“I started to feel pain, like a knife below my ribs,” said Errani who struggled with an odd injury during the match. “Every time I was breathing it was very painful. It wasn’t muscular, but I couldn’t stay up. So I called the physio and she told me I had my diaphragm totally blocked. She tried to release it a bit, and then after that it was much better.”

Rafael Nadal survived another tight affair with Ernests Gulbis today in Rome.

Notes: Insane field with two former No. 1s and an additional Slam champ all unseeded…The Top 3 seeds are current or former No. 1s…Tough opening-round matches are (5) Na vs. Tamira Paszek then the winner of Venus and (WC) Medina Garrigues, (3) Azarenka vs. Pavlyuchenkova, (11) Petrova vs. a qualifier then likely Kuznetsova, (16) Ivanovic vs. a qualifier then likely her Serb countrywoman Jankovic, (9) Stosur vs. the clay-savvy Suarez Navarro, and (2) Sharapova vs. a qualifier then likely Peng…No blue clay this year…Former champs in the field are Serena Williams (2012) and Kvitova (2011).

“She’s amazing. We were joking that she’s like a soldier,” Vesnina said of Makarova. “She has a bleeding knee and she won such an amazing match — one of the most emotional matches she has won. And then in the doubles, she was feeling tired, but she’s a great fighter.”

Gulbis is the first qualifier to win an ATP title since Jarkko Nieminen at Sydney in January 2011. Gulbis improved to 3-0 career in ATP finals, adding to his 2010 Delray title. Roger-Vasselin was appearing in his first career final.

There will be lots of firepower in France tomorrow when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga tangles with Tomas Berdych for the Marseille title.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saved 5 matchpoints against Bernard Tomic in Marseille while the run of Jack Sock came to and end in Marseille.

Notes: Not the prettiest field for the million-dollar oil-laden event, as the top dogs take the exo cash this week in Abu Dhabi…”Gasquet Back!” says the ATP website!…(8) Andujar opens against the Wimbledon Nadal-killer Rosol, and (3) Kohlschreiber will likely meet Monfils in the second round…Of the seeded players, only Youzhny and Troicki have career winning records in Doha…Davydenko (2010) is the lone returning champ in the field.

At the WTA Championships Thursday it was Serena Williams beating down Victoria Azarenka for an 11th time in 12 meetings.

The WTA Championships begin Tuesday in Istanbul as the trio of Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams bidding for supremacy.