Today’s Men’s News (09/23) – St. Petersburg & Metz

Written by: Staff on 23rd September 2012

Today's Men's News (09/23) - St. Petersburg & Metz |

St. Petersburg

Singles – Final: (3) M Klizan def. (4) F Fognini 6-2 6-3

The weight of nerves, it seems, is heavier than weight of legs. Martin Klizan had played for more than three and three-quarter hours the day before, plus doubles, but he came out and won the first four games of this and never looked back. He won sixty percent of the points even in the relatively competitive second set. Fabio Fognini admitted afterward, “It’s horrible to play a final like this.”

It is Klizan’s first title, and it continues his tremendous upward climb. #100 as recently as Estoril, he hit the Top Fifty for the first time after the Canadian Open, and came here at #45, and with this, we show him at #33. It doesn’t seem likely that he will stop there: “I said last year that I would like to be Top Hundred by the end of this year and I’ve already done it. Now I’ve been Top Fifty, Top Forty, maybe I can be Top Thirty at the end of the year.”

Fognini has now lost both his career finals, and in this case at least, he had a huge advantage in rest. It doesn’t seem promising. Still, he puts himself in the Top Fifty.

Doubles – Final: (1) R Ram/Zimonjic def. Lacko/Zelenay 6-2 4-6 10-6 (Match TB)

This probably wasn’t quite as close as the score; Ram/Zimonjic really had just one bad game. It’s just that it cost them the second set. But it is surely a big relief for Nenad Zimonjic. It’s only his second title of the year, and his first since Rotterdam. Since then, his ranking has really gone in the tank, and he seems to have been struggling to find a partner. He conceded, “”I haven’t been playing that well lately, results-wise, and it turned out to be a great decision to come back to St. Petersburg to play with Rajeev.” So, too, for Rajeev Ram, who earns his first title since Delray Beach 2011.

Metz

Singles – Final: (1) J Tsonga def. (5) A Seppi 6-1 6-2

So what else is new?

Not only was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga the higher-ranked player here, he was French, he was playing on a surface that favors him, and he was a lot more rested, having had to play only three matches to get here compared to Seppi’s four, plus Seppi played Davis Cup the week before. It was pretty pathetic; Tsonga won more than two-thirds of the points. Too bad it doesn’t do him any good; he was defending champion (the first time he has ever defended a title), and will stay stuck at #7.

Still, it is his first title since Doha at the start of the year. Now he just has to work on the tiers of the titles he is winning; since his big victory at Paris 2008, he has won seven titles, and six of them, including the last four in a row, have been 250s; the only exception was Tokyo 2009, which was a 500. If he really wants to crack the Top Five, he knows what he needs to do….

Andreas Seppi isn’t going to reach the Top Five any time soon, but it does appear that this will put him in the Top 25. Let’s hope, after this busy start to the fall, that he can find some time to rest on his laurels.

Doubles – Final: (2) Mahut/Roger-Vasselin def. (4) Brunstrom/Nielsen 7-6(7-3) 6-4

It seems it doesn’t matter which partner Johan Brunstrom plays with; he still loses finals. For partner Frederik Nielsen, on the other hand, it must be a relief to do anything at all to prove that Wimbledon was not a fluke…. Although the fluke here is that the score was so close; Mahut/Roger-Vasselin won a third more points than their opponents. It’s the third title this year for Mahut/Roger-Vasselin; they also won Montpellier and Marseille. Guess they like playing in French towns whose names start with M.