Behind The Scenes At Inaugural Gazprom Hungarian Open
Behind The Scenes At Inaugural Gazprom Hungarian Open
May132017
Romanian Fed Cup captain Ilie Nastase’s presence at the Madrid Open trophy presentation ceremony was “irresponsible and unacceptable”, said the head of women’s tennis.
Nastase, 70, is under investigation by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) following his behaviour at last month’s Fed Cup tie with Britain.
However, Nastase shared the stage with Madrid champion Simona Halep on Sunday.
“He had no place on the court today,” said WTA chief Steve Simon.
Nastase, a former French and US Open champion, was ejected from the Fed Cup tie in Constanta after abusing British player Johanna Konta and captain Anne Keothavong.
The incident followed a derogatory remark from Nastase about 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams’ unborn child.
An ITF investigation was subsequently launched and Nastase has since been banned from the upcoming French Open and Wimbledon tournaments.
He was present on Sunday, however, to watch his Fed Cup team member Halep beat Kristina Mladenovic and win the title in Madrid – a tournament owned and run by fellow Romanian, Ion Tiriac.
“The only shadow cast on the day was Mr Nastase’s invitation to participate in the award ceremony,” said Simon, chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
“He is currently under a provisional suspension by the ITF for his prior offensive actions and we revoked his credentials at WTA events while the investigation is being completed.
“It was both irresponsible and unacceptable of the Madrid Open to bestow him an official role.
“The Madrid tournament is a Premier-level event and held to the highest standards of professional tennis and leadership which were not reflected today.”
Four-time champion Rafael Nadal ended a three-year, seven-match losing streak against Novak Djokovic to reach the final of the Madrid Open.
The Spaniard, 30, won 6-2 6-4 to claim his first victory over the Serb since the 2014 French Open final.
Nadal improved his record on clay this year to 14-0 and will face Austrian Dominic Thiem, who beat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-4 6-4, in Sunday’s final.
Kristina Mladenovic plays Simona Halep in Saturday’s women’s final.
Nadal confirmed his return to form with a long-awaited win over Djokovic, his 24th in 50 career meetings.
“It is a great result,” he said. “To win against Novak by that score you have to be playing very well, otherwise it’s impossible.
“It was an important match for me. I lost a lot of times in a row. To break that means there are always nerves.
“The circumstances nowadays are completely different compared to those seven matches that occurred before.
“I think that the last two years perhaps haven’t been my best two years. For Novak, they were really good years.”
Djokovic, playing his first tournament since splitting with his long-time coaching team, won just four points in the opening four games as he fell 4-0 down to a rejuvenated Nadal.
There were more positive signs for the Serb in the second set as he recovered an early break of serve, punching his fist in delight, but Nadal would quickly re-establish the advantage.
The Spaniard came through a tense final game, fending off a break point before converting his third match point and closing on a fifth Madrid title.
“He deserved to win,” said Djokovic.
“It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors.
“His quality was very high. He managed to do whatever he wanted really, especially in the first set.”
Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin ended Spain’s hopes of having a home doubles champion at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Frenchmen knocked out eighth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 6-2, 6-3 in 67 minutes to reach the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles final.
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Lopez/Lopez were attempting to become the first Spanish team to win the Madrid title in the 16-year history of the tournament. Mahut/Roger-Vasselin will meet fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, who received a walkover into the doubles final when Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock withdrew because Kyrgios has a left hip injury.
Kubot/Melo have now reached three of the season’s four Masters 1000 doubles finals. They made the final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Klaasen/Ram) and at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Monroe/Sock). Kubot/Melo also reached the quarter-finals (l. to Lopez/Lopez) at last month’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the season’s third Masters 1000 tournament.
Novak Djokovic is disappointed to lose his title at the Mutua Madrid Open, but was full of praise for Rafael Nadal after their semi-final match on Saturday.
The Serbian went in with a seven-match win streak against the Spaniard, but struggled to find answers to Nadal’s powerful baseline hitting in their 50th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Djokovic admitted afterwards that it would have been difficult to oust Nadal even if he were in peak form.
“Rafa was obviously a better player today. He deserved to win. He was controlling the game from beginning to the end,” said Djokovic. “His quality was very high and he managed to do whatever he wanted, especially in the first set. He did get the better of me in most of the stats today, most of the shots.”
However, the second seed didn’t mince words about his own performance. He hit 13 unforced errors in the opening set and often sprayed standard rally shots into the net or long. Although his effort never betrayed him, Djokovic said his game often did today.
“I tried my best. It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors, especially in the first set, said Djokovic, “I felt like I was playing well throughout the week. I could have played better today. But, again, I just had an opponent that was too good. It’s just one of these days where your opponent is playing better than you, and you have to be able to say “congratulations” and move on.
But despite the loss, Djokovic said there are positives to take as he heads to Rome for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he has won four times (2008, 2011, 2014-2015) and finished runner-up three times (2009, 2012, 2016). The World No. 2 reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final and faced a player inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since his opening event of the season in Doha. He believes having those experiences again will serve him well as he looks ahead to another difficult draw.
“It was really good to play in the semi-finals of a big event and to play against one of my top rivals. I haven’t had that feeling in months, so it’s great to feel that,” said Djokovic. “It was a positive week and a positive experience. I take more positives than negatives going into next week in Rome. As I go along, I hope to continue getting better and getting stronger.”
Romanian third seed Simona Halep retained her Madrid Open title with a three-set win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic in a gripping final.
Halep, playing her third Madrid final in four years, held off a Mladenovic fightback to win 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-2.
Mladenovic, seeded 17th, forced a deciding set despite appearing to struggle with a back injury.
Halep’s frustration was clear when she kicked her racquet into the path of a ball boy and received a code violation.
However, the world number eight came through to clinch victory after two hours and 43 minutes.
She has now won 22 of her last 25 matches on clay and will head into the French Open later this month as one of the favourites for the title.
In the doubles final, Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan beat Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova 6-4 6-3.
The premier rivalry in the game takes centre stage once again on Saturday afternoon when Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic …
While the early semi-final in Madrid is a star studded clash between two of the best in the game in Djokovic and Nadal, early…
Djokovic and Nadal face off in 50th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win!
Djokovic v Nadal | Thiem v Cuevas
The Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal rivalry becomes the first in the Open Era to reach 50 matches when the living legends meet in the Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals on Saturday. Djokovic is 26-23 against Nadal, with win streaks of seven matches and 15 sets. Nadal has not taken a set off of Djokovic since the 2014 Roland Garros final, when the Spaniard secured his ninth title in Paris.
Nadal is the greatest clay-court player of the Open Era with a 378-34 record on the surface (.917). However, he’s lost his last three matches and is 14-7 overall against Djokovic on clay (.667). No other player owns more than three clay-court wins over Nadal. Gaston Gaudio defeated Nadal three times on clay before the Spaniard turned 19 and won his first Roland Garros title in 2005.
Djokovic is in the midst of his second seven-match win streak against Nadal, sweeping seven straight finals from 2011 Indian Wells through the 2012 Australian Open. The No. 2 and No. 4 seeds have split two prior match-ups in Madrid and 16 prior semi-finals. They have met at all four Grand Slams, the ATP Finals, the Olympics, Davis Cup, and eight of the nine ATP Masters 1000 events (not Shanghai). Djokovic is 16-9 with five straight wins over Nadal at ATP Masters 1000s.
Nadal and Djokovic last met exactly one year ago on May 13, 2016, when the Serbian scored a 7-5, 7-6(4) quarter-final win in Rome. This is the longest gap between meetings since their rivalry was born on June 7, 2006, with a Nadal victory in the Roland Garros quarter-finals. Nadal won 14 of their first 18 meetings, culminating in a four-hour, three-minute triumph in the 2009 Madrid semi-finals. Djokovic, however, has claimed 11 of their last 12 meetings since losing in the 2013 US Open final.
First-time ATP Masters 1000 semi-finalists Dominic Thiem and Pablo Cuevas will play for a spot opposite Djokovic or Nadal in Sunday’s final. In their only previous match-up, Cuevas edged Thiem 7-6(7), 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5 after three hours and 51 minutes at 2015 Roland Garros. The eighth-seeded Thiem overcame an 0-4 record in ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals to beat Borna Coric on Friday.
Cuevas has earned three-set wins over unseeded opponents in all four of his matches this week. The 27th-ranked Cuevas is unseeded as well and trying to tie John Isner at 2016 Paris as the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 finalist since No. 29 Gilles Simon at 2014 Shanghai. He would be the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion since No. 50 Tomas Berdych at 2005 Paris.
MOST MEETINGS IN OPEN ERA
Novak Djokovic vs Rafael Nadal 50 Djokovic Leads 26-23
Novak Djokovic vs Roger Federer 45 Djokovic Leads 23-22
Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal 37 Nadal Leads 23-14
Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray 36 Djokovic Leads 25-11
Ivan Lendl vs John McEnroe 36 Lendl Leads 21-15
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