Notable Results
- Barcelona R2: Santiago Giraldo d. [3]Fabio Fognini 6-0, 4-0 (ret.)
- Barcelona R2: Teymuraz Gabashvili d. [2] David Ferrer 6-4, 6-2
- Barcelona R2: Andrey Golubev d. [16] Benoit Paire 6-4, 5-2 (ret.)
- Stuttgart R1: [9] Ana Ivanovic d. Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-3
- Stuttgart R1: [6] Maria Sharapova d. Lucie Safarova 7-6, 6-7, 7-6
- Stuttgart R2: Alisa Kleybanova d. [3] Petra Kvitova 6-2, 7-6
- Marrakech R1: Beatriz Garcia Vidagany d. [8] Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2
News and Links:
Andy Murray received a civic honor in Dunblane, and became emotional during his speech.
Gabashvili had the upset of the day on the ATP side, taking out Ferrer in Barcelona. He seemed to have gotten some confidence from their match in Miami.
‘Three weeks ago I lost to Ferrer in Miami but I dominated that first set. Today, I wanted to maintain my energy and keep it going, which I did for (90) minutes, but any more and it might have been tougher to win,’ Gabashvili said after winning for the first time on the third try against Ferrer.
The biggest upset on the WTA side was Kleybanova taking out Petra in Stuttgart. It was Alisa’s first top 10 win since her comeback from cancer.
Kleybanova : I feel I play very good and I enjoy it. Inside me I feel much better than when I had my best ranking. #wta #PorscheTennis
— Angelica Fratini (@angelikf) April 23, 2014
Courtney Nguyen has a great interview with Donna Vekic over at Beyond the Baseline. I love her drive.
SI.com: Is it hard for you to balance your ambition with a need to be patient?
Vekic: It’s definitely the battle I have with my coach every day. I want everything now and he’s like, No, you’re not good enough yet. You’re not good enough to beat these top players. Because I had such success early in my career, it’s been tough to deal with the tough losses I’ve had in the last few months [before Indian Wells]. It’s all part of the tennis life and part of the ups and downs. But once you’ve been down a little bit, when you get that win it feels especially good.
A tragic ending to a bizarre story: Michael Thomas Boatwright, the tennis player who awoke in Palm Springs with no memory last year, has passed away in Sweden.
I enjoyed this ranking of Rafa’s clay losses by Ed McGrogan. Do you agree?
Pete Bodo recaps Sharapova’s marathon win over Safarova in Stuttgart.
Tennis on Twitter:
This is just called “a Wednesday”. RT @ByJoeFleming Murray gets emotional (AP) pic.twitter.com/EIiSk2a0ZA
— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) April 23, 2014
Kvitova has lost her opening match at three of seven 2014 tournaments.
— Chris Skelton (@ChrisSkelton87) April 23, 2014
Interesting RT @StatsWTA first 7-6 6-7 7-6 in main draws since Quebec 2001 – Shaughnessy d. Stevenson
— Ataraxis (@Ataraxis00) April 22, 2014
@PseudoFed hahahahah
— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) April 20, 2014
I know I’ll get the usual fan-boy, grow-up nonsense but seeing Andy Murray well up at Dunblane High School today hit me where it hurts.
— Neil Harman (@NeilHarmanTimes) April 23, 2014
What’s up with Fognini and Paire retiring just 2 and 1 games away from defeat? At that point couldn’t they play it out?