Yikes. By now all tennis fans have seen Alexander Zverev's violent outburst at the end of a doubles match Tuesday night in Acapulco. What I find even more disturbing -- when put the incident in context with allegations of domestic abuse leveled against him by by former girlfriend Olga Sharypova -- is how his carefully worded apology manages to devolve in the second paragraph, sounding a lot like an abusive boyfriend saying "sorry" to his girlfriend by explaining that he's only possessive and hits her because he "loves her so much." The ATP fined and booted him from the tournament, but still no word on its investigation into the Sharypova charges.
Very happy about Argentine cutie Diego Schwartzman winning tonight but I’m confused why Alexander Zverev just accepted the code-violation ruling and moved on. Isn’t he supposed to repeatedly call the umpire a “liar” and a “thief” and spend the rest of the match demanding an apology? He might be a father one day!!!!!
P.S. I wonder why THIS is still being dredged up ...
The ATP Finals somehow managed to lack drama yet be completely unpredictable, so I was surprised how uninterested I was in the results. Novak Djokovic looked unstoppable as he plowed through John Isner, Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic in straight sets to reach the semifinals, then destroyed Kevin Anderson to set up a rematch with Zverev in the final. The Swiss Miss was also impressive in beating Cilic and Isner in straight sets, then dismissing Roger Federer to reach the biggest final of his career.
But then after a competitive first set that saw Zverev breaking at 4-all and then serving it out, it was all Sascha, all the time, taking home the trophy 6-4, 6-3. Novak seemed a lot like he did in Paris, where he was just a little flat against and younger and more explosive player. The kid still occasionally rubs me the wrong way -- and it's not just sour grapes -- but his game can be incredible. Here's hoping this win -- and the addition of Ivan Lendl to his team -- will lead to some respectable results in the majors. Hard to see him hanging out in the top 5 with just one Grand Slam quarterfinal under his belt.
That was a really REALLY witty speech.๐ He's learnt well from Dadderer.๐ My favourite part was "My dad isn't going to stop crying till the end of the year" or something along those lines.๐ He is so cute. God, I love this guy.๐ Onwards and upwards, boy.https://t.co/0WpkJSrksR
Martin Klizan celebrated his easy win over Denis Istomin in the final of the Generali Open on Sunday by RIPPING HIS SHIRT OFF. It was only the second ever all-qualifier final on the ATP World Tour, with the Slovak dominating from the start against the helpless Uzbek, winning the title 6-2, 6-2.
(Klizan also beat top seed Dominic Thiem along the way.)
It was the 29-year-old's fourth title on clay.
Alexander Zverev’s second Citi Open title in a row is merely the latest sign that he is separating himself from the other up-and-coming youngsters in tennis, writes The Washington Post.
That doesn’t mean he is sure that guys such as Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal are worrying just yet.
“You’ve got to ask them. I don’t think Roger’s too concerned about it,” Zverev said with a smile. “He’s somewhere in Switzerland right now, enjoying ... his milk from his cow.” Zverev became the first man in nearly a decade to win consecutive titles at Washington’s hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open, overpowering Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-4 in the final Sunday.
The tournament's semifinals were noteworthy for their youth, which is increasingly rare in the 30-something world of men's tennis.
Washington was also noteworthy for featuring the first-ever pro meeting between the Zverev brothers. I was rooting for the big brother, natch!
Fabio Fognini and his idiotic hair upset top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday night in the Mifel Open final.
Fognini, the 31-year-old Italian ranked 15th in the world, won his first-ever hard-court event for his third victory of the year. (Didn't see the match but have to think the Argentine wasn't awake yet.)
Mihaela Buzarnescu carved out a ruthless 6-1, 6-0 victory over Greece’s Maria Sakkari in San Jose, for her first main-tour title. The tournament featured several bizarre results -- a resurgent Johanna Konta handed Serena her worst loss to date, only to lose to clay-court specialist Elise Mertens, and Venus lost to Maria Sakkari of Greece in straight sets.
And finally, the women's event in Washington was a bittersweet affair. I'm thrilled that Svetlana Kuznetsova -- a Hall of Fame sure thing -- is back in form under the tutelage of Argentine Guillermo Caรฑas, defeating Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 on Sunday for her second title in the nation’s capital. But at the same time it was heartbreaking to see the young(er) Croatian lose after playing so well, even holding four match points.
A gutted Donna Vekic shows dignity and class after a tough loss. ๐๐
"Tennis is not an easy sport, sometimes you win being match points down and sometimes you lose with match points up, but I love this sport and hopefully I can be in a few more finals and win some more titles." pic.twitter.com/NcMvm4sYc3
It was a mostly good day for me in Paris today. Dominic Thiem took out Alexander Zverev, who finally reached the second week of a major but did nothing to dispel the notion that he's not fit enough for best-of-five fortnights.
Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens each advanced, to set up a semifinals repeat of their U.S. Open finals. (Their beautiful smiles say it all -- there's NO REASON one of them can't win this!) Naturally I want Kerber to kill Halep and and for Muguruza to do the same to Sharapova.
Although he's finally showing progress, I wasn't thrilled that Novak Djokovic lost. (Nole may or may not have been injured, again.) Good for Marco Cecchinato for building on his win over David Goffin, then defeating the Serb former champion 6-3, 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 (13-11). Would love to see Schwartzman beat Nadal (won't happen) and will be happy either way with Del Potro and Cilic, although I'd probably prefer the Argentine because he's always a threat in big matches so might actually scare Rafa a bit.
It was a bit of a Sophie's choice situation during this men's doubles quarterfinal. In the end, hunky reigning Aussie Open champs Mate Paviฤ and Oliver Marach took out Colombian dreamboat Robert Farah and Juan Sebastiรกn Cabal. If only this had been shot by Men(dot)com.
A year after Alexander Zverev announced his arrival in the big time by crushing Novak Djokovic to win the Italian Open, the young German held his own but not his crown as Rafael Nadal used a rain delay to regain momentum Sunday, winning his eighth title on the Foro Italico's Campo Centrale, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes. If someone were to beat Rafa in Paris it would rank as one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Meanwhile, Simona Halep made a further mockery of the women's game, losing 6-0, 6-4 in the final to Elina Svitolina. Halep has just ONE title to her name -- and it's a rinky-dink 250! -- yet still retains the No. 1 ranking. Damian quickly reminded me of when the world was beside itself that Dinara Safina was No. 1 without winning a major -- only she had captured Rome and Madrid (both premier mandatory events) as well as a hardcourt title in Slovenia, and made the final in Melbourne and Paris as we;; as the semis at Wimbledon. (Her third-round loss at the U.S. Open was to Petra Kvitova!) I guess like many things in life, the bar has been moved so low that this now seems brilliant in retrospect. Perhaps the most noteworthy thing from the women's side is that Maria Sharapova finally had a pretty good tournament.
In the eye candy department: Robert Farah and Juan "Can Pass for Hot With a Hat On" Cabal claimed their first Masters 1000 title in Rome, with a 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 win over Pablo Carreno Busta and Joรฃo Sousa.
Petra Kvitova's other prize is Coach Jiri Vanek, right ...
You'd have to have ice in your veins not to be overjoyed for Petra Kvitova this weekend, who outlasted Kiki Bertens to win a record third title in Madrid. The two-time Wimbledon champ, who also won last week in Prague, outlasted her Dutch opponent 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 52 minutes to become the first woman to win the tournament three times. (She also won in 2011 and 2015.) It was just 17 months ago that Kvitova had a a life-threatening encounter in her Prague apartment -- and now she has won four titles in 2018 alone (St. Petersburg, Doha, Prague, Madrid), compiled a 30-6 win-loss record, as well as 7-1 versus Top 10 players and 12-2 versus Top 20. Could this finally be her year in Paris?
I was less excited about the men's results. Dominic Thiem was on fire, knocking Rafael Nadal out in straight sets in the quarters, only to lose to Alexander Zverev in similar fashion in the final. While you can't fault the Swiss Miss for winning another Masters 1000 title, would it have killed him to have beaten John Isner in Miami instead of my boyfriend in Madrid?
If looks could ...
Juan Martin del Potro -- who is suddenly No. 6 in the world -- brought his low-energy brand of tennis to the event, losing to sexy Serb Dusan Lajovic in a third-set tiebreak after being up 4-0 or something.
Novak Djokovic handled Kei Nishikori nicely, only to lose to Kyle Edmund in three (on clay!). Edmund surprised me by following up with an easy win over David Goffin before losing to Denis Shapovalov in three tight sets. Not sure if any of this means anything for Paris ... Nadal and best-of-five still seems unstoppable.
Would have been happy either way, but Joao Sousa ended up beating American Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 19 minutes to take the Estoril Open title. It was the 29-year-old Portuguese's third tour-level crown and first since 2015, when he prevailed in Valencia. Tiafoe had a great week upsetting Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets in the semis, having outlasted ugly American Tennys Sandgren in a third-set tiebreak in the first round -- aka my favorite result from the week.
Stefanos Tsitsipas followed up on his good results last week by upsetting top-seeded Kevin Anderson before eventually losing to Sousa in the semis.
Kyle Edmund ran out of gas against Sousa in the quarterfinals. But then teamed with countryman Cameron Norrie (as in they were both born in South Africa!) to win their first career doubles title -- the start of a rather handsome partnership!
I was a little disappointed with the results in Turkey. Taro Daniel claimed his first ATP World Tour title Sunday after defeating Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri in straight sets to win the Istanbul Open.
Daniel beat Jaziri 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to win the ATP World Tour 250-level clay-court tournament at Garanti Koza Arena and cap off the best week of his career. (The 25-year-old jumped 32 spots in the ATP rankings to a career-high No. 82 with the maiden victory.)
Nothing against Daniel -- whose story is kind of the male version of Naomi Osaka -- but it's kind of hard to root against a body like Jaziri's. (He became the first Arab since Younes El Aynaoui in Casablanca 2003 to make an ATP final when he beat also-easy-on-the-eyes Laslo Djere in the semis.)
And No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev defended his title in Munich, with a straight-sets win over fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber. Sasha's semifinal win over Hyeon Chung was probably the event's most noteworthy result as it was the German's first win over his Next Gen rival in three tries.
Petra Kvitova came from a set down to beat seventh-seeded Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the Prague Open final on Saturday, to capture her 23rd career title. The draw opened up when Karolina Pliskova withdrew from the event, dodging sister Kristyna in the first round. (To her credit, the less-gifted sister seized the opportunity and reached the quarters before losing to Buzarnescu.)
Elise Mertens extended her winning streak to 12 matches by beating Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 7-6(4) in the final of the Rabat Grand Prix in Morocco on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Belgian took control of the match from the start as Tomljanovic struggled to keep up with the fierce Belgian’s creative and powerful onslaught of shots and was brushed aside in the first set.
And lastly, ESPN reports that Irina Khromacheva beat Zheng Saisai on Saturday in a dramatic final that saw the Russian win her first WTA 125K title. The 22-year-old, ranked World No. 210, saved three match points to upset No. 4 seed Zheng, winning the two-and-a-half-hour final in Anning, China, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5). Khromacheva was trailing 5-3, 40-15 in the final set to Zheng's serve but managed a break and a later match point to take the game to a tense tiebreak, which she won.
The result gave some insight into what female players experience on social media. (I say these horrible things to Damian -- but I don't tweet them!)
How quickly they forget that she was the one who rallied to win a 125K title just a couple weeks ago in Zhengzhou.
