Tennis Tour Tidbits

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 5th November 2013

Tennis Garanti Koza tournament of Champions

Tennis Tour Tidbits

epa03934886 Simona Halep of Romania celebrates after beating Samantha Stosur of Australia in their final match for the 2013 Garanti Koza tennis tournament of Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria, 03 November 2013. EPA/VASSIL DONEV |

Ilie Nastase had this to say about 22-year-old Simona Halep who won her sixth title of the year in Sofia. “To finish the year with a win like this is great for Simona. It will give her confidence going into the new year, which begins pretty soon in Australia.” . . .

Rafa Nadal needs only two victories at the World Tour Finals to clinch the year end No. 1 ranking, but says he doesn’t care either way.: For me, the history of this year is not No. 1, he said. The history of this year, my year, is after seven months without any chance to compete, without the chance to play or practice tennis, I was able to be back and win from the beginning. . . . Richard Gasquet says he has to adjust to his lack of size : “I’m not two meters tall, I’m not very muscular, so I’m trying the best I can with my shots.” . . .

Swiss Stan Wawrinka is OK with his place in life “For me Federer is the best player ever in the world, and I’m not trying to compare to him. When you are number two after Roger, it is OK.” . . .Rafael Nadal would love to see ATP World Tour Finals change surface. .He has never won the year end event One of the small reasons was fatigue. One of the big reasons is I have not always been a fantastic player on indoor. Just a few times have I been able to play at a high level on indoor. The third thing is because I feel like I am unlucky/ During these nine years the Masters Cup was on indoor, a surface that was not the best for me. So probably for me I was a little bit unlucky in this because in the past we had the Masters Cup on other surfaces. I understand, but I think this is unfair. . . . No. 7 Roger Federer, hasn’t lost his confidence. “The French Open is always going to be hard as long as Rafa Nadal is around. But on the other surfaces, if I am playing well, it’s more on my racquet than on anybody else’s racquet.” . . .The WTA season hasn’t really ended yet as there is a $125,000 tournament going on in Chinese Taipei.

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Former French and US Open finalist Elena Dementieva worked with Russian TV and helped broadcast the Fed Cup final. After retiring at the end of 2011, she went to journalism school and now hosts a show that discusses tennis and hockey. Her husband Maxim Afligenov still plays hockey in Russia. . . European apparel manufacturer H&M has begun to advertise its new Tomas Berdych collection. . . Canada’s Vasek Pospisil is thrilled with his work with his new coach, Frederic Fontana. “The chemistry between Vasek and Frederic was incredible,” Tennis Canada’s Louis Borfiga said. “Frederic told him to be more aggressive on the big points because he was playing a little defensive. Vasek is much more aggressive now.” , , , Stanislas Wawrinka says that the reason why he has reached the ATP World Finals for the first time, is he’s playing the big points better. “When I get into those points, I am not so nervous,” he said. “It’s my career and my life these last few years, and I knew I could be better than a top-20 player every yea,” he told ESPN. “ Physically, I am at my best; I think I have two, three years to be at my best. I’m really looking forward to next year to see where I can take myself.” . . . Novak Djokovic believes he is on fire once again. “It’s the last few weeks of the season and I just feel extra motivated to play better and better as the weeks go by. In China I had probably the best two weeks of the year – except for the very beginning of the year – so it gives me a lot of confidence. I feel that I’m back where I need to be.” . . . Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley is in favor of speeding up surfaces but won’t go overboard. “I think it has gone too much one way and the tournaments need to correct it,” he and Tiley told the New York Times. “But I think it’s dangerous when you correct it and go too far too quickly.” . . . Shanghai tournament director Charles Smith said that his tournament already made the move to speed things up at their event last month. We set it up faster than we’ve ever done before,” “We were medium fast last year and fast this year, and I think it was a negative historically for people if you had a fast court. And this is part of the narrative people are coming to grips with. Even with fast courts, you still get 20-shot rallies and beautiful points. These guys are just such good defenders

Topics: 10sballs.com, Federer, Ilie Nasaste, Rafa Nadal, Richard Gasquet, Simona Halep, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta