Federer, Mauresmo Successfully Defend TitlesPosted on May 16, 2005
Roger Federer’s world domination resumed Sunday in Hamburg as the ATP No. 1 collected a tour-leading sixth title on the year with a 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(4) win over teen qualifier Richard Gasquet. Federer, who had lost to Gasquet last month in Monte Carlo, and then had to withdraw from Rome last week with two swollen feet, showed no signs of injury or of rust in steamrolling a tough field without the loss of a single set en route to his third Hamburg crown. “He won the last one, so you can’t expect an easy match,” said Federer following the 2-hour, 13-minute contest which earned him his 28th career title. “But in the end straight sets is always convincing in my eyes. So I played a good match, I had to. He moves well and therefore I’m very happy about the way I played today.” The Swiss, who was never broken in the match, made the most of a slow start by Gasquet, breaking for a 3-0 lead in the first set. A break at 5-5 in the second set was enough for Federer to secure a two set lead and then Federer proved too tough in the third set tie-break. The victory for Federer extends his ridiculous win streak in finals to 19, which was on his mind today. “I didn’t actually think about it too much until yesterday, when he said in the presentation, now you have 18 finals in a row,” Federer said. “Then it reminded me. Now it’s 19. Of course I go into finals feeling well, feeling comfortable. Somehow you always know the streaks will end. You always hope it’s not gonna be today.” Federer is now a career 20-3 in Hamburg and holds a 12-match winning streak at the event. He improves to 41-2 in 2005, equaling Rafael Nadal’s (41-6) most match-wins to date this year. The Swiss has also won six of the past 10 Masters Series tournaments he has contested and seven (from nine finals) in total during his career. Gasquet, who was bidding to become the first French winner in Hamburg since Henri Leconte in 1986, is now 0-2 in career ATP finals following a loss in the 2004 Metz final. “To be in a final is incredible for me, I have time for Roland Garros,” said Gasquet who will move up to career-high near 30 in the ATP Entry Rankings. “I’m so happy to be in the final in Hamburg in the Masters Series. It’s incredible, I won seven matches and I lost to Federer. It’s very good. I have a lot of experience for my next tournament now.” In the doubles final, Jonas Bjorkman and Max “The Original Beast” Mirnyi won their second career Masters Series team title defeating Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) in 3 hours, 3 minutes. Recent Rome winners Llodra and Santoro served for the match at 6-4, 5-4 but were unable to complete victory.
Top seed Amelie Mauresmo overcame a set deficit to top Patty “Melt” Schnyder 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and successfully defend her WTA Rome title on Sunday. Mauresmo, who was playing in her fifth final at the Foro Italico, picked up her 17th career victory and second on the season following Antwerp. "Even though I had a really bad start in the first set, beginning of second set, I was really able to come back pretty strong and made sure I hung in there, I stayed there, I fought," Mauresmo said. Mauresmo is also the first player to win consecutive Rome titles since Conchita Martinez, who won four straight from 1993-1996. "I'm very proud of that, because it's a great, big tournament, it's a very strong draw," said Mauresmo of breaking the nine-year jinx. "I think as the tournament was going, I felt stronger and stronger." Mauresmo improves to 10-5 against Schynder. "She has a very special game, not like most of the other players," Mauresmo said. "She's able to use a lot of spin, slicing. We saw her with a lot of dropshots on the backhand side as well. She also sometimes come in and is not afraid to do some dropshot volleys or stuff like that. So she's really being able to do many different things, and we don't see these kind of player very often." Said Schnyder, "At the end, she was a little too powerful, I think. Her spin was really giving me a lot of problems, and I could not really play the game I wanted at the end. But, still, I had the chances and she saved some great breakpoints with great serves. Shows she's a real champion, and today she deserved to win." In the doubles, after finishing as the doubles runner-ups in Berlin, No.2 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber were able to go one step better in Rome, defeating Maria Kirilenko and Anabel “Funky Cold” Medina Garrigues, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in Sunday's final.
Russian teen Dinara “Lil Sis” Safina captured her second title of the season on Sunday by winning the Prague Open 2005. The top seed upended surprise finalist “Oh” Zuzana Ondraskova, 7-6(2), 6-3, to claim her fourth career WTA singles title, and second on the season. Ondraskova, who entered the week ranked No.98 in the world, had a career-best week in Prague, defeating former Top 5 player Jelena Dokic, along with No.3 seed Jelena Kostanic, Mariana Diaz-Oliva and No.2 seed Klara “Kooky” Koukalova to reach her first career Tour final. With darkness delaying the finish of the doubles final on Saturday, No.2 seeds Emilie Loit and Nicole Pratt were able to complete the victory on Sunday, defeating unseeded duo Jelena Kostanic and Barbora Strycova, 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4. Chile Wins, Germany Beats U.S. Day One at World Team Cup Defending champion Chile opened the 2005 World Team Cup Red Group play in a winning way posting a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic. Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu beat Tomas “Big” Berdych 7-6(5), 6-3 while bronze medal winner Francisco Gonzalez pasted Jiri Novak 6-3, 6-1. A “D”-level U.S. team wasn’t so fortunate against Germany losing 2-1 in the Blue Group. Tommy Haas beat up on Vincenzo Spadea 6-2, 6-4 and Nicolas Kiefer had little resistant from Jeff “Battleship” Morrison winning 6-2, 6-2. The U.S. salvaged their lone point as Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan defeated Haas and Alexander Waske 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-5. On Monday, Argentina (Guillermo “El Fragile” Coria, Gaston Gaudio) will face France (Sebastien Grosjean, Michael Llodra) in the Red Group, and Sweden (Joachim “Pim Pim” Johansson , Thomas Johansson) will take on Spain (Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer) in a Blue Group battle. The eight-nation field is split into two groups, with the winners advancing to the final Saturday.
Talk about a light menu in St. Poelten, Austria with only two main draw matches contested. The highlight, if you will for luck ticket holders, was No. 6 seed Luis “Me So” Horna needing three sets to take out Austrian Wildcard Daniel Koellerer, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Also winning was Dutch vet Sjeng Schalken who beat Kevin Kim 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Some bigger guns come out to play on Monday with (1) Nikolay Davydenko, (3) Igor Andreev, (4) Jurgen “Tuna Man” Melzer, (5) Mariano Puerta and (7) “You Say” Potito Starace. Nicolas Almagro “Bean Fields” also faces “Dr.” Ivo Karlovic in an interesting match-up.
Former world No.1 Venus Williams is the top seed and the top name at the inaugural Istanbul Cup in Istanbul, Turkey, which begins on Monday. Williams is playing in her first event since helping the United States advance to the Fed Cup semifinals with two singles victories on hard court against Belgium. Joining Venus is 16-year-old phenom Nicole Vaidisova, who will be the No.2 seed. Anna Smashnova is seeded third, No. 4 is Lisa Raymond, No.5 Anna-Lena Groenefeld, No.6 Meghann Shaughnessy, No.7 Anna Chakvetadze and No.8 Mashona Washington. In case you are in the are, the event is taking place at the Holiday-Inn Crowne Plaza, which sits next to the Ataköy Marina, a port entry to Turkey that is located at the southern end of the Bosphorus Straits.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Federer Gets Revenge on Gasquet for Sixth Title of Year