Caroline Wozniacki spent last week playing at home, in Denmark at the eBooks Open; but lost Sunday in the final to Germany’s Angelique Kerber 4-6, 4-6. The doubles final turned-out to be a thriller, featuring Kimiko Date-Krumm and Rika Fujiwara of Japan winning over Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 4-6, 10-5.
The guys were on clay last week in Houston, where Juan Monaco took-out the hard-hitting John Isner in the final on Sunday 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. That’s Juan’s second clay court title of the year. This was John’s first clay-court loss of 2012; beating Federer, Wawrinka, Simon and Tsonga all on clay in Europe during Davis Cup play since February.
Speaking of clay, the Monte Carlo Masters are underway in Monaco – home of Croatian-great Ivan Ljubicic. He officially retired from the game after his first-round loss Sunday (0-6, 3-6 to Ivan Doding). Ivan played 15 years on the ATP World Tour and won 10 titles, including Indian Wells two years ago.
In 2005, he led Croatia to the Davis Cup title. We worked the first round Tie in Los Angeles that year, where Ivan dominated Agassi in the first match, then gutted out Roddick in his second singles match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(11), 6-7(7), 6-2. That weekend, the Home Depot Center was home court for the Croatians – Ljubicic and Ancic even beat the Bryans in four sets during the Saturday match.
Morocco also hosted a tournament last week, where Pablo Andujar beat fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos in the rain-delayed final 6-1, 7-6(5). The ladies also played in Barcelona, where Italy’s Sara Errani won her third Barcelona title in four years, beating Cibulkova in the final 6-2, 6-2.
What else? Prize money’s gone up at the French Open this year, and Rafa and Djokovic are planning a charity match in Real Mardrid’s 80,000-seat stadium July 14th (between Wimbledon and the Olympics), which will break the record for attendance at a tennis match set last year when 35,681 fans watched Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters play in Brussels.
