Tennis bits: Venus Williams kicks off WTA Doha; David Ferrer and Sara Errani win in Rio

Venus Williams headlines the opening set of matches at Monday's Qatar Ladies Open start while David Ferrer and Sara Errani scored titles in Rio de Janeiro.

Venus Williams shown in action last week during the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship WTA tournament. Francois Nel / Getty Images / February 18, 2015

WTA Doha

The Qatar Ladies Open starts on Monday night with names like Venus Williams, Sam Stosur and Victoria Azarenka in action.

World No 17 Williams, coming off a third-round loss to Lucie Safarova in Dubai last week, meets Australia Casey Dellacqua on Monday evening.

Another Aussie, Stosur, faces world No 15 Safarova, while Azarenka gets the challenge of world No 11 Angelique Kerber.

The tournament features Petra Kvitova as its top seed and automatically qualifies the top four, including Dubai champion Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki, into the last 16.

Monday’s other first-round matches will include world No 16 Flavia Pennetta battling No 26 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No 22 Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova facing No 28 Sabine Lisicki.

ATP Rio de Janeiro

Spanish world No 9 David Ferrer stormed to the ATP Rio Open title on Sunday, battering Italian Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-3 in a one-sided final.

Fognini, ranked 28 in the world, had edged out titleholder and clay king Rafael Nadal in his semi-final 24 hours earlier but had no answer to Ferrer as the second seed sped past him in 1hr 23min.

Ferrer added his second title of the season after Doha last month to keep the Rio crown in Spanish hands after Nadal’s success in the inaugural event last year.

“It’s been a very special week for me,” said Ferrer after taking his series with Fognini, the Australian Open doubles champion, to a perfect 8-0.

Ferrer and Nadal had joined Brazil’s now-retired former world No 1 Gustavo Kuerten at the Sambadrome during last week’s carnival festivities before getting down to the serious stuff of swapping their samba shoes for finding their claycourt rhythm in humid conditions.

“I promise next year I will learn how to dance samba,” Ferrer joked as he addressed the crowd at the Jockey Club in downtown Rio, bringing the curtain down on the $1.5 million (Dh5.5m) event.

For Fognini, there was the compensation at least of a first win over Nadal, making him feel as good as if he had actually won the title.

“Sorry David, nothing against you, but I beat the king of clay,” said Fognini.

Ferrer took the joke in good heart.

“You said you beat the king of clay but the king of clay is right here, it’s Guga Kuerten. Rafa still has time for such accolades,” said the new champion.

Ferrer was the more consistent as his booming serves put Fognini in difficulty and although the Italian attacked the net, he was quickly on the back foot.

In the fourth game of the opener, Fognini saved a pair of break points as he came back to deuce only to serve up two double faults.

A second break in the eighth game saw Ferrer land the opening set in 37 minutes.

The second brought no respite as the 32-year-old Spaniard underlined his dominance to net his 23rd ATP World Tour title in his 48th final.

Nadal will meanwhile head for Buenos Aires this week looking to push along preparations for a 10th Roland Garros crown in June.

Earlier, Italian top seed Sara Errani scored a 7-6 (7/2), 6-1 win in the women’s final over Slovakian sixth seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

The win moves Errani up to the fringes of the top 10 – she will Monday rise from 16th to 12th in the new rankings.

“It is always special to play here – I love playing on clay,” said Errani.

“I’ll be back here I hope for the Olympics but it’s a pity they won’t be on clay,” said Errani, noting the Olympic tournament will be a hardcourt event falling shortly before the US Open.

ATP Buenos Aires

Local hopeful world No 29 Leonardo Mayer will kick off the Argentina Open on Monday against Frenchman Stephane Robert, while an all-Argentine matchup of Maximo Gonzalez and Juan Monaco will also help jumpstart the tournament.

Buenos Aires will feature Rafael Nadal, a semi-finalist in Rio, as the top seed as Fabio Fognini, the losing finalist to David Ferrer, heads south as well as the fourth seed.

Pablo Cuevas and Tommy Robredo round out the top four in Argentina.

ATP Delray Beach

Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic, never dropping a service game all week, defeated American Donald Young 6-3, 6-3 Sunday to win the Delray Beach Open, snapping a four-final losing streak.

Six days before his 36th birthday, Karlovic blasted 13 aces past the 25-year-old US left-hander to claim the top prize of $84,250 (Dh310,000) and his sixth career ATP crown.

Karlovic held all 55 of his service games this week, saving all 19 break points he faced – including seven from Young – to become the oldest Delray Beach champion since Jimmy Connors in 1989.

Karlovic, playing in his 13th career ATP final, took only 69 minutes to win just his second title in seven years and his first since the 2013 Colombia Open.

Fourth-seeded Karlovic, the ATP’s tallest player at 2.11m (6ft 11in), reached four finals last year but was beaten in the championship matches at Memphis, Dusseldorf, Newport and in trying to defend his Bogota title.

Karlovic, who lost the 2010 Delray final to Latvian Ernests Gulbis, fired 90 aces this week to break the tournament record he set five years ago.

Karlovic, ranked 29th, broke Young, ranked 56th, in the seventh and final games of the opening set to seize command of the match against a foe he had never before faced.

Young wasted three chances to break in the second game of the second set before squandering three break points in a row. Karlovic won his seventh game in a row for a 3-0 lead and held to the finish from there for the triumph.

Young’s only prior ATP final came in 2011 at Bangkok, where he lost to Britain’s Andy Murray.

ATP Acapulco

Qualifying concluded for the Mexican Open men’s tournament late Sunday, with Ryan Harrison, Australian teen Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alejandro Gonzalez and Austin Krajicek entering the draw.

Gonzalez gets tasked with the toughest first-round test, meeting top seed Kei Nishikori.

The tournament begins late on Monday with fifth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, facing Sam Groth, fourth seed Kevin Anderson, facing Dustin Brown and seventh seed Santiago Giraldo, facing Krajicek, all in action.

Kokkinakis will also play on Monday against Serb Dusan Lajovic.

WTA Acapulco

The WTA Mexican Open will begin on Tuesday with top seed Maria Sharapova set to met American Shelby Rogers.

World No 45 Daniela Hantuchova, coming off a victory earlier this month in the Thailand Open, will battle closely-ranked No 50 Magdalena Rybarikova on the tournament’s first day.

Rio winner Sara Errani and Caroline Garcia feature as the tournament’s second and third seeds.

ATP Marseille

Gilles Simon won the Marseille Open title for the second time on Sunday by beating fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils in three sets in the final.

Fifth seed Simon, who previously won the title in 2007, beat seventh seed Monfils 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a final that lasted two-and-a-half hours.

It was a 12th career title for the 30-year-old, who recently reached the semi-finals in Rotterdam.

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