Sunday, August 10, 2014

Tsonga Surprises Us All, Radwanska Also Wins

Who would have believed you if at the beginning of the week you would have said that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Aga Radwanska would win Rogers Cup titles?  Radwanska might be believable but Tsonga?  This year he has suffered through some of the worst form in many years and hasn't won a title in a year and a half.  But he goes and defeats in succession Djokovic, Murray, Dimitrov, and Federer (four Top 10) to claim his first Masters title in nearly 6 years.  And now we'll see if this is able to propel him to bigger and better things.  And is this the beginning of a crazy and unpredictable month of tennis or will the brightest starts return to shine on the biggest stages (Cincinnati and New York)?  And for Federer, losing in finals is beginning to be a theme.  It is great for him at his age to be playing in these finals but this 4 big losses this season (Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Wimbledon, and Toronto).  Agnieszka Radwanska has been somewhat under the radar this year with the appearance of Bouchard and Halep and the resurgence of Sharapova and Kvitova, but she claims her biggest title in over 2 years in Montreal.  For her also we will see if can boost her back up the rankings as she soon enters the top major where she has never reached the quarterfinals.  I believe these results to be kind of a one-off.  Murray, Djokovic, Serena, Sharapova, and the others will be back in Cincinnati and of course New York, where Rafa may also return, but we shall see.

Men: 13) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. 2) Roger Federer (SUI) 7-5 7-6(3)

-Tsonga wins 11th career title, last '13 Marseille
-It is his 2nd Masters win ('08 Paris)
-He becomes the 7th active player to win more than one Masters (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Davydenko, Hewitt)
-He moves back into the top 10 at no. 10
-This is now the first year since '10 (wins for Ljubicic, Roddick, and Davydenko) that more than one Masters was won by a non-Big 4 player (Wawrinka/MC and now Tsonga)
-Federer rises to #4 in the rankings and is only 515 behind Wawrinka.
-Lopez is up to no. 16 in the rankings after his upset of the local boy Raonic in the quarters.  The Canadian falls to no. 7.

Women: 3) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) def. Venus Williams 6-4 6-2

-Radwanska wins 14th career title, last '13 Seoul
-It is her win at a "Tier I" event ('11 Tokyo, '11 Beijing, '12 Miami)
-Radwanska handled one-time nemesis but now rusty Azarenka in straights, then dismissed Makarova in the semis in 2 tiebreaks, followed by this win over Venus
-The Williams sisters met in the semis; it was their first meeting since '13 Charleston but only the 2nd since the '09 season.  It was Venus' first win over her younger sister since '09 Dubai.
-So Serena's form (or maybe consistency) is in question again after she had to rally to beat Wozniacki and then lost to Venus.
-There was little movement in the rankings.  Radwanska cements her no. 5 ranking and Venus is up to no. 20.

The American women concluded the tournament with a 15-8 record.  Vandeweghe fell to Makarova in 3 sets.

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