The Olympus US Open Series continued at the Legg Mason 500 event in Washington D.C. In a final between the top two seeds, defending champion Juan Martin Del Potro overcame Andy Roddick 3-6 7-5 7-6(6) in a gripping two and a half hour battle to win his sixth career title.
Wimbledon finalist Roddick took the first set with one break of serve in the sixth game before Del Potro claimed the second by virtue of two breaks to one. It was the American top seed who made the early move in the decider jumping out to an early 3-1 lead before the Argentinean broke back in the sixth game. In the tie-break, Roddick saved three championship points from 3-6 before Del Potro took victory on the fourth at 7-6 with a crushing crosscourt forehand.
It was the first successful title defence of Del Potro’s young career as he became the first man to defend the Washington title since Andre Agassi in 1999. Del Potro battled through a tough draw including avenging his Wimbledon loss to Lleyton Hewitt in the second round by beating the Aussie in a final set tie-break.
The win was Del Potro’s second of the year after taking the Auckland title in January. The tall Argentinean has backed up his breakthrough 2008 season this year by reaching the quarter finals in Melbourne and leading Federer by two sets to one in the French Open semi-finals.
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Three-time Washington Champion Roddick defeated a succession of big serving giants en route to the final - in-form 6’ 6” Sam Querrey, 6’ 10” Ivo Karlovic and 6’ 9” John Isner before facing 6’ 6” Del Potro. His third round victory over Querrey gave him his landmark 500th victory on the tour, only the fourth active player on the ATP World Tour to achieve this feat and the 36th to do it in the Open Era.
The American has been resurgent in 2009 reaching his fourth semi-final at the Australian Open (against Federer), a first last 16 appearance at Roland Garros (against Monfils) and then pushing Federer all the way to 16-14 in the fifth set of the Wimbledon final.
Active players with at least 500 tour wins
Men
- Roger Federer - 657
- Carlos Moya - 573
- Lleyton Hewitt - 511
- Andy Roddick - 502
Women
- Venus Williams - 546
- Amelie Mauresmo - 542
- Elena Dementieva - 522
- Patty Schnyder - 518
At the WTA Premier event in Los Angeles, tenth seed Flavia Pennetta defeated 13th seed Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 in the final. It was the Italian’s eighth and biggest title of her career while Australian Stosur was seeking a first singles title. After winning the Palermo title two weeks ago the Italian is now on an 11 match winning streak.
Pennetta, who had lost the 2008 final to Dinara Safina, took the opening set with one break of the Stosur serve in the seventh game. The Italian broke first in the second before the Australian levelled at 3-all. From that point Pennetta pulled away with two further breaks to take the victory.
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In a week of upsets Pennetta had top 10 wins over fifth seed Nadia Petrova and second seeded Vera Zvonareva en route to the semi-finals where she had a first win over former world No.1 Maria Sharapova. The Russian had led 3-1 in the deciding set before Pennetta fought back to win 6-2 4-6 6-3. Nevertheless it was an encouraging week for Sharapova who defeated third seeded Viktoria Azarenka on her way to the first semi-final of her comeback.
Stosur had continued her fine form from Stanford, where she beat Serena Williams, and comfortably beat Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 on her way to the final. Of the top four seeds only Zvonareva reached the quarter finals. The biggest shock came in the 3rd round as 14th seed Zheng Jie knocked out world No.1 and defending champion Dinara Safina 7-5 4-6 6-4.
The Chinese player had led Safina 5-2 in the final set earlier in the year in Rome before capitulating but this time took the spoils by winning the final four games from 2-4 in the decider. However, the Russian gained enough points in LA to make her the first qualifier for the end of season WTA Championships in Doha.
British No.4 Mel South reached the final round of qualifying before falling 6-3 3-6 6-3 to the talented young American Melanie Oudin who had reached the fourth round at SW19. Elena Baltacha had lost a close contest 7-5 in the final set to American Lindsey Nelson in the first round of qualifying.
At the $10K event in New Delhi, British No.7 Emily Webley-Smith claimed a clean sweep of the singles and doubles titles. The twenty-five year old overcame Alexandra Kolesnichenko from Uzbekistan 6-1 6-1 in the singles final having partnered Kolesnichenko to the doubles title the day before. It was Webley-Smith’s second career ITF singles title and second of 2009 after victory in Gran Canaria in March.
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British No.4 Alex Bogdanovic had a spirited run to the semi-finals of the $100,000 Challenger in Vancouver where he took the first set from former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis before falling 3-6 6-4 6-3. The popular Cypriot then went on to take the title. On the doubles court Josh Goodall won his fourth title of 2009 by partnering Australia’s Samuel Groth to win the $50K Challenger in Campos do Jordao in Brazil.
At the $15K AEGON Pro-Series Foxhills, Morgan Phillips fought through qualifying and then reached the final where he lost to Slovak Ivan Klec. 19 year-old Josh Milton continued his good form by knocking out top-seeded Australian Greg Jones in the first round. There was home success in the doubles where Tim Bradshaw and Dominic Inglot overcame compatriots Jamie Baker and Chris Eaton.
Next week on tour
British No.1 Andy Murray will make his first appearance since losing to Roddick at Wimbledon in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal. World No.1 Roger Federer will return to the tour fresh from becoming the father of twin girls. The event will also see the return from injury of reigning Australian Open and Olympic Champion Rafael Nadal who has not played since losing in the fourth round of the French Open.
The WTA £2m Premier event in Cincinnati sees 19 of the world’s top 20 in action. However, much of the focus will be on the highly anticipated comeback of former world No.1 Kim Clijsters. As an unranked wildcard entry, the popular Belgian will be playing her first tournament since retiring in May 2007 and will take on 12th seed Marion Bartoli in the first round.
Rankings - Movers and Shakers
British No.1 Andy Murray will have the opportunity in Montreal to take the world No.2 spot from Rafael Nadal as the Spaniard defends the points from winning the Canadian tournament in 2008. If Murray can claim the Masters 1000 title he will move above Nadal and could do so just by reaching the semi-finals if Nadal loses his first or second match.
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In the new rankings Bogdanovic has moved up 22 places after his run in Vancouver and James Ward has moved one spot ahead of Goodall to become British No.2.
The only change in the new top 10 this week sees Fernando Gonzalez move past Fernando Verdasco for 10th spot after his run to the Washington semi-finals. Federer is now in his 243rd total week at No.1.
In the WTA rankings Katie O’Brien moves past Elena Baltacha to No.105, just one short of her career high ranking. Georgie Stoop has risen 15 places to a career best ranking of No.178 after her Vigo victory over O’Brien the previous week.
There are no changes in the top 10 with Safina enjoying her 17th consecutive week at the top but Serena Williams will be able to close the gap with a strong performance in Cincinnati. With her Los Angeles victory Pennetta moves back to the verge of the top 10 at No.12 with Stosur moving to a career best No.17 and Sharapova moving back into the top 50.
ATP rankings - 10/08/2009
Top 10
- 1. Roger Federer (SUI)
- 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
- 3. Andy Murray (GB)
- 4. Novak Djokovic (SER)
- 5. Andy Roddick (US)
- 6. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
- 7. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)
- 8. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
- 9. Gilles Simon (FRA)
- 10. Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)
Top Brits
- 3. Andy Murray
- 205. James Ward
- 206. Josh Goodall
- 213. Alex Bogdanovic
- 255. Dan Evans
WTA rankings - 10/08/2009
Top 10
- 1. Dinara Safina (RUS)
- 2. Serena Williams (US)
- 3. Venus Williams (US)
- 4. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
- 5. Jelena Jankovic (SER)
- 6. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
- 7. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
- 8. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
- 9. Viktoria Azarenka (BLR)
- 10. Nadia Petrova (RUS)
Top Brits
- 55. Anne Keothavong
- 105. Katie O’Brien
- 106. Elena Baltacha
- 148. Mel South
- 178. Georgie Stoop