Francesca Schiavone wins Barcelona Open
Italian tennis player Francesca Schiavone has claimed the Barcelona Open title and commented that she enjoyed her match against Roberta Vinci.
It was the second time in two years that the two have faced each other in the competition, with Vinci beating Schiavone in the semi-finals in 2009.
Tennis enthusiasts staying at hotels in Barcelona may have attended the final at the weekend, which Schiavone won 6-1 6-1 and afterwards reflected that she it was good for her preparation for upcoming clay competitions in Stuttgart and Rome.
She was quoted as saying: "I played at a very high level and I was having fun playing. Roberta had some problems with her ankle so it wasn't easy for her. It just wasn't her day.
Schiavone had to beat fellow Italians Alberta Brianti and Tathiana Garbin to get to the finals, finishing the competition without dropping a single set, in a performance that will have impressed travellers in attendance who came to see her play from their hoteles en Barcelona.
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Azarenka out of Andalucia Open with injury
MARBELLA, Spain - Top seed Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the Andalucia Open at the quarter-final stage with a thigh muscle injury on Friday.
The Belarussian was 4-0 up in the first set against Spain's Maria Jose Martinez when she pulled up in pain. She had treatment courtside but was unable to continue.
Fifth seed Martinez progressed to Saturday's semi-finals where she will meet another Spaniard Carla Suarez, who beat Germany's Tatjana Malek 4-6 6-1 6-2.
Italian second seed Flavia Pennetta saw off Romania's Simona Halep 6-4 7-6 and will next face compatriot Sara Errani, who beat Beatriz Garcia 6-7 6-4 6-3.
(c) Thomson Reuters 2010
Roddick Upsets Nadal To Reach Miami Final
Andy Roddick came storming back from a set down to beat Rafael Nadal and reach the final of the Sony Ericsson Open.
American Roddick was struggling to stay with Nadal from the baseline at the outset but turned the match around with some attacking play to win 4-6 6-3 6-3.
Nadal's wait for a first title since last May goes on, but the Spaniard will overtake Britain's Andy Murray to go third in the rankings on Monday.
Fifth seed Robin Soderling faces Tomas Berdych in the second semi in Miami.
Nadal went into Friday's semi-final with a 5-2 record against Roddick, including victories in their last three meetings, but with both men on their way back to top form it was an eagerly-anticipated clash.
The Spaniard last lifted a trophy at the Rome Masters in May 2009, after which he suffered two spells on the sidelines with knee problems.
Roddick, the 2004 champion in Miami, has been steadily working his way back into the form that made him world number one in 2003 and he found that level of play when he needed it on Friday.
It was Nadal who made the better start with an early break in game three, and he kept his opponent quiet by dictating play from the baseline on his way to sealing the first set.
Roddick, who reached the final last time out at the Indian Wells Masters 1000, was a subdued figure until a brilliant eighth game in the second set.
A blistering forehand winner saw the American break to love for 5-3 and moments later he took the set with his 11th point in a row, bringing to life a crowd that was sweltering in the Florida heat.
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Berdych Ready To Make His Mark
When Tomas Berdych was little, his mother told him to not study medicine. She didn't want him to toil over books and cadavers for so long like she did.
"She told me just try to be a tennis player, to be a professional, and not like me - studying for 20 years to be a doctor. It was mean in a good and nice way," said Berdych, who won his third round match on Saturday afternoon at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne over the Netherlands' Thiemo De Bakker in straight sets.
"She told me I could do what I wanted and loved."
So he chose the life of a tennis player.
At 24, the 6-foot-5 Czechoslovakian- who looks more like a model with his baby blue eyes and dirty blonde hair - is trying to make a dent in his profession.
He's known for upsetting Roger Federer in 2004 at the Summer Olympics, and then-no.2 Rafael Nadal in 2005 and '06. Those wins aren't enough for the no.20 player who was once ranked as high as no.9 on the ATP tour.
"That match against Federer really happened when I was coming on the tour. I was really young, and it was one of my first tournaments. To get to the top I have to beat those guys consistently, and I haven't been."
It's something he's working on. If he advances past Argentine Hector Zaballos early next week, he could have another crack at top seed Federer. The two are in the top half of the main draw.
"If you're going to play well, you're going to play really consistent and everything comes together," said Berdych. "You can win the title, you're going to be confident, and you're going to climb higher in the rankings."
Plenty of notables played on Saturday, with American Mardy Fish's upset win over Andy Murray the biggest news of the day. After getting behind 3-1 to the no.3 Murray, Fish came back to win the set, and break serve in the first game of the second to win 6-4, 6-4.
Venus Williams continued her quest for a fourth Miami title when she defeated Italian Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-4, and top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced after beating Hungarian Agnes Szavay.
Former no.1 Ana Ivanovic failed to advance after losing to sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Sunday's order of play includes appearances by Kim Clijsters, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Jelena Jankovic, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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Roddick trying to bring it all home
INDIAN WELLS -- Just as the Northern Iowa kids were popping their jerseys, the desert braced for another possible miracle of the spring.
It's very possible an American actually will win an elite tennis tournament on American ground.
Andy Roddick, the 27-year-old pack mule who has shouldered U.S. tennis for too many years now, dusted off Robin Soderling in Saturday's BNP Paribas Open semifinals and now only has to defeat 28th-ranked Ivan Ljubicic on Sunday to win his first Masters event since 2006.
The Masters series encompasses nine events, and eight of them are mandatory for tour players. Roger Federer was here but lost Tuesday night, and Rafael Nadal dropped his semifinal match to Ljubicic in a third-set tiebreaker Saturday, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1).
That left eighth-ranked Roddick to beat seventh-seeded Soderling, who slugged his way to the French Open finals last year. Roddick's edges were a little too polished for Soderling in this 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory.
Asked what the turning point was, Soderling smiled and said, "I'm still waiting for it."
He did break Roddick's serve three times, which no one had done here previously, but Roddick broke Soderling four times and showed a more sophisticated all-around game than he's suspected of having.
"Obviously the finesse game has been the last thing to come through in my career," Roddick said. "I've returned well this week. I've only been in one tiebreaker, which is rare for me. That could be a good thing or a very bad thing."
There are many perks to winning, including 1,000 ranking points, and Roddick has won every significant U.S. event except this one.
This would be his fifth Masters championship. He is best known, of course, for winning the 2003 U.S. Open but also finishing second three times at Wimbledon and once at the Open, all at the hands of Federer. Only Roddick and Federer have been ranked in the top 10 every year since 2002.
That Open victory by Roddick has not been duplicated by any American man since.
He is finally getting a little help from his countrymen. John Isner, dispenser of thunderbolt serves at 6-foot-9, pushed Nadal hard in a three-set loss here. Isner is ranked 20th, Sam Querrey 22nd.
That's it for Americans in the top 25, but Spain is the only country with more.
And, being an American male, Roddick had filled an NCAA Tournament bracket earlier in the week. For recreational purposes, of course.
"Horrible," he said. "It blew up while I was on court this afternoon."
He was referring specifically to Northern Iowa's elimination of Kansas, featuring a late 3-pointer by Ali Farokhmanesh when the Panthers had a chance to eat up some clock.
"The guy that drilled the three when he should have dribbled out the clock?" Roddick asked. "That was cold-hearted. I saw the replay there and I could not believe it.
"That's one of those where the coach says no, no, no, no....yes. I've said that a lot of times on the court. You know, the second serve where you go for a little bit more than you should have, and get away with it. But that's probably happened a little more than (it has to) the Northern Iowa basketball program. That was a terrible play, up until the ball went through the hole."
Ljubicic beating Roddick wouldn't be as shocking at Ohio beating Georgetown.
The Bosnian, who now represents Croatia, blew out Nadal, 7-1, in the tiebreaker to finish the 156-minute match.
He was ranked third in the world in 2006 but then played too many matches the next year and suffered kidney stones. He turned 31 on Friday and can become the first 30-plus winner of a Masters event since Andre Agassi won Cincinnati in 2004, at 34.
Ljubicic's family moved to Croatia during the war in Bosnia and he eventually migrated to Italy, where he took up tennis. He also is a feared server who has 15 more aces than Roddick in five matches here.
He went 3-0 for Croatia in a first-round Davis Cup victory over the U.S. at Home Depot Center, and then Croatia went on to win the whole thing.
"It's great to play out here, because the courts are slow and there's a very high bounce," Ljubicic said, "and the air is dry so the ball is not going through the air so quickly. I can use my first serve. If I had to play the match of my career, it would be somewhere around here."
Ljubicic said this victory was "probably the best I ever played in my career." Beating Roddick would bring him his first Masters championship.
So there's plenty of incentive for Ljubicic and no distractions for Roddick, particularly from those other bouncing balls.
(c)Copyright 2009 Orange County Register Communications
BNP Paribas Open notes for Monday, March 15
HIT FOR HAITI FLAP: Roger Federer joked that he should have used his newly-acquired parenting skills to step in during the awkward spat between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras at Friday's Hit for Haiti benefit exhibition.
"I tried to help with the situation," he joked, "and now being a father, I thought maybe we have to give both guys like a timeout or something."
Federer said it was an enjoyable event, but he acknowledged the moment was heated. The exchange between the American rivals made news during a sports weekend saturated with college basketball coverage.
"It's a pity if that's what grabs the limelight and not the event itself, you know," Federer said, "because for me it was a dream to play with Pete."
Federer said he couldn't even talk to Sampras after the exchange because the players were wearing wireless microphones.
"We have the microphones on, so you're sitting there," Federer said, "and you're thinking, 'What now?' I can't say. I wish we wouldn't play with the microphones, to be quite honest."
But in the end, Agassi and Sampras calmed down, and Federer didn't have to result to parental punishment.
"They weren't that bad," he joked, "so it was OK."
BRING ON THE PROTESTERS: Controversy just follows Shahar Peer. Despite all the off-court controversy, she has played well.
In January in Auckland, Peer was given extra security after protesters urged her to withdraw from the tournament over the invasion of the Gaza Strip by her country, Israel.
Then last month, Peer finally played in Dubai a year after she was denied a visa to play in the Middle Eastern tournament.
"They have a joke already in Israel that because I played so good in Auckland ... also in Dubai, they need to send maybe a few more people to protest against me and maybe a lot of security, and that's how I do well," Peer said.
In Dubai, Peer had around-the-clock security. She had her own hotel where half of her floor was closed. All her matches were on court No. 1 and she had her own locker.
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Tennis serves up its March madness
Tennis' version of March Madness begins this week in Indian Wells, Calif.
The BNP Paribas Open is the first of two back-to-back high-powered tennis events that will draw a combined 600,000-plus fans, this week in California and March 23-April 4 in Key Biscayne, Fla., for the Sony Ericsson Open. That's more fans than the NCAA will draw for its March Madness.
Last year in Indian Wells 332,498 people attended the 12-day tournament.
The attendance figure that's even more compelling to tennis fans, however, is the number of the world's top-ranked players on the entry list. Since the tournaments are Masters 1,000 (ATP) and Premier (WTA) - and basically mandatory - most everybody will be there.
-Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, unseen since the Australian Open, make their returns. Federer already is on the courts in California after recovering from a lung infection that forced him to withdraw from Dubai. Defending champion Nadal will be in his first event since a knee injury - he was trailing Andy Murray 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 3-0 when he retired - forced him out in Melbourne. Missing will be No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, who is out because of a right wrist injury; No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez, who went home to Chile to help following the devastating earthquake; and No. 18 Tommy Haas, who is out after hip surgery.
-Missing on the women's side will be Serena and Venus Williams, who have not returned to Indian Wells since 2001, when Venus defaulted to Serena in the semifinals. The sisters said the negative crowd reaction that followed was racially tinged. Also missing is No. 2 Dinara Safina, who withdrew because of a nagging back injury. The absence of the Williams sisters means that Melanie Oudin, at No. 41, is the top-ranked American.
The larger issue with respect Indian Wells and Miami is the impact the two events have on American tennis. The high-profile events - on both coasts - serve as an exclamation point for the winter-spring hardcourt season in the USA. The tours head to Europe in April - except for a couple of WTA clay events and one ATP clay-court event in the USA - and don't come back until the summer hardcourt series that builds toward the U.S. Open.
Franklin Johnson, the former president of the United States Tennis Association, told Leighton Ginn of The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun that these major events are crucial to the growth of the game.
"I think it's hard to know what drives people to play tennis, but I always believed that professional tennis turns people on to playing the game," said Johnson, who is on the board of directors for the International Tennis Federation which governs the four majors and the Davis Cup. "It seems like a lot of people get turned on what there is a major event and play more."
Further, Indian Wells and Miami play a big role in the development of American tennis.
"For the health of the sport of tennis in this nation, it's very important to have rising American tennis stars," Bill Kellogg, president of the Southern California Tennis Association, told The Desert Sun. "By having major tournaments in the United States, it really helps us keep the American tennis players on the scene. It enables them to obtain points without going overseas."
It also, frankly speaking, makes for a pretty good time: Beautiful resort, fabulous weather, the top players in the world. What's not to like?
Return of the Belgians
It's bad news for the women's field in Indian Wells that Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have returned, as the two Belgians dominated the tournament from 2003-05.
Clijsters has had a charmed career at Indian Wells, first making the final in 2001 as a 17-year-old. She lost to Serena Williams in the last match Williams would play in Indian Wells.
Clijsters won the title the 2003 and '05.
Her victory in 2005 was a precursor to her U.S. Open win that year: She had missed most of 2004 with a left wrist injury, came into Indian Wells ranked No. 133 and needing a wild card. It was the last time Clijsters played at Indian Wells. In fact, Clijsters has won the last 14 matches she played at Indian Wells. (Clijsters withdrew from her third-round match in 2004 because of a wrist injury). Clijsters' last loss was in 2002, a first-round defeat to Natalie Dechy.
If Henin, who retired suddenly before the 2008 French Open, is to win the Indian Wells title, she will have to go the same route as Clijsters since she will not be among the top 32 seeds. As of March 1, Henin had no ranking because she has only played two tournaments during her comeback.
This will be Henin's first time back at Indian Wells since 2006.
The Belgians won't have Lindsay Davenport to kick around. She played in all three finals from 2003-05.
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