TENNIS NEWS AND TIDBITS OF GOSSIP

Written by: Staff on 18th March 2014

Photo by Brett Connors |

Brett Connors Photography

Singles – Final: (2) N Djokovic def. (7) R Federer 3-6 6-3 7-6(7-3)

The statistics for these two were almost eerily similar. Going into Novak Djokovic’s fifth service game of the third set, each had five aces, and each had put in 65% of first serves. Djokovic had won only one more point. And Djokovic had had only one more break. But that gave him two breaks to Roger Federer’s one, and that had him serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set. Whereupon — Federer broke. But while that got him to the tiebreak, Federer suffered a minibreak in the very first point. And it went downhill from there.

The loss ends Federer’s winning streak at ten, and leaves him still without a mandatory title since 2012. On the other hand, that ten match winning streak took him all the way from #8 to #5 in the rankings, and with David Ferrer likely to lose a pile of points at Miami, Federer’s prospects of reaching #4 in two weeks look very good.

Novak Djokovic remains stuck at #2, and he can’t possibly climb any time soon. But he gains revenge on Federer for beating him at Dubai. He wins his first title of 2014. And he does move a little closer to Rafael Nadal — the gap between them is now less than 2250 points. Meaning that Djokovic might — just might — have a chance to reach #1 during the clay season.

Indian Wells

Singles – Final: (20) Flavia Pennetta def. (2) Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-1

Flavia Pennetta has a nice collection of small titles. She has a doubles Slam. She has been #1 in doubles. She was the first Italian woman to reach the Top Ten. But — no big singles titles. Indeed, she had never been in a final this big.

You’d never know it. This was pretty much a demolition. It was so bad that Agnieszka Radwanska — who had a left knee problem and apologized to the crowd afterward — won less than half the points on her first serve. Radwanska was broken five times, and never broke herself. She will stay #3, and a rather weak #3 at that.

Not so Flavia Pennetta, who earns her first title since Marbella 2010, and her first Premier title since Los Angeles 2009. She rises all the way from #21 to #12 — moving her ahead of Robert Vinci to once again become Italy’s #2 player. And, the way Sara Errani has been struggling, it’s quite possible that Pennetta could again become Italy’s #1 in the near future.

After the match as she thanked her players guest box she also thanked Coach Fognini , the handsome tennis star replied assistant coach.

Topics: 10sballs, Agnieszka Radwanska, Atp, David Ferrer, Flavia Pennetta, Miami, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sara Errani, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta