Weekend Tennis Roundup

Nick Kyrgios claimed his maiden ATP title on home soil and first since 2016, combining casual flair with enormous power to beat Ryan Harrison (6-4, 6-2) at the Brisbane International.

While the 22-year-old Aussie won the match, it was the viewers who were the big winners, watching the ever-beefy Harrison's pecs and ass in a clingy blue shirt and white shorts combo.

On the women's side, Elina Svitolina secured her first WTA title in Australia with a straight-sets victory over Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1. It was the Ukrainian pusher's 10th title.

Gael Monfils was in clinical form to claim the Qatar Open title in Doha with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over up-and-coming Russian Andrey Rublev. The Frenchman, who was appearing in a fourth final at the tournament, needed just 61 minutes to secure his seventh ATP World Tour title. 

(Dominic Thiem pulled out before his semifinal against Monfils, which I'm sure was cooties-related.)

Julia Goerges carried her strong end-of-year form into the New Year when she beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Sunday in the final of the WTA Tour's ASB Classic, a day after Wozniacki rose to the No. 2 ranking. (God help us -- Simona Halep and Wozniacki are No. 1 and 2 in the world! Doesn't Caroline HAVE ENOUGH?) Georges won her last two tournaments of 2017 and extended her winning streak to 14 matches when she claimed the Auckland singles title for the first time at her ninth attempt, and after two previous appearances in the final.

And speaking of the "top-ranked" player in the world, Halep won her first title of 2018 on Saturday, coming through a delayed three-set final against Katerina Siniakova to win the Shenzhen Open 6-1, 2-6, 6-0. The final was moved indoors after repeated rain delays and began six hours after its scheduled start time, but Halep rose to the occasion to increase her title count as No. 1 to two whole championships! 

Andy Murray underwent hip surgery and will be out until June..

Damian and I have been dying over Luke Kempner's Murray impression, although Josh Berry's Nadal-Federer-Murray-Djokovic fourfer might be even better!

I found this interesting.

Quote of the Day: "Yeah, I think Lacoste burned all its money on Djokovic. And he didn't play the whole year, so good investment! Congrats, guys!" -- Alize Cornet on changing clothing sponsors. Defending champion Cornet lost in the first round of the Hobart International yesterday.