Monday, April 10, 2017

Weekend Tennis Roundup


Belgium became the last team to reach the semifinals of the 2017 Davis Cup on Sunday, beating Italy thanks to David Goffin's win over Paolo Lorenzi in the fourth rubber. France and Serbia already claimed their semifinal tickets on Saturday, and Australia followed suit a little later, as Nick Kyrgios completed a comeback win over Sam Querrey. Meanwhile over at the kids' table ...


The Irish squad secured promotion to the Davis Cup with a 2-1 win over Dimitrov-less hosts Bulgaria in the final play-off promotional match of the BNP Paribas Group II ...


We all know what James McGee is made of ...

but it looks like the spectators were the real winners with all of these strapping young men running around.


South of the border: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova claimed her fourth WTA Monterrey Open title on Sunday, defeating world No 1 Angelique Kerber. 


Interesting when a player completely dominates a certain event. Reminded me of Tracy Austin's tear at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she had won four sports cars -- and plenty of cash -- by the time she was 18. (Her 1982 loss in her fifth final there portended the end of her career.)


And in Charleston -- which I grew up knowing as the Family Circle Cup with James Taylor's "Carolina on My Mind" playing at the beginning of each telecast back when it was held on Hilton Head Island, S.C. -- 19-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina beat fellow teen Jalena Ostapenko to win her first WTA event at the Volvo Car Open. It was the first final between two teens on the WTA tour in eight years, something that was extremely common back when tennis was my life. (In 1981 alone, Tracy beat teens Andrea Jaeger twice, Pam Shriver and Mary-Lou Piatek to capture titles.)

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