Rotterdam wide open

The WTA Tour is concentrated in Asia this week, while the ATP Tour has spread its tentacles to three other continents.  In Europe, top ten players Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem lead a Rotterdam field including nine of the world's top twenty.  Although only seeded five, the favourite has to be Grigor Dimitrov, who is gunning for his second title in the space of a week, and third for the year.

After surviving the horror first round draw of Alexander Zverev, with a fighting three set victory, Thiem was a major beneficiary from the withdrawal of seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut before the tournament, as the Spaniard would have been his likely quarter final opponent.  Instead, Denis Istomin came into the draw as a lucky loser from qualifying (the same Denis Istomin who defeated Djokovic in the Aus Open last month !) and qualifier Evgeny Donskoy moved into Roberto's place in the draw.

Ultimately Thiem has a quarter final date with French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and should move comfortably into a semi final where things become far more serious.

The Sofia finalists from last week, Dimitrov and David Goffin are set to meet again, this time in a quarter final, the winner awaiting Thiem or Herbert.

Dimitrov defeated Istomin and Goffin overcame Robin Haase to reach their match up, although Haase gave the Belgian a scare, taking the first set.

At the top of the draw, Cilic will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in what should be a crowd pleasing quarter final.  Tsonga has yet to drop a set, but Cilic has struggled in both his matches, needing to go the distance against both Benoit Paire and then fellow Croatian Borna Coric.

While Tsonga and Herbert have made the final eight, other French dreams have not lasted as long - eighth seed Lucas Pouille received his auf wiedersehen from Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round and Richard Gasquet was soundly beaten in the second set by fourth seed Tomas Berdych after a first set tie break.

Berdych's quarter final opponent is Martin Klizan who took the smile off Kohlschreiber's face in the second round.

Seeds tumble in Doha

A top class field assembled in Doha this week for the Qatar Open, a Premier event on the WTA Tour.  Five of the world's top ten, and eleven of the world's top twenty active players entered the tournament, headed by Angie Kerber and Karolina Pliskova as the top two seeds.

Seventh seed Timea Bacsinszky,  after a fine Fed Cup performance last week for Switzerland,  unfortunately succumbed to injury in her first round match against Yulia Putintseva.  However, the Kazakhstan player has been in good touch of late, and may well have won in any circumstance.  Fate dealt Yulia a cruel blow in her next match when it was she who had to withdraw when a set all against Monica Puig, the Puerto Rican now one of the quarter finalists. 

Only two of the seeded players survived until the quarter finals - second seed Pliskova and third seed Dominika Cibulkova.  

Angie Kerber was dumped by Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina, despite levelling the match with a second set whitewash 6-0. 

Kasatkina is currently playing Puig in the quarters, and their match is at a set apiece. It will be completed later today, with the winner claiming one of the spots in an all unseeded semi final.

The other place belongs to the winner of Caroline Wozniacki v Lauren Davis.  Wozniacki ended the tournament for fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets, while qualifier Davis said goodbye to sixth seed Elena Vesnina.

Samantha Stosur defeated eighth seed Barbora Strycova in three sets before bowing out to Cibulkova in a quarter final.  Cibulkova will play the winner of Shuai Zhang and Karolina Pliskova in the second semi final.  Zhang knocked out fifth seed Garbine Muguruza in three sets to reach the quarters and Pliskova edged past Caroline Garcia in two sets, winning 34 points from the 37 times her first serve landed in play.

Pliskova stars in Spanish Czech Mate

The WTA Tour took a back seat to Fed Cup action, and while the top two world ranked players were missing from the USA v Germany tie, it was great to see the Czech Republic and Spain have world number three and 2016 US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova and 2016 Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza turn up for their respective teams. 

Once again it was Pliskova who starred in this first round tie, proving a class or two too much for Spain's Lara Arruabarrena in the second match, following Muguruza's strange three set victory over Barbora Strycova 6-0 3-6 6-1.  Garbine must have wandered off somewhere in Ostrava for part of set two, but she was amazing for the rest of the match.

The key to the tie was match three, and Pliskova brought the visiting Muguruza crashing back to earth with a 6-2 6-2 whipping.  Strycova put the issue beyond doubt with another straight sets win at the expense of Arruabarrena,  and the doubles at the end was important only for bragging rights.

Other World Group first round results included the USA's whitewash of Germany, spearheaded by Aus Open semi finalist Coco Vandeweghe, and with great support from Alison Riske.

The semi final against the Czech Republic will be a tougher test.

Belarus easily accounted for the Netherlands 4-1, half those wins to wold number 128 Aliaksandra Sasnovich, whose Fed Cup record is now 11/7.

Semi final opponent for Belarus will be Switzerland, who had a similarly easy result over France, at least on the scoreboard.

After an even start, with Timea Bacsinszky defeating Alize Cornet and Kristina Mladenovic bringing France back by knocking over Belinda Bencic.

Bacsinszky won the key third match over Mladenovic and it was worthy of being the headline act.  For over 3 and a quarter hours the girls battled, 71 winners delivered between the two.

Mladenovic created 14 break opportunities to only 6 by Bacsinszky.  However both players converted three.  The first set tie break, won by Timea, ended up being the deciding factor, as the rest of the match was an even split.

Leading 2-1, the momentum drove Switzerland to a 4-1 result, but a Mladenovic victory in the third match could have changed things dramatically.

A.Zverev and Dimitrov win in Europe

Grigor Dimitrov became the first dual winner on the ATP Tour this year with his straight sets win over David Goffin in the Sofia Open final.  Although his first serve percentage was deplorable, Goffin still had more chances to break the Bulgarian serve.  He was especially wasteful in the first set, converting just one of five break points, while Dimitrov took advantage of both his.  Once he had the lead, it was clear that Grigor would be tough to peg back, and in a second set littered with service breaks, Goffin was slightly untidier, falling short 7-5 6-4.

Alexander Zverev's rise up the tennis tree continues, marked now with his second career title as a teenager - the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.  Zverev upset the French crowd in two sets and probably saddened Richard Gasquet even more, preventing the third seed from capturing his 15th career trophy.

The first set was tight, requiring a tie break to decide in the Zverev's favour, and the second set included just one break point, converted by the German, and enough to clinch the tournament 7-6 6-3.

In Quito, Victor Estrella Burgos completed a rare feat in tennis.  His third consecutive win in the same event - the Ecuador Open.  This was extra special, considering Italian Paolo Lorenzi was leading in the final by a set and a break.  Estrella Burgos fought back to take the second set 7-5, and the gripping finale went the distance, decided 8 points to 6 in a third set tie break for the Dominican Republic unseeded 36 year old.  He becomes the only ATP player ever to have won at least three times at the one event but nowhere else.

Dimitrov form continues in Sofia

After a week's break due to the first round of the Davis Cup, the ATP Tour was back in action on three fronts: Montpellier - France, Sofia - Bulgaria, and Quito - Ecuador.

South America drew very much a second string field, with top seed Ivo Karlovic the only top twenty player in the field, currently ranked 18.

However, he lasted just the one match, losing in the second round after a first round bye.  His victor was Victor Estrella Burgos, aged 36 from the Dominican Republic (a year younger than Ivo), currently ranked 156 but with a career high of 43 only eighteen months ago..  No breaks of serve for the match, in fact no break points faced by either player - Karlovic delivered 39 aces but to no avail, losing the second and third of the three tie break sets.

The win for Estrella Burgos should come as no surprise considering he is the two time defending champion in Quito.  He proceeded to the final of the Ecuador Open yet again, including a win over fourth seed Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in the semi final, the same player he defeated in Quito in the 2015 semis and last year's final.

This year he will need to overcome third seed Italian Paolo Lorenzi if he is to take home a third straight title.  Lorenzi made quick work of second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets in the semi finals.

Bulgaria welcomed home it's hero Grigor Dimitrov after his brilliant Australian summer, capturing the Brisbane title and pushing Nadal to the limit in the Aus Open semi final.  In Sofia, Dimitrov has shown no sign of a form lapse, where as third seed he has dropped only one set (the first of his tournament) en route to the final.

He avoided top seed Dominic Thiem in the semis, as the Austrian left the event in the second round (his first match) courtesy of a loss to unseeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.  The world number 87 also dismissed eighth seed Martin Klizan in the quarter finals before finding the Grigor hurdle a little to high to clear.

Dimitrov will face David Goffin in the final - the two met in the quarter finals at Melbourne Park just a couple of weeks back.  The Belgian will be hoping for a much better display from his racquet this time.  His semi final win over fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut was hard fought, coming from a set down and winning in a tie break third.

As in Sofia, where the locals will have a Bulgarian to cheer home in the final,  French fans in Montpellier are rapt to see Richard Gasquet flying their flag in the final.  The third seed knocked over two fellow Frenchmen, Kenny De Schepper and Benoit Paire, in the quarters and semis respectively.  Qualifier De Schepper had upset Aus Open quarter finalist Mischa Zverev in the opening round.

An all French final was prevented with the semi final defeat of second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga by fourth seed German Alexander Zverev. 

Another German, unseeded Dustin Brown, extended top seed Marin Cilic's terrible start to the season, ousting the Croatian in the second round - Marin's first match.

Mladenovic wins in Russia - 1st title

Kristina Mladenovic has given France a WTA title by taking out the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy.  It was Kristina's first title on the tour and came through victory over Yulia Putintseva in the final.  

Both players were unseeded, Mladenovic having ended the dream run of Natalia Vikhlyantseva in one semi final, and Putintseva surprising second seed Dominika Cibulkova.

Mladenovic received a rankings boost of twenty spots to 31, while Putintseva moved up seven places to a career high 27.

Vikhlyantseva jumped into the top 100 on the back of her semi final appearance, up twenty-six places to 89.

In Taipei City, top seed Elina Svitolina won the Taiwan Open, defeating Shuai Peng in the final.  Svitolina had beaten Mandy Minella in her semi final and Peng had accounted for Lucie Safarova to make the final.

Peng and Safarova improve their rankings but still remain well off their career bests of 14 and 5 respectively.  Minella has improved fifteen spots to 78, just twelve off her best ever.  Svitolina remains at her career high of 13, but is playing the sort of tennis to threaten the top ten very soon.

Davis Cup duties meant that the ATP Tour was put on hold for the past week.  Some of the world's best players stepped up to play for their countries - most disappointed with their absence.

The Zverev brothers couldn't help Germany across the line, as Belgium won that tie 4-1.  Steve Darcis was the hero, winning both his singles, including that against Alexander Zverev.  So David Goffin not playing did not hurt the Belgians.

Australia defeated a weakened Czech Republic team, with no Tomas Berdych.  Nick Kyrgios won his opening singles but Jordan Thompson was the highlight in his debut Davis Cup appearance,  winning both his matches.  John Peers, fresh from winning the Aus Open Men's Doubles, paired with Sam Groth to put the home team in an unbeatable 3-0 position.  

It will be Australia v USA in a quarter final following the 5-0 rout of Switzerland by the Stars and Stripes.  No Federer and Wawrinka made things difficult for the Swiss, and Sock and Isner led a strong team which took full advantage.

France easily knocked out Japan and the highest ranked players were not in attendance.  Gasquet and Simon led the French charge while Monfils and Tsonga missed, as did Nishikori for Japan.

Next for France will be Great Britain which defeated Canada 3-2, but Murray and Raonic were nowhere to be seen.

Serbia had no problem with Russia, winning 4-0, Novak Djokovic playing his part.  Nice to see a top five player dedicating time to his nation and not just to himself.

Spain is the second round opponent for Serbia, and it would be great to have both Novak and Rafa available for that tie.

Spain defeated 2016 finalists Croatia 3-2, led by Roberto Bautista Agut, and strong despite no Nadal and Ferrer.  Shame that Croatia was short of its best lineup.

Defending champion Argentina is fighting for survival, 2-2 with Italy, with the deciding finals singles between Guido Pella and Andreas Seppi to be played a day late due to bad weather.

Women battle in Russia, Taiwan

Now that our systems are clear of the last remnants of the fun-for-all Australian Open, it is time to turn to more serious stuff - the WTA events in St Petersburg and Taipei City.

Disappointed at losing the final in Melbourne to her sister, Venus Williams entered Russia as fourth seed and into the second round with a bye.  Unseeded Kristina Mladenovic extended the American's disappointment by defeating her comprehensively in straight sets.

Six of the world's top twenty including Venus, were assembled among the 28 in the main draw, Simona Halep the top seed.

Seventh seed Kiki Bertens was the first seeded casualty, falling to German Annika Beck in a three set first round upset.

19 year old Russian wildcard Natalia Vikhlyantseva has proved to be the tournament sensation, firstly knocking over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova and then fellow teenager and compatriot, 8th seed Daria Kasatkina, both in two sets.

Natalia was given a free pass through to the semi finals thanks to a walkover from Simona Halep and will be part of an all unseeded match against Mladenovic who followed her Venus success with another seed dismissal, wishing Roberta Vinci (6) farewell in their quarter final.

Kazakhstan may have lost Shvedova, but it still has representation in the form of Yulia Putintseva, who relieved third seed Sveta Kuznetsova of her playing duties in an absorbing quarter final.  Leading 6-3 and a break, Putintseva appeared assured of victory before Sveta struck back, and a tie break was required, won by the Russian.  Hardly anything split the two in the decider, with Putintseva grabbing the extra break and the set and match 7-5.

Second seed Dominika Cibulkova will be the semi final challenge for Yulia,  the world number five not dropping a set in her two wins over Donna Vekic and fifth seed Elena Vesnina.

The Taipei City tournament has world number 13 Elina Svitolina as its top seed and only top twenty player,  although there were five in the top forty present at the start.

Svitolina has made it through to a semi final, the only seed to reach that point.

Second seed Samantha Stosur was beaten in two sets by unseeded Shuai Peng in a quarter final.  Peng had previously accounted for fifth seed Katerina Siniakova in the second round.  Caroline Garcia (3) and Anastasija Sevastova (4) also lost second round matches - to Mandy Minella and Lucie Safarova respectively.  

Safarova proceeded to eliminate sixth seed Misaki Doi in a quarter final, and set up a semi final clash with Peng.

Minella also won her quarter final and will meet Svitolina in the other semi final.