Posts Tagged ‘French Open’

Djokovic and Nadal qualified for Monte Carlo semis

Top seeded Rafael Nadal extended his winning line at the Monte Carlo Masters to 25 matches by defeating Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-3 on Friday in his second match of the day, to proceed one step away from a fifth straight final.

After crushing Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-3 6-0 in a rain late third round match, the four time French Open champion indicated few symbols of exhaustion in winning his 19th straight match on clay to reach the semifinals.

Nadal elaborated who only had time to play one game on Thursday, “I don’t keep in mind ever winning two singles matches in one day, only doubles. I didn’t have a lengthy match in the morning, so I was completely 100 per cent to play the second. That’s imperative.”

Nadal settled the match when Ljubicic attempted to finish a short rally with a backhand winner which went long. Though Nadal has not threw a set in Monte Carlo since downing Roger Federer in four sets in the 2006 final, he said he’s still adjusting to playing on his favorite surface again.

Nadal said, “Have to play some more inside, fewer faults, serve a little bit well, I think all expressions of the game I have to get better.”

The Spaniard has achieved the last four Monte Carlo titles, and has gone on to capture the French Open each time. His final defeat on clay was to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round of the Rome Masters in May last year. Nadal ahead plays the fourth seeded Andy Murray, who found his initial career semifinal on clay after crushing No.8 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6 6-4.

Also, third seeded Novak Djokovic qualified for the semifinals for the second successive year by defeating No.7 Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2 4-6 6-3 on Friday. Djokovic burst Verdasco, the Australian Open semi finalist, in the sixth game of the deciding set and closed out the match on serve.

Djokovic said, “I could have over the job in two sets, but then he came back, adding that serious rain from Thursday made for tricky situation on the clay. The courts were actually damp. Even today you could feel it. The balls were getting bald and really fast. It was tough to control.”

Djokovic, who qualified for the semifinals of the French Open last year, will meet No. 13 Stanislas Wawrinka in the last four after he punch German qualifier Andreas Beck 6-2 6-4.

Kim Clijsters once again in professional tennis

On the Thursday former tennis player of Belgium Kim Clijsters declared her return into the professional and competitive tennis approximately two years after retiring from the sport at just 23 years old.

Kim said in a press conference at her hometown “I intend to play in the US Open and about surely in the tournaments at Cincinnati early August, my first official tournament back and Tornoto”. She further said “I have been involved in practicing on a usual and regular basis with my training partner Wim Fissette and by physical coach Sam Verslegers, frequently as much as six hours in a day.

Kim who is the right hander, has a wonderful and marvelous tennis background included rewards and many achievements during his stay in tennis. Famous for her trademark splits suspicious play, she won 34 WTA tournaments and 11 doubles’ crowns including the 2005 US Open title when she beaten the French player Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 at Flushing Meadows. She also won the women’s season ending tour championship title conducted in 2002 and 2003.

Kim misplaced four Grand Slam finals particularly the 2003 French Open and US Open championship matches, as well as the 2004 Australian Open to compatriot and rival Justine Henin, who has also since retired. In August 2003 she got the top world rankings with a record of 427 wins against 104 defeats as well as having the extraordinary difference of holding the number one spot in both singles and doubles in 2003.

But handicapped by a series of injuries and keen to begin a family with new husband Brian Lynch, an American basketball player, she unexpectedly declared her retirement in May 2007 at just 23 years old.

At now 25, Clijsters is approximately two years younger than Williams and has time on her side in maybe retrieving the world No.1 ranked and including to her Grand Slam accumulation. What it occurs after blushing Meadows in beginning September, However, depends on more than a few factors, she insisted.

She said “I will have to get stock of how I supervise to unite my family condition with life on the circuit, I am a mother and a wife after all, and also we will have to see how I come out of it all physically.”

Clijsters will not be one of those players who need time to off separately to have a baby and then effort a return back to the route. A very close friend of Clijsters Lindsay Davenport former World No. 1 did similarly in 2007 even though she never officially and formally declared she was retiring. Last year the American prepared a dramatic return to the WTA Tour circuit winning four tournaments before moving to the sidelines again in January after announcing that she was pregnant once again.