Petra Kvitova slayed the biggest giant of all this weekend in Paris: new world no. 1 and Aussie Open winner Kim Clijsters, 6-4 6-3 in the final. Isn’t there something missing from her trophy though? Like… a big chunk of it??
Meanwhile, over in San Jose, Milos Raonic became the first Canadian man to win an ATP title in 16 years. His prize(s)? A Sharks jersey and bottle of maple syrup. I mean, jeez, don’t paint him as Canadian or anything…
Check out Daniela in Thailand, Soderling in Rotterdam and more of the isn’t-there-something-missing trophy of Kvitova’s.
Daniela Hantuchova snacked on Sara Errani 6-0, 6-2 for a title in Pattaya City. Her first WTA trophy since Linz in 2007. Before that she won Indian Wells in ’07 and 2002… who knew Dani’s titles were so sparse?!
Robin Soderling got a win (and some indoor fireworks) after taking down Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Rotterdam.
Amelie Mauresmo is the co-director of the Open GDF Suez in Paris, which saw a healthy week of tennis and got a bolster of off-court news with Kim ascending to number one and the French Open revealing that it’d stay put at Roland Garros.
Can we be the fourth? Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner pose with their doubles dishes after taking the Rotterdam title. Between the two? That’d be former Wimbledon winner (circa 1996) Richard Krajicek, now tournament director at the Rotterdam event.
(raonic, hantuchova, soderling and paris photos by ap; krajicek by getty; not picture: almagro at the brasil open)
For me personally the biggest story of the weekend was Milos Raonic becuase man, Raonic really looks like he might becoming something special right now. He’s such a different player than what we have seen in this era as so much is rally oriented (which I think is really fun). As a Canadian I never thought that we would have someone legitimate to cheer for but I guess I was wrong. He’s shot his way up the tennis rankings and with his gigantic serve you just don’t know how far he could go. Good for him for beating Verdasco and getting that first one outta the way, hopefully there’s more to come. Also, you think you could check out my blog cuz I’d love to hear what you have to say. http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/milos-raonic-the-next-great-one/