MEN’S TENNIS NEWS FROM MUNICH, FEDERER WINS ISTANBUL, ESTORIL AND A LOOK @ MADRID

TENNIS TIDBITS

 

* Federer huffs and puffs and finally blows Cuevas down

* No first title for Kyrgios; Gasquet wins Estoril BUT NICK SEEMED PLEASED AT HIS EFFORT AND BITTLE OF CHAMPAGNE

* Both finals rained out in Munich

* Anderson first seed upset in Madrid

 

MEN’S NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

 

Munich

 

It’s too bad they can’t build a roof over Munich and collect the water and ship it to California. It would make everyone happier.

 

Once again, all action in Germany was rained out. In the singles final, Andy Murray and Philipp Kohlschreiber were on serve after five games; in the doubles, it was tied at 1-1. They will try to finish on Monday — whereupon the two singles finalists will have to hurry to Madrid. That’s not too bad for Murray, who has a first round bye. But Kohlschreiber has to play in the first round — and, if he wins, he’ll meet Murray again in the second!

 

Estoril

 

Singles – Final: (5) R Gasquet def. (7) N Kyrgios 6-3 6-2

It was a pretty ugly match for Nick Kyrgios — he won only 40% of the points, and lost in just more than an hour. We don’t know how much of that was fatigue and how much nerves from playing in his first final, but whatever the combination, it was deadly. He won’t be hitting a career high, and he’ll probably need more to earn a seed at Roland Garros; we show him at #35. The flip side is, it isn’t bad for his first event back from the first real layoff of his ATP career.

Richard Gasquet not only pays back Kyrgios for their meeting at Wimbledon last year, he also wins his second title of the year, and #12 of his career — tying him with Gilles Simon for second place among Frenchmen in the Open Era. It is only the third time in his career that he has won more than one title in a year — and both previous times (2006 and 2013), he has gone on to win three titles that year. Interesting and perhaps promising, rankings-wise; he’s up to at least #24 (he’ll be #23 if Kohlschreiber loses the Munich final), so his Roland Garros seed looks pretty secure — and he look like this might be one of the years he does something with it.

 

Doubles – Final: (2) Huey/Lipsky def. (1) M Lopez/Marrero 6-1 6-4

By the looks of things, Marc Lopez needs Marcel Granollers back. The match stats here were pretty ugly — Lopez/Marrero won only 35% of the points. The match lasted only 47 minutes. That leaves David Marrero still looking for his first doubles title since he and Fernando Verdasco won London 2013; Lopez is still looking for his first since he and Granollers won Buenos Aires 2014.

For both Treat Huey and Scott Lipsky, it’s a bit of a slump-buster; Huey wins his first title since Eastbourne 2014 (with Inglot) and Lipsky his first since Dusseldorf 2014 (with Gonzalez). Funny to see that Lipsky, an American, has won his last three titles in a row on clay (his title before Dusseldorf was Oeiras 2014).

For Huey, it’s career title #4 — and it’s his first on clay. So, with just four titles to his name, he has a surface sweep: Washington 2012 on hardcourt, Basel 2013 on indoor hard, Eastbourne 2014 on grass, and now this. He also earns his first title with someone other than Inglot, which must feel good. And, obviously, he has won a title for four years straight.

Scott Lipsky’s at-least-one-title-each-year streak goes back all the way to 2008, and Huey is the fifth partner with whom he has won a title. Pretty good numbers! The only sad thing is, of the 13 titles he’s won, all but one has been bottom-tier. Tough to make it to the top that way….

 

Istanbul

 

Singles – Final: (1) R Federer def. (3) P Cuevas 6-3 7-6(13-11)

Maybe signing up for Istanbul wasn’t such a bad idea for Roger Federer after all. He never looked comfortable on clay this week, and he didn’t look comfortable in this match, either. So perhaps Federer needed the practice. Pablo Cuevas wasn’t at his best — he had his right arm worked on a couple of times during changeovers — but he was moving well, and making Federer hit one more ball, and far too often, Federer failed. He hit a forehand long on match point at 6-4 in the second set tiebreak, then blew another service point up 7-6, then another at 9-8, before finally finishing it off.

But he finally won — his third title of 2015, and #85 of his career. He becomes the third player to win three titles in 2015, following Novak Djokovic (who has four) and David Ferrer. (It has been quite a year for players winning multiple titles: Djokovic has four; Federer and Ferrer three; Garcia-Lopez, Gasquet, Nishikori, and Wawrinka two each. That’s out of 28 events so far, so 18 of 28 events have been won by a player who already has multiple titles this year!)

The down side is, Federer will go into Madrid tired, and he doesn’t make any appreciable improvement in his ranking. He’s still #2, and he’s still more than 5000 points behind Novak Djokovic in the contest for #1. He can gain some ground at Madrid — but probably not enough to make much long-term difference; Djokovic still looks like a near-lock for the year-end #1.

On the other hand, it is likely to be a long time before Djokovic can match one particular Federer statistic: According to the ATP, this gives Federer titles in 19 different nations!

Had Pablo Cuevas won this, he would have joined the Two Titles This Season club and clinched the #22 ranking. As it is, he’s still stuck at one title in 2015, and has to wait to see what Philipp Kohlschreiber does at Munich to know if he will be #22 or #23.

 

Doubles – Final: Albot/Lajovic def. (1) Lindstedt/Melzer 6-4 7-6(7-2)

This felt a little like the singles final — the winners just didn’t seem to want to finish! Albot/Lajovic served for the match at 6-5 in the second set and were broken. But at least they had an efficient tiebreak.

It’s the first ATP title of any kind for both 25-year-old Radu Albot and 24-year-old Dusan Lajovic, and for Albot, it will result in a Top Hundred doubles ranking. Lajovic will remain far below that — but at least he has what looks to be a decent singles career ahead of him; it’s far less clear that Albot will ever get anywhere in singles.

Talk about misery for Lindstedt/Melzer, though! Robert Lindstedt is still looking for his first title since winning the 2014 Australian Open. At 38 years old, it’s looking as if he may never make it back to the Top Twenty even if he can win another title. Jurgen Melzer hasn’t been waiting as long — his last title came at Vienna 2014, less than six months ago — but it feels as if it’s time for him to really commit to doubles and see if he can make it as a doubles specialist rather than trying to win in both singles and doubles.

 

Madrid

 

Singles – First Round: S Bolelli def. (15) K Anderson 6-4 6-3

Not a huge surprise, given how well Simone Bolelli has been playing and how little Kevin Anderson likes clay, but it’s going to mean no Top Fifteen spot for Anderson. If he doesn’t get one of the Top 16 Roland Garros seeds, this match will be the one for him to remember.

 

Singles – First Round: J Monaco def. (WC) N Almagro 6-3 6-2

Nicolas Almagro has ground down several of his opponents in his comeback based just on his clay stubbornness, but that obviously wasn’t going to work against Juan Monaco. Almagro remains far below #100.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STATS AND FACTS

 

RANKINGS

 

Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings

As of May 3, 2015

 

 

Rank &

Prior…Player………..Points

1..(1) Djokovic……….13845

2..(2) Federer…………8635

3..(3) Murray………….6120

4..(4) Nadal…………..5390

5..(5) Nishikori……….5280

6..(6) Raonic………….5070

7..(7) Berdych…………4960

8..(8) Ferrer………….4490

9..(9) Wawrinka………..3495

10.(10) Cilic…………..3405

11.(11) Dimitrov………..2985

12.(12) Lopez…………..2380

13.(13) Simon…………..2255

14.(14) Tsonga………….2045

15.(15) Monfils…………2020

16.(16) Bautista Agut……1985

17.(17) Anderson………..1960

18.(18) Isner…………..1765

18.(19) Robredo…………1765

20.(20) Gulbis………….1730

21.(21) Goffin………….1705

22.(23) Cuevas………….1547

23.(28) Gasquet…………1535

24.(26) Kohlschreiber……1500

25.(22) Karlovic………..1470

26.(27) Tomic…………..1390

27.(25) Mayer…………..1352

28.(31) Garcia-Lopez…….1325

29.(30) Mannarino……….1258

30.(24) Klizan………….1190

 

DRAWS

 

Munich — Week of April 27

 

WINNER:

……………..QF………………SF……………F

1 Murray………(1)Murray………..Murray………..Murray

9 Rosol……….(9)Rosol

3 Bautista Agut..(3)Bautista Agut….Bautista Agut

6 Tomic……….Estrella Burgos

 

5 Kohlschreiber..(5)Kohlschreiber….Kohlschreiber….Kohlschreiber

4 Goffin………(4)Goffin

8 Fognini……..Thiem

2 Monfils……..G.Melzer(Q)………Melzer

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Murray……….

2 Monfils………WITHDREW

3 Bautista Agut…lost SF (Murray)

4 Goffin……….lost QF (Kohlschreiber)

5 Kohlschreiber…

6 Tomic………..lost 1R (Tipsarevic)

7 Klizan……….WITHDREW

8 Fognini………lost 2R (Thiem)

9 Rosol………..lost QF (Murray)

 

Estoril — Week of April 27

 

WINNER: Richard Gasquet

………………….QF…………..SF………….F

1 Lopez……………Haase

7 Kyrgios………….(7)Kyrgios……Kyrgios……..Kyrgios

[(LL)Vega Hernandez]..Carreno Busta…Carreno Busta

8 Muller…………..(8)Muller

 

5 Gasquet………….(5)Gasquet……Gasquet……..Gasquet

4 L Mayer………….Almagro

6 Chardy…………..Coric

2 Anderson…………Garcia-Lopez….Garcia-Lopez

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Lopez…….lost 2R (Haase)

2 Anderson….lost 2R (Garcia-Lopez)

3 Robredo…..WITHDREW (replaced by Vega Hernandez)

4 L Mayer…..lost 2R (Almagro)

5 Gasquet…..WON TOURNAMENT

6 Chardy……lost 1R (Chardy)

7 Kyrgios…..lost F (Gasquet)

8 Muller……lost QF (Carreno Busta)

 

Istanbul — Week of April 27

 

WINNER: Roger Federer

…………….QF……………SF………..F

1 Federer…….(1)Federer…….Federer……Federer

6 Kukushkin…..Gimeno-Traver

4 Giraldo…….(4)Giraldo

8 Schwartzman…(8)Schwartzman…Schwartzman

 

7 Youzhny…….Bellucci

3 Cuevas……..(3)Cuevas……..Cuevas…….Cuevas

5 Haider-Maurer.Dodig

2 Dimitrov……(2)Dimitrov……Dimitrov

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Federer…………WON TOURNAMENT

2 Dimitrov………..lost SF (Cuevas)

3 Cuevas………….lost F (Federer)

4 Giraldo…………lost QF (Schwartzman)

5 Haider-Maurer……lost 1R (Dodig)

6 Kukushkin……….lost 2R (Gimeno-Traver)

7 Youzhny…………lost 1R (Bellucci)

8 Schwartzman……..lost SF (Federer)

 

Madrid — Week of May 4

 

 

1 Federer

–bye

Gimeno-Traver (Q)

Kyrgios

Chardy

Bellucci (Q)

Mannarino

16 Isner

 

12 Tsonga

Rosol

Andujar (WC)

Sock

Karlovic

Gasquet

–bye

6 Berdych

 

3 Nadal

–bye

A Gonzalez (Q)

Johnson

Tomic

Vanni (Q)

Bolelli

15 Anderson

 

10 Dimitrov

Young

Fognini

Giraldo

Janowicz

Sousa (LL)

–bye

8 Wawrinka

 

7 Ferrer

–bye

Cuevas

Ramos-Vinolas (Q)

Verdasco

Garcia-Lopez

Vesely

9 Cilic

 

14 Bautista Agut

Copil (WC)

Querrey

Kokkinakis (Q)

Gulbis

Goffin

–bye

4 Nishikori

 

5 Raonic

–bye

Monaco

Almagro (WC)

L Mayer

Muller

Becker

11 Lopez

 

13 Monfils

Troicki

Klizan

Granollers (WC)

Falla (Q)

Kohlschreiber

–bye

2 Murray

 

 

SCORES

 

SUNDAY

 

MUNICH

No matches completed — rain

 

ESTORIL

Singles – Final

(5) R Gasquet def. (7) N Kyrgios 6-3 6-2

Doubles – Final

(2) Huey/Lipsky def. (1) M Lopez/Marrero 6-1 6-4

 

ISTANBUL

Singles – Final

(1) R Federer def. (3) P Cuevas 6-3 7-6(13-11)

Doubles – Final

Albot/Lajovic def. (1) Lindstedt/Melzer 6-4 7-6(7-2)

 

MADRID

Singles – First Round

S Bolelli def. (15) K Anderson 6-4 6-3

J Monaco def. (WC) N Almagro 6-3 6-2

 

CONTENT VIA BOB LARSON TENNIS NEWS SERVICE.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, BMW Open, Clay tennis, Estoril Open, Federer, Istanbul Open, Munich, Mutua Madrid Open, Nick Kyrgios, Rf, Richard Gasquet

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