Novak Djokovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova hit top form to claim the singles titles at the China Open while Jo-Wilfred Tsonga boosted his chances of claiming a berth at the World Tour finals by winning the Japan Open.
China Open – Men’s event
Novak Djokovic halted Marin Cilic’s run of form to claim the men’s title in the impressive Beijing stadium built for the 2008 Olympic tennis event. In a rain interrupted final the second seeded Serb overcame the Croatian eighth seed 6-2 7-6(7-4) to claim his third title of 2009 from a tour leading eight finals.
Djokovic has now won 14 ATP World tour finals from 25 career finals
The 22 year-old Serb now leads the tour with 63 wins this year. Earlier in the year he took the titles in Dubai and on home soil in Belgrade. En route to the final he overcame both Fernando Verdasco and Robin Soderling who are vying for places at the ATP World finals. Djokovic will be the defending champion in London having claimed the Masters Cup title in Shanghai last year.
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It was a highly successful week for Cilic who scored consecutive straight sets wins over Nikolay Davydenko and Rafael Nadal. He has won all three meetings with the eighth ranked Russian and was meeting Nadal for the first time. The Croat has won two tour titles in 2009 at Zagreb and Chennai and reached his first Grand Slam quarter final at the US Open beating second seeded Andy Murray in the fourth round.
Prior to Beijing Cilic had won all three of his previous finals on the tour.
Australian Open Champion Nadal was playing in his first event since recovering from an abdominal injury sustained during the summer. Returning to the scene of his 2008 Olympic triumph the top seed battled through a tough draw overcoming Marcos Baghdatis, James Blake and Marat Safin before running into red-hot Cilic.
Nadal’s 6-1 6-3 loss against Cilic was the Spaniard’s heaviest defeat since losing 6-0 6-1 to Mikhail Youzhny at Chennai in 2008.
Defending champion and third seed Andy Roddick was upset in the first round losing 6-2 6-4 to Lukasz Kubot of Poland ranked 143. However the American remains in a strong place to clinch one of the remaining places to qualify for London.
Roddick has qualified for the year-end Championships for each of the last six years dating back to 2003. (He did not play in 2005 due to injury).
China Open – Women’s event
The women’s title went to sixth seeded French Open Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova who beat 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-4 in the final. It was her sixth victory in nine meetings with Radwanska having lost to the Pole at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2008.
The Chinese capital is one the Russian’s most successful venues as in four visits she has never failed to reach the final. In 2004 she fell to Serena Williams after holding a match point, in 2006 she claimed the title beating Amelie Mauresmo and last year she was defeated by Jelena Jankovic.
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Kuznetsova has now won 12 WTA tour titles from 30 career finals.
The 24 year-old has now won three titles in 2009 having triumphed on clay in Stuttgart and then taking her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros with victory over then world number one Dinara Safina in the final. She becomes the fifth player in 2009 to win three titles joining Safina, Elena Dementieva, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka
As a 19 year-old in 2004 Kuznetsova won the US Open title as the ninth seed with wins over Lindsay Davenport and Elena Dementieva.
It was a great week for 20 year-old Radwanska who reached her first final of the year. After eight quarter final losses she reached the semi-finals the previous week in Tokyo and went one step further in Beijing after impressive straight set wins over Olympic champion Elena Dementieva and Marion Bartoli.
In 2007 Radwanska became the first Polish woman to win a WTA tour title and in 2008 was the first Pole to crack the top 10.
In the third round 2005 Junior Wimbledon Champion Radwanska trailed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 4-6 0-4 before winning twelve of the last fourteen games. Semi-finalist Bartoli had herself, recovered from 3-6 1-5 down to beat the higher ranked Vera Zvonareva in the quarter finals.
Gabriela Sabatini twice lost matches after leading by 6-1 5-1 – against Mary Joe Fernandez at the 1993 French Open and against Kimiko Date in Miami in 1995
There were some big upsets in the earlier rounds. Eventual semi-finalist Nadia Petrova earned her second win in eight meetings against Serena Williams in the third round beating the American in a final set tie-break. For the second consecutive week Dinara Safina succumbed to a player ranked outside the top 100. In her second match the struggling Russian went down 7-5 7-6(7-5) to Chinese wildcard Zhang Shaui. At 226, Zhang becomes the lowest ranked player ever to defeat a top ranked player since rankings began.
Top ten lowest ranked players to defeat a WTA World Number One
No. 226 – Zhang Shaui bt Safina 2009 Beijing 2nd round
No. 188 – Julie Coin bt Ivanovic 2008 US Open 2nd round
No. 133 – Zheng Jie bt Ivanovic 2008 Wimbledon 3rd round
No. 133 – Kim Clijsters bt Davenport 2005 Indian Wells final
No. 132 - Chang Kai-Chen bt Safina 2009 Tokyo 1st round
No. 129 – Jelena Dokic bt Hingis 1999 Wimbledon 1st round
No. 94 – Tamira Paszek bt Ivanovic 2008 Montreal 3rd round
No. 83 – Virginia Ruano Pascual bt Hingis 2001 Wimbledon 1st round
No. 59 – Katerina Studenikova bt Seles 1996 Wimbledon 2nd round
No. 54 – Mariaan de Swardt bt Graf 1995 Brighton 2nd round
Rakuten Japan Open
Second seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga took the glory in Japan with a 6-3 6-3 victory over unseeded Mikhael Youzhny. It is the Frenchman’s 3rd title of 2009 and fifth of his career. The victory increased the 24 year-old’s chances of his securing a spot in London. In the semi-finals he defeated compatriot Gael Monfils who has an outside chance of qualification for London.
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In 2008 Tsonga took the last berth at the Masters Cup after beating David Nalbandian to win the Paris Masters. Had he lost to Nalbandian it would have been the Argentinean who qualified.
Youzhny had consecutive wins over third seed Gilles Simon, Tomas Berdych and Lleyton Hewitt to reach the final. It was the Russian’s second ATP tour world final of 2009 having lost the Munich final to Berdych in May. The 27 year-old reached a career high ranking of 8 in January 2008.
Youzhny reached the semi-finals of the 2006 US Open after overcoming Nadal 6-3 5-7 7-6(7-5) 6-1 in the quarter finals before falling in four sets to Roddick..
In a major shock top seed Juan Martin Del Potro was upset in the first round. In his first match since claiming the US Open title the Argentine lost 6-4 6-4 in the first round to Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin ranked 189. The 21 year-old has already secured his place at the ATP Tour world finals, it will be his second consecutive appearance at the year-end championships.
Britain’s top doubles player Ross Hutchins reached the final in Tokyo with new partner Jordan Kerr in just their third tournament together. The duo narrowly lost 2-6 7-5 8-10 to the established Austrian pairing of Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle. It was a fifth final for Hutchins and his first this year.
ITF / Challenger circuit
Held in Japan, alongside the ATP event, the ITF women’s $100k tournament saw another successful week for Katie O’Brien. Competing as a top 100 player for the first time the British number 3 reached the semi-finals without dropping a set before falling to Ukranian Olga Savchuk on a final set tie-break.
In a very consistent year O’Brien has reached four ITF finals in 2009 (winning two $25k events) and four semi-finals.
The best British performance at the women’s $50k event in Barnstable came from 18 year-old Lisa Whybourn who impressively reached the quarter finals before falling to former top 30 player Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
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Barnstable saw two blockbuster all British battles in the first round; US Open Junior Champion Heather Watson upset second seeded Mel South 7-6(10-8)6-2 while British number five Naomi Cavaday beat Laura Robson 6-4 7-6(7-3). Both players were then beaten in the second round.
Watson and Robson also teamed up in the doubles beating Britain’s top doubles player Sarah Borwell and South to reach the quarter finals. Anna Smith won the doubles title with partner Johanna Larsson without dropping a set.
Smith has now become Britain’s number three doubles player at a career high 173 in the rankings.
Jamie Baker continued his stunning run of form in Australia by winning the Futures event in Happy Valley, dropping just one set en route. The 23 year-old Scot has now reached four consecutive finals in Australia and Thailand winning 18 of 20 matches. Also in Australia, Emily Webley-Smith took the doubles title at the $25k Mount Gambier event with Australian partner Olivia Rogowska.
WTA news
Following her China Open win, Svetlana Kuznetsova has now qualified for the WTA year-end championships in Doha along with Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka. They will join Safina, Serena Williams, Wozniacki and Dementieva for the eight player event.
Kuznetsova has never progressed beyond the round robin stage of the year-end championships in four previous visits.
Jankovic, Zvonareva, Radwanska and Pennetta are leading the battle for the final singles spot in Doha. The four doubles pairs who will compete in the doubles draw have now decided; Cara Black and Liezel Huber, the Williams sisters, Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs will all be vying for the title.
It is the first time that the Williams sisters have qualified for the year-end championships in doubles.
This week on Tour
The inaugural ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai takes place at the spectacular Qizhong Arena this week which has previously been the home of the Masters Cup. Eight of the top 10 players are in action with World number one Roger Federer and British number one Murray missing through injury.
On the WTA tour International events are taking place this week in Linz, Austria, and Osaka, Japan.
Movers and Shakers
By virtue of outperforming Safina in Beijing, Serena Williams has narrowly regained the world number one ranking. It is a 73rd week and start of a fourth stint at number one for the 28 year-old American.
Williams now has 7945 ranking points to Safina’s 7940. This is the narrowest margin between No.1 and No.2 since the Tour switched to its current ranking system in 1996.
Kuznetsova moves back into the top five at number four and Radwanska reclaims her place in the top 10 at the expense of Flavia Pennetta who moves down to 11.
Djokovic has reclaimed the number 3 ranking from Murray. Until April the Serb had spent 81 consecutive weeks as world number three. The rest of the ATP top ten remains unchanged.
After her performance in Tokyo O’Brien has improved her career high ranking to 94, just one spot below Elena Baltacha.
ATP rankings 12/10/2009
- 1. Roger Federer (SUI)
- 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
- 3. Novak Djokovic (SER)
- 4. Andy Murray (GBR)
- 5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
- 6. Andy Roddick (US)
- 7. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)
- 8. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
- 9. Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
- 10. Gilles Simon (FRA)
Top Brits
- 4. Andy Murray
- 193. James Ward
- 238. Alex Bogdanovic
- 245. Josh Goodall
- 297. Dan Evans
WTA rankings 12/10/2009
- 1. Serena Williams (US)
- 2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
- 3. Venus Williams (US)
- 4. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
- 5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
- 6. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
- 7. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
- 8. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
- 9. Jelena Jankovic (SER)
- 10. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
Top Brits
- 77. Anne Keothavong
- 93. Elena Baltacha
- 94. Katie O’Brien
- 142. Mel South
- 216. Naomi Cavaday