Nadal Too Strong For Blake... Again
For the 2nd time in as many weeks World Number 2 Rafael Nadal came out on top against the American James Blake. Last week Nadal won a tight match at the China Open in Beijing and this time around the Spaniard prevailed in the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai.
Nadal raced through the 1st set winning it 6-2 however Blake dug in and fought back to win the second set on a tiebreaker and force the match into a decider. Nadal proved too strong in the 3rd set as he won it 6-4 to seal a hard fought 6-2 6-7 6-4 victory.
The Spaniard took the tennis world by storm last year when he won Wimbledon for the 1st time as well as the Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing.
Injury, however has hampered Nadal's year so far, he suffered a shocking 4th round defeat at the French Open. It was his 1st loss at Roland Garros, he then was unable to defend his titles at Queens and Wimbledon due to a knee injury.
If Nadal can find his best form then he has every chance of upsetting the Odds and winning the title this week.
Copyright (c) 2009 Bleacher Report, Inc
Safina: I've been in pain since April
CARSON - Dinara Safina handled Daniela Hantuchova with ease in their second-round match Wednesday, which was to be expected. She is, after all, the No. 1-ranked woman in the world and the top-seeded player in the L.A. Women's Tennis Championships.
Then she said something unexpected after her ho-hum 6-2, 6-4 victory at Home Depot Center. She revealed for the first time she played with an inflamed left patellar tendon during the French Open and Wimbledon.
The injury first cropped up in Stuttgart, at the start of the clay-court season in April. She had difficulty serving effectively and took an ever-increasing dosage of anti-inflammatory medicine simply to get through her matches.
Somehow, she managed to be the runner-up at Roland Garros and to advance to the semifinals at Wimbledon.
"It was painful," she said. "I couldn't bend my knee."
Safina didn't complain about the injury because she said that's not her style.
A week off following Wimbledon helped ease her pain. So did exercises to strengthen the muscles around her knee. What's more, she now travels with a physical therapist.
"Finally, I can serve without pain," Safina said after defeating Hantuchova and becoming the first player to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar. "Now I don't take anti-inflammatory pills anymore."
The Russian next faces Jie Zheng of China, who defeated Elena Vesnina of Russia, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
Petrova comes up aces
Fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia smacked 13 aces during her 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Shahar Peer of Israel in the second round.
Petrova also double-faulted 10 times, which helped to explain why the match went three sets.
Copyright (c)2009 Los Angeles Newspaper group
Nadal still unsure when he will return to play
The World Number Two has given an interview to TVE Spanish television
In an interview on TVE Spanish Television, Rafa Nadal, has said that he is the only person responsible for the tendonitis he has suffered in his knees, which has kept him out of competition and cost him the World Number One spot.
'My problem is that I don't know when to stop or rest', he said, admitting that he was still not sure when he would return to play.
He hoped that he would be ready for Montreal in a week and a half, but added that he felt he was free to return only when he felt he was ready.
Nadal said that he should have rested after Rome to play at his best in Roland Garros, but he wanted to play also in the Masters in Madrid, and that had been a mistake. He admitted that he was still taking anti-inflammatory drugs nearly every day during Roland Garros and he had arrived there and at Wimbledon already tired.
He said that the recent separation of his parents had not affected him in the way that had been claimed in the press, and said that he had spent more time on the sofa in the past two months than in the past four years.
typicallyspanish.com
Defending champion Wozniak faces stiffer competition at US Open Series eventSTANFORD, Calif. -- Defending Bank of the West Classic champion Aleksandra Wozniak came out of the qualifying tournament to win her first career WTA Tour title last year. She's in the main draw this year but has the likes of Wimbledon champion Serena Williams and former Grand Slam champion Venus Williams in her path this year.
Serena, ranked second in the world, and Venus, ranked third, are the top two seeds as the Bank of the West draw was announced Friday.
The 37th-ranked Wozniak opens against 27th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova.
Eight of the top 15 players are entered, along with former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova.
Copyright(c) 2009 Taragana
Nadal to return to action next month
Rafael Nadal is on the comeback trail after an injury-blighted summer which has seen him lose his French Open and Wimbledon crowns as well as the world number one spot to arch-rival Roger Federer.
The 23-year-old Spaniard was struck down by tendinitis in both his knees and clearly struggling with the injury lost in the fourth round at Roland Garros to Robin Soderling of Sweden.
He then pulled out of his defense of the Wimbledon title he won in such thrilling fashion in a five-set epic with Federer in 2008.
Federer, who won both the grand slams, recaptured the world number one ranking from Nadal as he claimed a record 15th grand slam at the All England Club.
Nadal told his official Web site www.rafaelnadal.com that he would resume training on Monday and return to tournament action in the Montreal Masters which starts on August 8.
"I am really looking forward to practice again and to do what I most like: to play tennis," he said.
"The event in Montreal is important and I expect to be there and fit to play. Until then I need to continue to work on my recovery and practice well."
Nadal was also forced to miss his country's Davis Cup quarterfinal win over Germany last weekend.
"The evolution of his injury is positive and the player will continue with his physiotherapy and muscular work and will resume his tennis activity in a progressive way starting next Monday, estimating his return to competition on August 8th at Montreal," his doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro was quoted on the Web site.
(c) 2009 Cable News Network
Shadow of Nadal hangs over Federer's claim to be the greatestIt is always unwise to predict with any degree of certainty what is going to happen in sport in the long term, particularly tennis which is open to sudden and dramatic shifts of fortune. This time last year, after Rafael Nadal had beaten Roger Federer in the greatest of all men's finals at Wimbledon, one of the questions being asked was whether the Swiss was a spent force.
He answered that promptly by winning the US Open and this year has added the French Open, for the first time, and a sixth Wimbledon title to break Pete Sampras's record of 14 majors. Even when not playing at his best, which has been the case for the past 18 months, Federer has lifted his game at crucial moments and clearly deserves all the plaudits coming his way.
When, in 2000, Sampras broke Roy Emerson's record of 12 majors which the American also achieved on the Centre Court after winning his seventh Wimbledon title - this was Federer's sixth - it seemed it would be a mark that would stand for perhaps two or three decades, particularly when he added a further slam title at the US Open two years later on his final bow. Then along came Federer. It is tempting to conclude that no player will ever match that richest of runs between Wimbledon 2005 and the 2007 US Open, when he won eight out of 10 slam finals. In all he has now played in 20 major finals, itself a record.
But here comes the uneasy part of the great man's towering performances. All those five slam finals he has lost have been against Nadal, while the last three he has won have seen the Spaniard either absent, as at Wimbledon, or knocked out before the final - by Andy Murray at Flushing Meadows and Sweden's Robin Soderling in Paris, both of whom lost to Federer in the final. Nadal, almost five years younger than Federer, has won 13 of their 20 meetings; in slam finals he holds a 5-2 advantage, and in all finals leads 11-5. While not detracting from the achievements of the Swiss, these results might, with some justification, call into question whether he can really be deemed the greatest player of the modern era.
Statistics, their head-to-heads aside, point overwhelmingly Federer's way, although this year he had a huge slice of good fortune in Paris. Had the Spaniard been fully fit it seems unlikely Federer would have won the French Open; Wimbledon is more debatable.
The degeneration of Nadal's knees is something that has yet to be fully explained. The problems began some time ago, though at the start of this year's clay-court season the young Spaniard abandoned the support strapping above them, the reason apparently being that they were no longer hurting him as much. He duly defended his Monte Carlo and Rome Masters titles, as well as the lesser tournament in Barcelona, but even then there were signs he was short of his best.
The Madrid Masters, just before Roland Garros, was a tournament too far with Nadal beaten in the final by Federer the day after a four-hour semi-final against Novak Djokovic. Toni Nadal, the uncle and coach, monitors his nephew's physical condition constantly, while also modifying his style. As he showed when beating Federer on the Australian hard courts, his game is still developing, and this shook the confidence of the Swiss to the roots. The new fascination will be to see how he will react when he plays Nadal again.
By regaining the Wimbledon title, Federer also deposed Nadal as the world No1. His aim is to stay there until the end of the year, just as he intends to carry on playing the game he so dearly loves for some time yet: "[My wife] Mirka would not let me retire. She wants to see me play, and just sitting at home is not the life for me." Just how much the arrival of their first child will change matters, nobody can be sure. He only managed to get two hours' sleep on Sunday night, and he may have to start getting used to that.
Between them Federer and Nadal have now won 17 of the last 18 slams, with only Djokovic breaking up the duopoly in the 2008 Australian Open. Andy Roddick came preciously close on Sunday and the rest, including Andy Murray, will take encouragement from this. But most eyes will now be fixed on Nadal in New York. Privately he let it be known, even before the French Open, that his main aim after winning the Australian Open was to capture the US Open title.
Tennis has been fortunate to have two such great players around at the same time, and it is to be hoped it stays that way for another couple of years at least. It might be harsh to suggest that to be truly deserving of the "greatest ever" title (and many remain on Rod Laver's side) then Federer needs to beat Nadal a few more times in slam finals, but it remains an intriguing basis for an argument.
(c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Roger Federer Ends Tommy Haas's Senior Moment in Wimbledon SemifinalsRoger Federer had never lost in six Wimbledon Semifinals. Tommy Haas had never played in one.
Haas got to play. Federer, of course, got to win.
In what was a tight match in the first two sets, Roger Federer played the big points with his typical grace under pressure and ended up with a straight set victory in the first Wimbledon semifinal of the day, 7-6(3), 7-5, 6-3.
Though each of the first two sets weren't decided until the latter phases, Federer's domination on serve kept him in control throughout the match. The Swiss maestro did not face a break point in the two hour and two minute affair. Additionally, for the second straight match, Federer only lost 11 points on his serve (out of 83).
But it wasn't only Federer who was blasting away on serve. Neither player faced a break point in the first set.
In the first set tiebreaker, Federer was impervious to the pressure once again. He used a close call by the omnipotent Hawk-Eye that went in his favor at 2-2 to get over the top and take the set.
In the second set it was much of the same. Both players were serving hot on the grass, and even though Federer had more winners, and a set point in the 10th game, he didn't make his decisive move until the 12th game of the set.
A Haas error sealed the deal on Federer's third set point, his back hand sailing long, and Federer assuming a commanding 2-0 lead.
A far cry from being down two sets, as he was in Roland Garros against Haas, Federer was able to relax and switch himself into cruise control.
Another superior spell of serving all but buried the 31-year-old German. Federer lost only two points in his six service games in the third set, and fired six aces for good measure.
The beleaguered Haas wasn't able to make the third set quite as competitive as the first two. Eleven unforced errors, compared to only one by the demure Federer, set the table for a Federer feast. An easy break in the eighth game of the set stuck a fork in the already cooked Haas.
The rest was academic.
If you bundled all your superlatives into one bundle and spit them out in one sentence, it wouldn't be enough praise for the remarkable tennis that Federer has given Wimbledon over the past seven years.
Seven straight Wimbledon finals. Five Wimbledon titles. Only one loss to the phenom known as Nadal since 2002. The list goes on and on, and finally it points to the one task that Federer has yet to accomplish: The 15th Grand-Slam title.
Only one match stands between Federer and yet another irrefutable piece of the argument for his unequivocal greatness.
It'll be a grand breakfast at Wimbledon, no matter who he plays.
Copyright (c) 2009 Bleacher Report, Inc
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