MEN’S TENNIS NEWS & TENNIS RESULTS & MORE: NISHIKORI WINS MEMPHIS & STAN THE MAN WAWRINKA WINS ROTTERDAM

Nishikori wins Memphis for a third time. Elvis Fan ?

 

Stan the Man wins Rotterdam again

 

* Wawrinka wins #7 ranking from Berdych

* Nishikori three-peats in Memphis

* Cuevas ends Vanni’s hopes for first ATP title

 

TODAY’S MEN’S GLOBAL TENNIS NEWS

 

Rotterdam

 

Singles – Final: (4) S Wawrinka def. (3) T Berdych 4-6 6-3 6-4

So far, Stan Wawrinka’s plan to play the spring indoor season in order to improve his ranking seems to be going pretty well.

Tomas Berdych has been talking about how he and his coach have been working on his tactics. (Which raises the obvious question why no one did that before — after all, everyone knows Berdych has the shots, but he Berdyches them away!) Until this match, it looked like all that effort was paying off. But, of course, the trick of coaching is to get the techniques to stick when the pressure is on. They didn’t. And so Berdych, who was trying to finally defend a title, didn’t.

 

Stan Wawrinka started last year strong, then faded. This year, he hasn’t won a Slam, but otherwise, he’s looking just about as strong. He already has two titles, here and at Chennai — and, as he noted, “It’s my first 500 [point] title and winning indoors [where he didn’t have any titles either] is something special for me personally. It’s always amazing to win a trophy. It’s the best feeling.” Maybe, this year, he can keep up that level. If nothing else, he’s climbing the rankings. #9 after Melbourne, #8 starting the week, this moves him up to #7, ahead of Berdych, who will fall to #8. And, from now to Monte Carlo, he has nothing to defend except Rounds of Sixteen at Indian Wells and Miami. He may well go higher still this spring.

Doubles – Final: (3) Rojer/Tecau def. (LL) J Murray/Peers 3-6 6-3 10-8

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau seem to be picking up right where they left off. Last year, they won seven titles, the first of them in the second week of February. This week, it took them until the third week of February — but when they won, they won a big one; that’s significant, because their first four titles of 2014, and five of the seven, were 250 point events. By the end of the year, their 250 point titles weren’t even counting any more! But now they have the biggest title of the year so far apart from the Australian Open. Maybe this can be the year they finally go from winning lots of titles to winning big titles.

Murray/Peers are off to a fair start themselves; they won Brisbane, and now this. Maybe they’ll start getting seeded soon. No doubt a lot of other teams will be glad to see that.

Local boy Rojer was especially happy: “It was nice, as Horia had had two finals here and we finished as runners up last year. It feels good to win here. It’s one of our two tournaments here in The Netherlands and we always get good support. I stood up to help Horia today, as he has been the man of the tournament by far. I was trying to fill in when I could, as I wasn’t feeling too well in some of the matches.”

 

Sao Paulo

 

Singles – Final: (5) P Cuevas def. (Q) L Vanni 6-4 3-6 7-6(7-4)

Luca Vanni says his favorite shot is his serve. (As well it might be, since he’s 6’6″ tall.) But he was broken as he served for the match at 5-4 in the third set. And he couldn’t do much on his serves in the third set tiebreak. Nerves, obviously, for a guy who until this week had never won an ATP match!

Still, at age 29, he finally has an ATP highlight for his career. As well as a career rankings high, although that high will still be below the Top Hundred.

Pablo Cuevas will also be hitting a career high. We show him up to #23. Plus he earns his third career title, all on clay, all in the last year. And all 250 point events. He’ll probably have to diversify that if he wants to make the Top Twenty. But it’s still very impressive given that his career seemed to be all but over a few years ago.

 

 

Doubles – Final: (2) Cabal/Farah def. Lorenzi/Schwartzman 6-4 6-2

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah were not off to a great start this year — they had only two wins in three previous tournaments. But playing close to home, and playing in a pretty weak field, can be tonics for almost anyone. They earn their first title since August, and the third of their careers. It’s definitely good timing — their first title ever, Rio de Janiero, comes off next week….

 

Memphis

 

Singles – Final: (1) K Nishikori def. (2) (WC) K Anderson 6-4 6-4

Kei Nishikori had struggled all the way to the final here. Kevin Anderson had looked very solid. So what happened come the final? Nishikori was in pretty complete charge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nishikori has been having a pretty impressive year so far in 2015. He hadn’t won a title (his last was at Tokyo 2015), but he is now 10-2 this year, with a title, a semifinal, and an Australian Open quarterfinal. Last year, he also won Memphis for his first title of the year, and he also had one other semifinal at that time — but he did better in Melbourne this year. So he’s on pace for the best year of his career.

It’s the third straight title here for Nishikori; he quipped that “I think I am going to move here soon.”

For the moment, to be sure, he remains at #5, and that #5 ranking will be under threat over the next few months (he doesn’t have much to defend at Indian Wells, but he made the Miami semifinal, won Barcelona, and made the Madrid final). But he’s showing an impressive ability to play just well enough.

Kevin Anderson must be pretty discouraged; Nishikori had a sore wrist, and a blistered toe, and also had his thumb treated during the match, and yet Anderson couldn’t beat him. The South African remains stuck at #15, and he’s still looking for his first title since Delray Beach 2012; he has lost six finals in a row. He seems to be turning into what Nishikori was a year or two ago: A tough guy to have in your draw, one who wasn’t likely to utterly collapse, but one who didn’t often win the big matches. Maybe he should be asking Nishikori for some tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doubles – Final: (4) Fyrstenberg/S Gonzalez def. Sitak/Young 5-7 7-6(7-1) 10-8

This, sadly, seemed to be about nerves — probably Donald Young’s nerves, since he is the guy here who had never won a title. After a strong first set and a fair second set, Sitak/Young collapsed in the tiebreak. They fell behind early in the match tiebreak. They got it back to 6-5 (i.e. down one minibreak), but then things slipped again. From 9-5 down, they saved three match points to get back on serve. And then suffered another minibreak, and that was that. It’s the first title for Mariusz Fyrstenberg since Metz last September; Santiago Gonzalez wins his first title since Dusseldorf last May. And they both tend to prefer other surfaces; winning here might well be a good sign for the partnership. Certainly the trophy (which was a pair of actual Gibson electric guitars) made Santiago Gonzalez happy: “It’s my best trophy ever! I bought one guitar a year ago, and it was quite expensive, but it was nothing compared to this one. I think it’s a great trophy, and I’m very happy.”

BOTTOM LINE …. One of the coolest Weeks TO WIN ! WHY ? Because the MENS trophies this week ( Memphis ) & LADIES trophies ( Antwerp) are the “coolest ” of the year. This was a week to bring home “THE BACON ” . Closest prize next to SLAMS for Space in the TROPHY CASE.

 

DRAWS / RESULTS / OTHER STUFF

 

 

RANKINGS

 

Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings

 

As of February 15, 2015

 

Rank &

Prior…Player………..Points

1..(1) Djokovic……….13045

2..(2) Federer…………9205

3..(3) Nadal…………..5745

4..(4) Murray………….5460

5..(5) Nishikori……….5205

6..(6) Raonic………….4980

7..(8) Wawrinka………..4550

8..(7) Berdych…………4460

9..(9) Ferrer………….3865

10.(10) Cilic…………..3690

11.(11) Dimitrov………..3465

12.(12) Tsonga………….2495

13.(13) Gulbis………….2330

14.(14) Lopez…………..2325

15.(15) Anderson………..2230

16.(16) Bautista Agut……1975

17.(19) Simon…………..1890

18.(17) Robredo…………1800

19.(18) Isner…………..1765

20.(20) Goffin………….1659

21.(21) Monfils…………1635

22.(22) Kohlschreiber……1460

23.(32) Cuevas………….1447

24.(23) Dolgopolov………1420

25.(24) Gasquet…………1410

26.(27) Garcia-Lopez…….1405

27.(28) Benneteau……….1355

28.(26) Fognini…………1320

29.(25) Karlovic………..1295

30.(30) Mayer…………..1264

 

DRAWS

 

Rotterdam — Week of February 9

WINNER: Stan Wawrinka

……………..QF…………SF……..F

1 Murray………(1)Murray

8 Simon……….(8)Simon……Simon

3 Berdych……..(3)Berdych….Berdych…Berdych

7 Bautista Agut..Monfils

 

5 Dimitrov…….Muller

4 Wawrinka…….(4)Wawrinka…Wawrinka..Wawrinka

6 Gulbis………Stakhovsky

2 Raonic………(2)Raonic…..Raonic

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Murray………lost QF (Simon)

2 Raonic………lost SF (Wawrinka)

3 Berdych……..lost F (Wawrinka)

4 Wawrinka…….WON TOURNAMENT

5 Dimitrov…….lost 2R (Muller)

6 Gulbis………lost 1R (Thiem)

7 Bautista Agut..lost 2R (Monfils)

8 Simon……….lost SF (Berdych)

Memphis — Week of February 9

WINNER: Kei Nishikori

………………QF……………SF……….F

1 Nishikori…….(1)Nishikori…..Nishikori…Nishikori

5 Karlovic……..Krajicek(Q)

3 Isner………..(3)Isner

7 Becker……….Querrey……….Querrey

 

8 Mannarino…….Young…………Young

4 Dolgopolov……Tomic

6 Johnson………(6)Johnson

2 Anderson (WC)…(2)Anderson(WC)..Anderson…Anderson

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Nishikori…..WON TOURNAMENT

2 Anderson (WC).lost F (Nishikori)

3 Isner………lost QF (Querrey)

4 Dolgopolov….lost 2R (Tomic)

5 Karlovic……lost 2R (Krajicek)

6 Johnson…….lost QF (Anderson)

7 Becker……..lost 1R (Querrey)

8 Mannarino…..lost 1R (Young)

Sao Paulo — Week of February 9

WINNER: Pablo Cuevas

…………….QF…………SF………F

[Vanni(Q)]……Vanni(Q)……Vanni……Vanni

7 Verdasco……Lajovic

4 L Mayer…….(4)Mayer

8 Klizan……..Souza(WC)…..Souza

 

6 Giraldo…….(6)Giraldo….Giraldo

3 Fognini…….(3)Fognini

5 Cuevas……..(5)Cuevas…..Cuevas…..Cuevas

2 Robredo…….Almagro

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Lopez……..WITHDREW

2 Robredo……lost 2R (Almagro)

3 Fognini……lost QF (Giraldo)

4 L Mayer……lost QF (Souza)

5 Cuevas…….WON TOURAMENT

6 Giraldo……lost SF (Cuevas)

7 Verdasco…..lost 2R (Lajovic)

8 Klizan…….lost 2R (Souza)

Rio de Janeiro — Week of February 16

 

1 Nadal

Bellucci

Carreno Busta

Berlocq

M Gonzalez

Montanes

Almagro

6 Cuevas

 

4 Fognini

Vesely

Andujar

Lorenzi

Delbonis

Schwartzman

Lajovic

8 Klizan

 

5 L Mayer

Rola

Souza (WC)

Arguello (Q)

Ramos-Vinolas

Haider-Maurer

Ymer (WC)

3 Robredo

 

7 Giraldo

Monaco

Cecchinato (Q)

Nieminen

de Bakker (Q)

Clezar (WC)

Gimeno-Traver (Q)

2 Ferrer

Marseille — Week of February 16

 

1 Raonic

–bye

Vanni (SE)

Bolelli

Golubev

And. Kuznetsov

Qualifier

7 Monfils (WC)

 

4 Bautista Agut

–bye

Haase

Pospisil

Thiem

Sousa

Janowicz

6 Goffin

 

5 Simon

Qualifier

Coric (WC)

Istomin

Qualifier

Chardy

–bye

3 Gulbis

 

8 Rosol

Stakhovsky

Struff

Qualifier

Mathieu

Paire (WC)

–bye

2 Wawrinka

Delray Beach — Week of February 16

 

1 Anderson

Qualifier

Groth

Lu

Lacko

Kudla (WC)

Qualifier

5 Mannarino

 

4 Karlovic

Brown

Krajinovic

Qualifier

Rublev (WC)

Sela

Kukushkin

7 Johnson

 

6 Querrey

A Gonzalez

Dodig

Young

Smyczek

Kozlov (WC)

Gabashvili

3 Dolgopolov

 

8 Troicki

Robert (PR)

Tomic

Jaziri

Qualifier

Sijsling

Matosevic

2 Isner

 

 

* SCORES

 

SUNDAY

Rotterdam

Singles – Final

(4) S. Wawrinka def. (3) T. Berdych 4-6 6-3 6-4

Doubles – Final

(3) Rojer/Tecau def. (LL) J Murray/Peers 3-6 6-3 10-8 .

Memphis

Singles – Final

(1) K Nishikori def. (2) (WC) K Anderson 6-4 6-4

Doubles – Final

(4) Fyrstenberg/S Gonzalez def. Sitak/Young 5-7 7-6(7-1) 10-8

Sao Paulo

Singles – Final

(5) P Cuevas def. (Q) L Vanni 6-4 3-6 7-6(7-4)

Doubles – Final

(2) Cabal/Farah def. Lorenzi/Schwartzman 6-4 6-2

 

CONTENT VIA Bob LARSON TENNIS NEWS.

Topics: Abn Amro World Tennis Tournament, Atp, Kei Nishikori, Kevin Anderson, Memphis, Memphis Open, Pablo Cuevas, Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, Sports, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis, Tomas Berdych

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