Tennis Happenings

Del Potro wins in Stockholm

Juan Martin del Potro won his first title in 33 months when he beat Jack Sock in the Stockholm final.  Del Potro’s resurgence continues.  When he first came back he was hitting slice backhands almost exclusively, but he is now coming over the ball more frequently and with more power.  His awesome forehand has never been better, and he is getting a lot of free points on his serve.  Barring a recurrence of his injury problems, he will be a force to reckon with in 2017.

Sock had a great tournament.  He beat rising superstar Alexander Zverev in the semifinal.  That loss was the second third set defeat for Zverev in the past few weeks (the previous loss was to Tsonga).  It’s possible that the 19-year-old does not yet have the level of mental and physical stamina he will need to go to the top of the tour.  There seems little doubt that he will get there, though.  It will be interesting to see if he can crack the top ten next year.

WTA year end championships

The year end championships are under way in Singapore.  Svetlana Kuznetsova squeezed into the final eight by winning the Moscow, then jumped on a plane to Singapore and beat Aggie Radwanska in her first round match.  Her hair was bothering her in the match so she gave herself a haircut in during a changeover!  Muguruza’s enigmatic up-and-down play manifested itself again when she lost to Karolina Pliskova.  Down a set and a break, Garbine came back, won the second set, and served for the match up 5-2 with two breaks in the third set.  Yet she still managed to get herself broken three straight times and lose.  Pliskova played better defensive tennis than I’ve ever her do before, so her work off court is paying off.  Angie Kerber looked like the world number one when she beat the always tough Simona Halep in her second match.  Dominika Cibulkova, the human fire plug, played hard, as usual, but lost her first two matches – one to Kerber and the next to Madison Keys.  The court in Singapore is quite slow, and it’s my opinion that slow courts favor big strong players who don’t move so well but who hit hard.  John Isner on the men’s side is one of those players, as is Pliskova on the women’s side.  Because of the conditions in Singapore, Pliskova bears watching.