Tsonga beats Djokovic to win his first career ATP title
Second-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his first tour title after beating top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6, 6-4 at the Thailand Open on Sunday.
Tsonga, ranked No. 20 in the world, saved two break points in the final game, falling to his knees in joy after the hard-fought victory, which came in 92 minutes. The Frenchman exacted his revenge after he had lost the grand slam final in Melbourne eight months ago to the Serbian and denied the Serb his fourth title of the year and the chance to move closer in the rankings to world No. 2 Roger Federer.
The $576,000 Bangkok tournament was the Frenchman’s second tournament back at the top after missing three months due to knee surgery.
“This win is very special, I’ve wanted this since I was young,” Tsonga told reporters. “This is a dream come true. I’m happy to win, Novak is a great player.”
“I feel great, it’s got to be one of the best moments of my life,” said Tsonga. “I just played unbelievable tennis against Novak and it was just my dream so I’m really happy.”
“In tennis, you have to enjoy the moment. It’s great to win at last and I want to win more and more.”
Djokovic, who has not won a tournament since the Masters Series in Rome in May, said the best man had won.
“I lost against a great player,” he said. “Jo wisely used his opportunities and deserved to win his first title. I played a bit too defensive today. You have to take your opportunities and I didn’t. It’s unfortunate to lose in the final but I lost to a great player so I have no regrets.”
The defeat was the 14th of the season for Djokovic against 58 wins and left the 21-year-old 10-6 in career finals.
Tsonga pocketed $94,000 for winning the title.
U.S. Davis Cup team still confident
The defending champion United States takes on a strong Spanish team this weekend in the Davis Cup semifinal. The U.S. team, who beat Russia to win the title last year, is depleted by the loss of two first-choice players.Last week, ninth-ranked James Blake withdrew from the US squad, citing exhaustion, and was replaced by the 20-year-old Sam Querrey, ranked 39, a Davis Cup rookie. Also, the formidable Bryan brothers doubles tandem has been split up for this week, as Bob is nursing a shoulder injury. He has an inflamed left shoulder that required a cortisone injection. The doubles star Bob Bryan, has been replaced on the team by Mardy Fish for the best-of-five tie in Madrid. The mighty twin Bryan brothers are 14-2 together in Davis Cup play and helped the U.S. win its first title in 12 years last year.The favored Spaniards will seek to repeat their 2004 victory over the U.S. in Seville and will be led by Wimbledon, four-time French Open and Olympic champion Rafael Nadal, who dethroned Roger Federer from the top spot in men’s tennis.
Spanish captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario also has world no. 5 at his disposal. 15th-ranked Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, ranked 37, will play the doubles against Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish.
The Americans will be relying on big-server Andy Roddick to nick a point off world number one Rafael Nadal, who has never lost a clay court singles matches in the Cup, or for 20-year-old Sam Querrey, ranked 39, to produce a minor miracle.
U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe remains confident his team can upset Spain: “We are the underdogs. Someone is going to have to pull off some big wins to get this one,” eight-time captain McEnroe told reporters. “But we are here because we think we can win.”
The matchup will be held from Friday through Sunday on a temporary clay court at Madrid’s Plaza de Toros Las Ventas.
“If we’ve got something on our side, it’s the altitude,” Querrey told Reuters after training in the 21,000-seater stadium. The venue favors the big-serving Americans in the thinner air of the capital at 660 meters above sea level.The Spain-USA winner will visit the Argentina-Russia victor in the final in November. The Argentines play host to the Russians this weekend.
The United States and Spain will meet for the ninth time in their history and for the fifth time since 2000. The Americans are 5-3 against Spain, winning the last meeting in a World Group quarterfinal last year in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Established in 1900, Davis Cup is the world’s largest annual international men’s team competition, with 127 nations competing this year. The U.S. leads all nations with 32 titles. The Americans beat a visiting Russian squad in last year’s finale in Portland.
Safina reaches US Open semi-finals for the first time
Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina, the sister of 2000 U.S. Open men’s champion Marat Safin, reached her first semifinal at Flushing Meadows, overpowering Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-3.
The 22-year-old, runner-up at the French Open and the Beijing Olympics, continued her domination over Pennetta, raising her career record over the Italian to 5-0. Safina raced through the first set and then came from a break down in the second to clinch her place in the last four.
“It’s great,” Safina said. “I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother (Marat Safin, the 2000 champion), so I hope that one day we can have the same titles.”
Pennetta, seeded 16th, had beaten former world number one Amelie Mauresmo to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final but she looked nervous early on. The Italian won two singles titles this year in Vina del Mar and Acapulco, Mexico.
Dinara Safina, who won 37 of her past 41 matches and made it to the finals at six of her previous seven events, next meets fourth seeded American Serena Williams, who beat Wimbledon champion and seventh seeded sister Venus Williams 7-6 7-6.
“I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother,” Safina said.
Safina is 1-3 against Serena.
Having reached the last eight for the first time, though, Pennetta said she was developing a taste for the latter stages of Grand Slam events.
“I think it’s a good result, but I would like to make more,” she said.
“It’s just one. I make already three or four fourth rounds. A quarter-final, it’s unbelievable. But I hope next year to make more.”
Serena Williams meets her sister, Venus, in quarterfinal clash
Fourth seed Serena Williams wiped out wildcard Severine Bremond of France, 6-2 6-2 in the fourth round of the US Open and faces her sister, Venus, in the quarterfinals.
Seventh seed Venus defeated Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-3. Venus hammered four aces, won 77 percent of her first serve points and converted five of 14 break-point chances in the 84-minute match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Serena and Venus Williams dominated the US Open for four years. Serena won the title in 1999 and 2002 and her older sister in 2000 and 2001. They are now the only Grand Slam champions left in the draw and they haven’t lost a set yet in the tournament.
The sisters’ last Grand Slam meeting came in the Wimbledon final, which elder sister Venus claimed for her fifth singles crown at the All England Club.
Venus won back-to-back US Open titles in 2000 and 2001. She won her seventh career Grand Slam title earlier this year, successfully defending her Wimbledon title without dropping a set and beating her sister Serena in the final. She is trying to reclaim her past glory as she once held the No. 1 ranking for 11 weeks in 2002.
Last season at the US Open, she knocked off Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic - currently number one and two in the world - before losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Justine Henin, who is now retired.
Venus won the Olympic gold medal with Serena in the Beijing doubles event.
Austrian Sybille Bammer reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time with a 7-6 0-6 6-4 victory over No.12 seed Marion Bartoli of France. The match lasted three hours three minutes, which equaled the longest women’s match at the U.S. Open on record.
The 28-year-old Bammer will face second seed Jelena Jankovic for a place in the semis. Jankovic is one of four players who can overtake compatriot Ana Ivanovic as world No. 1 at the end of the tournament.
Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, who has never won a major championship battle, is another woman in the chase for number 1. Dementieva beat Li Na 6-4, 6-1 and now faces No. 15 Patty Schnyder.
Dinara Safina is also one of four players who could topple Ana Ivanovic from the top spot next week and could get a maiden Grand Slam title after she defeated German qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5 6-0 in 75 minutes.
The Russian sixth seed has reached six finals in her last seven tournaments and will next face Flavia Pennetta, who hammered former world number one Amelie Mauresmo 6-3 6-0.
Murray targets his first grand slam career title
Scot Andy Murray needed nearly four hours to get past Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-7(5) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1 6-3 in a marathon third round match at the US$20.6 million US Open.
Murray posted 18 aces during his comeback from two sets down against Melzer at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in front of a crowd of about 1,200. The sixth seeded Murray advanced to the fourth round where he will play Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and equalled his best performance at the US Open, when he reached the last 16 in 2006 before losing to Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in four sets. Now, however, Murray believes he has a genuine chance of going much further in the championship.
“I think when you’re at a tournament like this, there is a chance that I could win the tournament,” Murray said following his 6-7 (5-7) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 6-3 victory over the 48th-ranked Melzer.
“So I say to myself, ‘you know, I’m going to give it my best shot to try and win’. That’s my goal for the tournament, to try to win it.”
“I don’t think that if you set yourself a target of the third round and you reach it, you can feel like you’ve achieved what you came here to do.”
“I think it’s better to set the bar high and maybe you don’t reach it.”
“I might not necessarily win this tournament, but if I go with the intention of doing it, it might not come as such a surprise if I do go deep.”
Murray claimed he felt comfortable with most aspects of his game as he approached his next match with Wawrinka.
“I think I’m hitting the ball well,” he said. “I just feel like my return game needs to get better, try to create a few more opportunities on the return.”
“I don’t think I’m hitting a lot of unforced errors. I feel like I’m moving well and I feel fit.”
“I think if I just improve the returning, my chances in the next match will be good.”
Head to head, Murray and Wawrinka are tied at three victories apiece yet all the Scot’s wins have come in their four hardcourt meetings, with two of the Swiss player’s coming on clay.
Murray also has current form on his side, having won three of their four most recent encounters, the latest in Toronto at the end of July.
Despite his marathon duel with Melzer, Murray will have one more advantage over Wawrinka other than his seeding - the Swiss Olympic doubles-winning partner of Roger Federer spent even longer on court on Saturday than the Scot. Wawrinka also had to come back from two sets down against Italian Flavio Cipolla, the world number 142, needing four hours and 14 minutes to seal victory.
Murray insisted he felt “fine” and had no problems following his victory and paid tribute to fitness trainers Matt Little and Jez Green for getting him into peak condition.
The 21-year-old Murray burst on to the scene this year by winning three of his six career singles titles. He is in the midst of one of the most productive runs of his career having won 15 of his last 17 ATP matches, losing only to world No.1 Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the semifinals in Montreal. During that stretch two of his victories were over Serbian star Novak Djokovic whom he beat in the final in Cincinnati and a week earlier at the quarterfinals in Montreal.