Monday, May 04, 2015

Wk.17- When Galileo Is Away, the Backspinner Will Play


Hello, all. Todd here.

Well, I'm coming to you to finally admit that this "Galileo West" character is actually a creation of my overactive imagination.

Psych!

No, that's just a joke. Mister West IS real. But he's not here this week, as he's off helping the wheels of democracy turn as smoothly as possible across the big pond. At least that's what I've been told. But he'll be back next week.

In the mean time, I'm going to fill in for him with a quick Top 10 rundown of some of the notes of note from last week on the ATP tour.



*WEEK 17 CHAMPIONS*
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
S: Roger Federer def. Pablo Cuevas 6-3/7-6(11)
D: Albot/Lajovic d. Lindstedt/J.Melzer
MUNICH, GERMANY
S: Andy Murray def. Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(4)/5-7/7-6(4)
D: Peya/Soares d. Zverev/Zverev
ESTORIL, PORTUGAL
S: Richard Gasquet def. Nick Kyrgios 6-3/6-2
D: Huey/Lipsky d. M.Lopez/Marrero


1. I'm sure Galileo would have been all over Roger Federer grabbing career title #85 in the inaugural edition of the ATP's event in Istanbul. His straight sets victory over Pablo Cuevas in the final adds Turkey to Fed's list of countries in which he's been crowned a champion, making him the first man to claim singles titles in NINETEEN different nations. This is Federer's third title of 2015 (one behind world #1 Novak Djokovic's tour-leading total), and he's now played in 128 ATP singles finals (third behind Jimmy Connors' 161 and Ivan Lendl's 146 in tour history).


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2. Ah, I see. NOW I know why Galileo isn't here this week -- Andy Murray reached his first career clay court final AND WON IT on Monday after weather delays pushed the match back a day. The whole thing HAD to send G's world into a tailspin, right? He needs a week to recover from the shock!

The Scot defeated two-time champ Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 3:02 final, grabbing career title #32 and becoming the first man representing Great Britain to win a tour singles title on clay since Buster Mottram in Palma in 1976. So there's that. There's also the fact that Murray knocked off the German in a 12-10 5th set in the 3rd Round of Roland Garros last year. So there's that, too Oh, and this: Kohlschreiber has now lost thirteen consecutive matches vs. Top 5 players. So maybe Galileo shouldn't be TOO shocked.
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3. Did you know that Jurgen Melzer has a tennis-playing brother? Well, he does. And world #155 Gerald, 24, just had a career week in Munich, qualifying and reaching the singles semifinals after notching a pair of Top 50 victories over Pablo Andujar and Dominic Thiem. Good for him.
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4. Oh, something else that Galileo SURELY would have enjoyed talking about... Richard Gasquet returned to action for the first time since his Indian Wells back injury, winning his third career clay title in Estoril over Aussie Nick Kyrgios, who was attempting to win his first ATP singles title. The last time these two met was in last year's Wimbledon 2nd Round, where the big-hitting Kygrios saved nine match points and upset the Frenchman. The Estoril final only lasted 65 minutes, though, as Gasquet was never broken (he saved all three break points he faced in the match), and the win lifts him into a tie with Gilles Simon with twelve career titles, second most by a French player in the Open era behind only Yannick Noah (23).

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5. In doubles, the Filipino-American pair of Treat Huey & Scott Lipsky combined to win their first title as a duo in Estoril...
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6. ...while Alexander Peya & Bruno Soares scored their 11th ATP crown in Munich, defeating the Zverev brothers, Alexander and Mischa in the final. The siblings were trying to become the first all-German pair to win the title since 2008.
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7. In Istanbul, the inaugural doubles champs were Radu Albot & Dusan Lajovic, who were teaming up in an event for the very first time.

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8. In the USTA's three-event Wild Card Playoff to determine who'll receive a golden ticket into the Roland Garros main draw, 17-year old Frances Tiafoe's run to the final of the Tallahassee challenger proved to be the last piece to the puzzle of the what will be the former junior star's grand slam debut later this month. While he didn't win any of the three events, Tiafoe went a combined 12-3 and became the fourth-youngest American male to ever reach a final on the circuit, behind only Michael Chang, Andre Agassi and Tiafoe's friend, fellow 17-year old Stefan Kozlov (the current #5 Jr.). Tiafoe has climbed into the Top 300 for the first time in the new rankings.

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9. There will be no Djokovic this week in Madrid, but there is the possibility of a Roger/Rafa semifinal. They've only played on clay once since the 2011 Roland Garros final, in the '13 Rome final won in straight sets by Nadal. Speaking of...
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10. And, finally, I've heard that Federer and Nadal walk on water. But this is ridiculous...

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*2015 ATP FINALS*
5...Novak Djokovic, SRB (4-1)
4...Roger Federer, SUI (3-1)
3...David Ferrer, ESP (3-0)
3...Kei Nishikori, JPN (2-1)
3...Andy Murray, GBR (1-2)
3...Tomas Berdych, CZE (0-3)
2...Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, ESP (2-0)
2...Richard Gasquet, FRA (2-0)
2...Stan Wawrinka, SUI (2-0)
2...Pablo Cuevas, URU (1-1)
2...Jiri Vesely, CZE (1-1)



Casey Dellacqua wasn't in action last week, but she's already experienced highs and lows this week in Madrid. She opened with a weekend singles win over Francesca Schiavone, but lost on Monday to Aga Radwanska. In doubles, she's teamed with Yaroslava Shvedova. The pair has already put up a win over #6-seeded Garcia/Srebotnik, the Stuttgart runners-up from two weeks ago.



All for now, and visit WTA BACKSPIN please.

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posted by Todd.Spiker @ 9:53 PM 

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