Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Scotland’s Andy Murray moved into the semi-finals of the Australian Open when last year’s champion Rafael Nadal withdrew in the third set suffering from a recurrence of an injury to his right knee. Murray was already leading the match 6-3, 7-6, 3-0 and looked in awesome form. He will face the Croatian giant Marin Cilic, who beat Andy Roddick in five sets.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer was behind the idea to add an exhibition game to the Australian Open, in order to raise funds for Haiti, and the event was a giant success, says the Open’s organizers. The event raised $200,000 in aid for Haiti, with 15,000 tickets sold, a full house, for Aus$10 each. More money was raised in the stands during the exhibition games. Another 5,000 fans who could not get into the stadium watched on the giant screens outside.
Federer’s team lost 6-7 to Rafael Nadal’s team in a doubles competition.
Team Federer: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur
Team Nadal: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters
Links to other sites: Guardian, Roger Federer, TSR (Fre)
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer and Serena Williams have been named ITF tennis champions for 2009, Federer for the fifth time, Serena for the second time. Roger Federer regained his top seed ranking from Rafael Nadal and he surpassed Pete Sampras’ 15 career Grand Slam titles. Serena Williams won Wimbledon and the Australian Open for a total of 11 wins. She last won the award in 2002. They will receive the awards in Paris in June.
Barcelona, Spain (GenevaLunch) - Spain confirmed its place at the top of the tennis world with a 3-0 victory over the Czech Republic in the final of the Davis Cup on the clay courts of Barcelona. Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer won the singles on Friday to give the Spanish a 2-0 lead and their doubles team of Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco finished the task on Saturday.
Links to other sites: Davis Cup, Eurosport/Yahoo
Federer inches closer to another Sampras record
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer neatly defeated Scotland’s Andy Murray in three sets, 3-6 6-3 6-1 at the ATP World Tour in London’s o2 arena. The Swiss player thus ensures that he will keep his ranking as the world’s top player for the rest of 2009. He finishes the year at the ATP World Tour Champion: “With five year-end number 1 finishes, Federer ties Jimmy Connors’ mark and now stands just one back of Pete Sampras on the list of all-time ATP World Tour Champions. Sampras finished as the No. 1 player six straight years, from 1993-98,” the tennis association notes on its site.
Federer held the top slot in world tennis for 237 straight weeks from 2 February 2004 to 17 August 2008.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Rafael Nadal’s chances of pushing Roger Federer out of the number one slot in tennis faded Monday night when he lost to Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-4 in the ATP World Tour, in the first match of a round robin. Soderling had handed Nadal his first loss on clay at the French Open in Paris in May 2009. Monday’s game had Nadal running all over the court, and after the game Nadal said he hadn’t really had the “necessary calm” to stay on top.
Links to other sites: AP, ATP official site, Guardian
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Serbian Novak Djokovic (ATP 3) confirmed his position as the in-form player of the last month with another tournament win. He beat French local favourite Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 in the final after crushing Rafael Nadal in the semis. He now looks like the favourite for the end of season finals in Greenwich, London.
Flushing Meadows, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – Juan Martin del Potro (bio) Monday evening in New York became only the second man to defeat Roger Federer in the finals of a grand slam tennis tournament, 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2, at the US Open. Rafael Nadal is the other. Federer looked strong and put pressure on his 20-year-old opponent in the first set and well into the second, and then Del Potro came to life and took the second set in a tie break. Federer won the third set, but his service began to weaken.
Flushing Meadows, New York (GenevaLunch) – Third seed Rafael Nadal showed he was in good form yesterday in the fourth round of the US open by beating Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-1 6-3, despite a reported intestinal problem, and after coming back from serious knee injuries earlier this year.
In the other matches 8 September at Flushing Meadows, Long Island, Croatia’s Marin Cilic beat Briton Andy Murray 7-5 6-2 6-2 to qualify for the quarter-finals; Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from France 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-4, and Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro trounced Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 6-3 6-3. BBC Sports, US Open site
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer eased past Leyton Hewitt 6-3 6-4 as the Australian struggled with an injured knee in the Cincinnati Masters, the final ATP tournament before the US Open. Andy Murray had a tougher time as he struggled past Julien Bennetteau 4-6 6-3 6-1. The Scot’s superior fitness paid off in the second set as he won a marathon 53 shot rally when 0-2 down and then pulled ahead as the Frenchman ran out of steam.
The other semi will be Rafa Nadal against Novak Djokovic, which means the top four players in the ATP rankings will face off.
Cincinnati, USA (GenevaLunch) – Spectators at the ATP tournament in Cincinnati were treated to a marathon feast of tennis as the top four men in the world played their second round matches. Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all won. Number 5, Andy Roddick, lost to fellow American Sam Querry.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Andy Murray confirmed his position as number 2 in the new ATP rankings by winning the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. He beat Argentinian Juan del Potro 6-7 7-6 6-1 in a match that was captivating for two sets but then fizzled out as the del Potro tired. Murray is 605 points ahead of Rafael Nadal but still 1,890 behind Roger Federer. The rankings record the points won in the previous 52 weeks.
Details: Rogers Cup
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) - Andy Murray beat Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a resident of La Rippe in canton Vaud. The 6-4, 7-6 victory also pushes Murray past Rafael Nadal to number 2 in the new ATP rankings. This is the highest ranking for a British player since the rankings started in 1973: Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski reached number 4.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer was ambushed by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Quebec at the Rogers Cup, losing 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (3).
In his press conference after the match the disappointed Swiss player said “It’s obviously disappointing but you know, that’s what Jo does. He doesn’t make a return for an hour and then he puts in a few and than all of a sudden he’s back in the match. I should never have allowed it but it happened, so it’s a pity.”
Rafael Nadal’s comeback was stopped when he went down 7-6 6-1 to Argentinian Juan del Potro.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) – The top eight players in the world all reached the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal: it is the first time this has happened since ATP rankings were introduced in 1973. The current top eight in order are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nikolay Davydenko.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Rafael Nadal had an easy time in his comeback match after a 10-week break to recover from injured knees. His opponent, fellow Spaniard David Ferrer retired hurt after only 36 minutes of the first set. Ferrer started with one knee strapped and twice called for the trainer before retiring while trailing 3-4. Andy Roddick, the fifth seed, beat Russian Igor Andreev 6-1 7-6 but was not happy with the slow courts and the change in the brand of balls used for the Rogers Cup.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Swiss and world number 1 Roger Federer made a successful return to tennis after taking off a month to be with his wife and twin baby girls. He won 7-6, 6-4 against Quebec player Frédéric Niemeyer without dropping a serve. Andy Murray, the third seed, looked impressive as he beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.
Montreal, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Rafael Nadal, currently number 2 in the ATP rankings, survived his first test when he partnered his assistant coach Francis Roig to a 7-5, 6-4 doubles victory over Serbian pairing Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic. He will face sterner tests in the singles matches of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. He is in danger of losing his second place ranking to Scottish star Andy Murray the only Brit in the top 200.
If Murray wins the Rogers Cup he will overtake Nadal in the rankings, and will also do so if he makes the semi-finals but Nadal does not make it past the third round. This would mean Murray entering the US Open as second seed, avoiding a showdown with Roger Federer until the final.
Sprinter Usain Bolt was awarded the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award 10 June in Toronto. Bolt is the first man to win gold medals in three events at the same Olympic Games and to have broken the world records doing so. Other nominees were swimmer Michael Phelps, tennis player Rafael Nadal, and F1 racer Lewis Hamilton. Bolt received the award from Michael Johnson, whose 200m world record he beat. BBC, AP
Update 1 June 10:55 Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Rafael Nadal had his first-ever loss at Roland Garros when Swedish 23rd seed Robin Soderling powered past him to win 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6. The Swede dominated the match from the start, especially with his forehand and made few unforced errors. He avoided any double faults and seemed completely in control despite Nadal’s amazing record on clay.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands (GenevaLunch) – Andy Murray took full advantage of an injury to Rafael Nadal’s right knee to win the final 6-3 4-6 6-0.
Qatar (GenevaLunch) – Andy Murray looks like being the first British favourite to win a Grand Slam event since the 1930s.
Abu Dhabi, UAE (GenevaLunch) – Andy Murray made the perfect start to the year with victories over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to take the tile at the Abu Dhabi exhibition. The matches did not count for ATP points but there was a $250,000 prize in the winner takes all tournament. Details, The Sun, UK
(GenevaLunch) – Rafael Nadal has decided not to compete in the Masters in Shanghai 9 November, which he describes as “one of the most difficult decisions in my career due to the importance of the event” and his fondness for the fans and organizers in China.
