DEN BOSCH, Netherlands – Top-seeded David Ferrer beat unseeded Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to win the Unicef Open grass court tournament for the second time and Nadia Petrova beat Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 6-3 to take the women's title. Ferrer, who also won the title in 2008, broke the German twice in the opening set and once in the second, closing the match with a love game to comfortably win the Wimbledon warm-up. “Now I want to enjoy this moment and tomorrow I will focus on Wimbledon,” Ferrer said. “I played my best match of the week.” Ferrer is the No. 7 seed at Wimbledon and the Spaniard faces a first round match against Germany's Dustin Brown. Eighth-seeded Petrova dropped her first service game to Radwanska but the Russian recovered to take the first set 6-4, breaking the unseeded Pole to love in the set's final game. The powerful Petrova, who is the No. 20 seed at Wimbledon, quickly broke in the second set and held on to win 6-3.
Paszek stuns Kerber Unseeded Austrian Tamira Paszek saved five matchpoints and overcame a leg injury to beat eighth seed Angelique Kerber 5-7 6-3 7-5 and win the Eastbourne International Tennis Tournament Saturday. Paszek, the world No. 59, was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon last year but had never won a grass-court title until Saturday when she put up a fierce fight against the German. Kerber had five matchpoints at 5-3 in the deciding set but Paszek, who had problems with her right leg after slipping in the seventh game, saved them all, helped by some unforced errors from the German. Paszek, 21, took a medical time-out to have her right ankle strapped and called the trainer again to massage her calf during a changeover before clinching the match on her third matchpoint. The Austrian, who will face former world No. 1 one Caroline Wozniacki in the first round at Wimbledon next week, sank to her knees and kissed the grass at Devonshire Park. The early games had been accompanied by chants from a delegation of Dutch dockers, standing outside a gate close to Centre Court, who accused insurance company Aegon, the principal tournament sponsor, of mishandling their pension fund, but the notorious Eastbourne winds carried away their cries before the men were shepherded away by security staff.
Federer eyesrecord-tying 7th Wimbledon title No one makes Wimbledon fashion choices quite like Roger Federer, who showed up at the All England Club Saturday sporting a collar-popped, long-sleeved cream sweater with purple trim and a green “RF” insignia on the upper right arm. This is the guy, remember, who pulled on a specially tailored white jacket with a gold “15” stitched on the back when he broke Pete Sampras' career record of 14 Grand Slam titles by winning Wimbledon for the sixth time in 2009. Federer hasn't been able to add No. 7. Actually, he hasn't made it past the quarterfinals at the grass-court tournament since then, losing in that round each of the past two years. “I want to do better, I have to do better in this event because I could have gone further,” the 30-year-old Federer said Saturday. “Maybe a bit unfortunate at times. Maybe the other guys were just too good. Maybe I wasn't quite at my best. Who knows what the combination was? But it's up to me to make that difference now and take it to the next step ... A seventh would be amazing.” Only Sampras and Willie Renshaw — who played in the 1880s and got a bye directly into the final as the defending champion for five of his titles — have won Wimbledon seven times. The last man 30 or older to win a Grand Slam title was Andre Agassi at the 2003 Australian Open. — Agencies
