RESULTS
Sydney International
Sydney, Australia
Hard-Outdoor
Late-season performer David Nalbandian got an early start to 2009 on Saturday, collecting his first title of the year in the second week of play at the Sydney International, outlasting unseeded Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 for the title. The Finn Nieminen, who stunned world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the semis, fell to 1-8 in career finals. “Winning a tournament before [the Australian Open] is almost perfect,” Nalbandian said. “I feel I’m going to arrive in Melbourne with a lot of confidence.” Bob and Mike Bryan beat Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic for the doubles title, the 50th of their career.
ADHEREL
Heineken Open
Auckland, New Zealand
Hard-Outdoor
Juan Martin Del Potro upheld his top seeding in the final at Auckland Saturday, winning a battle of the big men with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over American Sam Querrey. Del Potro improved to 5-1 in career finals. “All titles are special and this one is my first of the season,” said the 20-year-old Argentine. “This is good for my future.” Querrey was attempting to become the first American to win in Auckland in 18 years. “It was nice to see the Heineken girls walking around all week,” said the American.
Medibank International
Sydney, Australia
Hard-Outdoors
Russian Elena Dementieva enters the Aussie Open as a favorite after spanking world No. 2 Serena Williams in the Sydney semis, and outlasting Dinara Safina 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in the all-Russian final, her second title of the year in two weeks. “I was hoping for a good start to the year, but I couldn’t imagine I was going to win two titles,” said Dementieva, who practiced rigorously all of December in Florida with Andy Brandi and Harold Solomon. “I practiced hard and had good preparation, but so did everyone else. I was just so focused right away, even after the long break.”
Moorilla Hobart International
Hobart, Australia
Hard-Outdoors
Petra Kvitova wins the all-Czech, all-unseeded final against Iveta Benesova 7-5, 6-1 to claim her first-ever pro title at any level. Kvitova had never previously reached a tour semifinal, while Benesova drops to 1-6 in tour finals. “When she came back to make it 5-5 in the first set I was very nervous,” Kvitova said. “Then I started focusing on every point and I started playing well again.”
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS:
WOULD YOU LIKE PEPPER ON THAT? — Aussie police has vowed to crack down (and crack heads) on hooligans that provoke racially-charged incidents, which have increased over the last couple years, at the Australian Open. Last year Greek fans were involved in a brawl where critics charged police were too quick in bringing out the pepper spray. Police say there will be an increased uniformed presence this year.
INDIAN WELLS BECOMES ANOTHER FRENCH OPEN — The combined ATP/WTA Indian Wells tournament hooked a new sponsor, French-based BNP Paribas bank, which takes over the sponsorship from Pacific Life. Now no more commercials of whales jumping around. BNP Paribas also sponsors the French Open, Davis Cup and Fed Cup, and owns the Bank of the West which sponsors the WTA Stanford event.
INJURY-GO-ROUND — Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew from Auckland with a shoulder injury on Thursday, putting his Aussie Open participation in jeopardy…Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled from Sydney with an abdominal injury and could also be out of the Australian Open: “You never know. I’ll do my best to recovery,” the Russian told the media. “I will try to be fit for Australian Open. The physio is telling me to rest two days and not to do anything. Stretch it a lot and do treatment. Then I’ll start to play little by little. I’ll have a scan on site to figure out what I have wrong and see how it can be managed and cure this problem to be better for Melbourne.”…German Rainer Schuettler enters the Australian Open trying to shake a wrist injury…France’s Alize Cornet enters Melbourne with a shaky shoulder…Marcos Baghdatis is a mess, physically and mentally…Marat Safin pulled from the Kooyong exo with a shoulder injury, and is still carrying some fat from the holiday season…Perpetually-injured Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has had a back flair-up and is in doubt for Melbourne…From SI tennis writer Jon Wertheim: “We’ll continue banging the drum here: when will tennis wake up and realize something is profoundly wrong when the careers of 21-year-old players [missing Aussie Open defending champ Maria Sharapova with a shoulder injury] are jeopardized on account of injury? For three of the last four Majors, the defending women’s champ hasn’t been entered. That’s cause for concern.”…Germany’s ever-injured Nicolas Kiefer withdrew from the Aussie Open with a left ankle injury…
MISC:
Roger Federer isn’t above some mind games going into the Australian Open, saying that defending champion Novak Djokovic may have made a mistake switching from Wilson to HEAD right before a Grand Slam: “I mean it’s tough because there’s always a factor with the weather, how do you play, day form, you know, other contenders, the pressure, now a new racquet,” Federer said on Djokovic defending the Aussie Open title. “I’m quite surprised he made a switch like this in the best phase of his career. He can for sure play good tennis, but I think when it comes down to the crunch you just have that bit of a doubt maybe, because you are not quite that comfortable with that racquet. But we’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a big test for him.”…
Men’s Aussie Open qualifiers: Flavio Cippola (ITA), Andreas Beck (GER), Dudi Sela (ISR), Bjorn Phau (GER), Dieter Kindlmann (GER), Lamine Ouahab (ALG), Bjorn Rehnquist (SWE), Wayne Odesnik (USA), Sebastien De Chaunac (FRA), Evgeny Korolev (RUS), Dominik Hrbaty (SVK), Florian Mayer (GER), Peter Polansky (CAN), Xavier Malisse (BEL), Michael Berrer (GER), Andrea Stoppini (ITA)…
Women’s Aussie Open qualifiers: Elena Baltacha (GBR), Viktoriya Kutuzova (UKR), Katie O’Brien (GBR), Melanie Oudin (USA), Kimiko Dat Krumm (JPN), Sesil Karatantcheva (BUL), Karolina Sprem (CRO), Julia Schruff (GER), Kathrin Woerle (GER), Alberta Brianti (ITA), Stephanie Dubois (CAN), Chanelle Scheepers (RSA)…
Roger Federer blew out fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3 in the Kooyong exo final…
U.S. player Bethanie Mattek has reportedly skipped the Aussie tournament swing to honeymoon after marrying Justin Sands, an executive at the Specht Insurance Group…
DIRECTV will expand its tennis sports programming this year, beginning with first-time expanded coverage of the Australian Open, featuring its six-screens-in-one Mix Channel and a host of other interactive features during the first eight days of the tournament. And for the first time, the interactive application, the Mix Channel and the five court channels will be in HD. The Mix Channel will offer, on a single screen, the network channel and five court channels with live coverage tuneable to full screen via remote….
The WTA Hobart event received a $2.25 million injection from the state government to upgrade the facilities to WTA Tour standards, as the event was in danger of folding, according to Tasmania media…
IMG announced that Chip Brooks will oversee the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA). Along with Bollettieri, Brooks is a USPTA Master Coach and was the 1999 USPTA Pro of the year. As part of a staff restructuring, Jose Lambert will focus on player development, Red Ayme will continue in his role of overseeing the tour prep program, and Mark Delzell will handle tennis programming…
With Berlin giving up their WTA calendar spot, it is reported that the Serbian Tennis Federation, in concert with Ana Ivanovic and/or Jelena Jankovic, will apply for the vacant week…
On July 10, Monica Seles, Andres Gimeno, Donald Dell and Dr. Robert “Whirwind” Johnson will be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame as the 2009 class…
James Blake and Russian Anna Chakvetadze have signed with Fila, and Chakvetadze with Wilson racquets…
Should the ATP just kill its two weeks of events prior to the Australian Open if it doesn’t want to put the hammer down against exhibition such as Abu Dhabi and Kooyong, which attract virtually all the top players and leave the ATP draws decimated?…
On that note, Roger Federer now says he will work with the new ATP CEO to try and get the Australian Open pushed back to February to give players more time to prepare before the first Grand Slam of the year…
Hey Rafa, go back to the muscle shirts and pirate pants for pete’s sake, that new look Nike has forced on you is ridiculous…
One source told us Novak Djokovic was in his opinion using a “painted” Wilson rather than his new HEAD racquet, which was hard to believe after this first-round loss in his opening tournament, and his following complaints about the stick. But last week Djokovic got off to a winning start in Sydney and praised his new HEAD stick: “It’s a very hard thing to do. Probably the most difficult decision in tennis, switching the racket when things are going good and with the way I finished the season,” Djokovic said in a press conference. “HEAD and Wilson are the two biggest companies in the sport, and they have some differences. They try to make the racket as best as possible, you know, to my wishes. They did a good job. They’re really trying. So even though the racket is the same practically, it takes time mentally to be able to get used to something new.”…
Despite to players ranked in the Top 50, a recent research report of sports fans in Australia says tennis is the top sport…
Outgoing ATP sponsor Mercedes-Benz USA was reportedly fined $28.9M for being the top manufacturing gas guzzler in 2008 and not meeting CAFE fuel economy standards…
Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva are early committals for the Family Circle Cup in Charleston in April…
The USTA is still looking to fill spots on the Pro Circuit calendar for men’s challenger tournaments on Oct. 19 and Nov. 2…
Former ATP CEO Mark Miles spent last week in Romania on a boar hunt at the invitation of Romanian Ion Tiriac…
Venus and Serena Williams say they plan to play doubles together in all four Slams in 2009…
Australian Open officials will reportedly be cracking down on women’s players’ attire after Frenchwoman Alize Cornet wore a see-through top at the Hopman Cup. Prudes. How about encouraging MORE see-through tops, ever think of that to increase tennis’ popularity. You need to start thinking outside the box (and bra).
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