Federer Filets the Fish, Roddick Orders Another Stella

With a week to go before the Championships at Wimbledon, the two early favorites on the men's side are pretty obvious: grass guzzlers Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. Sunday, Federer won his second consecutive title at the in Halle after trouncing Mardy Fish 6-0, 6-3 in just 57 minutes.

“I think playing here was the best preparation for Wimbledon,” said Federer after collecting his 16th career ATP title and his fifth crown of the season. “Now, I will have some time off to relax and enjoy my victory and then will arrive early and start focusing on Wimbledon.”

The 22-year-old Swiss, who didn’t lose a set en route to the title, extends his winning streak on grass to 17 matches, tying the seventh position of all-time grass court winning-streak leaders.

Federer won the first set against Fish in 23 minutes and the opening seven games of the final before the American got onto the scoreboard.

“When you see the score, 6-0 in the first, it seems it is easy,” Federer added. “It’s also surprising to me when things go completely without a problem. However, it’s never that simple and it can get a bit tricky very easily.”

On his way to the final the Swiss defeated Thomas Johansson, Mikhail Youzhny, Arnaud Clement and No. 3 seed Jiri Novak.

Fish, who had been out of action since mid April due to hip injury, made a successful comeback by reaching his second final of the season (l. to Andy Roddick in the final of San Jose).

“I’m a bit disappointed about today’s result,” said Fish, the only player to take a set off Federer last year at Wimbledon. “Losing 6-0 in the first set is not what you want in a final. I don’t want to say I was nervous and I couldn’t play. Nervousness wasn’t the reason, I’d rather say that it was a combination of Roger’s plays, specially returning my serves, and me maybe not playing so well.”

In the doubles finale, No. 3 seeds Leander Paes and David Rikl defeated the unseeded pair from Czech Republic, Tomas Cibulec and Petr Pala, 6-2, 7-5. Paes/Rikl played together for the first time in Chennai in 2003. The Halle title is the third career title for Paes/Rikl as a team. Cibulec and Pala, who defeated No. 2 seeds Martin Damm and Cyril Suk in the quarterfinals, played in their first career final as a team.

In London, Roddick showed he’s the real deal by defending his Queen’s Club crown with a straight-set win over No. 5 seed Sebastien Grosjean 7-6(4), 6-4. The win for Roddick was his third of the season following ATP titles in San Jose and Miami, and his 14th overall.

"It's nice to win here again," said Roddick who has won 15 of his last 16 grass matches. "Any time you win a tournament, overall it's a good feeling. My big concern coming into the tournament was getting some matches on grass."

In the past, the Queen's Club event has been an important barometer for the Wimbledon Championships, which begin on Monday, June 21. John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt have used Queen's in the past as a stepping stone toward achievement glory at Wimbledon. The only player ever to have won multiple Queen's titles and not to win Wimbledon is Ivan Lendl.

"Getting some wins over some Top 10 players in the process, I couldn't ask for any more," added Roddick. “I’m feeling good right now. I’m hitting my second serve really big. I’m not sure I’ve ever served this well before and I’ve got a lot of confidence with it, I’m not second guessing on it.”

The American onslaught continued in doubles as top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan claimed their fourth title of 2004 by defeating second seeds and defending champions Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor 6-4, 6-4. It was the American twins' second victory at Queen's after lifting the trophy in 2001, while Knowles and Nestor also were looking for their second Stella Artois title. The Bryans have now improved their record in finals against Knowles and Nestor to 4-1.

ATP PREVIEWS
In ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Guillermo Coria, Fernando Verdasco, Rainer Schuettler, Arnaud Clement and a host of other Euro players will try to prevent local favorite Sjeng Schalken from capturing his third straight Ordina Open title. Good luck fellas. Marat Safin was in the field but had to withdraw with bad blisters. Coria, meanwhile, was granted a wildcard. Also in the hunt is the rising Russian Igor Andreev and the “Tower of Power” Ivo Karlovic.

Over in Nottingham, the joint will be jumping as Greg “I’m Really Canadian” Rusedski tries to defend his 2003 title against the likes of Paradorn Srichaphan, Mardy The Fish, Max Mirnyi and Taylor Dent. Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson earned a spot in the field via the qualifying method. For his success, he drew Mirnyi in the opening round. Yikes.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
In the third youngest final of the Open Era, Maria “Grunt-o-Matic” Sharapova prevailed victorious for the third career title on Sunday in Birmingham. Sharapova improved to 3-0 in WTA Tour finals by defeating France's Tatiana Golovin, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, for her first title of the year.

With a combined age of 33 years and 6 months, Sharapova (17 years, 1 month) and Golovin (16 years, 4 months) represented one of the youngest matchups in a championship match since the Open Era. The only finals where a combined age was less than that came back in 1991 at San Diego where Jennifer Capriati (15 years, 4 months) defeated Monica Seles (17 years, 8 months) and in 1980 Tampa when Andrea Jaeger (15 years, 5 months) defeated Tracy Austin (17 years, 11 months).

"In the first set she did everything right, she was just too good," said Sharapova. "I was just lucky she couldn't do it the whole match. I just hung in there and played my game and in the end that was good enough."

The Russian teenager now adds the Birmingham title to the Tokyo [Japan Open] and Quebec City titles she won last year. She will now have a grass court title under her belt as she makes her way to Wimbledon, where she reached the fourth round last year.

"This is the best possible preparation for Wimbledon, the best you can get," Sharapova said. "I’ve had some tough wins here and winning a title always gives you the confidence to think that you can win more. I always believe I can win the title when I enter an event."

Sharapova made it a clean sweep during her week in Birmingham teaming with fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko to defeat the pairing of Lisa McShea and Milagros Sequera, 6-2, 6-1, in the doubles finale. It was the third doubles title of Sharapova's career and the first for Kirilenko in only their third event as a team.

WTA PREVIEWS
The chicks are also in ‘s-Hertogenbosch or Rosmalen or whatever you want to call it. The pronunciation – as we understand it – is “sair-toe-gen-bosh”. Cool, huh? Anyway, this Tier III field features Patty Schnyder, Nadia Petrova, Shinobu Asagoe, Mary Pierce, Claudine Schaul and a bunch of other players that don’t have a chance at Wimbledon.

At a Tier II level, Eastbourne offers a better bang for your buck with Amelie Mauresmo, Ai Sugiyama, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva and Fabiola Zuluaga.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Roger Federer has won 17 straight matches on grass…After his win in Halle, we are clinching Roger Federer into the Houston event. We are also extending the same invitation to Guillermo Coria and Andy Roddick. Carlos Moya, show up at Wimbledon and we’ll throw you an invite also…Martina Navratilova says she may bag Wimbledon due to an ankle problem. Naggin injuries at 47? Imagine that…Anna Kournikova played an exhibition this weekend in Hamilton, Canada. A “slimmer” Kournikova, who was reportedly paid in the ballpark of $100,000 to post, beat 40-year-old Gigi Fernandez 6-4, 7-5…Pete Sampras was in College Station on Saturday attending the 80th birthday celebration of former Prez George H. Bush…Not surprisingly, French winner Gaston Gaudio pulled from Wimbledon citing a foot injury. Dude should just pull out period. Take the rest of the year off and wait to next clay season. Smell the roses, Gaston…And this just in, John McEnroe has come out said that today’s tennis players are “Darth Vader types” and “robotic”. Thanks John, your Darth Vader is my C-3PO…The main draws at Wimbledon will be made Thursday morning. Qualifying is set to begin on Monday with names like Hyung-Taik Lee, Oliver Mutis, Paul Goldstein, Richard Gasquet, Potito Starache in action at the nearby Roehampton courts.