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" ...

Alison Van Uytvanck Stuns Defending Champion Garbine Muguruza

Congrats to 24-year-old Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck on her stunning 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 3 seed and defending champion Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon today. 

Believe it or not, Van Uytvanck is one of the few openly gay players on the women's tennis tour. 

Garbiñe Muguruza Ascends to World No. 1

You normally don't see me getting excited about a fourth-round U.S. Open loser rising to No. 1 in the rankings. But with this year's final Grand Slam opening the door for eight players to grab the coveted position -- several whom without winning a major -- I'm actually pretty pleased. Although I'd have liked for the Wimbledon champ to have done a little better -- Petra Kvitova was on fire, so what could she do? -- it ends Karolina Pliskova's reign on Slamless terror. And more importantly, it keeps pushers Simon Halep and Elina Svitolina from joining the ranks of majorless No. 1s. Muguruza becomes the 24th player in the history of the WTA to earn the No. 1 ranking, including the great Evonne Goolagong, who finally got credit for her two weeks 30 years after the fact!

Ay d(i)os mios!

Friday at the U.S. Open

I'm at work today, so when Damian sent me this photo I thought he was going to tell me that the trainer went down on Kyle Edmund on live television. Instead, come to find out the Brit had to retire in the fourth set against Canadian wunderkind Denis Shapovalov -- not the outcome either of them would have liked, I'm sure.

Damian's countryman Diego Schwartzman surprised everyone by knocking out 2014 champ Marin Cilic, who is about a foot taller than he is! The pint-sized cutie is on to the Round of 16.

No. 16 seed Lucas Pouille beat qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin in four sets to make it back into Round of 16. He was a quarterfinalist last year and really needs the points. 

Thrilled by the outcome of several women's third-round matches, which set up Round of 16 battles of Garbine Muguruza vs. Petra Kvitova and Sloane Stephens vs Julia Goerges.

Petra's pumped!

New aunt and two-time women's champion Venus Williams advanced to the fourth round Friday, with a straight-sets (6-3, 6-4) win over Maria Sakkari of Greece -- but not before serving eight faults in a row to start (and finish) her service game! The No. 9 seed will take on Spain's Carla Suárez Navarro next. 

UPDATE: My boy Borna Coric went down in flames against Kevin Anderson, losing 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. (The boy can only "top" so many times in a week -- but he's still hot.)

Weekend Tennis Roundup

Grigor Dimitrov finally made good on his rapidly fading promise, winning his first Masters 1000 title yesterday in Cincinnati. 

With Daniel Vallverdu, of coaching Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych fame

The dreamy 26-year-old Bulgarian beat Aussie Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-5 to capture his third ATP World Tour crown of the year, which pushes him back into the Top 10 going into the U.S. Open.

Garbine Muguruza thrashed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-0 to take home the women's title, which is amazingly only the Wimbledon champion's fifth(?) overall -- two of which are majors. (She was clearly wishing she could have put the "Wheel of Fortune" prize trophy on account.) With yet another humiliating loss for the busty Romanian -- who suddenly seems to have no realistic chance of ever winning a major -- Damian and I are wondering if she might want to follow Melanie Oudin into retirement. Liked what I saw in Madison Keys, who had three match points against the eventual champion, and that Sloane Stephens was back in the mix, even if she lost in nearly as spectacular fashion to Halep as Halep did to Muguruza. 

Also ...

Via ATP: Almost nine years to the day since he first became No. 1, Spain’s Rafael Nadal today returned to the top of the Emirates ATP Rankings for his fourth stint at the pinnacle of men’s professional tennis. Nadal, who has already spent 141 total weeks at No. 1, replaces Great Britain’s Andy Murray, who had held the top spot for 41 weeks since Nov. 7,  2016.

Don't really have enough information to have a strong opinion about this, but I was bummed to see that Victoria Azarenka won't be playing the U.S. Open because of a custody dispute with her too-hot-for-her-ex-boyfriend, Billy McKeague. Her impassioned note about the situation -- "No Parent Should Have to Decide Between Their Child or Their Career" -- was something I'm sure every woman can relate to -- something most men take for granted.

Anyone going to New Haven this week? Three-time champion Petra Kvitova begins her latest campaign tonight versus Shuai Peng.

Cincinnati champ Grigor Dimitrov on holiday with girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, who is apparently a Pussycat Doll of some sort. More HERE.

Any U.S. Open predictions?

Maria Sharapova has been granted a wild card -- but has barely played since "returning" to the game.

New Yorkers: Be on the lookout for THIS!

2017 Wimbledon Champions Ball

Roger Federer and Garbiñe Muguruza basked in their singles victories last night at the Wimbledon Champions ball. 

Weren't these two here 10 years ago?

Roger gives Garbiñe pointers on how to act after she's won seven more ...

Is Roger the Greatest of All Time, or did he rise when the field was weak, slip when the field got stronger, then rise again when the competition began to age?

Garbiñe Muguruza Defeats Serena Williams for 2016 French Open Title

Um, no. Steffi still leads with 22 ...

They were both a little nervous, but still managed to play an incredibly high-level match. Congrats to the young Venezuelan/Spaniard on her first major -- she certainly earned it!

P.S. When did Arantxa Sanchez Vicario become Charo?

Djokovic and Murray, Williams and Muguruza to Square Off in French Open Finals

Pretty much dream match-ups for the men and the women in Paris. Reaching the final completes a career Grand Slam of title matches for Andy Murray, and scares the hell out of me given that Novak Djokovic was his victim in the two he managed to win. I give a lot of credit to Garbine Muguruza, who seemed to be going down the path of other Slam finalists after Wimbledon, but has pulled it together for her second in the past four. She happens to be one of the few women around who has beaten Serena Williams in a major -- crushing her, in fact, 2 and 2 at the French in 2014. Here's hoping she goes into this one thinking she can actually win as opposed to Wimbledon, where she seemed happy to just be there.