This week’s Tour level finals are a few hours away. Who is in them, and how did that come about?
The bigger of the two events on the ATP this week is in Barcelona, as that is a 500 whereas Budapest is a 250. So let’s start with that. And the big story of this is the name missing from the final – Rafael Nadal. As in Monte Carlo, he lost in the Semi. His defeat to Fognini on the Riviera was, by his own admission, a very poor performance. He was still struggling in R2 of this (R1 was a bye), having to come from a set down to beat Leonardo Mayer. R3 was an old school match against David Ferrer, who had a good run in the penultimate tournament of his career, that Nadal won 3&3 (Ferrer beat M.Zverev and Pouille to get to that stage). Then 7-5 7-5 against Jan-Lenard Struff, which is less convincing than normal, followed by a 4-6 4-6 loss to Dominic Thiem today.
The assumption is Rafa will have it sorted by Paris, and will still be favourite to take the title both there and in Madrid and Rome in advance of that. But he does usually hit the ground running, winning these two events and that hasn’t happened this year. He appears far more vulnerable than usual. By contrast doesn’t, Thiem doesn’t. Indeed Nadal’s eight games is the most any of his opponents have taken off him so far en route to the final. The win over Rafa also matters as Thiem was the runner-up in Paris last year... Thiem’s opponent in the show piece will be Daniil Medvedev, who is having a good clay court campaign. The only set he has dropped was in R2 against Albert Ramos Vinolas (more on whom later).
One other note from Barcelona is this tournament had one of those occasions where two players play in the final round of qualifying, and then meet again in the 1st Round proper after the defeat player gets a lucky loser berth and is drawn against the guy who beat him. The players in this case Nicolas Jarry and Marcels Granollers. Granollers won their final q match 6-7[3] 7-5 6-4, only for Jarry to get revenge in the main draw 7-5 4-6 6-4. Based on those six sets, I’d say it was a draw between the pair of them! Jarry went on to beat #2 A.Zverev and #13 Dimitrov to make the QFs (lucky indeed) before losing to Medvedev.
Over in Budapest, the final is between two non-seeded players, Matteo Berrettini and Filip Krajinovic. Krajinovic even came through qualifying. Berrettini has won one Tour level title before (in Gstaad on clay last year) whilst Krajinovic is more known for hard courts – his only previous Tour level final was actually a Masters Series one, the Paris Indoor at the back end of 2017 (l to Sock). That was an event that all of the big four either missed or withdrew from with injury.
Missing or withdrawing from injury was also the main story in the WTA’s leading event this week in Stuttgart. That could have been a battle for the No.1 position, but the chase was undermined before the start when one of the candidates, Simona Halep, scratched due officially a left hip injury but also likely a mix of fatigue and disappointment after the Fed Cup epic the previous weekend.
That left Naomi Osaka defending her spot from Petra Kvitova. What Osaka needed was SF points, and she got those thanks to over Hsieh Su-wei and Donna Vekic. The Vekic one came via a third set tie-break, and somewhere during that match Osaka did herself an abdominal injury that forced her to withdraw from playing Anett Kontaveit in the last four. Kontaveit had also benefitted from a retirement from Vika Azarenka in the QFs, though not until the third set. Azarenka had previously beaten defending champion Karolina Pliskova and Vera Zvonereva (who got in as a lucky loser) in the first two rounds, not in that order.
So Kontaveit into the final. There she will play Petra Kvitova, who would be the first Woman to finally win two titles in 2019 if she takes the match. Petra already leads the WTA in finals reached, with this being her fourth (won Sydney, r-up Aussie and Dubai). The most intriguing match Kvitova faced was her first against a youngish Beligan player, Greet Minnen. Minnen, ranked outside the top 200 but playing way better than that, had fought through three rounds of qualifying and beat Dominica Cibulkova in R1. She has a big serve and game, but Kvitova came through in straight sets. Three setters against Sevastova and Bertens in the next two rounds sent Petra to the showpiece. Bertens, by the way and rather surprisingly for an arch-clay courter, had never previously won a match at Stuttgart prior to making this year’s Semi. She has said the indoor nature of the court and shallower than usual layer of clay used make it play much more like a hardcourt. That is rather backed up by the two players in the final. One, Kvitova, is a double Wimbledon champion and the other, Kontaveit, has only previously won one Tour level tournament and that also on grass in Rosmalen.
The other WTA event of the week is in Istanbul, and the final here also features a Czech player. That is rising star Marketa Vondrousova. She plays Petra Martic in the final, which means another new name on to the roll of honour for 2019 as, despite Vondrousova having made a final previously this year (in Budapest), she hasn’t won a crown. But she has won one previously, way back in 2017 as a 17 year-old, whereas the much more experienced Martic (aged 28) only has two Tour level runner-up efforts on her resume.
And what of the Brits? Well, as stated up thread, none were involved on the WTA with just Cameron Norrie playing singles on the ATP. Those paying close attention will have already figured out he lost in R1 because, as mentioned in a previous post, he was up against Ramos Vinolas. And as I state above Ramos Vinolas took a set off Thiem in the tournament, which means he must have beaten Norrie. And indeed he did, comfortably (2&2).
Much more happened on the doubles court though, both in terms of entrants and success. Indeed both ATP finals tomorrow (checks watch – today!) will feature Brits. J.Murray/Soares take on Cabal/Farah in Barcelona, which is #2 vs #3 seeds and K. & N.Skupski play Daniell/Koolhof in Budapest, which is #3 against non-seed. Murray/Soares only just edged past the other half-British pair in the Barcelona Semis, beating Salisbury/Klaasen 11-9 in a match breaker.
Back over to Mitteleuropa, where two other British or half-British pairs went out in the QFs, which by context represents rather different levels of success. It would have been a disappointment for Inglot/Bopanna, as they were the #1 seeds for the event and Inglot the defending champion. But for Bambridge/O’Mara it was both a notable achievement and an opportunity lost as to get there they had to beat #2 seeds Gonzalez/Middelkoop in R1, but then didn’t back it up against a non-seeded pair at the next stage.
The bigger of the two events on the ATP this week is in Barcelona, as that is a 500 whereas Budapest is a 250. So let’s start with that. And the big story of this is the name missing from the final – Rafael Nadal. As in Monte Carlo, he lost in the Semi. His defeat to Fognini on the Riviera was, by his own admission, a very poor performance. He was still struggling in R2 of this (R1 was a bye), having to come from a set down to beat Leonardo Mayer. R3 was an old school match against David Ferrer, who had a good run in the penultimate tournament of his career, that Nadal won 3&3 (Ferrer beat M.Zverev and Pouille to get to that stage). Then 7-5 7-5 against Jan-Lenard Struff, which is less convincing than normal, followed by a 4-6 4-6 loss to Dominic Thiem today.
The assumption is Rafa will have it sorted by Paris, and will still be favourite to take the title both there and in Madrid and Rome in advance of that. But he does usually hit the ground running, winning these two events and that hasn’t happened this year. He appears far more vulnerable than usual. By contrast doesn’t, Thiem doesn’t. Indeed Nadal’s eight games is the most any of his opponents have taken off him so far en route to the final. The win over Rafa also matters as Thiem was the runner-up in Paris last year... Thiem’s opponent in the show piece will be Daniil Medvedev, who is having a good clay court campaign. The only set he has dropped was in R2 against Albert Ramos Vinolas (more on whom later).
One other note from Barcelona is this tournament had one of those occasions where two players play in the final round of qualifying, and then meet again in the 1st Round proper after the defeat player gets a lucky loser berth and is drawn against the guy who beat him. The players in this case Nicolas Jarry and Marcels Granollers. Granollers won their final q match 6-7[3] 7-5 6-4, only for Jarry to get revenge in the main draw 7-5 4-6 6-4. Based on those six sets, I’d say it was a draw between the pair of them! Jarry went on to beat #2 A.Zverev and #13 Dimitrov to make the QFs (lucky indeed) before losing to Medvedev.
Over in Budapest, the final is between two non-seeded players, Matteo Berrettini and Filip Krajinovic. Krajinovic even came through qualifying. Berrettini has won one Tour level title before (in Gstaad on clay last year) whilst Krajinovic is more known for hard courts – his only previous Tour level final was actually a Masters Series one, the Paris Indoor at the back end of 2017 (l to Sock). That was an event that all of the big four either missed or withdrew from with injury.
Missing or withdrawing from injury was also the main story in the WTA’s leading event this week in Stuttgart. That could have been a battle for the No.1 position, but the chase was undermined before the start when one of the candidates, Simona Halep, scratched due officially a left hip injury but also likely a mix of fatigue and disappointment after the Fed Cup epic the previous weekend.
That left Naomi Osaka defending her spot from Petra Kvitova. What Osaka needed was SF points, and she got those thanks to over Hsieh Su-wei and Donna Vekic. The Vekic one came via a third set tie-break, and somewhere during that match Osaka did herself an abdominal injury that forced her to withdraw from playing Anett Kontaveit in the last four. Kontaveit had also benefitted from a retirement from Vika Azarenka in the QFs, though not until the third set. Azarenka had previously beaten defending champion Karolina Pliskova and Vera Zvonereva (who got in as a lucky loser) in the first two rounds, not in that order.
So Kontaveit into the final. There she will play Petra Kvitova, who would be the first Woman to finally win two titles in 2019 if she takes the match. Petra already leads the WTA in finals reached, with this being her fourth (won Sydney, r-up Aussie and Dubai). The most intriguing match Kvitova faced was her first against a youngish Beligan player, Greet Minnen. Minnen, ranked outside the top 200 but playing way better than that, had fought through three rounds of qualifying and beat Dominica Cibulkova in R1. She has a big serve and game, but Kvitova came through in straight sets. Three setters against Sevastova and Bertens in the next two rounds sent Petra to the showpiece. Bertens, by the way and rather surprisingly for an arch-clay courter, had never previously won a match at Stuttgart prior to making this year’s Semi. She has said the indoor nature of the court and shallower than usual layer of clay used make it play much more like a hardcourt. That is rather backed up by the two players in the final. One, Kvitova, is a double Wimbledon champion and the other, Kontaveit, has only previously won one Tour level tournament and that also on grass in Rosmalen.
The other WTA event of the week is in Istanbul, and the final here also features a Czech player. That is rising star Marketa Vondrousova. She plays Petra Martic in the final, which means another new name on to the roll of honour for 2019 as, despite Vondrousova having made a final previously this year (in Budapest), she hasn’t won a crown. But she has won one previously, way back in 2017 as a 17 year-old, whereas the much more experienced Martic (aged 28) only has two Tour level runner-up efforts on her resume.
And what of the Brits? Well, as stated up thread, none were involved on the WTA with just Cameron Norrie playing singles on the ATP. Those paying close attention will have already figured out he lost in R1 because, as mentioned in a previous post, he was up against Ramos Vinolas. And as I state above Ramos Vinolas took a set off Thiem in the tournament, which means he must have beaten Norrie. And indeed he did, comfortably (2&2).
Much more happened on the doubles court though, both in terms of entrants and success. Indeed both ATP finals tomorrow (checks watch – today!) will feature Brits. J.Murray/Soares take on Cabal/Farah in Barcelona, which is #2 vs #3 seeds and K. & N.Skupski play Daniell/Koolhof in Budapest, which is #3 against non-seed. Murray/Soares only just edged past the other half-British pair in the Barcelona Semis, beating Salisbury/Klaasen 11-9 in a match breaker.
Back over to Mitteleuropa, where two other British or half-British pairs went out in the QFs, which by context represents rather different levels of success. It would have been a disappointment for Inglot/Bopanna, as they were the #1 seeds for the event and Inglot the defending champion. But for Bambridge/O’Mara it was both a notable achievement and an opportunity lost as to get there they had to beat #2 seeds Gonzalez/Middelkoop in R1, but then didn’t back it up against a non-seeded pair at the next stage.
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