Gonzo Wins Vina; U.S. Fed Cup Rained Out: Tennis-X Weekend Wrap

Gonzalez Wins ATP Vina del Mar in Walk

Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile won his home town event Sunday at the Movistar Open when No. 2 seed Juan Monaco was unable to play the final with an ankle sprain.

"I'm happy to have won this tournament once again but a little sad for Juan who wasn't able to play the final," Gonzalez said. "He is a great player and even better person. It's tough for him not be able to play tomorrow's final and probably miss Davis Cup next week. We are good friends and I hope he recovers fast from this injury. There is only one tournament in Chile every year and each time I look forward to play in front of my home crowd."

Monaco injured his ankle during his quarterfinal match.

"It's very unfortunate that this happened to me in such a good moment of my career," Monaco said. "I'm sad that I won't be able to play the final here in Vina del Mar and the Davis Cup tie against Great Britain next week. I'm hoping to make a come back at Buenos Aires."

Fed Cup Wrap

Fed Cup Quarterfinals

Russia d. Israel 4-1
Maria Sharapova leads the Russians into the semifinals in her first Fed Cup appearance.

USA vs. Germany tied 1-1
Rained out on Sunday, the tie stands at 1-1 after Lindsay Davenport was upset on Saturday.
 
China d. France 3-2
The Chinese win the deciding doubles as Amelie Mauresmo and Marion Bartoli bail on the French team.
 
Spain d. Italy 3-2
The Spaniards close it out 3-0 on Italian soil.

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
The Pete Sampras Cash-Cow Exhibition Tour will continued on Feb. 18 during the ATP SAP Open in San Jose, where Sampras will face an opponent yet to be named, with the match webcast live...

From Neil Harman at the Times Online: "The FFT has filed a complaint in courts in Paris and Liege, Belgium, claiming that internet betting companies stain the reputation of the clay-court championship and use it unfairly as a means of making money. Jean-Francois Vilotte, the FFT's director general, said: "It is an issue as important as the fight against doping." The three companies concerned are Betfair, Ladbrokes and Bwin as the FFT presses for a court injunction to stop their betting activity on the grand-slam tournament. It also seeks a fine of 50,000 (about 37,600 pounds) a day to be paid into its coffers for any prospective violations, Jean-Louis Dupont, the FFT's lawyer, added."...

From the AP: "Swedish Davis Cup player Joachim Johansson is retiring because of a long-term shoulder injury. Johansson, who reached a career-high No. 9 in 2005, said he had no choice. "I can train for a few weeks and play some tournaments, but after that my (right) shoulder is overstrained," the 25-year-old Swede said in a statement. "To recover I have to rest for long periods. That makes it hard to reach my goals and that is why it's impossible for me to continue. Now I will search for new goals in life. Whatever happens I will always play tennis in the future, even though it won't be in professional contexts." Johansson, who won three ATP tournaments and reached the U.S. Open semifinals in 2004, has had three operations since 2005."...

The previous one-day Grand Slam attendance record, set at the 2007 US Open, was broken on Day 4 of the 2008 Australian Open as 62,885 fans visited Melbourne Park...

Octagon has signed Daniela Hantuchova and Agnes Szavay to representation agreements...

Pete Sampras has put his Beverly Hills mansion back on the market for $25 million...

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has applied for residence papers in Switzerland, hoping to join other French-Swiss residents Amelie Mauresmo, Marion Bartoli, Richard Gasquet, Arnaud Clement, Fabrice Santoro and Guy Forget.

From Earthtimes.com: "Tennis sometimes helps you live. Argentine Lucas Arnold felt something like that when his world crumbled: cancer and the loss of a testicle made him think that he might have reached the end of his life. "I had the same thing as (cyclist) Lance Armstrong. In fact, I read his book, it helped me a lot," Arnold told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Melbourne. After fighting for his life in 2006-2007, at age 33 he has returned to the love of his life: doubles. Blond, tanned, thin, Arnold shows up in unexpected places around Melbourne Park. He arrived for the last minutes of fellow-Argentine David Nalbandian's training, to return his serve and propose that they play together in Barcelona. Nalbandian laughed and did not reply. He spent an hour exchanging shots with the Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, one of the most beautiful players in the WTA circuit. "Hantuchova beat me to death, I can't stand her. I used to be able to run differently," he admitted, before focusing. "But I am really proud, because there came a point in chemotherapy when I couldn't even walk."...

18-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva is in hot water with the Bulgarian tennis federation for blowing off Fed Cup last weekend. "I love my country but people should understand me," said Karatantcheva, who is returning to competition after being suspended for a positive performance-enhancing drug test. "My return to tennis turned out to be much more difficult than I expected. I need to get points from three tournaments now to get back in the ranking. I just cannot afford to miss such an opportunity."...

From the Jerusalem Post: "In case you didn't know it, President Shimon Peres is a tennis fan. The information became public on Tuesday evening when Peres hosted a modest reception to express appreciation to Australian Open champions Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich for bringing "pride and joy" to Israel, "and a pleasant surprise." It quickly became clear that Peres has been following the progress of the two tennis champions for quite some time. He visited them in Athens when they were training and also in some other overseas training center which all three remembered, but could not recall the venue. The warm exchange between Peres and the two players was not a matter of polite noblesse, in which the number one citizen congratulates the country's two best men on the court, without really knowing who they are. It was obvious that they had met before. "Who's the guilty one?" Peres asked jokingly as he stood between the two champions. Each immediately pointed towards the other."...

"Stay in school, kids, or you'll end up being an umpire." -- Andy Roddick, shouting at the Australian Open crowd after a tirade against the chair umpire where he asked if he was a "dropout."...

Winston-Salem has been chosen for the site of the U.S. Davis Cup quarterfinal in April against France, a meeting that will first need favorites the U.S. and France to win their first-round Davis Cup matches in February. Winston-Salem would become the first U.S. city to serve as a host to the Davis Cup in successive years since LaCosta Resort in Calsbad, Calif., in 1981-82...

Former Argentine champs Guillermo Coria and Gaston Gaudio tried to resurrect their ranking this past week at the ATP stop in Vina del Mar, Chile, with both making first-round exits. Coria was returning from a 17-month injury/mental layoff, while Gaudio has been trying to halt a rankings slide, also after injury. "I have never thought of retirement," said Coria after losing in three sets to unheralded Pablo Cuevas. "While I had lost my wish of playing, I can tell you now that I feel in good rhythm and that I'm confident that in my next tournament, I will do my very best to win. I played very few tournaments last year and that of course takes its toll, but now I feel more confident and little by little I'm recovering my physical condition." Gaudio lost to Santiago Ventura 6-3, 6-0. "Things are not working as I wish, I can't understand what's going on," said Gaudio, who hasn't won an ATP match since last year's French Open. "These are not good times for me and with these results. I'm thinking more about quitting than on going on. I've been like this for about a year now, I did not feel well on the court."...

Commentator Tracy Austin on the Williams' sisters former dominance: "That time has passed. The other young women are too hungry, too confident and no longer afraid of the Williams sisters. They raised the bar. A lot of people have now met it."...

Swede Jonas Bjorkman and wife Petra welcomed a daughter, Bianca, on Jan. 21 in Monaco. The couple already have one son, 5-year-old Max...

Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko became only the second pair of sisters after the Williams sisters to win a Grand Slam doubles title in the Open Era after their victory at the Australian Open...