There Was Tennis Played Last Week...

by Savannah

Despite all the drama surrounding Marin Cilic's undisclosed positive drug test and three month suspension (It should be noted that baseball player Alex Rodriguez was reportedly offered a deal by Major League Baseball to sit out 2013 and 2014 and return in 2015 instead of being banned for life) and Viktor Troicki's attempts to drag everyone into the mess he created there was actual tennis played during the week. The US Open Series got underway with the ATP in Atlanta and the WTA in Stanford while the Europeans played in Gstaad, Umag and Baku (If they weren't busy withdrawing from parts of the US Open Series).


via sportsillustrated.cnn.com


The biggest, and maybe the most exciting win of the day saw Dominika Cibulkova avenge her loss to Agniezska Radwanska earlier this year in Sydney by pulling off a three set win in Stanford. No one expected her to win. Aga, who will make you crazy when she is on, was outplayed and visibly frustrated by the end of the match because Dominika simply would not go away. Not only was the woman some call "Queen Vulture" outplayed she was worn out. Dominika beat her at her own game. Wherever Aga hit the ball Dominika was there. Dominika also did what Jamie Hampton couldn't the day before and stopped herself from rushing her play.It was a long and exciting match. Exciting because Dominika, who as one wag on Twitter said, is about an inch tall, shouldn't have won. But she did.



How do you define dull? Here's my opinion. Put two very tall men who have very little game outside of their serve on a hard court and let them go at it. If you see Kevin Anderson is going to play John Isner during the US Open Series or the US Open set yourself a reminder to tidy up your sock drawer. Or do the laundry. Or take a nice long soak. Or take a walk. I guarantee you whether it's a best of three or best of five there will be at least three tiebreak sets involved. Look at it this way. You can dust, vacuum or cook dinner and come back and see the end of the match. I really don't like serve only tennis. Apparently a lot of people agreed with me on Tennis Twitter today. I didn't like it when I saw Andy Roddick do it against Fabrice Santoro at the US Open a few years back and I didn't like it sitting in my living room watching one of the most boring matches I've ever seen in my life. It was right up there with the infamous Gilles Simon vs Gaël Monfils match that still makes people groan in agony while trying to claw their eyes out. Someone had to win and Isner managed to do so.


via wtatennis.com

Congratulations to Elina Svitolina on winning her first WTA title. It's a shame no one saw her do it. I tend to wake up early and I put on a stream of Baku just to see some of the players I rarely if ever see play.I think I was one of the ten people world wide who did so. It's not even funny to snark about the WTA playing to empty stadiums in Asia anymore. There were literally no more than 50 people in the stadium during the two matches I watched and I'm including the tournament staff. I felt sorry for the players. They come out and do their best but how hard must it be to play in an empty stadium where the only cheers are from your family and staff? It's incomprehensible to me that the WTA is going to stage its YEC in China when the same situation that existed in Baku exists there. Unless they're going to pay for a lot of seat warmers the top women in the world will play before the same number of people that showed up in Baku. Sad.


in.sports.yahoo.com

I guess it's true that 30 is the new 20. It's also true that all good things must come to an end. Tommy Robredo, whom many thought would be out of the game by now due to the severity of the injury that kept him out most of last year, won the tournament in Umag. He defeated Fabio Fognini who had won back to back tournaments in Germany and was trying to win his third straight. Fognini ran right into the wall that he managed to dodge last week after getting a tough win over Gaël Monfils the day before. Robredo has Fognini's number and with nothing left in the tank Fognini saw his streak come to an end. Robredo was tired as well but he had more left than Fabio.


via au.eurosport.com

Mikhail Youzhny won the tournament in Gstaad over Robin Haase of the Netherlands becoming the first Russian to ever win the event. He said the following during his winners speech at Gstaad:

"First and foremost I would like to thank Federer for coming here and for losing in the first round."

It was a joke. Oh. Ha!

Miscellany

Maria Sharapova has pulled out of The Rogers Cup in Toronto because of a hip injury she sustained in Wimbledon. Uh huh.

There are rumors floating around that Rafael Nadal will not play in Cincinnati where he's never done well.

Ryan Harrison showed what a great guy he is during his match against John Isner. Isner wanted a ball back so he could use it for his next serve. Harrison threw the ball into the stands. Stay classy Ryan. You'll never be half the man Andy Roddick still is.

Andy Murray, or whoever runs his Twitter account, said that Baku should become a joint event. I think whoever typed those 140 characters wasn't using joint to mean an ATP/WTA event.

Why They Play

by Savannah


Until yesterday Nicolas Mahut of France was known for a long assed never should've been allowed to go that long match. Then there was the match where the Bryan Twins picked on him throughout the match and Mahut was in tears feeling that any chance he had of ever winning a title was gone.

If there were any tears Saturday they were tears of joy as Mahut, at 31, won his first ever main tour title. Look at the expression on his face. There is nothing there but joy and excitement. I think tennisheads all around the world exulted with him.

It's going to be fun hearing the US announcers who probably don't know that there were tournaments last week try and call him a "journeyman" and laugh about that long assed match until TennisTwitter pulls them up short.



Simona Halep of Romania has quietly won back to back tournaments, one on (real) clay and one on grass. For a certain segment of tennis fandom she will always be the girl who got a breast reduction and objectified. For the serious fan it's time to sit up and take notice of her. She's not the Romanian player everyone talks about but she's the one who hoisted trophies in the last few weeks while her countrywoman wasn't. I have nothing against her countrywoman but it's funny how the ones everyone goes nuts over aren't the ones who've hoisted trophies of late.


There are beautiful Russian women. Maria Kirilenko is one. The woman pictured above, Elena Vesnina, is another. They get pushed aside in US coverage of the women from Russia who play tennis because of course there can be only one.

I'm guilty of never taking Vesnina seriously though. I thought of her as more of a doubles player not as a singles player and never paid attention to her game. I got to see just how well she can play yesterday at Eastbourne where she faced American Jamie Hampton in the final. I'm hoping by the end of the summer that I'll have more to write about Jamie. Yesterday was Elena's day to shine though and shine she did. A strong wind blew throughout the match and while it seemed to bother her opponent it didn't bother Elena. She stayed focused and played according to her gameplan and in the end she got to pose with the trophy after winning her second main tour title.


The joy on Nicolas Mahut's face is nothing compared to the joy on Feliciano Lopez's face when he won the men's title at Eastbourne. It's been a long time between titles for a man considered to be among the best looking in tennis. It wasn't his looks that got him that win in the chilly wind of Eastbourne. It was literally, to use a cliché a matter of him holding his nerve and his serve and staying focused when the going got tough. He was so excited he went out and snatched the trophy from the presenters hands and was gently told that that's not how it's done.

The common denominator for all of the above players is their joy. These are not the players who make headlines around the world when they play a Final. The casual fan will only know them as random names on a draw playing against their better known peers.

There are times during the year when I ask myself how hard it must be to play year round and not even come close to a title. In a week where the big boys and girls are off playing in exhibitions players like Mahut, Vesnina, Halep and Lopez played for the average fan. They did it for love of the game, the excitement of competition, and for the chance to be the one glowing and kissing the trophy.

Congratulations to them all.