Weekend Tennis Roundup

An emotional Roger Federer extended his record number of title wins at the Swiss Indoors on Sunday, defeating Alex de Minaur in straight sets to lift the trophy in Basel for a 10th time. Federer, who was already the most successful player in the history of the tournament, was competing in his 15th final in his hometown after seeing off No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a straight-sets semifinal win on Saturday. Meanwhile, 20-year-old De Minaur was vying for his fourth career title, with the previous three having all come this year in Atlanta, Zhuhai and his hometown of Sydney.

Earlier in the week, this David and Goliath clash got me hot 'n' bothered ...

The big man came out on top, winning 7-5 in the third.

The Wawrinka vs. Tiafoe Round of 16 match was a thriller -- and not just because the American had white shorts on and a hot guy in his box ...

Dominic Thiem defeated good friend Diego Schwartzman 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in front of a packed home crowd in the Austrian capital, bringing his best level in crucial moments to complete the win after two hours and 25 minutes. Thiem improves to 9-0 in his home country this year, having also lifted the Generali Open trophy in Kitzbühel without dropping a set in August. The 26-year-old becomes the first player to lift five tour-level trophies in 2019, breaking a five-way tie with fellow Top 5 stars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Daniil Medvedev.

And in doubles, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury increased their chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals on Sunday, defeating Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-5 to lift the Erste Bank Open trophy. 

Perhaps even more thrilling is that they were in the company of Irish pro David O’Hare, who documented the occasion on Instagram. ☘️

The 4th seed Aryna Sabalenka captured the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, defeating the top seed Kiki Bertens 6-4, 6-2. It is the fourth WTA crown in China for Sabalenka out of five in total, earning enough points to finish the season in the top-11, just behind Serena Williams, despite some poor results and early exits in 2019. Perhaps equally noteworthy was that on-again, off-again coach Dmitry Tursunov was back in the fold. Might 2020 be the year for the 21-year-old Belarusian?

Botic van de Zandschulp, left, has claimed his maiden crown on the ATP Challenger Tour. The 24-year-old Dutchman won the title of the inaugural Tennis Challenger Hamburg In a final between two unseeded players, van de Zandschulp battled past Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at the venue of the Hamburger Tennis-Verband.

And in doubles, my new boyfriend Maxime Cressy and Jamie Cerretani  clinched their maiden team title. The Franco-American duo, who finished runner-up to Quentin Halys and Tristan Lamasine in Ismaning last week, upset the tournament’s top seeds Ken Skupski from Great Britain and John-Patrick Smith of Australia 6-4, 6-4.

Around the net ...

Who says romance is dead?

Jan-Michael Gambill's desert heat ...

Favorite Diana Ross song: “Upside Down” or “I’m Coming Out”?

Tommy Haas won his fourth Invesco Series QQQ title of the year Saturday by defeating U.S. Davis Cup captain and defending champion Mardy Fish 6-2 in the one-set final of the SoCal Honda Dealers Helpful Cup at the Sherwood Country Club. Haas, the former world No. 2 and silver medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, increased to a perfect 8-0 on the year with the victory. Earlier this year, he won titles in Newport Beach, Calif, Maui, Hawaii and New Haven, Connecticut on the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30. (Might need to bump that age requirement up a notch at the rate the Big Three are going!)

Big boy ...



I’m afraid to ask ...

Oh, Simone ...

Can Karen repeat in Paris?

Borna's looking fit, but has the light already burned out on his career?

Practice R. Nadal & N. Djokovic | Rolex Paris Masters 2019 https://t.co/tvbsTTtjMz

— Tanika (@SitTanyusha) October 26, 2019

Fun to see some "behind the scenes" footage of Djokovic and Nadal practicing ahead of Paris. Best part: Rafa's face when Nole goes all Juliet Prowse on him!

(With wire services)

Weekend Tennis Roundup

Alex De Minaur won his third title of the season and of his career on Sunday, beating the 31-year-old Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the Huajin Securities Zhuhai Championships final 7-6(4), 6-4. The young Aussie took out Borna Coric and Andy Murray in nail-biters. But I was happy Borna was back on the court after last week's back injury -- and even happier that Murray beat white nationalist Tennsys Sandgren in the first round, Murray's first tour-level win since hip surgery. 

Pablo Carreno Busta lifted his first tour-level trophy in more than two years on Sunday, outlasting Alexander Bublik 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(3) at the Chengdu Open. The 28-year-old didn't even chuck his racket bag across the court once during the event!

If this week is any indication, Aryna Sabalenka has rediscovered the form that propelled her to the Top 10. On Saturday, Sabalenka became the first player to successfully retain the Wuhan Open crown, defeating Alison Riske, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. After splitting the first two sets, the reigning champion stormed ahead in the decider, firing six aces and breaking the American twice to lock up the victory in one hour and 54 minutes. Sabalenka split and then appeared to consider reuniting with her coach, Dmitry Tursunov, during the U.S. Open. The two have been working together at Wuhan, but Sabalenka was by herself the previous week at Guangzhou and found she could not blame others for her problems.

Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck -- the tour's only openly gay player, if you can believe it -- captured her second title this year, edging Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at the Tashkent Open in Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan.

And in two notable doubles finals: Sexy Serbs Nikola Cacic and Dusan Lajovic captured their first team title at the Chengdu Open on Sunday, defeating Jonathan Erlich and Fabrice Martin 7-6(9), 3-6, 10-3. Hubba hubba!

Never heard of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, but I won’t forget them anytime soon.

Was surprised to see Novak is back in action in Tokyo. I know he wants to ensure he gets the yearend No. 1, but thought his left shoulder injury was going to require surgery. Here’s hoping he’s fully recovered. More HERE.

Sure was fun seeing him play doubles with Filip Krajinovic ... even if they blew the match tiebreak again Pavic and Soares.

Around the net: 

Rafael Nadal and longtime girlfriend Maria Francisca Perello are spending their last days of living in sin in the Bahamas ... ahead of their wedding that will take place near Mallorca on Oct. 19. Read HERE.

If Serena's hubby thinks it's a "struggle" for him to be a working parent, he should see what millions of non-billionaires without drivers, cooks, housekeepers, assistants and nannies go through. Read HERE. 

Not sure, but it looks fun!

Lots of eye candy at the Masters seniors event in Marbella. 

Of course Feliciano López won it all -- isn't he still on the tour?! -- but it was fun to see recently retired David Ferrer,, Tommy Robredo (who is still hanging on in the Challengers) and Tommy Haas in action.

The Asian leg of the tour seems to agree with Karen ...

What the duck? 

Lucky Nemanja Maksic got to massage my Bosnian boyfriend, Damir Dzumhur! He gets his hands on a lot of hot players.

Marton Fucsovics: Practice (or genetics) made him perfect.

Celebrating Serbs!

Weekend Tennis Roundup

Such a flurry of tennis activity I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed, but here we go: I'm not a huge Hopman Cup person, but did end up enjoying quite a bit of it this year. As you probably heard, defending champs Switzerland won again. But the fun for me -- as always -- was the mixed doubles, where we not only got to Roger Federer and Serena Williams on the same court for the first time, we also saw Angie Kerber and Alexander Zverev against Alize Cornet and Lucas Pouille, and Kerber/Zverev against Federer (with Belinda Bencic) and Matt Ebden and Ash Barty. 

And we got to see Matt Eben's biceps ...

Did I mention his flex appeal?

Over in Brisbane, Kei Nishikori ended his nine-final losing streak defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to win his first title since Memphis in 2016.

Of note also was the return of Jo-Willie Tsonga, looking his beefy best again, who reached the semis before falling to the 22-year-old Russian. 

Karolina Pliskova got very lucky, rallying to defeat a red-hot-before-she-got-injured Lesia Tsurenko to capture the women's title. The final would have been a rematch of Tokyo if Naomi Osaka hadn't crapped out to Tsurenko in the semis. Here's hoping the young Japanese doesn't suffer the requisite post-Slam letdown YEAR like every other WTA player of late has. 

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut overcame a mid-match scare to overcome Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the Qatar Open final on Saturday. It was an impressive week for the 30-year-old, who also knocked out world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and three-time Slam champ Stan Wawrinka along the way to capture his first title in Doha and ninth overall. Both Berdych and Wawrinka are still on the comeback trail, so the Swiss Pole's first-round win over Karen Khachanov was particularly noteworthy even if it did make you scratch your head and say, "You beat him but then lost to him?" Not sure what's up with Novak, who dropped sets to Marton Fucsovic and Nikoloz Basilashvili before giving up the ghost to the Spaniard. 

Almost got 'shorty'

And from the Gland Freak files, history was made when the tallest ATP final in the open era took place Sunday in Pune, with 6-foot-8 Kevin Anderson narrowly edging 6-11 Croatian veteran Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 in two hours and 44 minutes for his sixth ATP title. Karlovic, who is just a few weeks from his 40th birthday, became the oldest ATP finalist since Ken Rosewall in Hong Kong 1977.

Aryna Sabalenka -- whose shoulders and jawline I would kill for -- came from behind to beat Alison Riske 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the Shenzhen Open final on Saturday. The 20-year-old from Belarus looks unbeatable at times, so it will be fun to see if she's able to put it all together in a major in the year ahead. The tournament saw Jelena Ostapenko get blown out by a qualifier in the first round -- and Maria Sharapova dodge a bullet when Xinyu Wang nearly defeated her before retiring with an injury, only to see Sharapova retire in her quarterfinal versus Sabalenka.

And finally, Julia Goerges defended her singles title in Auckland, New Zealand, ending the Cinderella run of Ro-nadian qualifier Bianca Andreescu 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 in Sunday's final. At first it looked like 152nd-ranked 18-year-old was going to continue the form that saw her emerge from qualifying to beat Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and third-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei on the way to her first final. She took the first set in only 30 minutes, unsettling second-seeded Goerges with the same aggressive return game and mixture of strokes that had flummoxed her earlier opponents. But the tide of the match changed late in the second set as Goerges began to put more first serves in play and to gain more depth with her ground strokes, forcing Andreescu onto the defensive. The German clinched the second set in 45 minutes with a pivotal break in the 11th game, then took the deciding third set in only 23 minutes as Andreescu tired in her eighth match at the tournament. (Fun seeing Nathalie Tauziat again, coaching Bianca!) Goerges broke Andreescu in the first, fifth and seventh games to clinch her seventh WTA Tour singles title.

From Instagram:

See Diego Schwartzman get whipped into shape by a hot trainer HERE.

And if it's Monday it must be Sydney ...

Johnny, are you queer?

(With wire services)