Jerzy Janowicz hasn’t had a great summer. Last year’s ATP phenom has played middling tennis in 2014, including first round losses in Bastad and Toronto. After dropping out of the top 50 after Wimbledon, Janowicz has won two straight here in Cincinnati. He’s on to the third round for the first time in a while and the first time at Western & Southern Open. Janowicz lost in the first round here and in Flushing Meadows last year, so this one had to mean a lot. Janowicz hit 12 aces on his way to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over world #8 Grigor Dimitrov in 1:47. I say it had to mean a lot because not me nor anyone in the media requested an interview with him after the match. I had assumed someone else had. Next time.
Genie Bouchard has also had a bummer summer after her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon. She continued her Summer of Discontent with a 3 set loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova. Bouchard turned the tables on the press afterwards, who tried to remind her that she hasn’t been at the top of her form immediately preceding other Slams in which she’s seen success.
It was good to see her stick up for herself.
“[S]ometimes you guys ask me the questions and then you sound kind of more negative than I feel. I’m like, well, okay”, she responded.
Fernando Verdasco went for career win #400 today against 14 seed Marin Cilic, but couldn’t give the Cincy fans an “I was there” moment for them, edged out 7-6(6), 7-6(5). 400 wins is a feat that only 11 other ATP players have pulled off and it will arrive soon enough, just not in Mason.
Petra Kvitova, Grigor Dimitrov and Thomas Berdych were all eliminated early in today’s first session. Kvitova was a straight sets victim of Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6(2). Svitolina will face Carla Suarez Navarro in the third round.
Dimitrov was upended by Jerzy Janowicz as mentioned above and gets Julien Benneteau in the 3rd round.
Thomas Berdych fell to Yen-Hsun Lu. Lu came back big after dropping the first set and took out the 4 seed, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Instead of Berdych, Fabio Fognini will play Lu next. One of them will advance to the quarterfinals. I very briefly spoke with Fognini before he hit the shower today.
Serena Williams prevailed in a two set tiebreaker nail-biter, 7-6(7), 7-6(7) over Sam Stosur, who must be wondering what more she could possibly have done to beat the world #1.
A massive win for Steve Johnson over Ernests Gulbis today. The next time he hits the court, Stevie will attempt to become the first qualifying quarterfinalist in 7 years at this event.
And let’s not Roger Federer. Naturally, the 5-time Cincy champion advanced.
And everyone was there to see it, as the tournament announced ‘the Wednesday day session drew a single-session record of 14,336, surpassing the mark of 13,704 that was set at this same session in 2013. Today’s total attendance combing both sessions was 25,686, surpassing the mark of 25,155 that was set on this same day in 2013’.
This is an amazing and not-so-secret event.
ORDER OF PLAY – WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014
CENTER COURT start 11:00 am
ATP – [3] Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) vs [14] Marin Cilic (Croatia)
Not Before 1:00 pm
WTA – [1] Serena Williams (USA) vs [13] Flavia Pennetta (Italy)
Not Before 2:30 pm
ATP – [1] Novak Djokovic (Serbia) vs [16] Tommy Robredo (Spain)
Night Session – Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – Gael Monfils (France) vs [2] Roger Federer (Switzerland)
Not Before 9:00 pm
WTA – [12] Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) vs [6] Angelique Kerber (Germany)
GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
ATP – Julien Benneteau (France) vs Jerzy Janowicz (Poland)
ATP – [8] Andy Murray (Great Britain) vs [11] John Isner (USA)
Not Before 3:00 pm
WTA – [5] Maria Sharapova (RUS) vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia)
Not Before 7:00 pm
WTA – [4] Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) vs Sabine Lisicki (Germany)
[1] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA) vs Eric Butorac (USA) / Raven Klaasen (South Africa)
COURT 3 start 11:00 am
WTA – [16] Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) vs [2] Simona Halep (Romania)
ATP – [15] Fabio Fognini (Italy) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (Chinese Taipei)
Not Before 2:30 pm
ATP – [5] Milos Raonic (Canada) vs [WC] Steve Johnson (USA)
WTA – Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) vs [9] Ana Ivanovic (Serbia)
Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) vs [6] David Ferrer (Spain)
COURT 9 start 1:00 pm
WTA – [15] Carla Suárez Navarro (Spain) vs Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)
Not Before 3:00 pm
WTA – Sloane Stephens (USA) vs [8] Jelena Jankovic (Serbia)
COURT 4 start 11:00 am
WTA – Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) / Yaroslave Shvedova (Kazakhstan) vs Cara Black (Zimbabwe) / Sania Mirza (India)
WTA – [8] Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) / Anastasia Rodionova (Russia) vs Marina Erakovic (New Zealand) / Arantza Parra Santonja (Spain)
WTA – [1] Sara Errani (Italy) / Roberta Vinci (Italy) vs Timea Babos (Hungary) / Kristina Mladenkovic (France)
[7] Racquel Kops-Jones (USA) / Abagail Spears (USA) vs [WC] Melanie Oudin (USA) / Taylor Townsend (USA)
WTA after suitable rest – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) / Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) vs [2] Su-Wei Hsieh (Chinese Taipei) / Shuai Peng (China)
Court 6 start not before 1:30 pm
ATP after suitable rest – Marin Cilic (Croatia) / Santiago Gonzalez (Mexico) vs [2] Alexander Peya (Austria) / Bruno Soares (Brazil)
WTA after suitable rest – Garbine Muguruza (Spain) / Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) vs [5] Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) / Elena Vesnina (Russia)
ATP after suitable rest – [WC] Steve Johnson (USA) / Sam Querrey (USA) vs [8] David Marrero (Spain) / Fernando Verdasco (Spain)
Results – Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Men’s Singles – Second Round
[2] Roger Federer (Switzerland) d Vasek Pospisil (Canada) 76 (4) 57 62
Yen-Hsun Lu (Taipei) d [4] Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 36 63 64
[5] Milos Raonic (Canada) d [WC] Robby Ginepri (USA) 62 62
[6] David Ferrer (Spain) d Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 67 (4) 76 (4) 76 (4)
Jerzy Janowicz (Poland) d [7] Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) 64 36 63
[8] Andy Murray (Great Britain) d Joao Sousa (Portugal) 63 63
[WC] Steve Johnson (USA) d [9] Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 64 64
[11] John Isner (USA) d [Q] Marinko Matosevic 63 76 (1)
[14] Marin Cilic (Crotia) d Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 76 (6) 76 (5)
Gael Monfils (France) d [13] Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain) 64 61
[15] Fabio Fognini (Italy) d Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 61 64
[16] Tommy Robredo (Spain) d [Q] Sam Querrey (USA) 62 64
Mikahil Youzhny (Russia) d Andreas Seppi (Italy) 63 64
Julien Benneteau (France) d [Q] James Ward (Great Britain) 62 62
Men’s Doubles – Second Round
[3] Daniel Nestor (Canada) / Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) d Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) / Santiago Giraldo (Colombia) 62 63
Robert Lindstedt (Sweden) / Marcin Matkowski (Poland) d [4] Ivan Dodig (Croatia) / Marcelo Melo (Brazil) 62 64
Vasek Pospisil (Canada) / Jack Sock (USA) d [5] Leander Paes (India) / Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 61 46 10-8
[6] Julien Benneteau (France) / Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France) d Juan Sebastian Cabal (Colombia) / Tommy Robredo (Spain) 16 64 10-7
Jean-Julien Rojer (Russia) / Horia Tecau (Romania) d [7] Marcel Granollers (Spain) / Marc Lopez (Spain) 75 76 (5)
Men’s Doubles – First Round
Eric Butorac (USA) / Raven Klaasn (South Africa) d Feliciano Lopez (Spain) / Jurgen Melzer (Austria) 46 36
Women’s Singles – Second Round
[1] Serena Williams (USA) d Samantha Stosur (Australia) 76 (7) 76 (7)
Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) d [3] Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 62 76 (2)
[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) d Kurumi Nara (Japan) 62 62
[6] Angelique Kerber (Germany) d Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) 64 61
Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) d Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) 64 36 62
[8] Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) d [Q] Annika Beck 61 76 (0)
[9] Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) d [WC] Christina McHale (USA) 64 60
[13] Flavia Pennetta (Italy) d [Q] Taylor Townsend (USA) 64 63
Sabine Lisicki (Germany) d [14] Sara Errani (Italy) 64 26 76 (2)
[15] Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) d [Q] Pauline Parmentier (France) 63 75
[16] Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) d [Q] Zarina Diyas (Kazakhstan) 64 62
Sloane Stephens (USA) d Barbora Zahlavova (Czech Republic) 75 61
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) d [Q] Karin Knapp (Italy) 61 63
Women’s Doubles – Second Round
[1] Sara Errani (Italy) / Roberta Vinci (Italy) Daniela Hantuchova (Croatia) / Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Czech Republic) 63 75
Kimiko Date-Krumm (Japan) / Andrea Hlavackova (Czech Republic) d [3] Kveta Peschke (Czech Republic) / Katarina Srebotnik (Croatia) 64 06 10-6
Timea Babos (Hungary) / Kristina Mladenovic (France) d Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (Poland) / Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) 66 Ret.
Women’s Doubles – Second Round
[5] Ekaterina Makarove (Russia) / Elena Vesnina (Russia) d Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) / Alicja Rosolska (Poland) 61 61
Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) / Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) d Andrea Petkovic (Germany) / Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) 64 64
Marina Erakovic (Australia) / Arantxa Parra Santonja (Spain) d Oksana Kalashnikova (Georgia) / Olga Savchuk (Ukraine) 16 64 11-9
Tennis Atlantic 