TENNIS BITS AND PIECES – The Roland Garros in numbers. Murray hires Mauresmo as his new coach. Del Potro set a date for his comeback. Elena Baltacha will be honoured a the Queen’s Club, Eastbourne and Edgbaston. Also who is playing where this week. Joshua Bosco
Roland Garros numbers
After winning the 2014 French Open, World No.5 Maria Sharapova has become the first Russian player to win the same Grand Slam tournament twice.
After the Romanian President suspended Parliament on Thursday to give everybody the chance to watch Simona Halep’s semi-final match against Andrea Petkovic, the new World No.3 went on to become the first Romanian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in 34 years. The last Romanian woman to play a major’s final was Virginia Ruzici at the 1980 French Open, a tournament she had won two years earlier.
Ernests Gulbis has risen to a new best ranking of World No.10 after becoming the first Latvian player to reach a Grand Slam semi-final beating two Top 10 players, Federer and Berdych, on his way. After becoming the first Latvian to crack the Top 100, he’s now entered the Top 10 and now has his eyes set on the World No.1 spot.
On Wednesday British No.1 Andy Murray went one better than Fred Perry and set a new British record reaching 17 Grand Slam semi-finals after defeating Frenchman Gael Monfils in a lopsided five set match.
Thirty years after Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah’s 1984 victory, French couple Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin have won the men’s doubles trophy in front of their home-crowd.
Andy & Amelie
The rumours had started while he was still in Paris and yesterday, on the eve of Queen’s, Andy Murray confirmed he has hired former World No.1 and two time Grand Slam champion Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach, initially just for the grass court season. “We are going to do the grass court season and then we’ll talk after that” said the former French player.
Mauresmo already has some experience as a coach having previously worked with Michael Llodra during the 2010 grass court season. She also worked with the then-World No.1 Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and helped her fellow Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in her successful 2013 Wimbledon campaign.
Del Potro comeback
Former World No.4 Juan Martin del Potro’s name is on the entry list for the Malaysian Open due to take place in Kuala Lumpur in September, a couple of weeks after the US Open.
Del Potro, who is currently recovering from his second wrist surgery, will be making his debut in the Asian tournament and will be joined by Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori.
Baltacha honoured
The first Fed Cup Lifetime Achievement Heart Award for commitment to the completion was awarded to Elena Baltacha, who died last month after a battle with liver cancer.
The ITF also donated £6,000 ($10,000) to the Rally For Bally, which will take place on Sunday at Queen’s, Eastbourne and Edgbaston.
Who’s playing where
The 2014 grass season officially starts today and the top men players will divide themselves between Halle and Queen’s.
Roger Federer is going to have to up his game in order to defend his title in Halle, where he will be joined by Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Tommy Haas and last year’s finalist Mikhail Youzhny.
Defending champion Andy Murray will try to put his disappointing Roland Garros semi-final performance behind him at Queen’s, where he will face the likes of Stan Wawrinka, Thomas Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and on-form Latvian Ernests Gulbis. Daniel Cox, Daniel Evans and James Ward have all received wildcards for their home tournament.
Some of the top women’s players will travel to Birmingham for the 2014 AEGON Classic. Daniela Hantuchova will have a hard time trying to defend her 2013 title against high ranked player like Ana Ivanovic, Sam Stosur, Sloane Stephens, Lucie Safarova and Klara Koukalova. British players Johanna Konta and Heather Watson have both received wildcards for the tournament.
