42nd WEEK

It’s the last stage of the battle for London. Two players, who collected titles this week, Gael Monfils [10] in Stockholm, and Janko Tipsarevic [14] in Moscow, increased their chances to qualify for the season-ending championships. Monfils, who captured his 4th title, played more offensive tennis than ever in the prestigious Swedish tournament. The Frenchman surprised me with his serve-and-volley attitude, even after the second serve. Especially his more difficult shot (backhand volley) worked very well throughout the week. He came twice from the brink  against the youngsters in similar circumstances, he saved a mini-match point at 2:4 (30/40) in the 3rd set against Tomic, and erased a 2:4 (0/30) deficit against Raonic in the 2nd set, having lost the first one. “After Bangkok I haven’t practiced that much, mostly been in rehab for my knee. The key today was that I managed to keep up my concentration.” stated Le Monf.
“This was the first time we had an all-Serbian final, ATP or WTA, so it was a bit strange at the beginning for both of us,” stated Troicki after losing to his compatriot Tipsarevic. “Janko deserved to win, he was the better player today. We both played pretty good but he was more aggressive.” Tipsarevic’s 2nd title, and the second one in his last four events (titles were separated by two defeats, to Tursunov & F.Lopez); in both winning tournaments he’d defeated Davydenko.

Finals

Stockholm (250)
S:  (1)Gael Monfils d. Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
 D: (1)R.Bopanna/A.Qureshi vs. (4)M.Melo/B.Soares 6-1, 6-3

Moscow (250)
S:  (1)Janko Tipsarevic d. (2)Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-2
D: (1)F.Cermak/F.Polasek vs. C.Berlocq/D.Marrero 6-3, 6-1

Choker of the week:

Alex Bogomolov Jr., who wasted a set point in the 1st set tie-break and a 4:0 lead in the 3rd set against Viktor Troicki in Moscow. The Serb won 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-6(1) in 3:38 hrs; it’s the second longest “best of three” match of the season.