Game, Set, Match News
This was not exactly a thrilling final (other than the odd moment when Marin Cilic managed to get a point replayed because the ball had been damaged). Tomas Berdych was never broken -- indeed, never faced a break point after his first service game -- and he converted three of four break points against Cilic. He won almost 60% of the points.
Simona Halep found a peculiar way to win this title: She picked on Angelique Kerber's first serve. Kerber won only 52% of points on first serve -- slightly below her percentage on second serves. But, hey, whatever works; Halep broke four times, and was never broken.
After all the upsets we'd had to this point, this seems almost unnatural. A seed winning? What is the world coming to? What Tomas Berdych is coming to, or at least coming close to, is the #6 ranking. Win the title and it's his; indeed, he will be just bare points behind Juan Martin del Potro in the contest for #5. Ernests Gulbis will be #23 or #24.
Talk about brutal -- Agnieszka Radwanska was broken seven times. In the short term, surprisingly, it doesn't make much difference. Radwanska had already earned the #3 ranking, and that was as high as she could go. But she loses her chance to reach #2 next week. Simona Halep is still at #10, but she'll be #9 if she wins the title.
No surprise here, surely, and it won't be any surprise if Agnieszka Radwanska wins this event. Even if she doesn't, this win assures that she will rise to #3 (behind #1 Serena Williams and #2 Li Na); Victoria Azarenka, #2 coming in, will slip all the way to #4.
We're still on Rotterdam time, FYI. Richard Krajicek is a great tournament director ! FYI Happy Valentines Day. It was here in a blink and gone. Hope all the lovers out there had a great day. Geezer and Lovey were @ the wedding of the 1996 Wimbledon Champion and his dear always gorgeous Daphne Deckers...
Petra Cetkovska is a genuine upset artist, but she doesn't often beat Top Five players. Especially not players who are about to take the #2 ranking, and who had yet to lose a match this year! Did Li Na get nervous contemplating a career high?
Andy Murray had very complimentary words for his opponent here -- "I'm sure we will be seeing a lot more of him" -- but this looks depressingly like the way Murray played at the start of the year, before he really got on his feet. He won't make it back to the Top Five at that rate -- but at least he'll get the chance to do better.
Sorana Cirstea was hurting in Fed Cup. It was a bit of a surprise she did so well in the first round. But it appears it caught up to her. Which means she will stay below the Top 25.
Because Rotterdam is the largest and strongest of this week's events, we are planning our schedule around it. We will send each day's edition when we are satisfied with the Rotterdam material. This means that we will be covering the late matches from Buenos Aires and (especially) Memphis in the next day's edition.
Ana Ivanovic emerged as the only winning seed on the day as the No. 9 advanced into the second round when Daniela Hantuchova retired injured trailing 7-5, 1-0. A similar fate befell Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova as the tenth seed was unable to continue at 5-5 against Russian cancer survivor Alisa Kleybanova.
Top seed and winner of the last two editions David Ferrer looked unstoppable on South American clay as the Spaniard began his Argentine title defence by beating Maximo Gonzalez 7-6(7), 6-4 and running his Buenos Aires win streak to 11 matches.
Click here to view the Qatar Total Open results, order of play and more.
Third seed Tommy Robredo led a trio of Spaniard to opening win, with the veteran starting with a defeat of compatriot Pablo Carreno 6-4, 6-4. Pablo Andujar followed suit over Argentine 2013 quarter-finalist Federico Delbonis 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 while fifth seed Marcel Granollers won his first clay match of the season, beating Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
Venus Williams saved face for the American sisters after the Doha pullout of world No. 1 Serena, powering into the second round over Petra Martic 6-2, 6-2. The elder sibling next faces fellow former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, with the Czech making her first appearance since a first-round Australian Open loss following a recovery from a virus.
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