Serena has plenty of Olympic mixed options
Serena Williams says she has numerous options for her mixed doubles partner at the Olympics. "A girl loves to have choices," she told reporters at Fed Cup. "Obviously the Bryans are like the world's best doubles players. Andy [Roddick] and I are super, super close. Personally I love John [Isner]. You're not going to break the guy. It's an automatic I-don't-know-how-many games. I think it's so hard to choose. I don't know if you just throw everyone's name in a hat and figure out what happens next. Regardless, we want to do really well and take home a medal for the country. That's what it's all about."Youzhny defeats Lacko in Zagreb Indoors final
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP)—Mikhail Youzhny beat Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Zagreb Indoors in his 18th career final.
It was the first title for the 29-year-old Russian since St. Petersburg in 2010.
Youzhny faced no break points and lost only 12 points on serve during the 68-minute match.
After both players won opening service games, Youzhny won eight of nine games, winning the first set and three games in the second.
Lacko then kept his serve until the end of the match but could not challenge Youzhny.
“This was my best match of the tournament,” Youzhny said. “I gained some confidence here but I don’t want to think about whether I will be in the top 10 again or not.”
Playing in his first final, Lacko admitted he was “dismissed badly.”
Lacko reached the third round at the Australian Open as a qualifier, but was ousted by Spaniard Rafael Nadal. He had never previously advanced beyond the quarterfinals at an ATP event.
Kvitova downs Lisicki to put Czechs in final four
STUTTGART, Germany (AP)—Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova rallied to beat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki and send defending champion Czech Republic into the semifinals of the Fed Cup after giving her country an insurmountable lead in the first round on Sunday.
Angelique Kerber later beat Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-4 to salvage some pride for the hosts with the 24-year-old German’s first Fed Cup win.
But Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova reaffirmed Czech dominance in the final game of the best-of-five series with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Julia Georges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the doubles.
“We were a little unlucky to play the defending champs in the first round. It could have been the final, easily,” Lisicki said.
Lisicki took the first set on a tie break, 7-6 (2), but No. 2-ranked Kvitova came from behind for the second time in two days to claim the second 6-4 before seeing out the decisive set 6-1.
The No. 14-ranked Lisicki had won their only previous encounter in 2009, but the 22-year-old seemed to allow the pressure get to her in the second set when Kvitova turned the screw.
“I had trouble with my return in the beginning, and it took a long time before I knew what to do—it was in the middle of the second set. Anyway, I’m happy that I got it,” the 21-year-old Kvitova said.
Kvitova, who is on a 27-0 run indoors, had already prevailed over Julia Goerges after a long battle on Saturday, when Iveta Benesova also came from behind to beat Lisicki.
“I don’t know what the key is to playing indoor, but I’m very comfortable playing indoor,” Kvitova said.
It was the Czechs’ sixth win in seven meetings between the countries and they will next play Ukraine or Italy on April 21-22.
Germany goes into a playoff to stay in the eight-nation World Group.
“We have such a good team,” Lisicki said. “We’re really looking forward to playing again in April, and hopefully with a complete team.”
Germany’s top player, 10th-ranked Andrea Petkovic, had been ruled out with a lower back injury.
Kuznetsova finishes off Spain; Russia into semis
MOSCOW (AP)—Russia advanced to the Fed Cup World Group semifinals with a 3-2 win over Spain in the first-round series on Sunday.
Svetlana Kuznetsova secured the host an insurmountable 3-1 lead over Spain, beating Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the second reverse singles.
Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova easily won their opening singles on Saturday, but Carla Suarez Navarro narrowed the gap, routing Nadia Petrova 6-0, 6-3 in the first reverse singles on a hardcourt at the Olympic indoor stadium.
The Spanish pair of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja set the final score at 3-2 for Russia when, a set down, the Russian duo of Kuznetsova and Petrova retired in the doubles match because of Kuznetsova’s fatigue.
Russia will host either Belgium or Serbia in the semifinals on April 21-22.
Kuznetsova won four consecutive games in the first set and continued with three more in the second.
But she then lost concentration and Soler-Espinosa won the rest of the games in the second set to stay in the match. The Russian two-time major winner continued to struggle in the third set before Kuznetsova finally broke the Spaniard in the eighth game and served the match out.
Kuznetsova said that support from the home crowd helped to win.
“At such tough moments when you feel bad … nothing is going on on the court, you feel the support from the crowd,” Kuznetsova said. “You play for your country, it motivates you and it helps you to find strength for victory.”
Making her Fed Cup debut, Soler-Espinosa said her main goal in the match was to make Kuznetsova move a lot on the court and got tired in doing so.
“I felt no pressure though it was a decisive game for the Russians,” Soler-Espinosa said. “I tried to win till the very end but Kuznetsova was stronger. We came here to fight and we’ve proved it.”
Suarez Navarro rallied from 40-love in the opening game and won the rest of the games to close the set in 22 minutes. After an exchange of breaks early in the second set, the Spaniard broke decisively in the sixth game and wrapped up the win on her first match point as Petrova netted a forehand
“We were 2-0 down after the first day and I had to (take a) risk to win today,” Suarez Navarro. “Now we have one point. I hope Silvia will also play better today.”
After easy victories on Saturday, Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev replaced Sharapova—the original draw, who felt pain in her right arm on Sunday morning — with Petrova.
Suarez Navarro said she was surprised with the substitution and added that “it was much better for me.”
Petrova, who is 10-5 in Fed Cup matches and last played for Russia in 2009, couldn’t find her rhythm through the entire match. She made 40 unforced mistakes and had only eight winners.
“It’s tough to play at full strength when you are told to step on the court at the last minute,” said Petrova, who was scheduled to play in the doubles match. “Psychologically it’s easier to play when you are tuned for the match. I couldn’t feel my game today.”
Russia has won the Fed Cup title four times since 2004 and is 5-1 against Spain, which won the title five times between 1991 and 1998.
Berdych beats Monfils for Montpellier title
MONTPELLIER, France (AP)—Tomas Berdych won his seventh career title by defeating defending champion Gael Monfils 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the Open Sud de France final on Sunday.
The top-seeded Czech broke for a 5-3 lead in the final set on a double fault from Monfils, clinching victory with his 12th ace.
“It was very close in the end. I’m happy that I was able to do it,” Berdych told Canal Plus television. “Actually, it’s even more special to beat the home player, unfortunately for the crowd.”
Berdych relied on a strong serve and deep groundstrokes to go a set up but made several unforced errors to drop the second set.
“Tomas had a great match,” Monfils said. “He got off to a good start, so I had less maneuvering room. I tried my best. I tried to return better, I tried to play with a bit more aggression too.”
The 2010 Wimbledon finalist broke Monfils for a 2-0 lead when the Frenchman sent a backhand long. Berdych then saved three break points to hold serve before hitting two consecutive return winners to take the first set.
In the second set, Berdych double-faulted to give Monfils a break chance that the Frenchman converted for a 3-2 lead when the Czech’s backhand volley sailed long.
Monfils erased three break points at 4-3 and leveled at one set each on a forehand error from Berdych.
Berdych had won their only previous meeting four years ago in Dubai.
Want to Buy Bernard Tomic’s V8 BMW M3? Its For Sale!
Bernard Tomic in not so surprising news has decided to sell his V8 BMW M3.
I wish to move forward from this and use it as part of my learning experience, so I’ve decided to sell my BMW. I’ll put my dream car on hold for a while and in the next few years I’ll look again and hopefully I will be able to find a similar car. I now want to focus on my tennis without any distractions.
Tomic has a court date on February 14 for driving the car in areas not permitted under his license.
Bernard Tomic News So Far – Stupid and Got Caught! and Possibly Going to Jail.
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