd career title, last '13 Sydney
-Karlovic loses his 4th final of the year without winning one, and even pounded out 39 aces in this defeat
-Americans: 1-2, Kuznetsov def. Mannarino but l. to 3-Pospisil, q-King (23-yr-old ranked no. 344, 2nd ever main draw match) l. to de Bakker.
-My boy Victor Estrella (DOM) reached his first ATP quarterfinal and semifinal at age 33.  He beat Gasquet in the quarters but lost his semi to Tomic in 3 tiebreaks.
-Wang, the Taiwanese no. 2, reached his first quarterfinal since '07
-All second round and quarterfinal match were straight sets affairs
-There were 3 third set tiebreaks: Groth def. Cabal (Colombian wildcard) in R1, Tomic def. Estrella (SF), and the final
-This was one tournament where the seeds were successful.  6 of 8 reached the quarters including Pospisil, who has not had a good year.  Those who didn't were 5-Falla and 7-Ebden.
-Karlovic was oh so close to defending his title

WTA International: Bastad, Sweden
Mona Barthel (GER) def. Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 6-3 7-6(1)
-Barthel wins 3rd career title, last '13 Paris
-Americans: 1-1, Min beat 2-Pavlyuchenkova then immediate lost to Panova (go figure)
-Only one seed (6-Beck) won a match and none reached the quarters.  The last time that occurred on the WTA tour was '09 Hobart.  The 7 losers were Cornet, Pavlyuchenkova, Giorgi, Shvedova, Schmiedlova, Torro-Flor, and Hercog
-A promising youngster, 18-yr-old qualifier Anett Kontaveit (EST) -ranked no. 4 among those born in '95- won her first main draw match, upsetting top seed Cornet
-Another young player, 19-yr-old qualifier Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) -ranked no. 8 among those born in '95- reached her first WTA quarterfinal
-A German journey woman, qualifier Laura Siegemund, won her first WTA match at age 26
-Still another qualifier, 22-yr-old Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN), won her first WTA main draw match.
-All told, 6 qualifiers racked up 6 wins, the only loser was Martincova.  Hogenkamp (QF last year) also won one.
-Beck's loss was in a 3rd set tiebreak to Arruabarrena (R2)
-Serena was the defending champion but she pulled out of the tournament this year

WTA International: Istanbul, Turkey
1) Caroline Woznaicki (DEN) def. 2) Roberta Vinci (ITA) 6-1 6-1
-Wozniacki wins 22nd career title, last '13 Luxembourg (9-mon drought)
-Americans: 0-1, Tatishvili l. to Vinci
-The women's story of the week was 16-yr-old Ana Konjuh (CRO), who split the girls' slams in '13 with Bencic, and is no. 2 behind the Swiss in the rankings for players born in '97, reached her first WTA quarterfinal and semifinal by winning 3 3-setters after qualifying.  She beat 5-Rybarikova, Doi, and 4-Svitolina, before falling to Vinci.  She rises to no. 116 in the rankings.
-The young Czechs keep coming.  18-yr-old Siniakova, no. 2 among those born in '96 (behind Vekic), won her first WTA main draw match after qualifying
-Mladenovic and Schiavone (at both ends of the age spectrum) bounced back and met in the quarters, won by the French 7-5 in the 3rd
-This is the second consecutive week that a WTA tournament has had the top two seeds in the final, and the second time Vinci was the second seed and lost (Bucharest vs Halep)
-This is the first tournament in Istanbul since '10 after the WTA championships had a 3-yr stay here