Weekend Tennis Roundup

There were no major men's events this week —just more Davis Cup qualies — so it became the perfect time for four diminished standouts in the women's game to reclaim the spotlight. In the end it was Madison Keys and Garbine Muguruza who were victorious. 

The USTA reports that Madison Keys claimed the first clay-court title of her career Sunday, winning the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, S.C. Keys defeated No. 5 seed Caroline Wozniacki, 7-6, 6-3, in the championship match to cap off a fine week on the green clay, her last tournament in the U.S. before the European red clay-court season begins. It was the American's first title in 18 months and her first final since recovering from knee and wrist injuries. It was also her first win over the Great Dane -- whose run to the final was her best performance in quite some time, too -- and first win over Sloane Stephens (in the quarterfinals). 

Despite the loss, I think we can all agree Caroline went home with the biggest trophy ...

Meanwhile in Monterrey, Mexico, No. 2 seed Garbine Muguruza successfully defended her title at the Abierto GNP Seguros. While it was good for her to finally be on the winning side of things, that she was only defending points almost made Victoria Azarenka runner-up status the more noteworthy result. Unfortunately, no sooner did the Belarusian finally find her form -- knocking out Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Angie Kerber along the way -- she got injured in the final and had to retire, trailing 6-1, 3-1. Here's hoping she's able to rebound and build on this long-sought success. (Did I mention no one cared that she didn't have protected ranking when she returned from childbirth?) 

So I said the women dominated the headlines on court. But that's not to say the men weren't the big winners off ... where they put their best, um, features forward in preparation for the clay season.

Grigor Dimitrov wanted to pump up his legs in time ... 

for his hot date with Kyle Edmund ...

And in the most subtle use of the word since Christina Aguilera, Borna Coric captioned this one: "Time to get dirty" ...