Roddick Vs Federer in Final Wimbledon

Rising, rising, rising, aerial aloft the best acclaimed application of grass in tennis, Roger Federer channeled Pete Sampras on bout point in the Wimbledon semifinals Friday, tucking both anxiety aback below his anatomy and uncorking an aerial smash.

And now, afterwards years of block Sampras, Federer is assertive to exhausted him.

A achievement over No. 6-seeded Andy Roddick of the United States in Sunday's final at the All England Club would accord Federer his 15th Grand Slam singles championship, breaking a tie with Sampras for the best in history. It additionally would accord Federer a sixth Wimbledon appellation and a acknowledgment to No. 1 in the rankings.

As it is, No. 2 Federer's cutting 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-3 achievement over No. 24 Tommy Haas of Germany in Friday's aperture bout on Centre Cloister put the Swiss brilliant in a seventh afterwards Wimbledon final and 20th career Grand Slam final â€" establishing two added marks.

"I'm actual appreciative of all the annal I've achieved, because I never anticipation I would be that acknowledged as a kid. You know, I would accept been blessed acceptable a brace tournaments and maybe accession Wimbledon," the 27-year-old Federer said. "It's absolutely staggering."

Yes, Roger, it absolutely is.

When he accomplished off Haas with that Sampraslike leaping putaway, Federer artlessly waited at the net to agitate hands. Again he gave a little beachcomber of his agitation in the administration of his abundant wife, his parents and ! added su pporters in the bedfellow seats aloft a scoreboard, afore authoritative the aforementioned action adjoin the Royal Box, area accomplished greats of the bold Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver were amid the arrive guests.

Winning a Wimbledon semifinal â€" indeed, any Grand Slam semifinal â€" is all so actual been-there, done-that for Federer: He is 20-3 in above semis over his career, extensive 16 of the accomplished 17 above finals.

"I apperceive what's on the line," Federer said. "I achievement I can comedy addition acceptable match."

His antecedent bout adjoin Haas, on June 1 in the fourth annular of the French Open, was abundant tighter. Haas won the aboriginal two sets that day â€" drew aural bristles credibility of victory, alike â€" afore Federer came aback en avenue to acceptable the appellation at Roland Garros to complete a career Grand Slam and tie Sampras with 14 Grand Slam championships.

This time, Federer was absolutely abutting to perfect. He won a arresting 72 of 83 credibility on his serve, did not face a distinct breach point and accomplished with 49 winners and alone 15 autogenetic errors.

"You know, that's the way it goes arena adjoin him," Haas said. "There aren't absolutely any weaknesses."

Roddick acclaimed rather emotionally afterwards finishing off No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5) in Friday's additional semifinal. The 2003 U.S. Accessible champion, still gluttonous a additional above title, alone to his knees, leaned advanced and covered his arch with his hands.

Leaving the court, Roddick paused to adore the moment, beholden that all of the changes he's fabricated over the accomplished several months paid dividends: tweaking his diet to bead 15 pounds, hiring a new coach, alive added than anytime to advance his returns, his volleys, his backhand.

"To be honest, the aftermost brace of years, I didn't apperceive if I'd anytime get a adventitious to comedy for addition Grand Slam title," Roddick said. "Now I get t! o. It's aloof a dream."

This allotment ability account some nightmares afore Sunday: Roddick is 2-18 adjoin Federer, including losses in the 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon finals, as able-bodied as the 2006 U.S. Accessible final.

"I've had affluence of time to abstraction his game, to accept his game," Federer said. "He's consistently played me additionally absolutely abnormally every distinct time."

Then again, Roddick was 2-6 advanced adjoin Murray, who was aggravating to become the aboriginal British man to ability the Wimbledon final aback the 1930s and, of course, accustomed affluence of accessory abutment from the 15,000 or so spectators.

Roddick joked advanced he'd be assuming that all those shouts of "Come on, Andy!" were for him, but he was outsmarted: Instead of the accepted first-name cheers, the army yelled abutment for their man "Murray!"

Didn't matter. Roddick was too acceptable on the best important credibility and that fabricated the aberration on a day Murray aggregate added aces (25-21), added winners (76-64) and beneath autogenetic errors (20-24). Roddick won far added credibility at the net, 48-15, and put in a far college allotment of aboriginal serves, 75-52, while hitting abundant harder than Murray, extensive a tournament-high 143 mph.

"If he serves like that," Murray said, "he's got a adventitious adjoin anyone."

There was alone one breach point in the aboriginal set, and it came with Murray confined while abaft 5-4. Murray went advanced 30-love, but Roddick took the abutting four points, assuming off some of the newfound versatility in his game. He got to breach point with a drop-shot champ on a 10-stroke exchange. And he concluded the set with a booming backhand bottomward the band that affected Murray into a forehand absurdity on the point's 17th stroke.

The stands were abutting to silent, and it was bright Murray bare to do article to get the admirers â€" and himself â€" going. He did aloof that, breaking Roddick at adulation to acces! sible th e additional set, again captivation with the advice of three aces in a row to go up 2-0.

After confined out that set, Murray was on the border of alpha the third the exact aforementioned way. But Roddick adored three breach credibility to authority for 1-0.

"You're apparently not activity to get out of a love-40 aperture too generally adjoin a guy who allotment like him," Roddick said. "So that was absolutely key."

Roddick bankrupt to 3-1, and at 5-2 was two credibility abroad from demography the third set. But Murray eventually bankrupt aback and, in the tiebreaker, he captivated a set point at 6-5. On a 13-stroke exchange, Roddick misplayed a forehand advance in such a way that it angry into a winner.

"He apologized," Murray said.

Moments later, Murray shanked one forehand long, again dumped a casual try into the net, and Roddick endemic the advance and momentum. Less than an hour later, Roddick endemic the match, convalescent to 26-4 in tiebreakers this division back he smacked a forehand access attempt and Murray put a backhand into the net.

A year ago, Roddick absent in the additional annular at Wimbledon, bidding some austere soul-searching. He was traveling in the States the day of the 2008 Wimbledon final, which Federer absent to nemesis Rafael Nadal 9-7 in the fifth set in crumbling light. Roddick anguish up blockage at the airport to watch the end of the bout on TV.

Now it will be Roddick aggravating to exhausted Federer with a Wimbledon championship at stake.

And Federer aggravating to exhausted Roddick with history at stake.

"Obviously you can't absolutely say abundant to affectionate of announce what Roger's career has been to this point," Roddick said.

As for Federer's bid to aggregate No. 15, Roddick said: "I'd adulation to adjournment it for addition Grand Slam."

It's Roddick vs. Federer in Wimbledon final - again

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090703/SPORTS/90703022/1002/RSS01

WIMBLEDON, England â€" Five-time champion Roger Federer reached his seventh straight Wimbledon final today and will face Andy Roddick for a chance at a record 15th Grand Slam title.Federer delivered a masterful grass-court performance to beat Tommy Haas 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-3, extending his winning run to 18 consecutive matches and closing in on the mark he shares with Pete Sampras of 14 major titles.
Federer will meet Roddick in the final for the third time in six years after the American defeated Andy Murray 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5). The Swiss star beat Roddick in the 2004 and '05 finals and leads 18-2 overall.

The third-seeded Murray had been seeking to become the first British man to reach the final in 71 years and first to take the title since 1936, but Roddick outplayed him on the big points to silence the home fans.

"To be honest, the last couple of years I didn't know if I'd ever get a chance to play for another Grand Slam title," said Roddick, who won the U.S. Open in 2003. "Now I get to. It's just a dream."

Roddick saved a break point with Murray leading 4-3 in the fourth set with a forehand winner, then came through with bi! g serves in the tiebreaker. When Murray slapped a backhand into the net on the second match point, Roddick fell to his knees on the grass and leaned forward covering his head.

"I had to play my best tennis out there to win today," Roddick said. "I can't say enough good things about Andy's game, but I can play some tennis sometimes, and not many people were giving me much of a chance at all, and I knew if I could stay the course that I had a shot and that's all you can ask for."

Murray dominated the statistics, but still couldn't overcome Roddick's clutch play. Murray had 25 aces, 76 winners and 20 errors, compared with 21, 64 and 24 for the American.

"Throughout my career I've had a lot of shortcomings, but trying hard hasn't been one of them," Roddick said. "To be fair, he had all the pressure on him and I could come out and kind of swing and that probably helped me today."

Andy Murray

"Andy" Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a Scottish professional tennis player and currently the highest-ranked British player.[3][4] Murray achieved a top 10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on 16 April 2007. In 2008, Murray finished runner-up to Roger Federer at the 2008 US Open,[5] and he reached a career-high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2009.a In 2005, Murray won the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year Award and the sport section of the Top Scot awards.

[6] Murray is most proficient on a fast surface (such as hard courts),[7] although he has worked hard since 2008 on improving his clay court game.[8] Murray works with a team of fitness experts,[9] and Miles Maclagan is his main coach.[9] He was previously coached by American Brad Gilbert, who used to coach former World No. 1 players Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick. Andy Murray was born to Willie and Judy in Glasgow, Scotland.[1][11] His maternal grandfather Roy Erskine was a professional footballer who played reserve team matches for Hibernian and senior football for Stirling Albion;[12][13]

Murray supports two professional football teams. As a result of his grandfather playing for Hibernian, Murray supports them as well as Wolverhampton Wanderers due to the influence of Great Britain's Davis Cup Captain John Lloyd (a noted Wolves fan himself). Murray is often seen wearing the Wolves shirt that was presented to him by Lloyd.[23] Murray's girlfriend since 2006 is Kim Sears, daughter of Nigel Sears, former ten! nis coac h of the Slovak player Daniela Hantuchová.[21] The couple live in a house in Surrey.[22]

ATP Queens Tennis

On Thursday, me and my Dad ventured up to Hammersmith to go to the ATP Queens Championship by Aegon. We didn't have center court tickets so couldn't see Murray, Roddick, Blake or Hewitt actually play but saw some good games on Court One. We did however catch Roddick and Hewitt warming up and I got some sneaky pics of Murray through the queue hole waiting line thingymajig. Twas a good day and reasonably nice weather, some lulz were bought when 70% of the crowd had to que outside the court for the first 3 games because the umpire was a spazz and all these posh old people were booing and chanting- it was a true example of upper class hooliganism.

Andy Murray won the Tournament today and £75 grand. I betted he would win at the start and therefore am winning £40.

Ivo Karlović â€" 2.08m (6'10") â€" Tallest Tennis player on the ATP Tour.

French Open 2009 Won By Roger Federer. 1st French Title

Roland Garros. France.
Roger Federer Vs Robin Söderling French Open Final 2009 Score:
6-4, 7-6, 6-1



Match Statistics:
1st Serve % 55 of 91 = 60 % 52 of 79 = 66 %
Aces 2 16
Double Faults 3 2
Unforced Errors 22 24
Winning % on 1st Serve 35 of 55 = 64 % 44 of 52 = 85 %
Winning % on 2nd Serve 20 of 36 = 56 % 18 of 27 = 67 %
Winners (Including Service) 24 41
Receiving Points Won 17 of 79 = 22 % 36 of 91 = 40 %
Break Point Conversions 0 of 2 = 0 % 4 of 6 = 67 %
Net Approaches 13 of 20 = 65 % 9 of 11 = 82 %
Total Points Won 72 98
Fastest Serve Speed 221 KMH 213 KMH
Average 1st Serve Speed 197 KMH 190 KMH
Average 2nd Serve Speed 159 KMH 152 KMH


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Serbia clinch ARAG ATP World Team Championship title!

Tournament debutants Serbia defeated Germany 2-1 to clinch the ARAG ATP World Team Championship in Dusseldorf!

Viktor Troicki set the Serbians on their way with a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory over Rainer Schuettler. And Janko Tipsarevic gave Serbia their second, winning point when he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2 6-4.


Nicolas Kiefer and Mischa Zverev restored some pride for the host nation by winning the doubles - seeing off Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic 7-5 4-6 10-7 - to reduce the deficit to 2-1.


"I think it is going to be huge and this is respect because Djokovic was not here. And I think we showed that we are a big tennis nation also if Novak is not here with us (laughs)," said Tipsarevic.

Serbia, playing in the eight-team championship for the first time, won the Blue Group with a 3-0 round robin record with victories over Argentina, Russia and Italy. For the week Serbia won nine of 12 matches.


"I really played well because I was 100 per cent prepared for the match," said Tipsarevic, who won three of his four singles matches during the week. "I knew he was going to play good because most of his last matches were pretty easy and he played really really well. And I also talked a bit to Rainer (Schuettler) before the match who gave me the right tactic before the match and I’m happy it worked. (laughing)."

Germany was appearing in the final for the seventh time and they were trying to capture their fifth title, the first since 2005.

"I can’t be that satisfied with my game today," said Kohlschreiber. "I actually had a good feeling. My first service game worked well. But from the back it didn’t really work. It wasn’t good. This went through the whole match unfortunately. In addition, I really had to fight on my own service games. Then you get a bit nervous when you feel that you don’t have that many chances on your own service games. It’s not so easy to find your rhythm. I would have liked to find my rhythms through the return games. He played well today, served very well."





(via atpworldtour.com, photo/AP Photo)

Federer beats Nadal for Madrid title

MADRID – Roger Federer got a badly needed confidence boost ahead of the French Open, beating top-ranked Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win his first title of the season at the Madrid Open.

The second-ranked Federer broke a sluggish Nadal once in both sets before firing his sixth ace to win his 15th Masters Series title on the second match point. Federer also won here in 2006 when the event was played indoors on a hard court.

"There are no positives, there is little to analyze," said Nadal, the 2005 champion. "He broke and broke and I went home."

It was only the second victory Federer has on clay against his top rival, with the other coming at the Hamburg final two years ago. The win also ended Federer's five-match losing streak to Nadal, a stretch that included losses in the finals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Australia.

Federer called his first win over Nadal since the 2007 Masters Cup "very satisfying." Especially after being left in tears in February following his defeat to Nadal at Melbourne.

"I thought I took all the right decisions today. In the end it was a perfect game for me," the Swiss player said after drawing even with Nadal in Masters titles. "(You) stay positive and I did. I got the win I needed badly."

Earlier, top-ranked Dinara Safina of Russia won her second straight title on clay by beating Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 in the women's final.

Federer also ended Nadal's 33-match clay winning streak. The Spaniard will be going for a fifth straight title at the French Open beginning on May 25.

"I don't think he's going to take any damage away from this," Federer said. "I'm sure he's going to be rock solid in Paris again."

Nadal sounded so after only a fifth loss in his last 155 matches on clay.

"To me, this tournament has nothing to do with Paris. This tournament is practically another surface compared to Paris," said Nadal, who was troubled with the odd bounces and faster pace brought on by higher altitude. "The conditions favored him more than me."

Only Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe have met in more finals — 20 — as the pair played for a 16th time with Nadal having earned 11 titles. He leads the overall series 13-7.

Federer and Nadal joked after receiving their trophies in a scene that contrasted with the one in February when Federer was in tears after losing to Nadal in the Australian Open final.

"Sorry to spoil the party," Federer told the crowd from the Manolo Santana center court, where the rivals played in front of Nadal's biggest supporters for the first time.

Federer, who is also the only top-10 player to have ever beaten Nadal on clay, saved two Nadal break chances before converting his first try in the ninth game.

Federer slapped a forehand winner down the near line to set up the point and converted when Nadal weakly backhanded into net. Federer served out to love to take the opening set.

"He was simply better than me," Nadal said.

Nadal's grueling semifinal win against Novak Djokovic took its toll as he failed to reach many balls he would normally get.

"It doesn't help to play four hours yesterday," Nadal said.

Federer applied a soft drop to set up a break chance in the fifth game of the second set and took a 3-2 lead after Nadal hit long.

Nadal rallied the 12,500 spectators at the "Magic Box" after setting up a break chance in the final game, but the Spaniard slapped his cross-court backhand wide.

Federer netted his first match point but replied with his 25th winner to close it out. Nadal, who has won five titles this season, had only 12 winners.

"Things are falling into place and of course it's the right time to get the victory," said Federer, who will try for his first French Open title after a first Masters title since Cincinnati in 2007.

Safina overpowered her 18-year-old opponent with 24 winners and three break points for her 11th career title.

"Since I became No. 1 I'm playing better and better," the 23-year-old said.

Wozniacki, facing a top-ranked player for the first time, will become the first Dane to crack the top-10 in next week's rankings after reaching her third final of the season.

Safina is 14-1 on clay this season and will go into Roland Garros buoyed by her recent success on the surface after finishing runner-up at the Australian Open and Stuttgart.

"I was feeling very comfortable from the start of the match and I was trying to be as aggressive as I could," she said. "But even in the key moments I was very strong."

Ana Ivanovic featured in Spanish Vanity Fair

Ana Ivanovic is featured over six pages in the new issue of Spanish Vanity Fair.

The magazine went on sale this week. Ana was photographed by Perry Ogden and author of the article is Andres Aguayo who wonders whether Ana may become "the most important marketing phenom in tennis". Ana looks great, as always!



(via anaivanovic.com)