Indian Wells, California, USA (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer won’t be starring at Indian Wells this year, after a defeat, 5-7 7-5 7-6 (7/4), at the hands of Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament.
Scot Andy Murray beat US player Michael Russell 6-3, 7-5 to move on in the tournament.
Links to other sites: AFP/Sydney Morning Herald, Lawn Tennis Association
Title: Zurich tennis open
Location: Zurich
Link out: Click here
Description: At the BNP Paribas Zurich Open, two generations of players will compete in the same tournament for the first time. Former ATP champions John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and six other top players, will face off ITF young talent on the court.
Start Date: 2010-03-09
End Date: 2010-03-13
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Swiss world number one tennis player Roger Federer added a fourth Australian Open to his collection, and a record 16th Grand Slam singles title to his trophy cabinet as he crushed Andy Murray 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11.) Federer quickly took control as he broke Murray’s first service game but the Scot battled back to win the next three games.
The Swiss star then gave a masterful demonstration to take the first two sets. The third set was tightly contested as Murray took advantage of a few weak points to break Federer’s serve and lead 5-2 but he handed back the break and the set went to a tie-break. A tiring Murray failed to convert four set points and eventually lost the tie-break 13-11 to end the match.
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Serena Williams quashed Justine Henin’s hopes of turning her tennis comeback into a Grand Slam title in Melbourne, winning the Australian Women’s Open, 6-4 3-6 6-2. Henin briefly looked like she could turn the tide in her favour when she took the second set, but Williams maintained the title she won in 2009. This is Williams fifth Australian Open title.
Links to other sites: Australian Open
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Swiss tennis star Roger Federer cruised past Swiss resident (canton Vaud) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-2 6-3 6-2 to reach the finals of the Australian Open. Federer and British player Andy Murray face off Sunday for the title.
Links to other sites: Australian Open, TSR (Fre)
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - The big surprise in the womens’ draw for the 2010 Australian Open has been the performance of Chinese players Li Na and Zheng Jie but they failed to make it through to the final. Serena Williams powered her way past Li Na 7-6, 7-6 in a closely fought match. Justine Henin thrashed Zheng Jie 6-1, 6-0, winning 12 games in succession. The final showdown between Serena Williams and Justine Henin should be a fascinating match. The Williams sisters moved into the final of the womens’ doubles where they will face Zimbabwean Cara Black and Liesel Huber of the USA.
Andy Murray started his semi-final match against Marin Cilic nervously, losing the first set 6-3 but then the British player picked up to break the Croatian’s serve and take the second set 6-4. He then went on to take the next two sets against a tiring Cilic to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. He will play either Roger Federer or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
Links to other sites: Australian Open
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer escaped a tough first hour of play to suddenly take over his match with Nicolay Davydenko to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5. Federer now moves into the semi-finals of the Australian Open, setting another record, for playing in more Grand Slam semi-finals than any player in tennis history. The win also assures him his number one place, which had been under threat from Novak Djokovic.
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.
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer was in fine form as he brushed aside the local favourite Leyton Hewitt 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to enter the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Monday 25 January. Federer was in complete control throughout, dropping serve only once, in the third set, and then coming back immedately to beat Hewitt for the 15th time in succession.
Federer will next face Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Fernando Verdasco in a tough five-setter 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7, 6-3. Davydenko beat Federer in their last two matches, after a long string of losses against the Swiss star.
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)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French tennis player Richard Gasquet was exonerated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport Thursday 17 December from any fault or negligence over cocaine in his system, which he says was from kissing in a nightclub. The CAS agreed his assertion is the most likely explanation for the minute amount of the drug found in his system 28 March during the ATP tournament in Miami, Florida, USA.
The amount was so small that it did not reflect social use of the drug, but rather incidental contamination, the court says. “It was also established that the player was clearly not a regular cocaine user, even in very small amounts.”
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
O2 Arena, London, England (GenevaLunch) - Russian Nikolay Davydenko scored his finest career result when he beat Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4 in the ATP tennis World Tour Final. In the semi-finals he scored his first win over Roger Federer after 13 losses. The finals win was fairly routine as del Potro never showed the energy and power that had seen him beat Federer and Robin Soderling in the previous rounds.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Nicolay Davydenko defeated Roger Federer 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 at the ATP World Finals in London, outpowering him in the first set and outlasting him overall. Davydenko played extremely well and now awaits the winner of the Saturday evening match between Robin Soderling and Juan Martin del Potro for the finals in an end of season tournament that has seen the world’s top players seem to run out of steam.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Sports Illustrated
O2 Arena, London, England (GenevaLunch) - The final tennis matches of the A Group of the ATP Masters had the audience consulting their calculators to see who were the real winners. Roger Federer lost to Argentinia’s Juan Martin del Potro in three sets, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 but it was just enough to ensure that Federer topped the group. Del Potro edged out Andy Murray by a single game in the final calculation, based on the difference in number of games won and lost in the three matches. Andy Murray won his match against Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 but the close nature of the match later cost him a place in the semi- finals.
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
London, England (GenevaLunch) - Andy Murray started strongly in the end of year ATP Masters, beating Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, the winner of the US Open, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The Scot looked in fine form in the first set, quickly going to a 5-0 lead. Del Potro suffered from an inability to maintain a rally, and a nosebleed. He came back in the second set, winning it 6-3, but quickly fell behind in the third. The match ended 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
The other match in the O2 arena saw world number one Roger Federer take on Fernando Verdasco.
Etas project in Zimbabwe: the Roger Federer Foundation is spending some CHF80,000 a year on the project to improve the infrastructure of 8 schools, as well as investing in teacher training and the quality of education for about 2,000 children in the Matopo region.
Basel and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer has signed a 10-year contract with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, for an undisclosed sum, the bank announced Monday 16 November. Federer, on his web site, notes that “As part of the partnership agreement, Credit Suisse will make a significant annual contribution to the Roger Federer Foundation, which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and to promoting education, sports and play, particularly in Africa.” The foundation was inspired by Federer’s South African mother and currently states on its web site that its capital is CHF4 million.
The bank’s CEO, Brady Dougan, did not stint in his enthusiastic praise of the Swiss tennis star:
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.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, ranked number one in the world by the ATP tennis association, lost to number 49-ranked Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the first match for Federer at the start of the Masters 1000 Paris-Bercy. Benneteau fell to the court in tears at the end of the match, where he dominated the game and defeated Federer 3-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-4. The last time Federer lost an entry-level match in a tournament was in August 2008 in Montreal.
Chateau de Bethusy, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French tennis player Richard Gasquet took part in a seven-hour review of his suspension by the Court of Arbitration for Sport Tuesday 10 November. The review follows demands by Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the International Tennis Federation for his penalty to be increased to a one-year ban.
The review came on the day when Wada celebrated its tenth birthday, with director general David Howman saying “All over the world, awareness is much higher today than it was ten years ago . . . Global anti-doping efforts in general have become smarter and much more sophisticated with experience.”
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer missed out on the chance to win his fourth successive title at his Swiss hometown tournament. He played without his customary power and precision to let Novak Djokovic take the title.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - World number one Roger Federer eased past his fellow Basel player Marco Chiudinelli (ATP rank, 73) after a difficult first set in the semi-finals of the Basel tournament. He won 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 against his much improved friend.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer’s return to tennis Monday 2 November after time off for family gave him a smooth win over Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-3, in a match that lasted 66 minutes. Federer had 12 aces in the match that showed him in top form.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The World Anti-doping Agency (Wada) celebrates its tenth year this week as it finds itself faced with the blunt admission by one of the all-time greats of the tennis world, Andre Agassi, that he took the highly addictive drug crystal meth 12 years ago.
Agassi’s autobiography Open, to be released 9 November, contains the admission, but Wada’s statute of limitations is eight years, so Agassi is technically outside the sports and drugs monitoring organization’s reach.
