Soderling crushes Nadal in French Open Tennis 2009
Posted on May 31, 2009
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After 4 sets, the Swedish tennis player Robin Soderling beat the king of clay courts tennis Rafael Nadal (6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6). We saw a great match of tennis where Soderling played brilliand and took a quick advantage in the tiebreak of the forth set with a 6-1 advantage. Nadal only saved the first match ball but could do nothing with the second one (from the all five match points) .
Is Nadal clay era falling?
Only the time will give us an answer.
Nadal finally crush Djokovic in 2009 Madrid Open for chasing his sixth title of the year
Posted on May 16, 2009
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After 4 hours of intense tennis game, the king of clay courts Rafael Nadal saved 3 match balls and finally beat Novak Djokovic in first semi-final at 2009 Madrid Open. The last loss of Nadal on his favoured surface (clay) was in the Rome Open tennis in 2006 (Q16) when Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Nadal in 2 sets (7-5 6-1). The Spanish tennis player shows us in Madrid Open his native inside tennis fighter and save 3 match points in the 3-rd set (3-6, 7-6<7-5>, 7-6<11-9>) to beat Djokovic. Djokovic will have to work harder for being able to beat a healthy Nadal, because today (May 16, 2009) he played with a right knee problem.
Bet on Tsonga!
Posted on November 4, 2008
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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has just won last week’s Paris Masters Series. He disposed of a number of big names of late, combining athleticism and power. Paris Masters Series triumph brought the young Frenchman the biggest title of his career so far, a ticket to the Tennis Masters Cup and also an entry into the world’s Top 10. Moreover, he could claim for a top five place next season.
Anything Tsonga achieves in Shanghai will be “icing on the cake”, as the 23-year-old said after Sunday’s spectacular success.
Unfortunately for him, Tsonga has been injured early in the 2008 campaign and was forced to undergo knee surgery which kept him out of the French Open and Wimbledon. He might now be a member of the Top 5 if he were not so unlucky.
In Paris his power and athleticism combined brilliantly to beat three of the world’s Top 10. He obtained
some stunning victories against Richard Gasquet, Murray, Mikhail Youzhny and Rafael Nadal.
Tsonga’s style makes him resemble Muhammad Ali in more than just looks. The young Frenchman has already proved himself on hard courts and his best chance of becoming a grand slam champion might be in Melbourne or New York. In Wimbledon, he reached the fourth round on his debut in 2007.
However, what he needs to work on is his clay court game, particularly his second serve, if he is to establish himself at the very top. He might just succeed in improving his clay court game. We should keep in mind that he served 25 aces a match against Nalbandian, who has one of the best returns in the game.
A question still remains unanswered. Can Jo-Wilfried Tsonga keep it going in Shanghai after a long flight and later arrival than the rest?
Begtting : Tsonga is currently trading as fifth favourite at 6.4 behind Federer 2.14, Murray 2.72, Djokovic 3.35 and Nikolay Davydenko 5.1
Tsonga beats Djokovic to win his first career ATP title
Posted on September 30, 2008
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Second-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his first tour title after beating top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6, 6-4 at the Thailand Open on Sunday.
Tsonga, ranked No. 20 in the world, saved two break points in the final game, falling to his knees in joy after the hard-fought victory, which came in 92 minutes. The Frenchman exacted his revenge after he had lost the grand slam final in Melbourne eight months ago to the Serbian and denied the Serb his fourth title of the year and the chance to move closer in the rankings to world No. 2 Roger Federer.
The $576,000 Bangkok tournament was the Frenchman’s second tournament back at the top after missing three months due to knee surgery.
“This win is very special, I’ve wanted this since I was young,” Tsonga told reporters. “This is a dream come true. I’m happy to win, Novak is a great player.”
“I feel great, it’s got to be one of the best moments of my life,” said Tsonga. “I just played unbelievable tennis against Novak and it was just my dream so I’m really happy.”
“In tennis, you have to enjoy the moment. It’s great to win at last and I want to win more and more.”
Djokovic, who has not won a tournament since the Masters Series in Rome in May, said the best man had won.
“I lost against a great player,” he said. “Jo wisely used his opportunities and deserved to win his first title. I played a bit too defensive today. You have to take your opportunities and I didn’t. It’s unfortunate to lose in the final but I lost to a great player so I have no regrets.”
The defeat was the 14th of the season for Djokovic against 58 wins and left the 21-year-old 10-6 in career finals.
Tsonga pocketed $94,000 for winning the title.
U.S. Davis Cup team still confident
Posted on September 18, 2008
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The defending champion United States takes on a strong Spanish team this weekend in the Davis Cup semifinal. The U.S. team, who beat Russia to win the title last year, is depleted by the loss of two first-choice players.Last week, ninth-ranked James Blake withdrew from the US squad, citing exhaustion, and was replaced by the 20-year-old Sam Querrey, ranked 39, a Davis Cup rookie. Also, the formidable Bryan brothers doubles tandem has been split up for this week, as Bob is nursing a shoulder injury. He has an inflamed left shoulder that required a cortisone injection. The doubles star Bob Bryan, has been replaced on the team by Mardy Fish for the best-of-five tie in Madrid. The mighty twin Bryan brothers are 14-2 together in Davis Cup play and helped the U.S. win its first title in 12 years last year.The favored Spaniards will seek to repeat their 2004 victory over the U.S. in Seville and will be led by Wimbledon, four-time French Open and Olympic champion Rafael Nadal, who dethroned Roger Federer from the top spot in men’s tennis.
Spanish captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario also has world no. 5 at his disposal. 15th-ranked Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, ranked 37, will play the doubles against Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish.
The Americans will be relying on big-server Andy Roddick to nick a point off world number one Rafael Nadal, who has never lost a clay court singles matches in the Cup, or for 20-year-old Sam Querrey, ranked 39, to produce a minor miracle.
U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe remains confident his team can upset Spain: “We are the underdogs. Someone is going to have to pull off some big wins to get this one,” eight-time captain McEnroe told reporters. “But we are here because we think we can win.”
The matchup will be held from Friday through Sunday on a temporary clay court at Madrid’s Plaza de Toros Las Ventas.
“If we’ve got something on our side, it’s the altitude,” Querrey told Reuters after training in the 21,000-seater stadium. The venue favors the big-serving Americans in the thinner air of the capital at 660 meters above sea level.The Spain-USA winner will visit the Argentina-Russia victor in the final in November. The Argentines play host to the Russians this weekend.
The United States and Spain will meet for the ninth time in their history and for the fifth time since 2000. The Americans are 5-3 against Spain, winning the last meeting in a World Group quarterfinal last year in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Established in 1900, Davis Cup is the world’s largest annual international men’s team competition, with 127 nations competing this year. The U.S. leads all nations with 32 titles. The Americans beat a visiting Russian squad in last year’s finale in Portland.
Safina reaches US Open semi-finals for the first time
Posted on September 5, 2008
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Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina, the sister of 2000 U.S. Open men’s champion Marat Safin, reached her first semifinal at Flushing Meadows, overpowering Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-3.
The 22-year-old, runner-up at the French Open and the Beijing Olympics, continued her domination over Pennetta, raising her career record over the Italian to 5-0. Safina raced through the first set and then came from a break down in the second to clinch her place in the last four.
“It’s great,” Safina said. “I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother (Marat Safin, the 2000 champion), so I hope that one day we can have the same titles.”
Pennetta, seeded 16th, had beaten former world number one Amelie Mauresmo to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final but she looked nervous early on. The Italian won two singles titles this year in Vina del Mar and Acapulco, Mexico.
Dinara Safina, who won 37 of her past 41 matches and made it to the finals at six of her previous seven events, next meets fourth seeded American Serena Williams, who beat Wimbledon champion and seventh seeded sister Venus Williams 7-6 7-6.
“I’m getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother,” Safina said.
Safina is 1-3 against Serena.
Having reached the last eight for the first time, though, Pennetta said she was developing a taste for the latter stages of Grand Slam events.
“I think it’s a good result, but I would like to make more,” she said.
“It’s just one. I make already three or four fourth rounds. A quarter-final, it’s unbelievable. But I hope next year to make more.”
Serena Williams meets her sister, Venus, in quarterfinal clash
Posted on September 3, 2008
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Fourth seed Serena Williams wiped out wildcard Severine Bremond of France, 6-2 6-2 in the fourth round of the US Open and faces her sister, Venus, in the quarterfinals.
Seventh seed Venus defeated Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-3. Venus hammered four aces, won 77 percent of her first serve points and converted five of 14 break-point chances in the 84-minute match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Serena and Venus Williams dominated the US Open for four years. Serena won the title in 1999 and 2002 and her older sister in 2000 and 2001. They are now the only Grand Slam champions left in the draw and they haven’t lost a set yet in the tournament.
The sisters’ last Grand Slam meeting came in the Wimbledon final, which elder sister Venus claimed for her fifth singles crown at the All England Club.
Venus won back-to-back US Open titles in 2000 and 2001. She won her seventh career Grand Slam title earlier this year, successfully defending her Wimbledon title without dropping a set and beating her sister Serena in the final. She is trying to reclaim her past glory as she once held the No. 1 ranking for 11 weeks in 2002.
Last season at the US Open, she knocked off Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic - currently number one and two in the world - before losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Justine Henin, who is now retired.
Venus won the Olympic gold medal with Serena in the Beijing doubles event.
Austrian Sybille Bammer reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time with a 7-6 0-6 6-4 victory over No.12 seed Marion Bartoli of France. The match lasted three hours three minutes, which equaled the longest women’s match at the U.S. Open on record.
The 28-year-old Bammer will face second seed Jelena Jankovic for a place in the semis. Jankovic is one of four players who can overtake compatriot Ana Ivanovic as world No. 1 at the end of the tournament.
Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, who has never won a major championship battle, is another woman in the chase for number 1. Dementieva beat Li Na 6-4, 6-1 and now faces No. 15 Patty Schnyder.
Dinara Safina is also one of four players who could topple Ana Ivanovic from the top spot next week and could get a maiden Grand Slam title after she defeated German qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5 6-0 in 75 minutes.
The Russian sixth seed has reached six finals in her last seven tournaments and will next face Flavia Pennetta, who hammered former world number one Amelie Mauresmo 6-3 6-0.
Murray targets his first grand slam career title
Posted on September 1, 2008
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Scot Andy Murray needed nearly four hours to get past Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-7(5) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1 6-3 in a marathon third round match at the US$20.6 million US Open.
Murray posted 18 aces during his comeback from two sets down against Melzer at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in front of a crowd of about 1,200. The sixth seeded Murray advanced to the fourth round where he will play Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and equalled his best performance at the US Open, when he reached the last 16 in 2006 before losing to Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in four sets. Now, however, Murray believes he has a genuine chance of going much further in the championship.
“I think when you’re at a tournament like this, there is a chance that I could win the tournament,” Murray said following his 6-7 (5-7) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 6-3 victory over the 48th-ranked Melzer.
“So I say to myself, ‘you know, I’m going to give it my best shot to try and win’. That’s my goal for the tournament, to try to win it.”
“I don’t think that if you set yourself a target of the third round and you reach it, you can feel like you’ve achieved what you came here to do.”
“I think it’s better to set the bar high and maybe you don’t reach it.”
“I might not necessarily win this tournament, but if I go with the intention of doing it, it might not come as such a surprise if I do go deep.”
Murray claimed he felt comfortable with most aspects of his game as he approached his next match with Wawrinka.
“I think I’m hitting the ball well,” he said. “I just feel like my return game needs to get better, try to create a few more opportunities on the return.”
“I don’t think I’m hitting a lot of unforced errors. I feel like I’m moving well and I feel fit.”
“I think if I just improve the returning, my chances in the next match will be good.”
Head to head, Murray and Wawrinka are tied at three victories apiece yet all the Scot’s wins have come in their four hardcourt meetings, with two of the Swiss player’s coming on clay.
Murray also has current form on his side, having won three of their four most recent encounters, the latest in Toronto at the end of July.
Despite his marathon duel with Melzer, Murray will have one more advantage over Wawrinka other than his seeding - the Swiss Olympic doubles-winning partner of Roger Federer spent even longer on court on Saturday than the Scot. Wawrinka also had to come back from two sets down against Italian Flavio Cipolla, the world number 142, needing four hours and 14 minutes to seal victory.
Murray insisted he felt “fine” and had no problems following his victory and paid tribute to fitness trainers Matt Little and Jez Green for getting him into peak condition.
The 21-year-old Murray burst on to the scene this year by winning three of his six career singles titles. He is in the midst of one of the most productive runs of his career having won 15 of his last 17 ATP matches, losing only to world No.1 Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the semifinals in Montreal. During that stretch two of his victories were over Serbian star Novak Djokovic whom he beat in the final in Cincinnati and a week earlier at the quarterfinals in Montreal.
Szavay ousted by Dushevina at Nordic Light Open, Radwanska advances
Posted on July 31, 2008
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Agnes Szavay, seeded second at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Stockholm, was defeated 6-4 7-6 (8-6) by last-year’s finalist Vera Dushevina in the second round of the Tier IV tournament. In the opener, the Hungarian had a chance to serve out the set when leading 5-4, but she hit two double-faults and made two bad misses with her forehand.
Top-seeded and defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska as well as third-seeded Katarina Srebotnik also won in straight sets on Wednesday at the $145,000 Nordic Light Open tennis tournament.
The Polish Radwanska, seeing her first action since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals earlier this month, won her seventh straight match at this event by pasting Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva 6-1, 6-1. The 10th-ranked Radwanska beat Russian Vera Dushevina in last year’s finale here.
“I’m very pleased with the way I’m playing right now,” Radwanska said. “I haven’t played a tournament since Wimbledon. I hope to reach the final here because this event is good preparation for the Olympics.”
Third-seeded Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik handled Russian qualifier Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-4. Srebotnik, ranked 29th, relied on her strong first serve. Pavlyuchenkova only managed to take five of 31 points when Srebotnik put her first serve in.
Pavlyuchenkova, a former top-ranked junior from Russia, trailed 4-1 in the second set before getting to 4-4. But Srebotnik, a Slovenian who won one of her four WTA titles in Stockholm three years ago, broke back to lead 5-4 and served out the match.
“She played well for a while and I started missing a few shots,” Srebotnik said. “She’s a very good player but there’s a long way to go from junior tennis.”
The first round concluded on Wednesday when sixth-seeded Indian Sania Mirza ousted Emilie Loit of France 6-3, 6-2 in the first round on the hardcourts at Stockholm Olympic Stadium. Mirza will face Czech Iveta Benesova in a second-rounder here on Thursday.
“I felt very tired and jet-lagged and expected a tough match,” Mirza said. “It was nice to win in straight sets.”
This week’s winner will take home $22,925.
Medibank International Sydney awarded for Tournament of the Year
Posted on July 31, 2008
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The 2008 Medibank International Sydney has been voted by the men’s tennis governing body as the “ATP Tour Tournament of the Year”.
The Medibank International is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, a professional tennis tournament in Sydney, Australia, played annually at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Homebush on hard / outdoors surface. The history of this classical tournament dates back to 1885, when colonial officials decided there was a need to discover the best tennis player in each of the colonies and to use the tournament to assist with selection to the Australasia Davis Cup team.
The award reinforces the tournament’s status as the most prestigious event in the Australian Open Series. It is the second time in eight years the event has been awarded this honor. In 2001, the event has been awarded the ATP International Group award for Tournament of the Year and in 2004 it was the 3rd strongest tournament in the world, excluding Grand Slams.
“This is a coveted award within the Asian region and reflects the Medibank International’s continued high level of performance in all aspects of the event,” ATP International Group CEO Brad Drewett said. “Congratulations to the hardworking Medibank International team and also in particular to Craig Watson the Tournament Director.”
The tournament has developed a reputation for being one of the most relaxed and enjoyable events on the tennis circuit. In 2008 the Medibank International Sydney continued its reputation for attracting the world’s best players. Seven of the top 25 men in the world battled it out for the title and were joined by seven of the top 10 women.
Players from 25 countries converged on Sydney in January. Coverage of the event spanned almost every continent and reached more than 92.7 million homes.
“Receiving this award is testimony to the hard work and dedication of the events team up to date,” Medibank International Sydney Tournament Director Craig Watson said.
“It also highlights the integrity and importance of the event on the world stage, beating other events such as Dubai, Moscow, St Petersburg, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing.”
“The players love the relaxed feel of the tournament and also the atmosphere of Sydney in summer. I am looking forward to even greater things in 2009,” Watson said.