Weekend Wrap: Ginepri Wins at Indy, Williams Featured at Stanford
THIS WEEK ON TOUR
BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC
Stanford, Calif., USA
Surface: Hard outdoor
ADHEREL
Seeds: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Nadia Petrova, Dominika Cibulkova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Marion Bartoli
Floaters: Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur, Shuai Peng, Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko, Na Li, Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Notes: Openers of interest include (1) S.Williams vs. Li, (6) Cibulkova vs. Stosur, (8) Bartoli vs. Peng, (5) Petrova vs. Mattek-Sands (winner to potentially face Sharapova); five of Top 10 players entered; wildcards to American Hilary Barte and Canadian Stephanie Dubois; Canadian defending champ Aleksandra Wozniak unseeded.
ISTANBUL CUP
Istanbul, Turkey
Surface: Hard outdoor
Seeds: Vera Zvonareva, Patty Schnyder, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Aravane Rezai, Vera Dushevina, Yaroslava Shvedova, Olga Govortsova, Lucie Hradecka
Floaters: None
Notes: No appearance by defending champ Agnieszka Radwanska (playing at Stanford this week), but you get her sister Urszula.
LA TENNIS OPEN
Los Angeles, Calif., USA
Surface: Hard outdoor
Seeds: Tommy Haas, Mardy Fish, Dmitry Tursunov, Dudi Sela, Igor Kunitsyn, Sam Querrey, Banjamin Becker, Marat Safin
Floaters: Indy winner Robby Ginepri, (WC) Taylor Dent, John Isner, Frank Dancevic, Marcos Baghdatis
Notes: Openers of interest are (1) Haas vs. Levine or Reynolds, (8) Safin vs. Ginepri, (7) Becker vs. Isner, Dancevic vs. Baghdatis; Haas (2006,’04) is the lone defending champ in the field.
ATP STUDENA CROATIA OPEN
Umag, Croatia
Surface: Outdoor red clay
Seeds: Nikolay Davydenko, David Ferrer, Viktor Troicki, Jurgen Melzer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro, Andreas Seppi, Mischa Zverev
Floaters: Pablo Cuevas, Ivan Ljubicic, Nicolas Massu
Notes: Opener of interest is (2) Ferrer vs. Daniel “Crazy Dani” Koellerer; Italian Filippo Volandri wrangles a wildcard; no past champs in the shaky field.
ALLIANZ SUISSE OPEN GSTAAD
Gstaad, Switzerland
Surface: Outdoor red clay
Seeds: Stan Wawrinka, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Igor Andreev, Victor Hanescu, Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Kiefer, Feliciano Lopez, Paul-Henri Mathieu
Floaters: Jose Acasuso, Mikhail Youzhny
Notes: (6) Kiefer vs. Acasuso to open; Gaston Gaudio receives a wildcard along with Swiss Marco “Chud” Chiudinelli.
WEEKEND WRAP
INDIANAPOLIS TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Surace: Hard outdoor
It was four years coming, but American Robby Ginepri won the Indianapolis title on Sunday, his first since winning at Indy in 2005. The unseeded Ginepri beat No. 3-seeded fellow American Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-4, handing Q-Ball his second loss in a row in a final after Newport. The 26-year-old Ginepri was making his first appearance in a tour final since beating Taylor Dent in the Indy final four years ago.
INTERNATIONAL GERMAN OPEN HAMBURG
Hamburg, Germany
Surface: Outdoor red clay
No. 2-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko won his first title in over a year on Sunday in Hamburg, defeating No. 13-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2 for the championship. “When you win the tournament then you always say it’s the best week because before I did not win any tournaments,” Davydenko said. “It’s a very good week for me.”
BANKA KOPER SLOVENIA OPEN
Portoroz, Slovenia
Surface: Hard outdoors
World No. 1 Dinara Safina continues to scoop up the minor titles, on Sunday defeating No. 5-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-5 for the Portoroz title. It is her third title of the year after Rome and Madrid, and the Russian improved to 21-11 in career finals.
NURNBERGER GASTEIN LADIES
Bad Gastein, Austria
Surface: Outdoor red clay
Unseeded 21-year-old German Andrea Petkovic won her first pro title of any kind on Sunday, defeating unseeded Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2, 6-3 for the Bad Gastein title. In the doubles final, Czechs Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka successfully defended their title from last year, topping Germans Malek/Petkovic 6-2, 6-4.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
DECHY RETIRES — France’s Nathalie Dechy is pregnant and will retire from pro tennis at age 30. The Guadeloupe-born Dechy turned pro in 1994, winning one career singles title and seven in doubles (three this year), including three Grand Slams (two US Open women’s and a mixed at the French).
Monday has been declared a national day of mourning in Croatia following a train accident. Consequently, there will be no play at the ATP Studena Croatia Open on Monday. Main draw action will begin on Tuesday…
How do the Washington Kastles get to bring in a marquee player like Nadia Petrova in at the last minute when it is against the stated rules?…
37-year-old Juergen Waber, coach of Sybille Bammer, is the new Austrian Fed Cup captain, replacing Alfred Tesar who steps down after eight years on the job…
Why are both the ATP and WTA website re-dos so crappy? Could it be harder to find things, slower to navigate and slower to load?…
Sam Querrey tells FOX Sports that Andy “Winning Ugly” Roddick is the new Brad Gilbert: “He’s got the willingness and drive and he’s not afraid to go out there and have 20-30 ball rallies every point. He’ll win ugly. If something is not working for him, he can kind of junk his way through matches, serve big serves and make the guy hit an extra ball. I’ve never seen him not go out there and fight every point.”…
Sam Querrey speaking to SI.com on Andy Roddick: “He cares about the youngsters who are coming up. When I am at Davis Cup, he knows the results in the Futures and the Challengers and even some of the juniors [events]. He wants the new wave of Americans to enjoy the success he has. You can ask him about any 17-, 18-, 19-year-old and he knows about them. I first met him when I was a practice partner with the Davis Cup team in 2005 at Belgium. We introduced ourselves. We started hitting, then played a set. I was up 5-3 maybe, and he wound up beating me 7-5. Every time he’d get a point, he’d give me a staredown or a big fist pump just letting me know that even though I’m 17 and it’s a practice set, he’s there to beat me. But there are some funny jokes. He lets you know that you aren’t going to come in and take his Davis Cup spot.”…
…and Querrey on being a punching bag at Wimbledon: “I was walking home from breakfast and someone who appeared to be a homeless man just punched me. He left a bruise on my left bicep. That was one of the first few days that Wimbledon started. Then a few nights later, there’s a restaurant called the Dog and Fox, and some drunk girl walked straight at me and poked me in the stomach. I was getting a lot of physical contact from random strangers around Wimbledon Village.”…
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