Daily Tennis News – Nice, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Strasbourg (05/26/12)

Written by: Staff on 26th May 2012

Daily Tennis News - Nice, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Strasbourg (05/26/12)

epa03236211 Czechia's Tomas Berdych hits the ball during the finale of the Tennis World Team Cupagainst Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic in Duesseldorf, Germany, 26 May 2012. EPA/KEVIN KUREK |

Nice

Singles – Final: (3) N Almagro def. (Q) B Baker 6-3 6-2

In a strange way, this may be a good result. We don’t want too many people reaching for the stars and falling down a pit. Brian Baker, despite promising results when young, had been away from the game for half a dozen years, and had had almost as many surgeries, and was one of those people who, by all odds, should have been retired. Instead, he came here and made the final. Increasing his points by two-thirds in the process. From #216, he rises to around #145. It may not be the storybook ending people dreamed of — but it was surely far more than he dared hope for when the tournament started.

For Nicolas Almagro, it’s another in his endless string of bottom-of-the-barrel clay titles. Since 2008, he has won at least two titles every year except in 2009, and at least one in every year since 2006. This is, obviously, his second of 2012; he also won Sao Paolo. Formally, it is a title defense — but Nice 2011 is already off, so he manages to gain some points. A few. Enough to take him to #13.

But every one of his dozen titles is on clay, and every one of them is bottom-tier. Guess we know what he needs to work on…. He did say that it was the best he had played in two years. Can he keep it up?

Doubles – Final: (1) Bryan/Bryan def. Marach/Polasek 7-6(7-5) 6-3

Dare we say, “About time?”

This is only the third title for the Bryans this year, following Sydney and Monte Carlo. Almost anyone else would be satisfied with that, to be sure, but this is the Bryans….

It won’t get them back to #1. In fact, it hardly matters, rankings-wise. But it’s a nice way to head into Roland Garros, where they will have a shot at #1.

Dusseldorf

The rankings say Tomas Berdych and Janko Tipsarevic are very close together. Per-tournament scores say they are rather far apart.

Tipsarevic would probably say the rankings are closer. Because he did a fine job of starting Serbia off in their final with Croatia, beating Berdych 7-5 7-6. That seemed close to a clinch for the Serbs, since the next match featured Radek Stepanek — who had spend more than four hours on the court the day before. It appeared that it mattered. Stepanek started strong, but faded; Viktor Troicki beat him 2-6 6-4 6-3 — and, even without Novak Djokovic, Serbia had won the Cup.

The Serbs apparently wanted to add insult to injury; for much of the week, they had been teaming Nenad Zimonjic with Miki Jankovic in doubles. But, for the final, they had Tipsarevic team with Zimonjic against Berdych and Frantisek Cermak. And it worked. The Serbs completed the sweep 6-3 6-1.

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Brussels

Singles – Final: (1) Agnieszka Radwanska def. Simona Halep 7-5 6-0
We can think of only one significant thing to say about this, and that is that it took only 84 minutes. Agnieszka Radwanska’s previous match took 111. Her quarterfinal took 70. Her opener 56. So her grand total time on the court in this event was less than five and a half hours. At least she won’t be too tired in Paris.
But she gained absolutely nothing. #3 she came in, and #3 she remains, and not even a particularly strong #3. She does at least earn her third title of the year, following Dubai and Miami. She doesn’t really seem like a Slam contender at present, but she is clearly a contender just about everywhere else….
Simona Halep, unlike Radwanska, moves dramatically. We show her rising from #49 to #37. But she must be getting frustrated. She has three career finals — Fes 2010, Fes 2011, now Brussels 2012. This is the biggest result of her career. But still no titles….

Doubles – Final: (4) Mattek-Sands/Mirza def. (3) Rosolska/Zheng 6-3 6-2
That must be a big relief. Sania Mirza won a doubles title as recently as February (Pattaya City, with Rodionova), but that was an International. The one before that was Washington 2011 (with Shvedova), also an International. This is her first Premier title since she won Charleston 2011 with Vesnina. It was starting to look as if she had really lost something. Maybe she just needed the right partner.
And Bethanie Mattek-Sands, presumably, just needed time. This is her first title since she and Meghann Shaughnessy won Paris 2011.

Strasbourg

Singles – Final: (2) Francesca Schiavone def. (WC) Alize Cornet 6-4 6-4
Our theme for this day was players breaking title droughts, but this was the prize of the bunch: Francesca Schiavone had not won anything since taking the Roland Garros crown two years ago. In fact, she came here with a 7-11 record on the year, and three straight losses. She hadn’t made it past a second round since Brisbane! So this is a very big win for her.
A big win, but a small tournament. She moves only slightly, from #14 to #12. But at least she goes into Roland Garros with some momentum. That has been missing for her all year. It’s easy to wonder why Agnieszka Radwanska played Brussels. But playing Strasbourg certainly paid off for Schiavone.
It wasn’t bad for Alize Cornet, either. No, she didn’t win a title — but it is the first time she has won four straight WTA matches since taking the title at Budapest 2008. And it follows on a semifinal at the Prague Challenger last week (which may not sound like much, but she lost that semifinal to Lucie Safarova, so it wasn’t a bad defeat). She is her best streak in years.

Doubles – Final: (2) Govortsova/Jans-Ignacik def. (1) Grandin/Uhlirova 6-7(4-7) 6-3 10-3 (Match TB)
An interesting coincidence, at the very least. On the very day that Alicia Rosolska lost a final, her ex-partner Klaudia Jans-Ignacik won her first title since she and Rosolska won Marbella 2009. Olga Govortsova had had a bit of a wait, too; her last was New Haven 2011 with Chuang. But it’s Jans-Ignacik who clearly qualifies as the week’s slump-breaker.

Topics: 10sballs.com, almagro, Baker, Berdych, Brussels tennis news, Dusseldorf tennis news, Mattek-Sands/Mirza, NIce tennis news, Strasbourg tennis news, Tipsarevic