Djokovic, Serena, Bryan Brothers Capture Titles
Posted on April 2, 2007
Djokovic Upends Tennis Cart with Miami Title
Novak Djokovic defeated Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 Sunday at the Masters Series Miami, and will rise to No. 7 Monday when the new ATP Rankings are released.
The 19-year-old Serbian is the youngest Miami winner and the first teenager to capture the title since Andre Agassi in 1990.
"I played unbelievable tennis in Indian Wells and here," Djokovic said. "The best tennis of my life. I didn't lose a set. Every time you win something or you are the youngest player or you make any record, I mean, it certainly feels great. It means that your name is in the history of the sport. I hope that this is just the beginning of a long career."
The 29-year-old Argentine was forced to qualify for the event after returning from a drug suspension.
"Today I tried my best it just wasn't enough to beat him," Canas said. "I'm old. After nine matches, all my body hurts. No, really, I have a little bit of pain in my legs. After two or three days recovery, they're going to be good."
Top-seeded Roger Federer was shocked out of the draw for the second straight event by Canas, who ended the Swiss 7-6 in the third set. Other corpses Canas left in his wake included Tim Henman, former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, Richard Gasquet, Tommy Robredo and Ivan Ljubicic.
No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko was ousted in the third round by unseeded American Amer Delic, No. 9 Tommy Haas was shocked in the second round by Alejandro Falla, and No. 3 Andy Roddick retired against No. 12 seed Andy Murray with injury in the quarterfinals before Murray tanked his semifinal 6-1, 6-0 after being overwhelmed in the early goings by Djokovic. Djokovic's biggest confidence-boost came in the quarterfinals with a straight-set win over world No. 2 Rafael Nadal.
Bryans Capture First Miami Crown
The Bryan brothers captured their fifth different Masters Series event in their first title win at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, with the No. 2-seeded Bob and Mike downing No. 6 seeds Martin Damm and Leander Paes 6-7(7), 6-3, 10-7.
"It's one of the tournaments where we really broke onto the scene," Mike Bryan said. "Back in '99 we made the quarters. We were stoked. Eight years later, we finally won this title."
It was the third title of the season for the Bryans and the 36th of their career, raising their record to 17-2 on the year after title runs at the Australian Open and Las Vegas. The Bryans are 6-8 lifetime in Masters Series finals and have reached the finals in all nine Masters Series tournaments.
Damm and Paes were attempting to become the first team since Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in 2002 to capture back-to-back ATP Masters Series titles in Indian Wells and Miami.
"[Our] next goal is Davis Cup," said Bob Bryan, with the U.S. squad facing Spain next weekend. "We want to advance to the next round. We've got that in our sights all year long. Then we want to finish No. 1 again. A lot of teams are on our heels. And to finish No. 1, you've got to have a consistent season. But at least to win another Grand Slam and just play well all year long, then obviously next year qualify for the Olympics."
Serena Williams to No 11 after Miami Title Run
Another Serena Williams' escape act has the American closing on what she sees as her rightful No. 1 ranking after coming back to defeat world No. 1 Justine Henin 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the final at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Williams fought off two match points late in the second set after recovering from the first-set blowout, grazing the net during one match point rally yet in typical 2007 fashion stealing victory for her second title of the year after the Australian Open in only her third event of the year.
Dealing with a multitude of injuries over the last couple years, Williams complained of knee pain in the semifinals against Israeli No. 14 seed Shahar Peer but looked fit against Henin.
"I felt I had the match under control, and then the match turned," Henin said. "I was playing a good game. I was really aggressive. But when I had to close the match, I maybe got a little bit tense."
It was the 13th consecutive match win for Williams, who with few points to defend during the remainder of the year will continue to close on No. 1 if she can stay injury free.
"I'm playing with a no-lose attitude," Williams said. "It's fun. Wherever I go, even if I only win a round, I've gained points. So it's great and I just hope to continue. I'm not going to stop here though -- you've got to continue to work hard."
Earlier in the tournament Williams blasted Maria Sharapova for the second time in two meetings 6-1, 6-1, avenging sister Venus' loss to the Russian in three sets in the previous round.
With the win, Serena rose from 18 to No. 11 on the WTA Tour Rankings. She will take this week off before playing her first claycourt event at Charleston.
Lisa Raymond and Sam Stosur won the Miami doubles title, snapping the 22-match winning streak of Cara Black and Liezel Huber with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-2 victory.
Unseeded Venus Williams Headlines WTA Amelia Island
Defending champ Nadia Petrova is the top seed, but unseeded American Venus Williams is the crowd-favorite headliner this week at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida.
Williams will not have an easy road, opening Tuesday night against French comer Aravane Rezai, who last year advanced to the third round at the French Open and the fourth round at the US Open, with a potential second-round match against No. 4 seed Patty Schnyder.
Other seeded players among the Top 8 of the 16 seeds in Amelia are Jelena Jankovic, Daniela Hantuchova, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Na Li, and Tatiana Golovin.
Wildcards for the event went to Americans Vania King and Ashley Harkleroad, Aussie Alicia Molik, and Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
Amelie Mauresmo was top-seeded before pulling from the event after an emergency appendectomy while will sideline her for approximately a month.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Thai Paradorn Srichaphan may have surgery on his wrist if it does not heal...Justine Henin has been battling a repertory problem and has pulled from Charleston saying she needs rest...Marcelo Rios beat Andre Agassi in three sets in an exhibition over the weekend...Spaniard Felix Mantilla is reportedly back playing Challengers after fighting skin cancer...Andy Roddick and Andy Murray are possible pull-outs for this weekend's Davis Cup action...ATP President Etienne de Villiers speaking to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on changing men's tennis: "When I walked into this job, I knew it would be difficult to change the sport, but you have to ask yourself, 'Why did I do this?' What's really my agenda?' A lot of what these players say is important. But at the end of the day I have to listen to my own voice. I've looked at the research. I've trusted others' judgment. I've listened to Perry Rogers [Andre Agassi's agent] and Jim Courier. We get a lot of player intelligence, some more informed than others. But I've got to do what's best for the sport, and we're going to give the players better venues, bigger markets and more TV coverage. We're going to tell a better story. If there are injunctions, then we'll be stopped, but I think that's unlikely. There's the possibility of a player walkout, but I think that's unlikely. We expected this anguish."...Roger Federer won a record four ATP awards, announced at the end of March for the 2006 season: the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award, the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, the Fan Favorite Award for the fourth straight year, and Player of the Year. Novak Djokovic of Serbia was voted Most Improved Player, Benjamin Becker of Germany was chosen Newcomer of the Year, and Mardy Fish was selected Comeback Player of the Year. Bob and Mike Bryan won Doubles Team of the Year and received the Fans' Favorite Doubles Award...The ATP announced that Shanghai will host a Masters Series event on the 2009 ATP calendar, after their contract to host the year-ending Masters Cup expires in 2008...Marquee players for the 2997 World TeamTennis season include Venus Williams (Philadelphia Freedoms), Pete Sampras (Newport Beach Breakers), Anna Kournikova (Sacramento Capitals), John McEnroe (New York Sportimes) and Mike and Bob Bryan (Kansas City Explorers)...Beginning with the 2009 calendar redesign, the WTA Tour will be cracking down heavily on player injury excuses: "We're not going to allow excuses or allow players to hide behind injuries that aren't legitimate, or to say it's exhaustion if it's not, because there's been some of that going on. We're not going to allow that any more," said WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott. The women's tour has doctors under contract in an advisory role, "but we've never put them on the front lines," said Scott, who says that will change. "We won't be taking the player's word or the player's doctor's word for it. There will be a third party, though we don't have that mechanism in place now. There's going to be a higher standard and the burden of proof will be higher. I've asked [players], 'Tell us the ideal calendar.' And we listened. But the tradeoff is you have to show up and there will be zero tolerance for anything less than serious injuries."...From ESPN's Bonnie DeSimone on Serena Williams in Miami: "Bamboo bling: Fashion maven Serena Williams said her prominent gold earrings, hoops with a bamboo design and her name in script across their centers, were inspired by the early '90s LL Cool J song "Around the Way Girl." "He explains it in full detail," she said. Space doesn't permit us to reprint all the lyrics, but we'd describe it as a sort of inner-city-girl-next-door anthem paying homage to bad (read: good) attitude and a woman who can "break hearts and manipulate minds." Sounds about right."...The ATP announced a new partnership with tennis string manufacturer Pacific Entermark GmbH through 2009, with the German-based international corporation becoming the official string and grip provider for the ATP. "John McEnroe played Pacific Natural Gut Strings throughout his career and won Wimbledon and other Grand Slam titles numerous times with them," said Pacific CEO Marcus Schwarz. "Pacific used its experience from Natural Gut Strings on the professional tour to develop high performing synthetic strings in the '90s and since then further developed their range of strings to the highest standards of professional racquet sports...our natural gut string was rated No. 1 in the USA and our synthetic Poly Force synthetic string was the Tennis Magazine test winner in Germany for 2006."...The Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island has secured Venus Williams, Daniela Hantuchova and Tatiana Golovin since the withdrawal of Amelie Mauresmo who pulled from the event after emergency appendicitis surgery...From AFP: "The Swiss supreme court has overturned an arbitration ruling that confirmed the doping ban of Argentine tennis player Guillermo Canas last year, the Court of Arbitration of Sport said tonight. The ruling last week, which has not yet been published, followed an appeal by Canas against the CAS decision on his ATP suspension in 2005 on a doping charge. "The Swiss Federal Tribunal has upheld the appeal and has decided to annul the award by CAS," Matthieu Reeb, secretary general of the Swiss-based sports arbitration court, said...the fresh ruling was likely to lead to a re-examination of the Canas case by world sport's top court, even if the final sanction might not necessarily be changed, he said."...The ATP Tour is being sued by organizers of the Masters Series event in an attempt to block a plan to downgrade the event's status. The German Tennis Federation and Rothembaum Sports GmbH filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The ATP's new calendar changes are "anticompetitive," violate U.S. antitrust laws and resemble an "illegal cartel," the Hamburg organizers said in the complaint, reported by Bloomberg. "The ATP has artificially taken control of the supply of men's professional tennis players and of men's professional tennis tournaments," the plaintiffs said. "It has done so to establish a favored class of tournaments, in which the ATP has a significant proprietary interest, while relegating all of the ATP's other member tournaments to a disfavored status."...The ATP Tour named the Sony Ericsson Open its 2006 ATP Master Series Tournament of the Year for the fifth consecutive year, voted on by tour players...Under the new WTA Tour 2009 plan, Indian Wells is a mandatory event, a stop the Williams sisters said they will never play again after hearing racial slurs. They have not played at the event since 2001. "I can guarantee you the chances of getting me to Indian Wells are slim to none," Serena Williams told the Los Angeles Times. "I have no interest in going. It's just how I feel. And I think anyone that went through what I went through would feel a similar position."...From the Associated Press: "The memoir of tennis sensation, gossip column favorite and philanthropist Andre Agassi, a book strongly desired by numerous publishers, has been acquired by Alfred A. Knopf. Financial terms were not disclosed Wednesday, although bidding reportedly topped $5 million as publishers flew out to see Agassi at his hometown of Las Vegas, touring his Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a charter school for at-risk youth, and then meeting with him at his office."...Serena Williams after giving Maria Sharapova a beating for the second straight time in Miami after their previous Aussie Open encounter: "Haven't you learned that I expect the best of myself already? I mean, I expect nothing less."...Roger Federer on losing to Guillermo Canas in back-to-back tournaments: "I'm not going to play him every week, so it doesn't matter."