Federer and Williams Sisters Out at the Olympics

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 7:12 AM ET
BEIJING (AP) -- Serena Williams and Roger Federer probably would have liked the rain to stay.

Federer's bid for his first Olympic singles medal ended Thursday night after a near-four-hour rain delay when he lost to American James Blake.

That was the start of an upset parade in the quarterfinals. Serena Williams lost to Elena Dementieva of Russia. And as the clock approached midnight, Venus Williams was beaten by Li Na of China.

The startling sequence came in a tournament that had gone mostly according to form through three rounds. But upsets have long been the norm in Olympic tennis -- since 1988, no top-five player has won the gold medal in men's singles.

No. 4-seeded Serena struggled with her serve early against Dementieva, then staged a rally in the final set. Williams overcame two match points during an 18-point game to hold for 5-3.

But Dementieva held at love in the next game, sealing the victory when Williams pushed a volley wide. The loss came after the U.S. team had won 12 consecutive matches over the past three days.

"It was what it was," Williams said as she left the court. "It hasn't sunk yet."

Williams remained in contention for a doubles medal and was to play a second-round match later with her sister. They won a gold in doubles in 2000 in Sydney.

A wayward forehand plagued Venus, and she sent one long to lose serve and fall behind 6-5 in the second set. The reigning Wimbledon champion had three more forehand errors in the final game, and when Li hit a service winner on match point, the crowd responded with the biggest roar of the tournament.

Blake's 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory was a stunner in that he had won only a single set in eight previous matches against Federer. But the top-seeded Federer has been battling a yearlong slump that has left him stalled at 12 major titles, two shy of Pete Sampras' record.

His Wimbledon reign ended last month, and he came to Beijing knowing he would lose the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal next week after 4½ years on top.

Federer's latest defeat means no rematch in Sunday's final against Nadal, who won in epic fashion when they met for the Wimbledon title.

Federer had been seeking his first Olympic medal after losing in the singles semifinals in Sydney and in the second round in Athens. He was scheduled to play a quarterfinal doubles match later Thursday with Swiss partner Stanislas Wawrinka.

The upset was sweet for the No. 8-seeded Blake, a first-time Olympian at 28 and the lone U.S. male to survive the first round of singles.

Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States advanced to the semifinals in doubles by beating Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione of Australia 6-4, 6-3.

SOURCE: http://www.nbcolympics.com/tennis/news/newsid=213754.html

Davenport pulls out of Stanford with knee injury

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Lindsay Davenport's troublesome right knee forced her withdrawal from the Bank of the West Classic on Monday.

It's the third time in six weeks the former No. 1 player in the world pulled out of a tournament.

Davenport was scheduled to play eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone in a first-round match Tuesday evening, but dropped out after warming up Monday. A three-time winner of the event, Davenport was attempting to play for the first time since pulling out of her second-round match at Wimbledon.

The 32-year-old Davenport also dropped out of the Eastbourne tournament on June 16, citing the same injury.

"The Bank of the West has been one of my favorite tournaments to play throughout my career," Davenport said in a statement. "Unfortunately, my knee has not healed sufficiently since Wimbledon to allow me to compete."

A three-time Grand Slam champion, Davenport previously won the Bank of the West Classic in 1998, '99 and 2004.

Qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada replaced Davenport in the draw and will play Schiavone.

SOURCE: Tennis.com

Del Potro wins first career title in Stuttgart

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) -- Juan Martin Del Potro won his first ATP title Sunday when he upset second-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the Mercedes Cup.

The 19-year-old Argentine unleashed a huge serve on his first match point. Gasquet managed to return it, but Del Potro was ready to put away a forehand winner.

Along with his first title, Del Potro also collected a white luxury convertible presented by the tournament sponsor.

"This is incredible. I've dreamed of winning a tournament since I've been a kid and now I also get a car," said Del Potro, who drove the vehicle around the court after the awards ceremony. He also picked up $186,853 as first prize.

"I congratulate Juan Martin but he'd better be careful, it's a fast car," Gasquet joked.

Del Potro broke serve for a 5-4 lead and served out the first set.

After a brief rain break, he again broke Gasquet's serve to take a 6-5 lead and served out the match at love.

Del Potro, who entered the event ranked No. 65, beat four seeded players to win the tournament.

Rafael Nadal, who won the event last year, pulled out with a knee injury after winning Wimbledon.

SOURCE: Tennis.com

Slate Wimbledon Final Article... Do they watch tennis?

I really don't understand this article at all. #1 Serves are still 130+ (Not in this final) and the reason that Federer is such an amazing player is not pure defense. The guy is anything but a retreiver and the same with Nadal. In fact in this match Federer if anyone was playing a MUCH more defensive match than Nadal. Rafa was going for many more shots and connecting impossible angles. Roger was on the defensive constantly... that is why he lost, not because rafa defended well. No matter what in order to win, you have to protect your court, but pure defense at that level doesn't win. Maybe that works at the NTRP 3.0 level, but the reason rafa won was NOT defense. The fact that he is extremely quick and can get to almost anything, doesn't speak to his defensive ability but to athleticism and his shot making ability (full disclosure: I wanted Fed to win and have never been a rafa fan). I feel like this article is reaching for something that just isn't the case. Fed was off his game and kept 2nd guessing approach shots and NOT coming in... instead he stayed at the baseline and traded angles with a very ON rafa. oh yea, and the reason Roddick game doesn't work (and I use NOT work loosely as he is one of the games top players, he's doing something right) is pure ability, not because of an overall change in the game of tennis. No matter what when he gets out on the court its mano-e-mano (sp?) and the "trends" of the game don't matter one bit...
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SAID ARTICLE

Defense Wins the Wimbledon Championships
How Rafael Nadal finally took down Roger Federer.
By Daniel Seidel
Posted Monday, July 7, 2008, at 10:04 AM ET

Remember in the early 2000s when men's tennis became close to unwatchable—booming serves, points that were over before you blinked, synthetic rackets blasting serves 130 miles an hour? With Rafael Nadal dethroning five-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer on Sunday, that broad caricature of the men's game no longer applies. In men's tennis, defense now reigns supreme.

Federer, of course, has not won 12 Grand Slam titles with his serve alone. He, too, has used his superior service return and all-around defensive skills to dominate more traditional power players like Andy Roddick. When he faces Nadal, however, Federer's all-court genius is stymied. Federer relied on his monstrous first serve to help abate the enormous pressure in the fifth set. (You can watch the whole remarkable set here.) He served consecutive aces from deuce after the match's third rain delay, at 2-2, then hit his way out of trouble again at 15-40 and 5-5. Every other player would have been demoralized after squandering these break opportunities. Not Nadal. He simply adjusted his underwear, broke Federer for the fourth time in the match, and served out the championship, winning 9-7 in the fifth.

Nadal's game hinges on defensive pressure—so long as he's able to get the ball back in play, he always seems to have an advantage. Despite an improved first serve, which he hits consistently and at a higher percentage than Federer, it was Nadal's stubbornness—refusing to ever concede a point—that gave him the edge in the fifth set. In a game where he didn't end up breaking, at 5-5, 15-15, Nadal showed why he now looks impossible to beat. Federer hit a well-placed serve down the middle at 126 mph. The point should have been over, but Nadal somehow reached and returned the ball with reasonable depth. Federer then whipped a wicked approach shot into the corner, seemingly winning the point for a second time. Instead, he was met by a nasty, dipping forehand pass that he couldn't return. Against any other player, either of Federer's shots might've been good enough; against Nadal, he needed to win the point three times.

Defense and offense are always intertwined in tennis, and it's the instantaneous conversion of a losing position into a winning one that makes the sport so thrilling. Aces are exciting enough, but it's the return of a seemingly unreturnable shot that gets fans truly ecstatic. Compare Sunday's match to a recent one between Nadal and Croat Ivo Karlovic, a grass-court titan who the Spaniard took down at a Wimbledon warm-up tournament last month. Karlovic stands 6-foot-10, crushes his serve, and seems all but incapable of winning a point if he doesn't produce an ace or a service winner. Nadal won the match in a pair of tiebreakers despite failing to break Karlovic's serve once. This was a tennis dystopia, where the points are nasty, brutish, and short.

Sunday's match, by contrast, was the most utopian spectacle in tennis' recent history. The inevitable changing of the guard talk shouldn't overshadow that the 26-year-old Federer played brilliantly after a shaky two opening sets, most memorably hitting an ungodly backhand pass in the fourth-set tiebreaker that saved championship point. For another, Sunday's match illustrated the striking similarities in the top players' games. Nadal and Federer (and to a lesser extent, Novak Djokovic) wear their opponents down by forcing errors, weaving together finesse and power and spraying winners from places on the court that other players can't reach. When everybody—even Nadal on occasion—can serve at 125 mph, such abilities are what distinguish those two from the more traditional power players like James Blake and the 155-mph-serving Roddick, both of whom fared poorly at the French and Wimbledon.

This year's results aren't a sign that power no longer matters in the men's game; one look at Nadal's arms would dispel any such notion. It's more that power in tennis today is largely manifested defensively; thanks to high-tech rackets and weight training, the best players can now hit shots on the run with incredible pace, depth, and spin, immediately placing them back on the offensive. Nadal, in particular, is turning the supposed disadvantage of bad court position into an outdated theory for lesser players.

In men's tennis, there's no better way to get your opponent out of position than with a well-struck, well-placed serve. Nadal showed at Wimbledon that other players' best serves aren't good enough. He leads the men's game in return games won in 2008, breaking his opponents' serve 36 percent of the time, or roughly twice a set. After him come Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic, the Nos. 4 and 3 players in the world, respectively. Federer is tied for sixth in return games won, which may reflect his greater ease in holding his own serve—if you never get broken, you don't need to break your opponent as often—but may also reflect unaccustomed troubles with his defensive game. In Sunday's match, he had plenty of break opportunities in the first two sets but was unable to convert. In the fifth set, when he needed a break to win his sixth straight Wimbledon, Federer couldn't put consistent pressure on Nadal's serve.

By winning the French Open and Wimbledon consecutively, Nadal has confirmed that in today's game, unrelenting defense can win major titles. For Nadal to cement his position at the top, though, he'll have to prove that his grinding style won't destroy his body. The very brilliance that makes for such remarkable tennis may also—so the current fear goes—shorten the 22-year-old's career. Roddick, with his booming serve, might conceivably outlast Nadal and become competitive once again. Federer, too, with his reliable serve, power forehand, and remarkable ability to stay healthy, may still be able to remain at a high level until he's 30, or at least until he breaks Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. So long as Nadal is still standing, though, it'll be a long slog for everyone else. Big servers take note: You'll need to win every point three times.

SOURCE: Slate

More on Federer and Nadal in Wimbledon Final

WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—With darkness enveloping Centre Court and the clock showing 9:15 p.m., Rafael Nadal watched as Roger Federer’s errant forehand settled into the net, ending what might have been the greatest men’s final on the greatest stage in tennis.

With that, Nadal flopped onto his back on the worn-out lawn as champion of Wimbledon for the first time and conqueror of the five-time winner and grass-court master.

After five riveting sets and 4 hours, 48 minutes of play, there was a changing of the guard at Wimbledon on Sunday when Nadal held off Federer’s stirring comeback to win 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.

“It’s impossible to explain what I felt in that moment,” Nadal said after receiving the winner’s trophy from the Duke of Kent. “Just very, very happy to win this title. For me, (it) is a dream to play in this tournament. But to win, I never imagined something like this.”

Nadal, winner of four straight French Open championships, is no longer just the King of Clay.

He’s the first Spanish man to win at the All England Club since Manolo Santana in 1966 and, more significantly, the first player to sweep the French Open and Wimbledon men’s titles in the same year since Bjorn Borg in 1980.

Federer, who converted only one of 13 break points but saved two match points in the fourth set tiebreaker, fell short in his bid to set two landmarks: He failed to surpass Borg by winning a sixth consecutive title or equal Willie Renshaw’s record of six in a row from 1881-86.

Both Borg and Santana were in the Royal Box for the occasion, the longest singles final in Wimbledon history and one that many rated as an epic for the ages.

“This is the greatest match I’ve ever seen,” said John McEnroe, a three-time Wimbledon champion and a television commentator at the tournament.

Nadal, who snapped Federer’s Wimbledon winning streak at 40 matches and overall grass-court run at 65, climbed into the players’ guest box to embrace his entourage. He grabbed a Spanish flag and walked across the television commentators’ booth to the edge of the Royal Box to shake hands with Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain.

Was this Nadal’s greatest match?

“Probably the best, yes,” said the 22-year-old Spaniard from Mallorca. “When I won for the first time the French Open (it) was unbelievable, too. I don’t want to compare Grand Slams, but Wimbledon is special for everybody. Tradition, everything. For me, it’s more surprise to win here than the French.”

As for Federer, he called it “probably my hardest loss, by far.”

Federer said he thought the match, which started late due to rain and was interrupted twice by showers, should have been suspended and carried over to Monday because of the fading light.

“It’s rough on me now, obviously, to lose the biggest tournament in the world over maybe a bit of light,” he said.

Nadal, too, wasn’t sure the match could go on any longer.

“In the last game, I didn’t see nothing, it’s true,” he said. “It was unbelievable. I thought we have to stop. If I lose that game, we have to stop.”

Nadal won his fifth Grand Slam title, adding to his four consecutive French Open championships. Federer, meanwhile, remains two shy of Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam wins.

“He’s still No. 1,” Nadal said. “He’s still the best. He’s still five-time champion here and I only have one, so for me it is very, very important.”

Nadal, who has won 24 straight matches, extended his career record against Federer to 11-6, but it was only his third win in six against him on a surface other than clay. Nadal had lost in the last two Wimbledon finals to Federer.

Sunday’s victory was Nadal’s second straight over Federer in a Grand Slam final—and this time on the champion’s favorite court and surface. Nadal crushed Federer in last month’s French Open final, losing only four games.

As Nadal and Federer battled through the fifth set in the fading light, they were like two heavyweight prize fighters going toe-to-toe in the late rounds of a title fight. The overall intensity and quality of the match recalled the 1980 final between Borg and McEnroe, which the Swede won in the fifth set after losing an 18-16 tiebreaker.

Federer had mixed feelings about being part of a classic.

“It’s sort of always nice to be part of them,” he said. “Probably later in life, I’ll go, ‘That was a great match.’ But right now, it’s not much of a feel-good thing. It’s not up to us to judge if it was the best ever.”

Federer lost despite serving 25 aces and smacking 89 winners, 29 more than Nadal. But he was more erratic than his opponent, committing 52 unforced errors, compared to 27 for Nadal.

Federer came close to becoming the first player to overcome a two-set deficit in a Wimbledon men’s final since 1927, when Henri Cochet beat Jean Borotra.

The fourth-set tiebreaker featured brilliant winners by both players, sudden changes of momentum—and two missed match points for Nadal.

The Spaniard was serving at 5-2 in the tiebreaker, two points from victory, when he let Federer off the hook with a double-fault and a backhand error. After saving a set point at 6-5, Nadal earned match points at 7-6 and 8-7 but couldn’t convert. Federer erased the first with a 127 mph service winner and the second with a backhand pass down the line.

“I was hoping with the momentum going into the fifth set, that it was going to be enough, that I would play a little bit better,” Federer said. “But I couldn’t play my best when I really had to.”

SOURCE: Tennis.com

Nadal dethrones Federer at Wimbledon

What an AMAZING match! My wife and I had a blast spending ALL MORNING watching one of the greatest finals ever!
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WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Rafael Nadal ended Roger Federer’s five-year reign at Wimbledon on Sunday, winning a riveting, five-set marathon to claim his first title at the All England Club and signal a changing of the guard in men’s tennis.

Nadal held off a stirring comeback by Federer from two sets down to prevail 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. He became the first man to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year since Bjorn Borg in 1980.

Nadal, the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon since Manolo Santana in 1966, avenged his losses to Federer in the last two finals here and snapped the Swiss star’s All England Club winning streak at 40 matches and overall grass-court run at 65.

The rain-delayed match ended in near darkness after 4 hours, 48 minutes of play—the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history—when Federer slapped a forehand into the net on Nadal’s fourth match point and second of the game.

Nadal fell onto his back in exhilaration at the baseline. With his shirt caked with turf, he congratulated Federer and climbed into the players’ box to embrace his entourage. He had tears in his eyes as he grabbed a Spanish flag and went to the edge of the Royal Box to shake hands with Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Spain.

Federer, who converted only one of 13 break points in the match, fell short in his bid to set two landmarks: He failed to surpass Bjorn Borg by winning a sixth consecutive title or equal Willie Renshaw’s record of six in a row from 1881-86.

Nadal won his fifth Grand Slam title, adding to his four consecutive French Open championships. Federer, meanwhile, remains two shy of Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam wins.

Watching it all from the front row of the Royal Box was the silver-haired Borg, who won 41 straight Wimbledon matches during his 1976-80 title runs.

SOURCE: Yahoo

One more time: Federer vs. Nadal at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Add up all of Roger Federer’s greatness on grass courts, and the numbers are striking: 40 wins in a row at Wimbledon, 65 overall on the surface.

Now he seeks an additional victory, a victory that would make him the first man since the 1880s to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles, a victory that would give him a 13th Grand Slam championship, one shy of Pete Sampras’ career record.

And a victory that would have to come against his only real rival in today’s game, Rafael Nadal.

No. 1 Federer and No. 2 Nadal set up their third straight showdown in the Wimbledon final, and sixth meeting in a major title match, by handily beating unseeded opponents Friday. Federer eliminated Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the first semifinal, and Nadal defeated Rainer Schuettler 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-4.

“There’s one more left,” Federer said. “I don’t think it matters really a lot if I’m the favorite or not. I’m on an incredible winning streak on grass. First somebody has to be able to break that before we start talking differently.”

He reached his 16th Grand Slam final, tying him with Bjorn Borg for fourth most in history. Borg was the last man to win Wimbledon five years in a row. The only man with six successive titles was Willie Renshaw from 1881-86, but he merely needed to win one match in each of his five title defenses because back then the reigning champion got a bye directly into the final.

“A little different,” Federer noted.

On the other hand, the ease with which Federer dominates the All England Club these days sort of makes it seem as though he’s getting a pass to the second Sunday. For the second time in three years, he’s reached the final without losing a set.

“He didn’t even give me a chance,” said Safin, a former No. 1 with two major titles.

Federer walked out in his custom-designed cream cardigan, the one with the gold “RF” on the chest. Safin, in contrast, looked as though he might have just rolled out of bed, emerging from the locker room with his T-shirt wrinkled, his sneakers untied, his hair mussed. During the third set, a woman in the crowd yelled, “Come on, Safin, wake up!”

Federer did plenty well, but he served impeccably.

He smacked 14 aces, took 70 of 90 points in his service games and faced only two break points. Both came with Safin leading 2-1 in the second set, and Federer erased them in similar fashion: a second serve delivered right at Safin’s body, setting up short returns that led to forehand winners.

Federer’s return game was working, too, and he broke Safin in the match’s second game and its last one. Asked if it was easy out there, Federer said, “Easy in terms of being able to control a really dangerous player who’s got the potential to upset anyone—in this aspect, yes.”

One example: Safin beat No. 3 Novak Djokovic last week. It was Djokovic who ended Federer’s record run of reaching 10 consecutive major finals by stopping him at this year’s Australian Open, then wondered aloud before Wimbledon whether the Swiss star was slipping. Djokovic thought Federer’s 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 loss to Nadal in last month’s French Open final—his worst loss in 179 career Grand Slam matches—might have left him “a little bit shaken.”

Federer has scoffed at such suggestions and did so again Friday.

“For me, anyway, that final is out of the picture. I hardly remember anything of it. It went so quickly,” he said, without a trace of irony. “Yeah, for me it’s not really that big of a problem.”


He also alluded to the fact that while he is only 6-11 against Nadal—0-3 in French Open finals—over their careers, Federer does lead 5-2 in matches played on surfaces other than clay. That includes victories in the 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon finals, the latter a taut, five-set thriller.

That is why, Nadal acknowledged, “I believe I can win, but I also know he’s the favorite.”

Like Federer, Nadal faced only two break points Friday, and while the Spaniard did get broken once, he never was in true trouble. Thanks to that break, the 94th-ranked Schuettler went ahead 2-1 in the second set, then served for it at 5-4.

But Nadal broke the 2003 Australian Open runner-up there to pull even, and that was pretty much that. The only thing that really bothered Nadal on this day was the condition of his shoes, which he said were worn out from too much running around on the bare earth where the grass has disappeared near the Centre Court baselines. A member of Nadal’s entourage tossed a fresh pair onto the court from the stands, and Nadal was back to his usual perpetual motion.

Afterward, Nadal spoke of how a Wimbledon championship would change his career. He’ll try again, just as he did each of the past two years, to beat Federer to become the first man since Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.

“It doesn’t matter at any tournament who you beat. It matters that you get to take the trophy home,” Nadal said. “But beating Federer would be special.”

Borg showed up at the All England Club in 2007, and watched Federer match his modern mark of five consecutive titles. Borg returned this year and sat in the second row of the Royal Box on Friday, rising to clap when Federer finished off Safin to close in on breaking that tie.

“He is still hungry to win. He is still the No. 1 player in the world, and he wants to win more Grand Slam tournaments. He still has motivation to win. I think he will play many more years to come,” said Borg, who walked away from the game in his 20s. “Sooner or later someone will beat him here at Wimbledon on Centre Court, but that might not happen this year.”

SOURCE: Yahoo