Familiar faces dominated a busy week on both the ATP and WTA tours. Wimbledon.com reports...

If 2015 began against the backdrop of rising stars and confident whispers of new faces emerging at the top of the men’s game, what’s materialised has been quite the opposite.

Yes, talented teenagers like Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis had us staring wide-eyed at our television sets and live streams during the Australian Open. And yes, Jiri Vesely became the sixth player born in the 1990s to win an ATP title, emerging victorious in Auckland in January.

But the stat that stands out from the opening seven weeks of the season is this: 11 of the 15 men’s tournaments have been won by players over the age of 29, seven of which were clinched by those in their 30s.

The old guard still has a stranglehold over the men’s tour, and this past weekend was no different as Ivo Karlovic (35), David Ferrer (32) and Gilles Simon (30) lifted titles on three different continents in Delray Beach, Rio de Janeiro and Marseille. It marked the first time since 24 March, 1975 that three 30-over players lifted ATP singles trophies on the same day.

Karlovic alone created a little piece of history. The Croat, who turns 36 next Sunday, saw off one-time phenom Donald Young in the Delray Beach final to become the oldest singles winner since Jimmy Connors took the crown in Tel Aviv in 1989 at 37 years and 1 month.

Karlovic’s career has spanned 15 years and he has contested more than 200 tour-level tournaments, but this was just the sixth time he has ended a week as a winner.

"It is unbelievable," the world No.23 told atpworldtour.com after a rare taste of victory. "It was really satisfying also for me to do this at my age, and it gives me a boost of confidence”.

Ferrer extended his record this season to 13-1 with a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 victory over Fabio Fognini in the Rio final, gifting the Spaniard his 23rd career title and his second of the year, after Doha.

One of the main talking points in the Brazilian capital, however, was the form of Rafael Nadal. His loss to Fognini in the final four ended a remarkable 52-match winning streak in semi-finals with clay underfoot, which stretched back 12 years. 

Almost 9,000km away in Marseille, the all-French final between Simon and Gael Monfils had marathon written all over it and it didn’t disappoint. Simon outlasted his younger compatriot 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) to win his 12th career title, putting him second to only Yannick Noah (23) in titles won by Frenchman.

With the loss, Monfils’ record in finals fell to 5-17. 

 

WOMEN

Twenty months ago, Simona Halep was ranked No.58 in the world and didn’t have a single WTA title to her name. Now the Romanian, who returned to world No.3 on Monday, is a 10-time titlist, adding her latest gong on Sunday in Dubai. 

The Romanian took three sets to get past both Ekaterina Makarova and Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter and semi-finals before seeing off emerging talent Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final.

“I'm very happy right now,” Halep explained to wtatennis.com. “It's an amazing title for me. It's very important for my career”

The fifth and final champion this past week was Sara Errani. After losing to lower-ranked opposition in her opening four tournaments of the year, the Italian returned to her favourite surface and to form in Rio, capturing the first clay-court tournament of the season with a 7-6(2), 6-1 defeat of Anna Schmiedlova.

It also marked the first time Errani had saved match points en route to a WTA title, having fended off three of them in her topsy-turvy defeat of local wild card Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarter-final.

 

THIS WEEK

This week, the men and women’s tours travel to four different countries.

In the Middle East, Dubai and Doha take centre stage, with the men featuring in the UAE and the women in Qatar.

The strong 32-man field in Dubai is led by Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, while the women’s event in Doha is headlined by Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka, who continues her journey back to full fitness after a long injury lay-off.

Nadal will be bidding for his first title since Roland Garros last June when he travels to Buenos Aires, where a potential semi-final rematch with Fognini lies in store.

And Acapulco, on the southwest coast of Mexico, plays host to a combined event with Maria Sharapova, Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and the in-form Ferrer all featuring.