ATP/WTA Round Up: March 31-April 13

WTA
Family Circle Cup, ♦ March 31-April 6
Charleston, South Carolina
Surface: Clay
Andrea Petkovic claimed her first tournament trophy since the 2011 season by beating 20-year-old Jana Cepelova of Slovakia in the Charleston finals, 7-5, 6-2. The 26-year-old Petkovic, who entered the tournament with a 6-7 record in 2014, doubled her season win total by winning six rounds in Charleston. She is off to a 6-0 start on clay courts this season, and improved her rank from 40th to 26th with the win. Her opponent in the finals, Cepelova, scored the upset of the tournament in a 6-4, 6-4 second round victory over Serena Williams. Cepelova jumped 27 spots in the rankings to 51st.

The Family Circle Cup proved fertile grounds for several more breakthroughs, in addition to Petkovic’s win and Cepelova’s first final. Their semifinal counterparts were Genie Bouchard and Belinda Bencic, a 17-year-old Swiss. Bouchard’s semifinal in Charleston was her first final four in six tournaments since the Australian Open this year. Bencic, meanwhile, is another young player to watch. She had three match points over Cepelova in the semis before finally being downed 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7). She cracks the top-100 for the first time, breaking in at 91st.

Abierto Monterrey ♦ March 31-April 6 
Monterrey, Mexico
Surface: Hard
Ana Ivanovic won the Monterrey Open with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over her fellow Serbian, Jovana Jaksic. Her final match was the quickest of the tournament for Ivanovic, after winning three-setters in the first round and quarterfinals. She also completed the Double-Wozni Special by beating both Caroline Wozniacki and Alexsandra Wozniak in the same tournament. Jaksic, Ivanovic’s finals opponent, may have been a little depleted for the final, which came a day after a two hour, fifty-three minute semifinal with Kimiko Date-Krumm that Jaksic won 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. Monterrey was the first WTA final for the 20-year-old Jaksic, and she’s now on the cusp of the top-100, after rising 31 spots to 106th.

BNP Paribas Katowice Open ♦ April 7-13
Katowice, Poland
Surface: Hard
If you’re detecting a theme of “firsts,” here it is again: Camila Giorgi, the 22-year-old Italian, broke through to her first WTA final, but she was not the winner. The title goes to 24-year-old Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who saved a match point in the third set to beat Giorgi by a final score 7-6, 5-7, 7-5, in three hours and eleven minutes. Four of Cornet’s five matches in Katowice went the distance, including her semifinal upset of Polish native and top-seeded Agnieska Radwanska, 0-6, 6-2, 6-4. En route to the final, Giorgi beat two top-20 players: 16th-ranked Roberta Vinci in the second round and 17th-ranked Carla Suarez-Navarro in the semifinals. She has strung together a strong month’s worth of tennis, beginning with her Indian Wells’ Round of 16 with an upset of Maria Sharapova.

ATP
Grand Prix Hassan II ♦ April 7-13
Casablanca, Morocco
Surface: Clay
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain won the Moroccan Grand Prix, defeating Marcel Granollers in the finals, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. The tournament was dominated by Spaniards, as three of the four semifinalist were of Spain: Garcia-Lopez, Granollers, and Roberto Caballes Baena. The fourth semifinalist was Federico Delbonis of Argentina. The Grand Prix is the third career singles title for the 30-year-old Garcia-Lopez, and his second title on clay. He rises to 38th in the rankings with the victory, up from 53rd. Top-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa, the 19th-ranked player in the world, lost in the second round to the Romanian Victor Hanescu.

Fayez Sarofim and Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship ♦  April 7-13
Houston, Texas
Surface: Clay
Spanish men cleaned up the early April clay hardware as another all-Spanish final took place in Houston. Fernando Verdasco defeated Nicholas Almagro, 6-3, 7-6 for the title. It was the second straight runner-up trophy for Almagro in Houston. Strangely enough, the all-Spanish final is not the only thing in common between the Houston and Moroccan tournaments: both tournaments’ top-seeded player failed to win a match. This time it was John Isner, the 2013 champion, who lost 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 to dreadlocked German veteran Dustin Brown in the second round. Fellow tall American Sam Querrey was a semifinalist and was scheduled to face Almagro, but withdrew due to a back injury. And in doubles, the Bryan brothers won the Houston title for the fifth time, beating double-finalist Frenando Verdasco and his partner David Marrero. The Bryans have won four straight tournaments.

WTA Player to Watch
►Caroline Garcia: Singling out one player to watch from the “young players with a first” listed above is tough- between Petkovic, Bouchard, Bencic, Cepelova, Jancic, Cornet, Giorgi, all of whom deserve a shout out. But the player who earns the honor is Caroline Garcia of France. The 20-year-old won her first- there it is again- WTA tournament of her career at the clay court Claro Open Colsanitas in Bogota, Columbia, winning in straight-sets over reigning champion Jelena Jankovic, 6-3, 6-4. Garcia also won the doubles tournament in Bogota, with her partner Lara Arruabarrena, making the first sweep of singles and doubles hardware at a WTA event since Serena Williams did so at the 2012 Olympics. Garcia and Serena played in last month’s Sony Open, which Williams won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Beating Jankovic was Garcia’s first career top-ten victory in seven tries, and she climbs from 74th in the rankings to 51st.

ATP Player to Watch
►Fabio Fognini: The 26-year-old Italian has steadily climbed from 16th in the year-opening rankings to 13th now in April. As many of the top men’s players participated in Davis Cup play during the first week of April, Fognini played his part in securing a win for Italy over Great Britian. He beat Andy Murray in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, and won the decisive rubber match over James Ward, also in straight sets, for Italy’s winning point. The matches were played on clay, a surface on which Fognini has won 25 of his last 27 matches. He is 21-6 on the year with one tournament championship, on clay in Chile. Beating Murray was his first top-10 win this season, after having already faced and lost to Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal. He is a player worth watching heading into the French Open next month- and if nothing else, his on-court antics provide some colorful entertainment.

They said it …
“I think it's a wake-up call that I'm doing too much. I'm training too much, and I need to take a deep breath.  I mean I think I just need to take a really deep breath and then regroup, and I have not been doing that.” – Serena Williams, at the Family Circle Cup, after losing the first match she played after winning the Sony Open days earlier.

“I love her.  She came this morning when I was warming up.  She came to the practice court, and she was so funny.  I love her.  She is so cool.  She was like, ‘yo, girl.  Yo.  You're rocking it today.  I feel it in my blood.  You're gonna win this tournament today.’” – Andrea Petkovic, after winning the Family Circle Cup, on the “Super Fan” that cheered for her during matches in Charleston,S.C.

“Girl, what is wrong with you?” – Super Fan, shouting from the crowd to Petkovic after she lost four straight games during the first set of the Charleston finals.