Men and Women Tennis Update – Atlanta, Gstaad, Umag, Baku, and Stanford

Written by: Staff on 24th July 2013

Men and Women Tennis Update - Atlanta, Gstaad, Umag, Baku, and Stanford

epa03794389 Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball to Argentina's Federico Delbonis during their men's single semifinal match at the 2013 International German Open tennis tournament in Hamburg, Germany, 20 July 2013. EPA/AXEL HEIMKEN |

TODAY’S MEN’S NEWS

Atlanta

Three seeds reached the second round, with Taiwan’s Yen-hsun Lu leading the way with his defeat of Kevin King 6-3, 7-5 in the American’s main draw debut on the ATP. The fifth-seeded Lu set the pace for Australian seventh seed Lleyton Hewitt, a winner over France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 6-4.

Hewitt made the switch form grass of Newport to the hardcourts as the US Open preparation run begins.

Russian eighth seed Evgeny Donskoy beat American Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4 and Rikardus Berankis of Lithuania started with a defeat of German Mischa Zverev 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(8). Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo beat Jack Sock of the US 7-5, 6-4 while Denis Istomin put out Lukas Lacko 6-1, 6-3.

Mardy Fish’s return to tennis after his long-running illness battle was put on hold by rain, with the American two-time champion, seeded sixth, due to return on Wednesday to complete his contest with Michael Russell. Fish led 6-4, 2-4 when play was halted for the night.

Gstaad

Roger Federer learned the name of his opening opponent as German Daniel Brands Federer’s long-time friend Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to set up a second mach with the Swiss top seed in as many weeks after losing to Federer in the Hamburg first round. While the fifth-ranked Federer needs a possible tournament title, he is also devoting attention this week in trying a new racquet whose 98-square-inch size takes some adjustment after playing for years with a model measuring 90 square inches.

Federer, the top seed who has not played the high-altitude clay of Gstaad since winning the title in 2004, will continue his racket testing under competitive conditions. The 17-time grand slam champion said that he feels he is slowly getting used to his new racquet, which should provides him some additional power and a bigger hitting sweet spot as he lifts his equipment to the level long used by his rivals.

But any decision on switching to the new weapon will not be taken in haste.

“So far, I’m happy with this change,” said Federer. “But I need lots of court time to know if switching will be a good decision. I haven’t yet decided on whether to use it in the US (he begins his pre-US Open campaign in a fortnight at the Montreal Masters). I still need to think it over.”

Four Spaniards including eighth seed Robert Bautista Agut moved into the second round. Agut beat Swiss wild card Henri Laaksonen 6-2, 6-3 as the Spanish winner ran his clay record in 2013 to 18-15. Daniel Gimeno-Traver beat Kenny De Schepper of France 6-4, 6-3.

Pablo Andujar defeated Romanian Victor Crivoi 6-1, 6-2 to end a five-match first-round loss streak and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez completed the winning list with a defeat of Adrian Ungur 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1. 2008 winner Victor Hanescu defeated Germany’s Dustin Brown 7-6(6), 6-2; Dutchman Robin Haase defeated Brazilian Joao Souza 6-4, 7-6(7).

Umag

Spanish fifth seed Tommy Robredo defeated Czech Jan Jajek 6-3, 6-2 wile Slovak sixth seed Martin Klizan produced a defeat of Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-1. Slovenian Blaz Kavcic eliminated German seventh seed Florian Mayer 6-7(5), 6-0, 7-5 while No. 8 Carlos Berlocq advanced with the loss of just one game over a local wild card.

Frenchman Gael Monfils began with a win against Mate Pavic of Croatia 7-5, 6-2, with Spain’s Albert Montanes beating Serb Dusan Lajovic 7-6(3), 6-1, but Viktor Troicki earning one back for Serbia through his defeat of Croatia’s Antonio Veic 7-6(6), 6-1.

TODAY’S FEATURE

KEYWORDS: No Feature Today

THIS WEEK IN TENNIS

THIS WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Atlanta (250/Hard). Defending Champion: Andy Roddick
Gstaad (250/Clay). Defending Champion: Thomaz Bellucci
Umag (250/Clay). Defending Champion: Marin Cilic

NEXT WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Washington (500/Hard). Defending Champion: Alexandr Dolgopolov
Kitzbuhel (250/Clay). Defending Champion: Robin Haase

STATS AND FACTS

RANKINGS

Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of July 23, 2013

Rank & Prior...Player...........Points 1..(1) Djokovic..........12310 2..(2) Murray.............9360 3..(3) Ferrer.............7120 4..(4) Nadal..............6860 5..(5) Federer............5875 6..(6) Berdych............4865 7..(7) Del Potro..........4500 8..(8) Tsonga.............3480 9..(9) Gasquet............3045 10.(10) Wawrinka...........2915 11.(11) Nishikori..........2495 12.(12) Haas...............2395 13.(13) Raonic.............2225 14.(14) Almagro............2135 15.(15) Cilic..............2075 16.(16) Simon..............2055 17.(17) Janowicz...........2029 18.(18) Tipsarevic.........2025 19.(19) Fognini............1970 20.(21) Anderson...........1635 21.(22) Isner..............1610 22.(20) Querrey............1570 23.(24) Seppi..............1550 24.(25) Dolgopolov.........1500 25.(23) Kohlschreiber......1490 26.(26) Chardy.............1406 27.(27) Paire..............1405 28.(28) Robredo............1340 29.(29) Lopez..............1325 30.(30) Monaco.............1270

———————————————————————-

TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS

Baku

Holder Bojana Jovanovski took control of her title defense, with the Serbian top seed starting with a defeat of No. 214 Uzbek Nigina Abduraimova 6-3, 6-3. Jovanovski needed to make the change from grass to hard as she played for the first time since Wimbledon. Jovanovski dropped the first three game but spun off the next six to win the opening set and get firmly into her rhythm, advancing on her third set point.

Eighth seeded compatriot Vesna Dolonc did not fare so well in central Asia, losing to Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-1, 6-2, while Polish qualifier Magda Linette eliminated 2012 finalist Julia Cohen, 6-2, 6-3.

Israeli Shahar Peer, whose season has been a horror with a mere six wins, won 12 straight games to claim the victory over Ilona Kremen of Belarus 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in a massive turnaround effort. But she was not the only player to pull off that party trick: the same went for Mandy Minella, who beat Kamilla Farhad love-love, and local qualifier Tetyana Arefyeva, a winner over Veronika Kapshay of the Ukraine, 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-0.

Stanford

The pre-US Open start for Samantha Stosur began with a loss as the former New York grand slam champion was beaten in her opening match 6-2, 6-4 by Olga Govortsova of Belarus, who earned her ninth career win over a top 20 player.

“At the end she had nothing to lose, so she started going for her shots and making more, and I got a little bit nervous – it was the same kind of situation as the French Open, where I had two match points against Marion Bartoli and lost, and then she went on to win Wimbledon a few weeks later,” said the winner. Added Stosur: “I didn’t get off to the greatest start, losing my serve the way I did at the start, and she was playing quite well. But I wasn’t able to combat that with any aggressive play of my own to not let her continue doing what she was able to do.”

Seventh seed Urszula Radwanska eliminated American Christina McHale 6-1, 6-3. Wild card Daniela Hantuchova continued her career domination of Belgian Yanina Wickmayer with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 win, with the final set taking just 24 minutes.

US sixth seed Varvara Lepchenko needed to hold on at the end standing once game from victory. She finally beat Portugal’s Michelle Larcher de Brito 6-2, 6-4 on a sixth match point. Austrian Tamira Paszek got her first WTA-level win since the Australian open, beating Alla Kudryavtseva, when the Russian qualifier retired trailing 6-1, 6-7 (4-7), 3-0. American Coco Vandeweghe, last year’s finalist who was denied a wild card entry and had to qualify, got some payback by crushing Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-0, 6-3.

TODAY’S FEATURE

KEYWORDS: No Feature Today

THIS WEEK IN TENNIS

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:
Stanford (Premier/Hard). Defending Champion: Serena Williams
Baku (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Bojana Jovanovski

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:
Carlsbad (Premier/Hard). Defending Champion: Dominika Cibulkova
Washington (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Magdalena Rybarikova

STATS AND FACTS

**RANKINGS

Estimated WTA Rankings As of July 23, 2013

Rank & Prior Rank....Name..............Points 1 (1) SWilliams 11705 2 (2) Sharapova 9235 3 (3) Azarenka 8825 4 (4) ARADWANSKA 5965* 5 (5) Li 5555 6 (6) Errani 5100 7 (7) Kvitova 4435 8 (8) Bartoli 4365 9 (9) Kerber 3970 10 (10) Wozniacki 3660 11 (11) Vinci 3220 12 (12) Kirilenko 2976 13 (13) STOSUR 2965 14 (14) Flipkens 2886 15 (15) Stephens 2870 16 (16) Jankovic 2865 17 (17) Ivanovic 2740 18 (18) Lisicki 2650 19 (19) Suarez Navarro 2430 20 (20) Petrova 2306 21 (21) Vesnina 1889 22 (22) Halep 1885 23 (23) Pavlyuchenkova 1795 24 (24) Kanepi 1781 25 (25) CIBULKOVA 1776* 26 (26) Makarova 1742 27 (27) Kuznetsova 1657 28 (28) Safarova 1655 29 (29) HAMPTON 1627* 30 (30) Cornet 1580