Dementieva Wins Toronto; Takes over 1st in Olympus US Open Series
August 24, 2009
No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva captured her second career Olympus US Open Series tournament title and moved into sole possession of first place atop the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge Women’s Standings with a 6-4, 6-3 victory against unseeded Maria Sharapova in today’s final at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Dementieva earns 100 total points, and, with one week remaining, is ahead of Flavia Pennetta of Italy — who will attempt to win the Olympus US Open Series overall title in New Haven.
On the men’s side, Roger Federer collected a record fifth career Olympus US Open Series tournament title — and third in Cincinnati — with a 6-1, 7-5 win over No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic in today’s Western & Southern Financial Group Masters final. Andy Murray, by virtue of advancing to the semifinals, assumes first place in the men’s standings. Sam Querrey now heads to New Haven to compete for the Olympus US Open Series overall title.
The men’s and women’s winners of the Olympus US Open Series will compete for $1 million in bonus prize money at the 2009 US Open. The second and third place finishers will compete for $500,000 and $250,000, respectively. The Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge leaders after Week 5 are as follows:
Next on the Olympus US Open Series: The Olympus US Open Series concludes this week at the combined men’s and women’s Pilot Pen Tennis event in New Haven. On Saturday, August 29, the women’s final will air on CBS Sports beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET and the men’s final will air on ESPN2 beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. ESPN2 will provide a total of 14 hours of coverage beginning on Thursday.
Rafael Nadal won the 2008 Olympus US Open Series men’s title and Dinara Safina won the women’s title. In 2007, Roger Federer collected the biggest paycheck in tennis history — $2.4 million — for winning US Open and the Olympus US Open Series. In 2005, Kim Clijsters also captured both the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series, winning $2.2 million — the largest purse in women’s sports history.
Now in its sixth season, the Olympus US Open Series has established itself as a true regular season of hard court tennis, linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In 2008, Olympus became the first title sponsor of the Series. The Olympus US Open Series is also supported by sponsors American Express, Evian and MassMutual Financial Group.