Federer, Henin Win Titles; Womens Tennis No-Shows Big News
Posted on August 20, 2007
Federer Brutalizes Blake for Masters Cincinnati Title
American James Blake went from contender to pretender Sunday in the final at the Masters Series-Cincinnati, stomped 6-1, 6-4 by world No. 1 Roger Federer who collected his 50th career title.
The hot-handed Blake was trying to duplicate the upset feat by Novak Djokovic in Montreal by handing the Swiss his second consecutive loss in a Masters Series final, by Federer would have no part of it, wrapping up the first set in 26 minutes and breaking Blake twice. In the second set Blake had his chances but Federer broke at 3-3 and rode out the win.
Over half of Federer's 50 titles have come at Grand Slam, Masters Series and year-end Masters events.
Federer improved to 7-0 lifetime against Blake, while the American fell to 1-3 this year in finals.
"I struggled for a lot of the week and was maybe a little lucky on Saturday beating (Lleyton) Hewitt in a third-set tiebreak," Federer said."The scoreboard might not show it but I definitely had to play my best to win. It was a great week for me and I'm now really excited about the US Open."
For Blake it was his first time in the quarterfinals or better this year at a Masters Series event.
"From the start here I felt great," Blake said. "Everything felt great until I ran into Roger, but that seems to happen to everyone a lot."
Federer reached 50 titles at a younger age than historical rival Pete Sampras at 26 years of age, but behind four Open Era players in Bjorn Borg (23 years old), Jimmy Connors (23), John McEnroe (25), and Ivan Lendl (25).
In the doubles final the Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram saved two match points to drop the Bryan brothers to 8-4 on the season in finals, winning their first Masters Series title 4-6, 6-3, 13-11.
Henin Beats Jankovic in Tight Toronto Title Match
World No. 1 Justine Henin showed there is no reason not to put her atop the favorites list at the US Open after Sunday defeating hot Serb Jelena Jankovic 7-6(3), 7-5 for the Rogers Cup title in Toronto.
Jankovic led 4-1 in the first before the Belgian brought her game online.
"I think both of us played very well and there were a lot of great points," Jankovic said. "A high level of tennis, so it was great for fans to see that and I really enjoyed it...Unfortunately at the end, I couldn't hang in there with her."
Henin improved to 7-0 career against Jankovic.
Henin considered defaulting the final with shoulder pain, but after treatment decided to play.
Top 10ers Davydenko, Robredo, Blake Headline ATP New Haven
When you're the elite like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and even Andy Roddick, unless you've been injured and you're looking for last-minute match play, you take the week before a Slam off. If you're "the rest," you're still chasing points and prize money up to the last minute before the US Open begins.
Top 10ers Nikolay Davydenko, Tommy Robredo, and James Blake are the headliners this week at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven, where Davydenko is the defending champ.
Blake, the former Connecticut resident on the top of his game after losing last week to Federer in the Masters Series-Cincinnati final, after a bye will face the winner of Frenchman Arnaud Clement and a qualifier. The top-seeded Dayvydenko opens against American Donald Young, who won his opening-round match against Amer Delic on Sunday.
Other Top 8 seeds are David Ferrer, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Jarkko Nieminen, Filippo Volandri and Potito Starace.
The lower eight seeds in the event are Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, Nicolas Almagro, "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, Gilles Simon, Igor Andreev, Gael "Force" Monfils and last year's runner-up Agustin Calleri.
Kuzy, Stick Girl Top Seeds at WTA New Haven
The top players are resting the week before the US Open, but Top 10ers Svetlana Kuznetsova and Daniela Hantuchova are looking for some last minute match practice this week at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven, Conn.
Also among the seeds are France's Marion Bartoli, Russian Dinara Safina, Swiss Patty Schnyder, Russian Elena Dementieva, Austria's Sybille Bammer, and the Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.
The Top 4 seeds receive byes, but some early-round encounters of interest exist in (7) Bammer vs. American Meghann Shaughnessy, and (4) Safina vs. American wildcard Vania King, (8) Bondarenko vs. Sania Mirza, and (2) Hantuchova vs. Aussie Sam Stosur in a potential second-rounders.
Wildcards for the event went to King and fellow American Ashley "Pebbles" Harkleroad.
In last year's final, second-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne beat No. 7 Lindsay Davenport who retired with a right shoulder strain.
WTA New Haven Preview: Kuznetsova Tops Bill
Courtesy WTA Tour
NEW HAVEN, CT, USA -- With little more than a week to go before the start of the year's final Grand Slam, the US Open, seven of the world's Top 20 will assemble in New Haven for the 11th staging of the Pilot Pen Tennis presented by Schick. The $600,000, Tier II event is also the final stop-off in this summer's five-week US Open Series and will give the 28 players on display the opportunity for some invaluable last-minute preparation ahead of Flushing Meadows.
Top seed at the Connecticut Tennis Centre at Yale will be world No.5 and 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 22-year-old Russian waited until last week in Toronto to make her bow on the North American hardcourt swing and she will be looking to build on a quarterfinal finish at the Tier I event. Kuznetsova was a losing semifinalist on her only previous visit to New Haven 12 months ago and in a year which has seen her finish runner-up on four occasions, she will be eager to capture her first title of 2007.
Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova will be the event's No.2 seed and after capturing one American hardcourt title this year -- at Indian Wells -- she will be confident of repeating the trick in the Elm City. The 24-year-old, world No.10, will be making her sixth appearance in the main draw of the tournament, with her best performance coming back in 2002, when she made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Venus Williams.
The No.3 seed in Connecticut is one of last year's losing quarterfinalists, Marion Bartoli. 2007 has certainly been a year to remember for the tenacious Frenchwoman, highlighted by a memorable runner-up finish at Wimbledon -- a performance which rewarded her with a career-high ranking of No.11. New Haven will be the 22-year-olds fourth tournament on the North American hardcourts this summer and she will be keen to improve on her quarterfinal run in Toronto last week.
The remaining seeds are comprised of gifted Russian Dinara Safina (No.4), experienced Swiss campaigner Patty Schnyder (No.5), former US Open runner-up Elena Dementieva (No.6), popular Austrian Sybille Bammer (No.7) and the ever improving Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko (No.8). There are also several dark horses lurking in the draw, including the in-form Indian star Sania Mirza, talented Australian Samantha Stosur and the prodigiously gifted Polish prodigy Agnieszka Radwanska.
Another notable name on the draw sheets in New Haven is three-time Grand Slam winner and former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport. The 31-year-old American will compete in the doubles competition with compatriot Lisa Raymond and her appearance comes just 10 weeks after giving birth to her first child, Jagger Jonathan Leach Davenport. Davenport was winner of the singles competition at the Connecticut Tennis Centre in 2005 and has also been a runner-up on five separate occasions -- including last year.
Justine Henin is the defending champion at the Pilot Pen Tennis presented by Schick, but after competing in Toronto the Belgian has elected not to defend her title. Other players to triumph at the US Open tune-up tournament are Steffi Graf (1998), Venus Williams (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), Jennifer Capriati (2003) and Elena Bovina (2004). This year's winner will receive a cheque for $88,265, while the losing finalist will take home $45,125.
Tennis-X News, Notes, Quotes and Barbs
American Donald Young improved to 1-12 in career ATP matches on Sunday, defeating countryman Amer Delic in the first round of play at New Haven...The Times is reporting Tim Henman will retire next month after Britain's Davis Cup match against Croatia...From AFP on Chris Evert wife-stealing accusations: "Tennis legend Chris Evert's former husband says Australian golfing great Greg Norman stole his wife. Andy Mill, a US Olympic skiing champion, said he was broken-hearted by Norman's betrayal, saying he once regarded the golfing legend as his best friend. "Greg Norman at one time was my best friend, and a year and a half ago I would have taken a bullet for this guy," Mill was quoted saying in Australia's Sunday Telegraph. "I didn't realise he was the one who was going to pull the trigger."...Andy Roddick after losing in the third round at Cincinnati: "I just didn't do anything that I've been working on. I was standing too far back. I wasn't imposing myself and I was giving away free points. It was a pretty ordinary performance. I'm not going to go into panic mode. I know what I did wrong today. Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed off about it, but the good thing is that I have time to fix it. [Coach] Jimmy [Connors is] not happy. He said: 'I don't care it you lose but do what we've been working on and do it the right way.' He's right. We have eight, nine days to get on the practice court. I need to some footwork drills and get my feet going and readjust my court position. Get back to the basics."...From the London News on Boris Becker: "Wimbledon legend Boris Becker's has been termed "a runaway train" in a new book by Russian model Angela Ermakova, with whom he has a seven-year-old daughter, Anna. The book entitled 'In One Breath', published in Russia this week, reveals how the tennis star bedded Ermakova in a storeroom at the Nobu restaurant in London. The 39-year-old says that Becker and she first met at the restaurant by chance, and that they went for a date after bumping into each other again. "I understand that it is just senseless to stop the runaway train in full flight. It would have been like trying to stop a volcano or any other natural phenomena. So I relax to try and enjoy it and resolve to think about it tomorrow," the Mirror quoted her as writing. "Thus the invincible fortress of Angela Ermakova fell," she writes. Currently, Ermakova is residing in a luxury home bought by Becker for her and their daughter."...From the New Haven Register: "Perhaps the most intriguing aspects of the men's main draw are the potential semifinal matchups. Davydenko and James Blake, the champions in 2006 and 2005, respectively, would meet in one semifinal, and Spaniards Tommy Robredo and David Ferrer would square off in the other, if seeds held true to form." -- Robredo vs. Ferrer? Intriguing to who?...Justine Henin on Roger Federer: "There's nothing I don't like in his game, but I like the person most of all. I had the occasion to have lunch with him once and he has an exceptional air about him. He's very intelligent. To be at that level for a long time, you have to be intelligent and serene and calm. And he does everything while remaining very natural and unpretentious."...From the Canadian National Post: "Meghann Shaughnessy does not play doubles with long-time partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld anymore. The reason is because Shaughnessy's coach and manager, Rafael Font de Mora, is suing the 22-year-old Groenefeld for US$1-million. "I want to get out what I put into my players, so I demand the same effort," said Font de Mora, who coached and managed Groenefeld from March, 2003 until April, 2006. "She breached so many things of the contract. She didn't pay money."...From the Toronto Star on the WTA top-player bailout at Toronto: "One can only hope the women's tennis tour is paying attention. The profile of the Rogers Cup has been badly damaged by a variety of factors, from pre-tournament withdrawals to curious in-match retirements to an overall absence of high-level tennis. But nobody, at least outside of Tennis Canada, expected what happened yesterday. The audiences for the two semifinal matches, one in the early afternoon featuring the world's top player, Justine Henin, and one later in the evening, managed to fill slightly more than half the 13,000-seat capacity of the Rexall Centre. It was a sobering turnout for the key matches of what is supposed to be one of the top dozen events on the women's tennis calendar. But tennis fans in Toronto are apparently responding to the product being offered by largely staying away. Sponsors could soon follow. A "legends" night last Monday featuring John McEnroe and Anna Kournikova drew very disappointing numbers."...From the New York Times on Serena Williams: "For Williams, however, thinking of herself as a rock star isn't necessarily antithetical to thinking of herself as a tennis champion. When asked after losing in the 2004 Wimbledon final what advice, as a tennis superstar, she would give to the victor, Maria Sharapova, Williams shot back, "I'm not a tennis superstar -- I'm a superstar." She immediately laughed it off as a joke -- "I'm just kidding" -- but the quote made the rounds, in part because it seemed to confirm to her critics something that they had been suspecting: that Williams believed she had transcended tennis and that, in indulging her ego, she had let her game suffer."...Serena Williams has pulled from New Haven, and will enter the US Open without having played a match since Wimbledon...As of the Aug. 15 ATP Rankings, Andy Roddick and James Blake were the only American players ranked in the Top 50...From Reuters and John McEnroe, both jumping on the hammer-the-WTA-player-absences bandwagon: "While the $1.3 million Toronto Cup can still boast a top-flight field featuring world number one Justine Henin, without Sharapova's glamour or the Williams sisters' charisma the most anticipated match on Monday was a Legends exhibition with McEnroe, Jim Courier, Anna Kournikova and Carling Bassett-Seguso. "It's unbelievable how much this is happening in the women's game," said McEnroe. "I don't think there is anyone here that could not say it isn't a big problem. I mean, obviously, Serena hasn't played since Wimbledon, and you'd want her to come play here. Venus is not playing. I heard Sharapova pulled out. I'm not even sure. I'm afraid to mention other players because they may have pulled out."...The future of Aussie tennis is looking up since Australia won the 14-and-under ITF world junior tennis team title for the first time, beating host nation Czech Republic in the final. The Aussies were unbeaten in a week of five Davis Cup-style ties in the competition in Prostejov...From the AP: "Michael Chang, the youngest male player to win a Grand Slam tennis title, will open an academy in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, media reported Tuesday. The announcement of Chang's plan came as China is counting down for the Beijing Olympic next August. A Chinese-American, Chang said he aimed to nurture young Chinese players in a bid to bring the level of Chinese tennis up to the international standard. He planned to open his academy in Shenzhen's Mission Hills Country Club, where there are 51 tennis courts."...From the London Free Press: "The word comes from David Shoemaker, chief operating officer and general counsel of the Women's Tennis Association: "The tennis war against doping began in the early 1990s. It was more rudimentary in those days, but now it is handled by the International Doping Test Management company of Sweden, a sampler accredited by the World Anti Doping Agency in Montreal. Two of the early cases would not be considered offences today, but the other two resulted in suspensions. Spain's Lourdes Dominguez-Lino was suspended for three months in 2002 for use of cocaine and Bulgaria's Sesil Karantcheva is still serving a two-year suspension for the use of anabolic steroids. But you can consider tennis as a pretty clean sport."...Men receiving US Open wildcards: Wimbledon junior champion Donald Young, 6-foot-9 John Isner, Alex Kuznetsov, Jesse Levine, Michael McClune, Wayne Odesnik, Ryan Sweeting, and Australia's Alun Jones...Cara Black and Liezel Huber are the first team to qualify for the doubles event at the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid...NCAA singles champ Audra Cohen is among the women receiving wildcards for the 2007 US Open. The 21-year-old Cohen has decided to forgo her senior year at the University of Miami to turn pro. Also receiving wildcards were Americans Jamea Jackson, Lauren Albanese, Madison Brengle, Alexa Glatch, Ahsha Rolle, 2007 USTA Girls' 18s champion Ashley Weinhold, and Australian Jessica Moore...The 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson becoming the first black player to win a title at what is now the US Open will be honored on Aug. 27 at Flushing Meadows...German former tennis umpire Rudi Berger has died of cancer at age 55...Amelie Mauresmo has pulled out of the US Open citing recovery from a pulled groin and appendicitis.
Also see:
Blake a Jolt for U.S.; Says Will Stay Aggressive, But Will the ATP?
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2007-08-18/265.php
Nadal retires, Djokovic flat, but players support back-to-back Masters Series
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2007-08-16/264.php
Djokovic Another Foe For Federer
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2007-08-13/196.php