The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsWawrinka Victorious in Dubai, Thiem Triumphs in Mexico, and Cuevas Wins Again in Brazil.
Stan Wawrinka won an enthralling and dramatic final 6-4 7-6 against journeyman Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The tournament featured Novak Djokovic, who failed to win a tournament after 17 consecutive ATP titles that he played in, withdrawing from his quarter final match against Feliciano Lopez due to an eye infection. The tournament also saw the contentious match since the previous altercation between Nick Kyrgios, flying high after last week’s victory, and Stan Wawrinka, but failed to live up to expectation after Wawrinka won 6-4 3-0, at which point Kyrgios, who had been struggling with a back problem and food poisoning, conceded. The final was an exceptional match of high quality tennis as the second set tie break was won 15-13 after 24 minutes. Despite the loss, Baghdatis can be pleased that having recently considered retirement, he was able to make an ATP Final and be competitive against the top players in the world, having beaten 5th and 4th seeds Viktor Troicki and Roberto Bautista Agut, whereas Wawrinka was relatively untroubled throughout the tournament, only dropping a set in the first round against Sergiy Stahkovsky. The tournament means Baghdatis will move up 18 places to 39 in the ATP World Rankings.
Elsewhere, having broken the top 15 last week, Dominic Thiem won his first ATP 500 title, beating Aussie, Bernard Tomic in the final 7-6 4-6 6-3. Thiem rounded off a fantastic February, beating Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer and winning the first match between himself and Tomic, winning 2 titles and the 22 year old will hope to be able to take his form into the ATP 1000 tournaments and the slams. The young Austrian will move to 14 in the rankings, overtaking Kevin Anderson. It was another good week for the Americans as qualifier Taylor Fritz beat 8th seed Jeremy Chardy and made the quarter final, to play fellow American, Sam Querrey, who beat the first seed, world number 6, Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-3, which will se him move up another 7 places to 36. Ryan Harrison played a brilliant match to beat former US Open champion Marin Cilic, beating the 3rd seed 6-3 3-6 6-2. It was also a good week for Alexandr Dolgopolov, who beat 2nd seed David Ferrer and reached the semi final, beaten by Bernard Tomic 1-6 6-4 6-3. The Ukrainian will rise to 29 in the rankings. Thiem had to beat Damir Dzumhur, Dmitri Tursunov, Grigor Dimitorv and Sam Querrey to make the final, whereas Tomic beat Rajeev Ram, Adrian Mannarino, Illya Marchenko and Dolgopolov. This means Tomic will move to 20 in the rankings.
Pablo Cuevas won his 2nd title in as many weeks in Brazil this week, this time defeating Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 6-3 in Sao Paulo. The Uruguayan rose 18 places last week to World Number 27, after winning in Rio De Janeiro, and will continue to rise to 25 in the rankings, and will no doubt hope to better his previous career high of 21. Sao Paulo saw 8 Spaniards compete out of the 28 available places, so it was no wonder when some of the bigger names were knocked out by Spaniards. Despite this it was a tournament to forget for Nicolas Almagro, as the 7th seed lost to wildcard Thiago Monteiro 6-3 7-5. However, Roberto Carbelles Baena, who beat 2nd seed home favourite Thomaz Bellucci 2-6 6-4 6-3 and Inigo Cervantes beat Marcel Granollers and 4th seed Federico Delbonis to reach the quarter finals, only to be beaten by Carreno Busta, who himself knocked out 5th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round, 0-6 6-4 7-6. It was a tournament to remember then for Carreno Busta, and also for Dusan Lajovic, who lost to the eventual winner in the semi-final 6-3 6-4, but beat the number 1 seed, Benoit Paire 6-0 4-6 6-3. This means that Lajovic will rise to 67th in the rankings and Carreno Busta will reach 53, rising 14 places.
Next week sees the return of Davis Cup Action with the following ties taking place
Great Britain vs Japan
Serbia vs Kazakhstan
Switzerland vs Italy
Argentina vs Poland
Canada vs France
Germany vs Czech Republic
USA vs Australia
Croatia vs Belgium
