25th week

“I wanted to keep alive winning one tournament a year for 12 years. I know three or four people have done that,’ Andy Roddick [32] said about equaling Federer’s record of winning at least one title in 12 consecutive seasons. The triumph of the former No. 1 in Eastbourne was surprising because Roddick came to England with a “wild card” after the worst period in his career (six straight defeats). He received two walkovers in the process, but was involved in a very tense match in the quarterfinals against Fabio Fognini, in which he blew three match points at 5-all in the decider only to save a mini-match point in the following game. Quarterfinals and semifinals were held within a day (due to bad weather) – Friday. It’s Roddick’s 31st title, he surpassed 600 wins during the week – it places him on No.  19 in the ranking of the most victories (Roddick’s former coach Jimmy Connors  leads with  1,242).
David Ferrer has been playing the best tennis of his life more or less since last year’s Autumn. In the meantime he has collected four titles on three different surfaces (clay, hard, grass), and valuable results indoors as well (Masters semifinal and beating Del Potro in a dramatic rubber of the Davis Cup final). In s’Hertogenbosch he triumphed for the second time in four years, increasing the number of titles to 15. “I’m very, very happy. I’ve won two times here,” said the champion. “This is special for me because grass is maybe my worst surface. On a clay court or hard court, my game is more adapted.” The runner-up – Philipp Petzschner – advanced to the final overcoming qualifying rounds not dropping a set in six matches.

Finals

Eastbourne (250)
S: (6,WC)Andy Roddick d. (3)Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-2
D: (3)C.Fleming/R.Hutchins d. (WC)J.Delgado/K.Skupski 6-7(3), 6-4, [10-8]

s’Hertogenbosch (250)
S: (1)David Ferrer d. (q)Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4
D: (1)R.Lindstedt/H.Tecau d. J.Cabal/D.Tursunov 6-3, 7-6(1)

Choker of the week:

Julien Benneteau, who doesn’t lose match point-up matches often. This time he suffered a defeat (to Yen-Hsun Lu 3-6, 6-2, 6-7) blowing three m.p. on serve at 5:3. Lu in the last two weeks won two matches from a m.p. down (Karlovic, Benneteau) and two others being two points away from defeat (Kunitsyn, Tipsarevic)!