Paes-Bhupathi ousted in first round of Indianapolis C'ship

Top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi could not recreate their old chemistry and crashed out of the Indianapolis tennis championship with a first round defeat.
The 'Indian Express' pair failed to hold their nerve in the match tie-break and went down to the Canadian duo of Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer 4-6 6-3 10-12 in one hour and 25 minutes.
The result is bound to disappoint Paes and Bhupathi's innumerable fans who are expecting an Olympic medal from the duo.After surrendering the first set, Paes and Bhupathi bounced back to snatch the second and draw parity.
In the match tie-break, the Indian pair was trailing 6-9 before they went on to level the score and in fact lead 10-9.Nestor and Niemeyer, however, were not ready to throw in the towel and won the next three consecutive points to get past their opponents.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Sania crashes out of Stanford singles

.

Sania Mirza's woeful run of form continued as the Indian ace crashed out of the WTA Bank of the West Classic tournament with a straight-set opening round defeat at the hands of British qualifier Anne Keothavong in Stanford, United States.


The world number 33 Sania went down 6-7 (4), 1-6 to number 83 Keothavong in a one-hour-twenty-minute contest of the tier II $600,000 event.


Sania, who has been battling injuries and poor form this year, and Keothavong were facing each other for the first time and both the players broke each other once in the opening set before the Brit seized the set in the tie-breaker.


If the first set was hard-fought, the second set turned out to be exactly the opposite with Sania hardly giving a fight to her lower-ranked opponent.


Keothavong broke Sania thrice before racing away with the set and the match to set up a second-round clash with sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France.


However, Sania is still in contention in the doubles competition where she will pair up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

The duo will open their campaign against the Czech pair of Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Paes-Bhupathi are top seeds in Indianapolis

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been given the top billing in their second pre-Olympic ATP event together -- the Indianapolis Tennis Championships in United States this week.


The USD 525,000 hard court event is the estranged duo's final Olympic build-up tournament together to be followed by a few days of practice before they head to the quadrennial extravaganza in Beijing.


They had earlier played together in a pre-Wimbledon grass court tourney in Holland, finishing runners-up. Paes and Bhupathi will take on wild cards Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer of Canada on Wednesday in the opening round.


The tournament also features Rohan Bopanna, who will pair up with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. Bopanna and Qureshi have a tough opener at hand as they take on fourth seeds Russians Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.


Meanwhile, after a disappointing grass-court season, Sania Mirza starts her hard-court campaign at the USD 600,000 WTA Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, United States.


The 21-year-old, who has been battling injuries and poor form for quite some while, takes on British qualifier Anne Keothavong in the opening round of the tier-II event.

If Sania clears the first hurdle, she will take on sixth seed French Marion Bartoli in the second round. In doubles, the Hyderabadi girl will pair up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze. They will open their campaign against the Czech pair of Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Sania vows to do whatever it takes to win Olympic medal

Carrying the hopes of a billion people is a 'privilege' for Sania Mirza and the Hyderabadi tennis ace vows to give everything it needs to bring home an individual Olympic medal, a feat only four Indians have managed since independence.

Sania will compete in the strongest ever singles field, led by world number one Serb Ana Ivanovic, in the history of the quadrennial extravaganza and the young Indian knows well that the road ahead is full of challenges.


Yet, she is determined to live up to the expectations.


"Winning an Olympic medal in any discipline is not easy and the women's singles field in tennis is very, very tough. Winning a medal in women's singles or doubles will have to be against all odds.


"But as someone representing the country, it is my duty to do whatever I possibly can to try and achieve this glory for my country," Sania told PTI in an exclusive interview.

Whenever she enters the tennis courts, Sania knows the nation of one billion plus people is watching every movement curiously, but she says she does not buckle under the pressure.


"It is a tremendous honour to represent India at the Olympics but I believe I carry the hopes of my people in every event that I participate in, including the Grand Slams. The pressure is not new to me and I consider it a great privilege," she said. PTI

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Nadal now eyes No.1 spot

.

Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal arrived to a hero's welcome in his home town of Manacor on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Tuesday, and declared that the number one spot is now his goal. "Now it has become a little objective," Nadal said.


In one of the most nerve-jangling finals seen at the All England Club, Nadal survived two rain breaks and an astonishing Federer fightback to end the Swiss's five-year reign as Wimbledon champion with a thrilling 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 victory.
Federer has led the rankings for a record 232 consecutive weeks, and Nadal has been second for a record 155.


Nadal capped a brilliant summer for Spain, as their football team won the European championships to end a 44-year wait for a major trophy.


"Whoever wins the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year for me is the number one in the world," Boris Becker said after that dramatic Wimbledon final. "The computer just didn't get it yet."


He was acclaimed by hundreds of fans-- including Balearic Islands regional president Francesc Antich and Manacor Mayor Antoni Pastor-- as he waved to them from the balcony of the Manacor town hall. Nadal, 22, said he stands a chance of becoming world number one provided he maintains his current level of play and keeps "working with the same humility."


The Wimbledon trophy has a place of pride not only for Nadal, but for Spain. The tennis players from the country have ruled the French Open but the grass-court Slam has been largely elusive. Before the 22-year-old, Manuel Santana was the last Spaniard to lift the coveted trophy in 1966.

Nadal acknowledged that he has "good options" to reach the top spot in the upcoming North American tour, when he plays the Masters Series tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Nadal pulls out of Stuttgart Cup

Newly crowned Wimbledon Champion Rafael Nadal made the short journey to southern Germany on Monday, with the 22 year-old Spaniard still clearly on a high less than a day after claiming his maiden Wimbledon men's singles title.Nadal defeated World number one and five-time former champion Roger Federer in the final on Sunday evening, with the epic match the longest in the tournaments history - lasting four hour and 48 minutes - and already regarded by some as the best ever men's final at the All England Lawn-Tennis and Croquet club.

The four-time French Open champion was in town to personally announce his withdrawal from the Stuttgart Cup and also to apologise to event organisers for his failure to defend the title he won last season."Well I am disappointed for me this year," Nadal said. "I can't play here in Stuttgart as I was playing in Wimbledon for the last couple of weeks. The calendar this year is terrible, its very very tough and I have a problem in the second round against (Ernests) Gulbis, I go down and I have a little bit of a problem behind the knee.

During all of Wimbledon I had problems a little bit. "Yesterday during the match I go down...I fell down. And I spoke with my doctor and my doctor says I need some days off and right now I have to check and I have to go to the doctor and check everything because last year I came here, I won the tournament and it was a very good tournament for me but at the same time I have problems in the knee for a long time. "After Wimbledon I have the problems here so I would prefer to be 100% sure of what I have and just come back to the court when I feel 100%."After emerging victorious from a hard fought four hour and 48 minute battle, which is already being regarded as the greatest Wimbledon final in the tournaments history, Nadal - the four-time French Open champion - was quick to assert that life, and work, will go on as normal."Well it probably was one of the more important matches of my career.

The tennis and the life and the career continue after that so, my career doesn't change after my victory yesterday. I just want to continue work like always. My goal always is to be a better player than before and continuing to improve and work hard for to improve my tennis and all of this I am going to have chances for continuing being in the top positions and winning titles."

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Nadal Won Wimbledon 2008 Mens Singals

.

Nadal makes it a dark day for Federer at Wimbledon


With darkness fast encroaching on Centre Court at 9:16 p.m. Wimbledon time Sunday and all manner of doubt hanging in the air, a 22-year-old human blast furnace from the Spanish island of Mallorca suddenly splayed on the grass behind the baseline and made his first attempts at comprehension.Comprehension might take some time for Rafael Nadal, and for Roger Federer, and for those who attended one of the greatest matches in tennis history, a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7 gem too chockablock with twists to grasp in a mere evening.


Nadal won and Federer lost, but it didn't cut quite that simply after 4 hours 48 minutes and one rain-delayed start and two rain interruptions and two match points in the fourth set and a fifth set that lasted 75 minutes and threatened to storm right into a Monday restart.No, the longest and latest final in Wimbledon history appeared through its last three sets to have two winners, two unconquerable wills that sent the audience chanting "Roger" and "Rafa" and hurtling into the evening with no idea which way the thing might tilt.When Federer didn't receive the trophy -- to get technical about it -- it ended his run of Wimbledon titles at five, just as Bjorn Borg's run ended in a sixth final in 1981. It ended his grass-court winning streak at 65.


It ended his Wimbledon winning streak at 40.And even while he looked the picture of devastation as he labeled this "probably my hardest loss, by far," in some curious way, the match also ennobled him and displayed his champion's innards. It showed him digging out from a two-set deficit after he'd lost the last five games of the second set and looked hopeless.It showed him trailing, 5-2, in the fourth-set tiebreaker. It showed him fending off one match point in that same tiebreaker with a 127-mph service winner to the corner, and another with a brilliant backhand passing shot up the line to counter a brilliant Nadal passing shot up the line just when Federer and everyone else thought Nadal might've won."I'm very happy but at the same time sorry for him because he deserved to win the match, too," Nadal said, an outright reflection of a comment Federer made last year after beating Nadal in an outstanding final by 6-2 in the fifth set.


Then, somewhere between marvel and gloaming and exasperation at 8-7 to Nadal in the fifth set, the match had Federer thwarting a third match point with a cross-court backhand return worthy of violins. Finally, when Federer plunked a cross-court forehand into the net on the fourth match point, Nadal collapsed."This is impossible to explain what I felt in that moment," he said.Sustaining his intent despite the goblins of all the missed chances, he had continued his ferocious rush toward Federer's heels. He won his fifth Grand Slam title, but more importantly, his first one off his adored clay of Paris.


He won Wimbledon in his third straight final after getting closer and closer in Federer's rearview during the first two.He became the first male champion since Manolo Santana in 1966 from Spain, whose players spent decades stating their aversion to grass by deeming it only a bovine pursuit.Then he clambered up Centre Court's various levels to the Friends Box to his family and his uncle/coach Toni Nadal, retrieved a Spanish flag and then made an unprecedented detour over toward the Royal Box, where he greeted Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain.In remarks to the audience, Nadal called Federer "the best player of history," and as he stood with his trophy alongside Federer with his plate, the darkness had crashed in almost completely.

"In the last game I didn't see nothing," Nadal would say later in his fractured English. With flashbulbs popping, illuminating the two players dressed in white and reflecting off their hardware, it looked like some film set, and the show had been riveting.Slated for a 2 p.m. start, it had begun at 2:37 p.m. because of rain, rare during this unusually bright Wimbledon. It halted late in the third set because of rain. It halted early in the fifth set because of rain.From the beginning of the third set to the 15th game of the fifth, the players combined for 38 consecutive holds of service and not a single break point in the entire fourth set. They crushed an avalanche of winners, 89 for Federer and 60 for Nadal.


Nadal displayed his astonishing defense. Federer repeatedly sent inside-out forehands screaming into the corner for winners. Nadal's spin and power often foiled Federer's trips to the net. Federer's serve served as his life raft, with his 25 aces, four in the third-set tiebreaker alone.Finally, at 7-7 in the fifth, with Monday on everybody's mind, Federer served, and Nadal used a searing backhand that flew across the premises into the corner to attain two break points, his third and fourth of the set. After Federer saved those (one with an ace), Nadal claimed another.

After Federer saved that with a 125-mph ace to the corner, the match finally tilted.Federer ran around to a forehand and crushed that into the net, then picked up a short ball and lifted that just long.His protracted reign at Wimbledon, dating back all the way to , June 25, 2002, the date of his last previous loss there, had come to the precipice. But, of course, then he fought more. He sent the next return game to a deuce, then saw a nasty, dancing, 115-mph serve glance off his racket frame.Soon the old champion of 26 had hit the amazing day's last shot, and a Spaniard who curiously grew up dreaming of doing well at Wimbledon had fallen deliriously prone just below Santana himself in the front row of the Royal Box.He got up, went to Federer at the net, and, "I just say, 'Good tournament. Sorry.' Because I know how tough is lose a final like this. This is tougher than last year, and last year I was very disappointed in the end. So he is great champion, no?"Yes, and that made two.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

At Wimbledon, tennis stars are still scoring points for fashion

SOMETIME last week, center court at Wimbledon began to look more like a fashion show than a tennis tournament. There was Serena Williams warming up in a chic, belted, white trench coat under cloudless skies, Roger Federer as Jay Gatsby in a white cardigan with an "F" insignia, and Maria Sharapova getting trounced in a sheer, pleated-front bib top and shorts. They call that a tennis tuxedo by the way, not a Tennessee tuxedo, and her opponent, fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva said afterward, "I don't like her outfit. Can I put it this way? It was one of my motivations to beat her."Ouch.


All three ensembles were designed by Nike, and the tennis tux shirt, which I think was cute in a high-low kind of way, is $55 at Nike.com. But it was Venus Williams who packed the biggest style punch in a twist-front tennis dress from her own collection, EleVen. Shoppers can buy the piece this month at the fast fashion emporium Steve & Barry's.It was quite a turn for Wimbledon, which began in 1877 when tennis was a sport of the Victorian elite, to have Williams in her own brand of cheap chic for the masses, even if she did spend a lot of time tugging at the top to make sure it didn't fall down.Fans may scoff that fashion is taking over the tournament, but they shouldn't. One of the joys of watching Wimbledon is that it is one of the last bastions of a formal dress code.

By now, we're used to seeing the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, college students wearing flip-flops to the White House and mourners at President Reagan's memorial donning cargo shorts and baseball hats.But at Wimbledon, dress whites are still de rigueur and any woman wearing a low-cut top can still be ejected from the court.While Sharapova's tennis tux isn't likely to make it to the prom, and Williams' tennis dress will probably have limited appeal, it's fascinating to see how players express themselves within the confines of a dress code, and how the most subtle (or not so subtle) gesture can speak volumes.

That's what true style is.Despite its lofty beginnings, tennis has influenced the way the world dresses like no other sport. Our summer uniform of tennis shoes, shorts and polo shirts filtered down from the court. And long before Nike, Adidas, Elesse and other sports brands signed multimillion-dollar deals to dress players, fashion designers got into the game. The popularity of tennis nudged them to develop sportswear, edging formality out of daily life and the runway.In the early days of Wimbledon, women were confined to long dresses with sleeves and stockings.

But gradually, tennis became a vehicle for sartorial emancipation. Twenties-era champion Suzanne Lenglen was a style icon, thanks to her revolutionary attire, according to Diane Elisabeth Poirier's book "Tennis Fashion."Jean Patou made her a fashionably functional knee-length, pleated skirt and sleeveless cardigan. And when Lenglen retired, she became a designer herself.Other high-fashion designers followed Patou's lead in designing tennis apparel, including Lanvin, Rochas, Schiaparelli and Hermès. And today, sportswear is a foundation of nearly every major fashion brand.As the popularity of tennis soared, so did its stars, and athletes such as Fred Perry became the original celebrity designers. French player René Lacoste, nicknamed "the Crocodile" for his fierceness, introduced the Lacoste tennis shirt in 1929 with its embroidered alligator logo.

That piqué, collared shirt became a wardrobe staple for men and women, and the foundation of the Ralph Lauren empire.By the 1970s, players were known less for their individual style than their associations with the sports footwear and apparel giants that marketed their images. Aside from Anne White's cat suit, Martina Navratilova's hot pants and Andre Agassi's mullet, tennis in the '80s and '90s was about performance wear -- second skin fibers and breathable fabrics. It was about substance over style.For better or worse, that has changed, and tennis is once again in fashion. The Williams sisters have had a lot to do with it. Remember their hair beads from Wimbledon '99? And Venus' corset dress designed by Diane von Furstenberg and Reebok from '03? Players have reached the status of top models (and some have even modeled). They walk the red carpet, sit in the front row at New York Fashion Week and appear in the pages of Vogue.And why not? Basketball players wear the same old jerseys soaked in sweat at every game, and baseball players can only personalize their uniforms with a mud stain here or there. But in tennis, players can compete and look good doing it. Which means the grass runway isn't likely to go away any time soon.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Wimbledon final: It's Federer vs Nadal

.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, tennis's glittering top of the bill double act, clash in a third successive Wimbledon final on Sunday to determine who is the world's best player.The final will be the sixth time the elegant Swiss and the muscular Spaniard have met in a Grand Slam final, bettering the five played by Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, and then Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in the 1980s and 1990s.Federer has won two on the grass of the All England Club in 2006 and 2007; Nadal has claimed three on his beloved Roland Garros clay in 2006, 2007 and 2008.Never have the stakes been higher.



A victory for Federer will make him the first man since the 19th century to win six Wimbledons in a row.A win for Nadal, on the other hand, will take him alongside Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg as the only man to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.He would also become the first Spanish men's champion since Manuel Santana in 1966.It's hardly surprising that the 26-year-old Federer and Nadal, just 22, are keen to stress that the pressure is on the other."For me, Roger is the best in history," said Nadal who stormed to a fourth successive French Open title a month ago destroying Federer in a brutally one-sided final where the world number one won just four games.That Paris annihilation, coupled with Nadal taking Federer to an epic five-set final here in 2007, has led many to suggest that the era of the Swiss superstar's dominance is at an end. Federer may have been world number one for 231 weeks, and can lay claim to 12 Grand Slam titles compared to Nadal's four, but many argue that Nadal, especially with a first grasscourt title from Queen's tucked under his belt, is really the world's preeminent tennis talent.



"If I have the title on Sunday, then on Monday I'll continue to be the number two but I'll have more chances to become the number one in the next months," said a cautious Nadal.He may boast 11 wins in 17 meetings with Federer, but nine of those have come on clay.Furthermore, Federer insists that the trauma of Paris is now a distant memory even if the media revel in reminding him of his latest failed French Open campaign."That final is out of the picture. I hardly remember it. It went so quickly," said Federer who remains fulsome in his praise of his tormentor."I'm not going to draw anything out of that match because Rafa plays so different on clay and grass. He plays so much closer to the baseline that I have to draw from my two previous Wimbledon finals."I enjoy the challenge.



Rafa is a great competitor. He's got a winning record over me. Every time I play him I want to try to beat him. The thing is, I've played him so often on clay, it's more of an advantage for him in the head-to-heads."At the same time, he's now become so good on all other surfaces as well that he's a real threat on anything."Federer has waltzed into his sixth final virtually untroubled. Federer has been detained on court for over two hours only once in his six matches and has yet to drop a set. But he only met one seeded player.That run has allowed him to take his grasscourt winning streak to 65 matches, a run stretching back to 2002.Nadal's route was slightly tougher having to see off three seeded players but dropping serve just once against the promising Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second round."My way to the final's been great," said Federer."I've just been playing consistently well. I wasn't pushed to the degree where I have to say I played my best tennis ever."If I were to win on Sunday, then maybe I can say I've been playing my best ever."

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Venus Williams Wimbledon 2008 Women Singal Winner

..

Venus Williams Wimbledon 2008 Women Singal Winner & Her sister Serena Williams running -up


Runner-up Serena Williams said she hoped to meet sister Venus in other major finals and vowed that next time she would be more ready for the barrage of serves into the body that she faced in Saturday's Wimbledon showpiece.

The pair played each other for a third time in a final at the All England Club, with Venus winning 7-5 6-4 to collect her fifth Venus Rosewater Dish.

It was the seventh time they had clashed in a grand slam final and Serena, 15 months younger than her 28-year-old sister, said it was unlikely to be the last.

"If we stay on the opposite side of the draw it probably will be a likelihood. We're always trying to get to the finals and do better than that," she told a news conference.

She said Venus's tactic had been to serve into her body, which she thought she had coped with well but would be even better prepared for next time they met.

"I'm glad she did it because next time I know what to expect. I think I did good with getting them back," said Serena, who had won their previous two Wimbledon final encounters.
She said she was unhappy with her performance and that she had struggled in the blustery conditions.

"I don't think I played well. For me there's nothing to be satisfied about," she said.


"I know she was under the same conditions, too, but, you know, it was just really, really tough. She started just playing, she lifted the level of her game and I should have lifted mine but instead I think mine went down."

She admitted she was happy for her sister but that it was no easier losing to a family member than anyone else.

"I just look at her as another opponent at the end of the day," she said.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Williams sisters reach semifinals

.

The Williams sisters moved closer to another Wimbledon final on Tuesday, using their power tennis to cruise into the semifinals in straight sets.Defending champion and four-time winner Venus Williams beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-3, and two-time champ Serena swept 19-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-0.The Williams sisters are in opposite halves of the draw and could meet in Saturday's final.
The two have been twice before in the Wimbledon final, with Serena winning both in 2002 and '03"That would be amazing if we both were in the final," seventh-seeded Venus said. "I have to take it one more step and keep playing power tennis."Venus will next face No. 5 Elena Dementieva, who wasted a 5-1 lead and two match points in the second set before beating fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal.Sixth-seeded Serena will play Zheng Jie, who became the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam by beating Nicole Vaidisova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.
The 133rd-ranked Zheng is also the first wild-card entrant to reach the women's semis at Wimbledon and second at any Grand Slam."I think many people (will) watch this match in China," Zheng said.The Williams sisters will be heavy favorites to set up their sixth Grand Slam final showdown. Serena leads 5-1 in Slam finals and 8-7 in overall matches

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS