Maria Sharapova has taken the Cincinnati title. Maria Sharapova defeated Jelena Jankovic in the final 4-6 7-6 6-3. The match had 20 double faults and 16 service breaks, so wasnt the best match from either player, but still a very interesting and close final.
This is good preparation for both players leading into the US Open. With Kim Clijsters out of the US Open I will be placing my money on Sharapova for the title.
Maria Sharapova has won her semifinal at the Cincinnati event over Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-2.
Sharapova played a great match and has now a 9-0 career win loss against Stosur.
“I did many good things today that caused her a lot of trouble,” Sharapova said. “I didn’t give her much time to do the things she likes to do.”
Stosur is confident that she’ll eventually beat Sharapova.
“It’s possible to win,” she said. “I’ve got to believe that, but I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”
With the news that Kim Clijsters has pulled out of the US Open, Sharapova has to be one of the favourites for the title!
Here is Novak Djokovic’s press conference after defeating Ryan Harrison 6-2 6-3.
Rafael Nadal has been able to gain some much needed form with a 6-4 7-5 win over Julien Benneteau in Cincinnati.
“The moments that I spend one week ago in Montreal when I lost the match, serving for the match, always the confidence goes down a little bit after one match like that. So that probably affected me a little bit today with 5-4 and the serve. For the rest I am happy. I have to keep going, and that’s what I will try.”
Nadal will now face fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Ryan Harrison (Im not his biggest fan) will face Novak Djokovic for the first time ever today. Harrison defeated Juan Ignacio Chela in the first round of the Cincinnati tournament to get the right to play Djokovic.
“Novak has lost once this year, which in the first eight months is not too shabby,” Harrison said. “It’s a great opportunity. I’m learning from each match and going out with the expectation of winning. I was really close to winning in L.A. against Mardy [Fish]. I’m getting experience with each one and learning how to kind of control myself a little better. Obviously when pressure situations are on, you want to try to get your best performance.”
It will be interesting to see what the new hope of American tennis can do against the world number 1.
Former world number one Andy Roddick has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup which is also known as the Montreal Masters. Andy has cited that he has an injured oblique muscle, making it the second week in a row that Roddick withdrew from an event. Roddick has been bothered by injuries over the past two years, and was forced to pull out of Roland Garros about two months ago with a shoulder injury.
A local Montreal newspaper also reported that world number five Robin Soderling has also withdrawn from the event with a wrist injury. Among others who have opted out of the tournament include Jurgen Melzer (quad), and Xavier Malisse (personal).
After losing in the 3rd round of Wimbledon to Feliciano Lopez and then playing Davis Cup, Roddick has not played since and was forced to withdraw from this week’s tournament in Washington. Luckily, he hasn’t got any points to defend at Montreal since he has also pulled out from from the tournament last year. He should be able to compete at the Cincinnati event the week after Montreal and has sent a message about his return on Twitter: ”Hopefully I’ll be ready for cincy in 10 days or so…. Fingers crossed.” Let’s hope Andy will make it to the Cincy event since he does have 360 semifinal points to defend there, and also will make an appearance at the new tournament in Winston-Salem, NC just before the last Grand Slam of the year (US Open).
Well, it is a pity that some of the best players in the world have cancelled their appearance at Montreal but there are still plenty more great players who should make up for it.
Thanks to media man Pete Holtermann for posting this updated picture of the construction happening in Cincinnati for this summer’s play there. Check out a full roll of pictures on the Western & Southern’s facebook page.
The USTA today announced that it has reached an agreement with Tennis Cincinnati to acquire a majority interest in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters – the second-highest-attended summer tennis event in the U.S. after the US Open.
Additionally, the USTA and Tennis Cincinnati are in discussions to potentially secure a top women’s tournament for a future combined men’s and women’s event.
Under the new arrangement, Tennis Cincinnati will retain an ownership position in the tournament, and Paul Flory (Tournament Chairman), Bruce Flory (Tournament Director), Elaine Bruening (Tournament COO) and the current tournament staff will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the tournament.
I still find the tennis business structure a little funny. There is currently a lot of talks about about the ATP and WTA Tour structures and key to this is the current antitrust suit against the ATP. Currently, there is limited money in tennis as is, and all these corporations are too busy trying to fight each other, instead of thinking about ways to get the sport back to the top.
