Game, Set, Match News
This clearly wasn't a case of Alize Cornet not caring. At 2-5 down in the first set, she was sobbing as she talked to her coach. But what could either of them do? Cornet can't hope to out-hit Venus Williams; all she could do was try to get balls back.
If you look only at the match stats, the wonder is that this was so close. Pablo Andujar should have won this walking away. How often do you get fourteen break point chances against Rafael Nadal on clay?
Click here to see the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships results and more.
It looks as if Edouard Roger-Vasselin will gain a ranking spot or two, but he remains in the #35 vicinity. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will stay at #10 -- after all, he has champion's points to defend.
Click here to see the results and order of play from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Rafael Nadal boosts his lead in the contest for #1. And, perhaps more importantly in practical terms, he stays healthy.
It's interesting to realize that Serena Williams can't add any points here -- her results are so strong that a mere Premier title doesn't count for her! She drops Jelena Jankovic to #8 -- meaning that Simona Halep, despite her injury, will be hitting a new high of #7.
Is Agnieszka Radwanska already running out of gas this year? She made the Australian Open semifinal, and also the semifinal at Doha -- but she was seeded for the final, and here she is out again, half a week later. She'll stay #3, but she loses the chance to open a significant lead on Victoria Azarenka...
A depressing result so soon after Karlovic made the Memphis final. Any additional points will count for Kevin Anderson.
A quartet of current and former No. 1 players made winning starts, with top-ranked wild card Serena Williams leading the way. The winner of 11 title in 2013 who has never done better than the semi-finals in the Gulf, defeated Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 (10-8), 6-0 in a hard-fought second-round battle at the Aviation Club after a bye.
Top seed Tommy Haas continued to break barriers at age 35, advancing in his opening match over Wayne Odesnik in well under an hour. "With injuries, I lost probably three or four years of my career," said the 12th-ranked Haas.
Third Paula Ormaechea of Argentina made a winning start at the new event as she defeated American Nicole Gibbs 6-2, 6-1. But Italy's Nastassja Burnett upset sixth seed Maria Teresa Torro of Spain 7-5, 6-4 at the relatively weak event on a week in which many top women prefer playing in Dubai halfway around the world.
Spanish sixth seed Feliciano Lopez rallied past dis-heartened American Sam Querrey 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to hand the Californian his fifth consecutive defeat of the season. One-time US No. 1 Querrey, his ranking sinking like a stone and now down to 57th, has not been able to produce much game after the heartbreak of an engagement gone wrong in 2013 and its subsequent effects on his tennis.
Lucie Safarova produced 31 winners and broke serve five times in a defeat of former Australian open semi-finalist Sloane Stephens 6-3, 7-5, the second first-round loss in as many week for the American.
Click here to view the latest WTA results, order of play, and more from Dubai.
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