Week 7 Summary

Marseille (ATP 500)

In the second all French final of the season, it was once again Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who came on top. He defeated Michael Llodra in two tight sets 7/5 7/6 for the 4th title of his career.

"It was a great week for me. I played perhaps my best tennis since the start of the year and I'm really happy about that. Today I played really well, like yesterday. Against Michael it's different because you have to hit passing shots all the time and you're always under pressure." - said this week's champion.

Tsonga defeated the top seed Novak Djokovic in the semis. It was his 4th win over Nole. In fact, he only lost once against the Serbian, but the loss came in their most important match - in the final of last year's Australian Open.

Llodra, on the other hand, brushed off the tournament's second seed in him semifinal - Gilles Simon.

A lot of noise made the two promising youngsters - Grigor Dimitrov and Jerzy Janowicz. The Bulgarian was 5-3 in the third against Gilles Simon in the first round. The expirience paid off for the Frenchman there, as he managed to win the next four games.
Janowicz, a former US Open & French Open junior's runner-up, almost took out world No.36 Andreas Seppi, but after building a lead in the third set tiebreak - he also blew it.

Still, let's keep an eye on those two, cause it won't take long and they will get the necessary experience to win these kind of matches. Then they'll surely be very dangerous!


Memphis (ATP 500)

Andy Roddick may not have played the best tennis of his career this week, but it still was enough to capture his fitrst title of the year and 27th overall. In the final he beat Radek Stepanek, who was already looking for the third title of the season and second in a row.

The Roddick-Stepanek encounter was a repeat of last weeks match, which the Czech won in three sets. This time it was sweet revange time for the American.

"A week ago (in San Jose) I felt like I was in control of the match but he played better when it counted on the big points. I played better today on the big points. His serve is tough to read." - said this weeks champion.

"His game is based around his serve and he served really well when he had to. We had a great match and a lot of good rallies. The only difference was break points and I couldn't convert when I had chances. I am happy with the start of the year but not satisfied. I hope to keep playing well the rest of the season and I will continue to work hard." - Stepanek said.

It was also a good, but not satisfying week for Lleyton Hewitt. The Aussie reached the semis in which he played better than his conquerer Roddick, but it all counted for nothing, as he lost 6/2 6/7 4/6.

The qualifier Dudi Sela also had an outstanding week as he reached the semis, but came unstuck against Stepanek.


Buenos Aires (ATP, 250)

Tommy Robredo came from behind to win his second title in as many weeks. In a high-class claycourt display, the Spaniard out-edged hometown favourite Juan Monaco 7/5 2/6 7/6(5).

Robredo looked to be on the way for his 9th career title as he won the first set, but then came the rain break and after that the match began to turn in Monaco's favour. The Argentine won the second set easily and was up a break in the third (leading 4-2), but then the Spaniard found another gear.

"Coming back from the rain break I felt a bit tired. All of a sudden I wasn't moving as well. But in the third set I picked back up and played great tennis. Juan played very well and the truth is the match was decided by a few points. Anyone of us could have won the match. I am very happy for having won back-to-back titles for the first time in my career. It feels great." - Robredo told the press.

In order to get to the final Robredo had to face Jose Acasuso curiously for the third straight week in the semifinals.
"I'm upset for missing so many opportunities. I had the control in most of the points but he played better in the tie-break." - said the Runner-up.

Although Monaco didn't go all the way, he can surely be proud of his achievements this week. He upset in an epic match his top seeded countryman David Nalbandian 2/6 7/5 7/6. He was also responsible for the first double bagel of the year (more on that HERE).

Also producing the good this week were the two qualifiers - Brasilian Franco Ferreiro and Maximo Gonzalez from Argentina. Both of them reached the quarterfinals.


Dubai Premier (WTA, $2,000,000)

Venus Williams captured her first title of the season by beating France's surprise finalist Virginie Razzano 6/4 6/2 and although the players showed amazing performances on the way to the final, the media focus wasn't that much on tennis itself this week...

The tournament in Dubai up until now, has always been of the most important stops on the Tour. It is a Premier event with a lot of prize money at stake, which always gathered a great field. The same was supposed to happen this year, but unfortunately one name was missing - Shahar Peer. Her absence became a huge scandal, as the tournaments organizers didn't manage to get a Visa for the Israeli player (the whole story HERE). Now Dubai will have to face serious consequences (more on that HERE).

Now let us focus on what happened tennis-wise this week. The tournament kicked off with a sisters act and towards the end of it, it was once again a sister act, that kept the spectators off their seats. The first one was a huge surprise, as world No.121 Urszula Radwańska recorded her first Top 10 win, beating her sister Agnieszka in their first meeting at professional level 6/4 6/3. The result may not come as such a surprise to those, who knew, that the world No.10 was having a flu. She couldn't give up the match, cause she still wanted to compete in the doubles. And compete - she did. The older of the two Radwańska sisters, partnered by Maria Kirilenko, has reached her biggest doubles final of her career to date, where the two lost comprahensively to the top seeds Cara Black & Liezel Huber 3/6 3/6.

The second sisters act came, as mentioned, late in the tournament, but it really was worth waiting for. Venus and Serena went all the way in their semifinal, with the older of the two sisters - having the edge in the tiebreak, winning in the end by the scoreline 6/1 2/6 7/6.

The one thing, that strucked us, was the unevenness of the draw. The top half was filled with the reigning Australian Open champion (Serena Williams), French Open champion (Ana Ivanovic), Wimbledon champion (Venus Williams), US Open champion (Serena Williams), Olympic Gold Medalist (Elena Dementieva) and the YEC champion (Venus Williams). Together they had 18 Grand Slam titles between them, whereas the bottom half had only one (that one coming from Svetlana Kuznetsova). The difference was made even clearer after the quarterfinals, where in the top half all top woman managed to progress, but the bottom section was left with the likes of Vera Zvonareva, Virginie Razzano, Kaia Kanepi and Elena Vesnina. None of the ladies in the bottom part of the draw has even managed to win a Tier 2 title, not to mention only one of them made the semis of a Grand Slam (Zvonareva that is)

With the draw as it was, you still have to give credit to the woman for making the most of it and taking full advantage of their luck. They really earned it.

First of all, congratulations to Virginie Razzano, who beat two current top 5 players on the way to her first final of the year. The Frenchwoman really got emotional after her wins over Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva.

Also enoying herself on court was Kaia Kanepi, who was able to record her first career top 3 win, after running over Jelena Jankovic in the 3rd round. JJ told the press, she never before played such a bad match.

Another woman, who made headlines this week was Elena Vesnina. The Russian came through the qualification and scored three fantastic wins over bigger names - Na Li, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dominika Cibulkova. The win over Kuzzy was Vesnina's first career top 10 win.

A match worth noticing was also the meeting between Elena Dementieva and Sybille Bammer. The Russian won it 7/5 6/2 and with it scored her 500th win of her career (more on that HERE). Well done, Elena!


Memphis International (WTA, $220,000)

Victoria Azarenka has won it all this week. In the final she has beaten her doubles partner and top seed Caroline Wozniacki 6/1 6/3. The two won also the doubles competition.

The Belarus star is having an amazing year so far. She lost only one of the 14 matches she played in and that was on retirement, when she lead Serena Williams by a set at the Australian Open, but had to succumb with tears in her eyes to dizziness and illness. It's her second singles title after going 0-4 in finals before this year. She'll reach her career highest ranking of No.11 on Monday and will have a very good shot at reaching the Top 10 over the course of next month (trailing only 40 point to current world No.10 Agnieszka Radwanska).

This was also a good week for Caroline Wozniacki, who was hoping to capture her 4th singles title, but left Memphis with her 2nd doubles crown.

"She was just playing great; I didn't feel I was playing badly. I felt like everything I hit just came back faster. I had beaten her before and I was hoping it would turn out that way again, but she just played a great match." - Wozniacki said.

Also having a good week were the two beaten semifinalist Anne Keothavong and Sabine Lisicki, but both ended their contention for the title in heartbreaking way. The Brit was dumped of the court 1/6 0/6, while the German No.6 seed lost a nailbiter to Azarenka 4/6 6/3 6/7.

Showing sings of a resurgence was Michaella Krajicek. The 20 year old former Wimbledon quarterfinalist came through the qualification and reached the quarters (losing to top seed Wozniacki in three sets). The Dutch has reached a career high of No.30, but after personal problems and severe loss of confidence, she dropped outside of the Top 200.


Bogota International (WTA, $220,000)

The week belonged to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez as she beat Gisela Dulko 6/3 6/2 for her first singles title and then added her 6th doubles title to her tally. Playing along side Nuria Llagostera Vives she once again beat Gisela Dulko, partnered by Flavia Pennetta.


"I really believe that doubles helps my singles. They are equally important to me. It also helps me improve a lot of my shots, so it gives me more confidence on the court when I'm playing singles matches." - Martínez Sánchez said.

It was also a good week for Patricia Mayr, who reached her first semifinal on the WTA Tour, before falling to the eventual champion.

Masa Zec Peskiric pulled off the upset of the tournament as she defeated top seed and world No.15 Flavia Pennetta in the 1st round 6/3 4/6 7/6. The Slovenian then went on to reach the quarterfinal.

~jachal