ATP WORLD TOUR 250 €398,250 (€450,000 Total Financial Commitment)
Metz, France (+2 hours GMT)
20-26 September, 2010 Surface: Indoor Hard www.ATPWorldTour.com

RESULTS – SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER, 2010

Singles – Final
[8] G Simon (FRA) d [Q] M Zverev (GER) 63 62

Doubles – Final
D Brown (JAM) / R Wassen (NED) d [2] M Melo (BRA) / B Soares (BRA) 63 63

Read match reports at ATPWorldTour.com

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Simon: “I am extremely happy about this seventh title. I was not supposed to come here initially; my son was due to be born this week so logically I hadn’t entered any tournaments. Because I had been playing well, also in the Davis Cup preparation, I really wanted to try to compete and really wanted to come to Metz; I knew I could do something good.

“My son was born on 2nd September, so I haven’t spent much time with him yet. As I decided to play this week I also decided to bring the family with me to Metz. I was in the unknown, I didn’t know how it was going to be, if he would keep me up at night, and in the end, the result is perfect. Everything went very well and I am delighted to get to share this title with my family today.

“It hasn’t been an easy year because of the injury and I am really happy about this victory. During my time off, I strengthened my upper body to try to improve my serve, to serve stronger and for longer and this week. My serve is what kept me in the matches even if I wasn’t playing so well.”

Zverev: “I was really excited to be in my first final, but he played really well. Not only solid from the baseline as he is usually, but also aggressive as well, he served unbelievably. I couldn’t do much today. I love France and French tournaments, I feel great here and for sure I will come back.”

Brown: “I am so happy; this is my first ATP-level title. It feels great. I am happy I was able to convince Roger to come as we were the first alternate team. He was home three hours away, wanting to take some time off, and I managed to convince him. We recently won two Challengers so we had confidence and I must say we played good all week.”

Wassen: “Being the first alternate team I really didn’t want to come to Metz. I was home, planning on taking the week off, but I am so happy I ended up coming. Dustin and I have opposite personalities, opposite games and I think we complement each other very well on the court. It’s a pleasure to play with him and I look forward to continuing to play with him.”

ATP WORLD TOUR 250 €368,450 (€420,200 Total Financial Commitment)
Bucharest, Romania (+3 hours GMT)
20-26 September, 2010 Surface: Clay www.ATPWorldTour.com

RESULTS – SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER, 2010

Singles – Final
[4] J Chela (ARG) d [Q] P Andujar (ESP) 75 61

Read match reports at ATPWorldTour.com

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Chela: “It was an unbelievable week winning in both singles and doubles. I didn’t expect that. The beginning of the season was pretty tough for me so I’m very happy that I’m playing at such a great level now. I enjoy the circuit a lot.

“I always used to be quiet on court, but now I have even more experience and that helps especially when you prepare for an important match. My goal is to do well during the Asian swing as well as in the European indoor events and try to finish the year in the Top 30.

“Andujar has improved a lot lately. He played a strong first set. He can do very well in the future.”

Andujar: “I tried to play aggressively since I knew that long points wouldn’t help me after the long match last night. I had my chances in the first set, but then I had a low at the beginning of the second set.

“I will always remember my first ATP final. I still remember when I won my first Futures and my first Challenger. The conditions here are very good for me, close to what I’m used to at home.

“I didn’t expect to go this far when I came here to play qualies. My coach had his return ticket for last Wednesday. Of course I’m very happy I had to buy him a new one.”

Results – Thursday, September 23, 2010
Singles – Quarterfinals
(5) Monica Niculescu (ROU) d. (1) Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) 76(5) 26 63
(7) Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) d. (2) Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) 76(5) 63
(4) Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. Darya Kustova (BLR) 60 61
Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) d. Stefanie Voegele (SUI) 64 46 60

Doubles – Quarterfinals
(1) Craybas/Niculescu (USA/ROU) d. Rodina/Voegele (RUS/SUI) 63 64
Panova/Poutchek (RUS/BLR) d. (2) Rodionova/Savchuk (RUS/UKR) 76(2) 64
(4) Kondratieva/Lefèvre (RUS/FRA) d. Bovina/Georgatou (RUS/GRE) 46 62 119 (Match TB)
Dulgheru/Rybarikova (ROU/SVK) d. Camerin/Mirza (ITA/IND) 75 61

Order of Play – Friday, September 24, 2010
Centre Court (from 11.00hrs)
1. Monica Niculescu vs. Elena Vesnina
2. Evgeniya Rodina vs. Alla Kudryavtseva
3. Kondratieva/Lefèvre vs. Panova/Poutchek (NB 13.00hrs)

Court 1 (NB 13.00hrs)

1. Craybas/Niculescu vs. Dulgheru/Rybarikova (after suitable rest)

Dave “Koz” Kozlowski is the host of “Inside Tennis With The Koz” one of Tennis Channel’s original show series now airing on www.indietennis.com. Koz is one of the initial 17 Master USPTA Professionals in the world. He was named the 2000 USTA Tennis Broadcaster of the Year. The 2001 National Pro of the Year has the distinction of being the first American tennis broadcaster to interview Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.

Not Before 2:30 PM
R Lindstedt (SWE) / H Tecau (ROU) d R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK)
64 75 – ATP DOUBLES FINAL

Starting at 7:00 PM
[9] S Stakhovsky (UKR) d [15] D Istomin (UZB) 36 63 64 – ATP SINGLES FINAL [1] K Peschke (CZE) / K Srebotnik (SLO) d B Mattek-Sands (USA) / M Shaughnessy (USA) 75 60 – WTA DOUBLES FINAL

This year, though, there’s no doubt the master is on track.

“It’s not something I’ve ever put in my mind that this is something I want to achieve,” Federer said after defeating Andy Murray in straight sets, 6-3 6-4 7-6. “I’ll still go and play the smaller tournaments, you know, the Masters 1000s, the ones we’re supposed to play. I try to give my best everywhere I go to, because I think there are not only the Grand Slams.

“Of course, they are important, but I try to respect every tournament that invites me to go play there. There’s the fans who pay tickets. I want to live up to my expectations, too.”

After a scare in the first round, Federer had a pretty easy time in the Oz Open as he dominated the competition in Melbourne. Although the more exciting matches over the past two weeks were played by others, the Swiss Master just went about his business.

“I always knew I had it in my hand,” he said. “The question is do I have it in my mind and in my legs, you know. That’s something I had to work extremely hard at. Now I feel like obviously I’m being pushed a great deal by the new generation coming up. I always feel sort of tennis changes sort of every five years.

“Because when I came on tour, matches were played very differently. It was more of a bluff game, guys serving well, but there was always a weakness you could go to. Today that doesn’t exist anymore. I think that’s also thanks to guys like Murray. They’ve made me a better player, because I think this has been one of my finest performances, you know, in a long time, or maybe forever.”

Now Federer is on track for that elusive Grand Slam. Even with all the major wins, he never won all four in a year, as the French always gave him problems. But now, after winning in Roland Garros last year, Federer has a real chance to nail down the elusive achievement.

Of course he will play the tournaments as they come, but Federer feels now that he’s in position to dominate everything in 2010.

“It’s not an easy thing to do to win your first Grand Slam,” Federer said. “That’s not mental, you know, trying to screw with his head, you know. It’s just a tough thing, you know.

“The next one is not going to get any easier. But his game is so good that I’m convinced he will win one, you know. And I thought he did really well tonight because conditions were tough. I mean, I think I played a great match. So someone’s got to win, and I’m happy it was me.”

The road ahead won’t be easy. Although Federer has said he’s become a better player, the rest of the field has become tougher as well. Besides the usual suspects, like Nadal, Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick, upstarts like US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro have become elite players, who will give Federer fits as he tries to nail down the Slam.

Yet, that’s what keeps the Swiss Master going. With every match he learns something about himself, on his quest for perfection.

“[It’s] a tough generation at the moment,” Federer said. “There’s many guys. You know, I’ve dominated hard court and grass for a long time; Rafa did clay. Rafa also became very strong on the other surfaces and so forth.

“So I think it’s just not an easy thing to do, Grand Slams, and I proved it again tonight.”

One down. Three to go.

Although Safarova took the first set, the Hungarian hung tough and then broke the Russian in the fourth game of the second set to tie the match. She then traded breaks with her opponent in the third and tightest set to take the championship.

“It feels great. I haven’t really processed it yet but I will,” Czink said. “I went match by match this week. This was the toughest match this week. I had to take some risks on her serve today – sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. We really pushed each other, and I’m happy I could come out the winner.”

“We both played a good match. I think it just came down to a few balls and she did it better,” Safarova said. “The whole week I was trying to be very aggressive and move forward, but she did the same today and I had trouble dealing with it. I didn’t feel I did anything wrong today. It could have gone either way.

“I hope to come back next year and do better. Unless you win, you can always do better!”

This was Czink’s first final of the Tour and she beat the higher seeds in Quebec this week to win, including Nadia Petrova and Aleksandra Wozniak in the proceeding two rounds.

The match took five hours and 59 minutes to complete. Just a minute shy of reaching the six hour mark. Only three Davis Cup matches have ever gone that far. While Stepanek and Karlovic didn’t quite get there, they did match a record for most total games (82) since the tiebreak was introduced in 1989 to Davis Cup.

Ironically, it was earlier this year in a first round defeat to Lleyton Hewitt at Roland Garros that Karlovic shattered his own record with 55 aces. Apparently, the big Croat would be better off with less considering the heartbreaking end results which again held true with Stepanek saving five match points with three coming in the 10th game and another in the 24th game of the climatic final set.

“I am very happy that I was able to pull it through,” an ecstatic Stepanek expressed afterwards. “The match was going crazy; we were not able to break each other. I was the one who was using more fitness. He had four match points in the fifth set but I stayed mentally strong and it paid off at the end. You can’t live through bigger emotions than Davis Cup and this match just proved it.”

Amazingly, there were no breaks of serve until the 81st game (29th of 5th set) following a brief exhange in the first set which Stepanek dropped in one of four breakers.

“I have no words right now, it was like a lottery and I managed to seize my chances,” the winner added.

“It was a long and exhausting match but when you play for your country it’s worth it. It wouldn’t matter if it lasted for another few hours.”

“It was really close match, it was long and I had match points,” said a drained Karlovic who blew leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the fourth set tiebreak before Stepanek stormed back to take it 8-6, forcing a deciding set. “I could also have won … I don’t know, that’s it.”

In the second match, Tomas Berdych held off U.S. Open quarterfinalist Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 to put the Czech Republic a win away from the Davis Cup final. Spain leads the other semifinal 2-0 over Israel thanks to straight set wins from Juan Carlos Ferrero and David Ferrer.

“It was like was going to put you in front of a wall and shoot at you, it was feeling like that,” summed up Stepanek. “I knew he was going to serve incredibly well and I was expecting it but I said to be patient and wait for my chances.”