TennisToday

Weekend Winners for April 15, 2012

ATP 250 Houston - Final

4 Juan Monaco d 2 John Isner - 62 36 63

Juan wins his 5th career title and 2nd of the 2012 season.

In the effort he has matched his ranking high of #14.

He is a clay court specialist with very few points to defend this clay swing.

If Juan plays his balls right he could quite well be a top 10 player by June.

That quest will begin this week at Monte-Carlo.

ATP 250 Casablanca - Final

3 Pablo Andujar d 7 Albert Ramos - 61 76(5)

Pablo wins his 2nd ATP title - both coming at Casablanca ('11).

The win propels him 19 spots to a ranking of #39 - one short of his high.

He will pop-over to Monte-Carlo this week where he's never played before.

He also has no matches to defend in Madrid and Rome.

If Pablo plays his balls right he could find himself seeded at Roland Garros.

WTA Copenhagen - Final

2 Angelique Kerber d 1 Caroline Wozniacki - 64 64

Ang wins her second WTA title - both coming this season.

She enjoys a rankings bump up to #14.

Ang prevented Caro from a hat-trick of titles at Copenhagen.

Caro seems to be, well... slipping.

She was #1 just a few months ago - she's currnetly ranked #6.

WTA Barcelona - Final

7 Sara Errani d 3 Dominika Cibulkova - 62 62

Sara wins her 4th WTA title and 2nd on the 2012 season.

As a result of her efforts she enjoys her highest ranking of #28.

She also took the doubles title yesterday with Roberta Vinci.

Michael Russell & Flavio Cipolla Reach First Ever ATP Event Semifinals

Michael Russell (above) has been out there banging balls since 1998.

Houston '12 marks his first trip to an ATP level tournament - 14 years later!

Major props man.

The qualifier will face the 4th seed Juan Monaco who leads their H2H 1-0.

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And over at Casablanca Flavio Cipolla is thru to his 1st ATP Sf as well.

Flavio (below) has also been out there for awhile - he turned pro in 2003.

Major props man.

He will face the tournament's 3rd seed Pablo Andujar for the first time.

Currently ranked #85 Flavio has been a resident in the top 100 since Sept.

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Both are literally little guys on the tour as both are listed at 5'8".

And as someone who also stands 5'8" I say: GO LITTLE GUYS!

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Update: Both lost. But they'll get decents bumps in the rankings on Monday.

ATP & WTA Weekend Winners for April 10, 2011

The ATP saw Pablo Andujar & Ryan Sweeting win their 1st tour titles today.

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Marbella WTA: 1 Victoria Azarenka d Q Irina-Camelia Gebu - 63 62

Vika makes it 2-in-a-row after winning at Miami last week.

Welcome to the top 5 girl!

Casablanca: Pablo Andujar d 5 Potito Starace - 61 62

Pablo is currently ranked #69. He is the 12th ranked Spaniard.

After today's win he should be up to #9 in Spain.

Charleston: 1 Caroline Wozniacki d Elena Vesnina - 62 63

This is Caro's 3rd title of 2011. And, yes, solidifies her #1 ranking.

Jet lag: She is playing an exo in Monte-Carlo tomorrow at 3. Phew.

Houston: WC Ryan Sweeting d 6 Kei Nishikori - 64 76(3)

Title #1 was accompanied with a jump in the River Oaks pool.

Ryan will see his ranking jump to just outside the top 50.

Quallies are gonna be a thing of the past.

Photos: AP/Reuters

Stanislas Wawrinka Wins Title in Casablanca

1 Stanislas Wawrinka d 3 Victor Hanescu - 62 63

Stan wins his 2nd title following Umag in '06. Both are on clay.

In an odd coincidence they play each other in the 1st round in Monte Carlo.

Currently ranked #23 this will move him up a spot or two, maybe top 20.

Stan has semifinal points to defend in MC and you know how it goes:

Play a final one week and crash out early the next.

Photo: atp facebook

Wawrinka & Hanescu to Meet in Casablanca Final

Casablanca ATP 250 Final:

1 Stanislas Wawrinka vs 3 Victor Hansecu - H2H: 0-2

Both players are looking for their second career ATP titles.

Stan is in his 8th final - he won Umag in '06

Victor in in his 4th final - he won Gstaad in '08.

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Semifinal Results:

1 Stanislas Wawrinka d Potito Starace - 64 36 64

3 Victor Hanescu d 8 Florent Serra - 64 61

Stanislas Wawrinka Leads Semifinals at Casablanca ATP 250

Casablanca ATP 250 Semifinals

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1 Stanislas Wawrinka (above) vs Potito Starace - H2H: 0-0

They have split two matches on the Challenger circuit.

Stan is looking for his 2nd career title - Potito his 1st.

Their quarterfinals matches:

Wawrinka d El Amrani - 63 61 * Starace d 4 Lukasz Kubot - 61 60

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3 Victor Hanescu vs 8 Florent Serra - H2H: 0-2

Both turned pro in '00 & both have just over 2 million in career prize money.

Their quarterfinals matches:

Hanescu d Gasquet - 76(3) 46 63 * Serra d 2 Garcia-Lopez - 62 62

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Photo: atp facebook - Tourist Wawrinka in Casablanca yesterday.

Stanislas Wawrinka Lead Quarterfinalists in Casablanca

Casablanca ATP 250 Quarterfinals

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1 Stanislas Wawrinka vs w/c Reda El Amrani (above) - H2H: 0-0

With his 2 wins this week El Amrani is now 3-3 lifetime in ATP level matches.

4 Lukasz Kubot vs Potito Starace - H2H: 0-1

Yea, that win was in Davis Cup (in Italy) way back in 2004.

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Richard Gasquet vs 3 Victor Hanescu - H2H: 2-0

Nice to see Richard win a couple matches this week. Can he make it 3?

2 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez vs 8 Florent Serra - H2H: 0-0

They met once in a Challenger in the Netherlands in '04 - GGL won it.

Similar career W/L stats - GGL: 105/132 - FS: 102/126

And both have made just over two million in prize money.

photo: atp facebook page

Potito Starace wins 1st round in Casablanca - which is merely an excuse to post shameless shirtless photos I took of him in Indian Wells

Potito Starace d Peter Luczak - 63 75

I only hung around his court for about 5 minutes - I mean how many pics can you take of a shirtless guy? But let me tell you there are a handful of guys who will camp out at the court and snap away for the entire practice session. It made me think about how players like Potito (you know, hot) feel about the gay thing... On the one hand he knows it coming and whips off his shirt anyway but on the other it must be quite annoying when an old fat guy is 5 feet away and never once lowers his camera for an entire hour cuz he's snapping away. I mean, you really need 2000 pics of Potito Starace? I took about 20 and moved on and even then I felt kinda dumb.

I could be way off... maybe the guy likes that he attracts a crowd. After all his chest was freshly shaved.

The Men's ATP Tour is Heading to Houston and Casablanca this Week

Casablanca ATP 250

Top Seeds: Stanislas Wawrinka (above), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Victor Hanescu, Lukasz Kubot, Paul-Henri Mathieu ('07 champ) and Olivier Rochus. Also in the field is Richard Gasquet - remember when he was suppose to be the next big thing?

Houston ATP 250

Top Seeds: Fernando Gonzalez ('00 champ), John Isner, Sam Querrey, Lleyton Hewitt (defending champ), Evgeny Korolev. Other notable players include a motley slew of Americans: Donald Young, Taylor Dent, Mardy Fish, Michael Russell, Rajeev Ram, Wayne Odesnik and Jesse Levine.

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It must suck hosting a tournament week after a Masters 1000 (or two) has been played as not a single top 10 player (only 1 in the top 20 actually) is in action this week.  Fernando Gonzalez is the highest ranked at #11 - playing in Houston. I suspect he's playing only because he skipped Indian Wells to tend to earthquake relief matters at home in Chile.

Photo: Wawrinka/Davis Cup March 2010 -Reuters