Murray and Queen’s Final Pushed to Monday; Tennis-X Notes
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Woz Overcomes Bleak Field at WTA Copenhagen for Title
World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, the only Top 30-ranked player in the field, took home the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open title at Copenhagen on Sunday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Czech Lucie Safarova.
ADHEREL
Playing in front of her home-country Danish fans, Wozniacki captured her fifth title of the year, topping a player she lost to in their previous meeting.
“Congratulations to Lucie for a good week and reaching the finals,” said a gracious Wozniacki during the trophy ceremony. “I wish her good luck in Eastbourne and in the grasscourt season — hopefully we can both make it far at Wimbledon.”
Wozniacki improved to 17-10 in career WTA finals, and 10-0 in Denmark after winning the title last year.
Pumped German Kohlschreiber Wins Homecountry Title at ATP Halle
German Philipp Kohlschreiber made good on upsets earlier in the week over former No. 1 and Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt and Frenchman Gael Monfils, in the all-German final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, taking home the title when Philipp Petzschner retired with a back injury trailing 7-6(5), 6-2.
It was the third career title for Kohlschreiber and second in Germany.
“I think it was a fantastic week,” Kohlschreiber said. “Every day I played a great match. Of course, the final ended quite short, but overall the week was great and to win in Germany is fantastic…I really worked hard here, I tried to play good tennis here. It hasn’t worked that well this year until now. I never had a real success, so the win came in the right moment for me.”
Kohlschreiber’s first two ATP titles came in Munich on clay (d. Mikhail Youzhny in the final) four years ago, and on hardcourt in Auckland (d. Juan Carlos Ferrero) in 2008. He improved to a 3-6 win-loss record in finals. Petzschner won his lone career title at Vienna in 2008.
Eastbourne Women’s, Queen’s Men’s Finals Pushed to Monday
Rains on Sunday in England have pushed the men’s Queen’s Club and women’s Eastbourne finals to Monday. The Queen’s final between Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be played at noon local time.
The AEGON Classic grasscourt final at Birmingham between Slovak Daniela Hantuchova and German Sabine Lisicki has been pushed to 11 a.m. local time on Monday.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Ivan Ljubicic on Rafael Nadal: “I adored Rafa when he came on tour. He was such a breath of fresh air! He was a marvelous guy. I adored his positive energy. After that, he had a period I didn’t like. Negative energy. When he played the intimidation game by jumping all over the place, when it was him against the world. But I shouldn’t have said so publicly. It’s one of my weaknesses to say what I think when I’m asked. I hurt him and I regretted it. If he did things against the rules, it was up to the umpire to punish him, not me. I had the same type of thing with [Andy] Roddick, in 2003 at the US Open. And then time passed. You forget.”…Venus Williams on returning to the tour this week: “I can’t believe I finally made it back. It has been a very long road. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be playing any first round match, anywhere. I missed tennis, tennis has been so kind to me. I love this sport, I love my job, it’s good to me and it’s an honor to be a professional athlete. I do hope I’ve given enough to my sport that it means something when I’m not here and hopefully it means more when I am here…I did my best to stay fit even when I couldn’t be on court. I was doing some arm exercises and listened to doctors’ advice, for the most part. It’s hard as an athlete to accept limits and for me it was definitely about accepting limits. I don’t want to be in the situation I was in Australia as that was very painful and it limited me.”…Former world No. 2 Tommy Haas has taken a wildcard on the grass at Newport…Denmark’s world No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, whose home base is Monte Carlo, Monaco, last month bought two two-bedroom apartments in New York City for around $9 million…The Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer French Open final earned the best U.S. ratings in 12 years, since Andre Agassi beat Andrei Medvedev in 1999…Will Li Na’s French Open win loosen the rigid Chinese tennis development system that she ran from years ago? Probably not…Dinara Safina says her back is still badly screwed-up, and after her (sooner than later) retirement she looks forward to possibly coaching and starting a family. She has also pulled from Wimbledon…China’s CCTV reported that 116 million viewers watched Li Na play the French Open final. No word what percentage were forced to watch by the state government under penalty of torture…Anna Kournikova turned 30 last week, and has been retired eight years now, if you can believe it…Sweden’s top player Robin Soderling is claiming wear and tear in ducking Novak Djokovic and the upcoming Sweden vs. Serbia Davis Cup quarterfinal: “Intensive match schedule, my sore foot and the overall physical and mental effort makes it impossible to participate.”…Le Point reports that French player Aravane Rezai went to a police station on June 1 near Roland Garros and alleged that her father Arsalan stole tens of thousands of dollars from her. Arse-salan was earlier this year banned from the Aussie Open after a confrontation with his daughter…From speeding-up the balls at the French to slowing down the balls and the grass at Wimbledon, all the surfaces now appear the same — why not just stop pretending and pave everything over and play on a slow-medium hardcourt?…Andy Roddick says Serena Williams is a welcome sight back with women’s tennis floundering at the top: “No disrespect to any of the women that are playing right now, but I think women’s tennis needs that dominating figure. She hasn’t played for a year but I think she still is that personality and she’s certainly going to probably be the top storyline going into Wimbledon.”…So golf’s European Tour and PGA Tour (America) want to emulate the ATP and form a truly global golf tour? Will they also emulate players dropping from the event a day before it starts because they are tired or simply don’t want to play? “There is definitely an argument for having one global tour — and tennis is the template. That is the way to go,” says player Lee Westwood…James Blake has gained direct entry into the main draw at Wimbledon after Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu pulled with a knee injury…From the Eastbourne Herald on the Williams sisters playing the Eastbourne grasscourt event: “The event has already attracted a large number of top players from both the women’s and men’s tours, more than enough to interest hardcore tennis fans. But the presence of the “ghetto Cinderellas of the lilly-white tennis world” (according to Mr Williams) will attract a wider audience and guarantee far greater media coverage.”…After losing in the Halle quarters defending his title from 2010, former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt is projected to drop out of the Top 100.
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