Posts Tagged ‘Quarterfinals’

POLL: Who will win in the Quarterfinals of ROME between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova?

Also, who will win btw. Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic ( last years winner )?

Monfils advances to U.S. Open quarter-finals

Monfils advances to U.S. Open quarter-finals
Gael Monfils became the first Frenchman in the U.S. Open quarter-finals since 2000, ousting countryman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 on Monday to reach the last eight on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.

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Roland Garros- Federer Advances to Quarterfinals after Beating Wawrinka

The world number one, Roger Federer, eliminated compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round of Roland Garros.  Federer won on Sunday in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, 6-2, in one hour and 56 minutes in Philippe Chatrier center course of Roland Garros.

After overcoming the first three rounds at Roland Garros without dropping a set, Stanislas Wawrinka was hoping to play an excellent game against the best player in the world, with whom he won the gold medal in doubles at the Beijing Olympics 2008. However, Federer gave him a hard time. Even though Wawrinka broke Federer’s serve in the second set, he still couldn’t overcome the world No.1. This was the seventh meeting between the two Swiss. Roger Federer has won 6 of them.

During the opening set, the defending French Open champion demonstrated his superiority and won the first set with ease after breaking its compatriot’s serve in the third game, grabbing the set with a score of 6-3.

In the second set, Wawrinka responded with an aggressive game, breaking Federer’s serve in the first game and putting things 1-0. But the world No.1 didn’t lose his calm and managed to recover and force the set to a tie-break.

In the tie-break, Federer was more effective and won with a 7-5 score after fighting for almost an hour. Wawrinka threw his racket to the clay court showing his frustration after losing the second set.

The third set was easier for Roger Federer. He beat a demoralized and tired Wawrinka who felt hopeless after his great effort in the second set. The world No.1 turned the game at his pace and Wawrinka began to make too many unforced errors.  During the key moments Federer played at his best to gain a victory that would allow him to qualify into the quarterfinals.

At the end of the game, in press conference, Roger Federer stated he was happy with his performance against Wawrinka and despite he has trouble in the previous matches, he hopes to keep going until the final to defend his title.

“I could have lost a set against Alejandro Falla in the second round and today against Stan and after this, you never know. So I am happy with what’s happened. I’m playing well, serving well and moving well. I hope it continues like this,” said Roger Federer.

Roger Federer smashed 7 aces and 38 winners in the match. On the other hand, Wawrinka seemed frustrated after losing the second set. At the end the only thing that the Swiss expressed was his disappointment after playing so well in the first meetings at Roland Garros and losing like that against his compatriot Roger Federer was unbelievable.

“Frustration. Nothing but frustration,” said Wawrinka

The world number one will now face the Sweden Robin Soderling, his victim in last year’s Roland Garros final.  Soderling advanced to the quarterfinals after eliminating  Croatian Marin Cilic with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Roland Garros- Nadal Advanced to Quarterfinals and Obtained his 200th Victory in Clay

This Monday, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal beat the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci with a score of 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, and added his 200th victory on clay. This qualified him to the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, where he will again face his Spaniard compatriot Nicolas Almagro who beat seventh seeded Fernando Verdasco  6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 earlier that day.

Nadal annihilated its fourth opponent this year in Paris, where he has yet to lose a set. This accomplishment has been optained by the likes of the Swiss Roger Federer and the Czech Tomas Berdych.

During this game, the Brazilian lacked the intensity and confidence to take a victory against the Spaniard.  Bellucci won three more games than Nadal but these were insufficient to stop the King of Clay, who despite giving up his serve four times, was still far away from the promising player of Tiete.

In the first set, Nadal served from the start and managed to take advantage with a breaking serve, but the advantage was short-lived because Bellucci tied in the fourth game. That was the wake-up call that Nadal needed to raise his game and not give any more chances to the Brazilian. He went on to win the next four games to close the first set with a comfortable 6-2.

In the second set, Bellocci played better and complicated the game for the Spaniard.  However,  Nadal achieved the first lead in the fifth game (3-2). Bellucci responded immediately to put the score 3-3. However, a double fault allowed Nadal to get ahead again in the score (5-4), but he was unable to close out the game with his service (5-5) and needed a new break serve to end the resistance of the South American player. At the end, Nadal won the second set 7-5.

The lack of rhythm was a constant in Nadal’s game as he repeated the script of the second set in the third set.  He started with a breaking serve, but the Brazilian tirelessly recovered. However, the Spaniard gradually raised his game and was able to take the lead on the fifth game (3-2). After breaking Bellucci’s serve once again, the Spaniard won the set and the match with a 6-4 score.

Throughout the game there were 20 break points and 12 service breaks, four of them against Nadal. These are as many as the Spanish player had granted since the start of the tournament. Moreover, the Spaniard committed 27 unforced errors, while Bellucci suffered 40.

At the end of the match, Nadal stated that as in Roland Garros 2008, Bellucci was a difficult rival for him in this fourth round. Despite not playing at his very best, the world No.2 was happy for the victory and for moving in the quarterfinals against Almagro.

“That was probably my hardest match of the 2010 tournament. I was closer to losing a set then than I was today. It was difficult. Bellucci is a very good player on clay, but I won in three sets. It was my best match of the tournament,” expressed Rafa Nadal.

With this victory, the world No.2 will face Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals. This is the 40th  occasion that Nadal gets to the quarterfinals of a tournament.

Roger Federer KNOCKED OUT in Quarter-Finals – FRENCH OPEN 2010

FRENCH OPEN 2010 – Robin Soderling knocks Roger Federer out. www.BETTOR.com

Venus Williams stunned in Wimbledon quarterfinals

Venus Williams stunned in Wimbledon quarterfinals
Venus Williams appeals a call, during her women’s singles quarterfinal against Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

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Bryan Twins Handle Giant Task, While Nadal and Almagro Will Meet at Quarterfinals

The twin Bob Bryan 6.4 ft, and his brother Mike Bryan with one inch shorter have been making a big impression in the ATP tournaments as a duo. At the French Open the Bryans had to face the couple of the yet taller Americans, Sam Querry of 6-6 ft and John Isner of 6-9 ft.

“That’s the largest team we’ve played,” Bob said. “It’s not comfortable playing those guys.”

The Bryan twins, who are the number one seeded, have a lot more experience, counting a Grand Slam history in doubles. The fact is that the twins prevailed with low shots and they defeated Querrey and Isner 7-6 and 6-2, accomplishing the quarterfinals at the Roland Garros.

“If you make them bend, you could see whenever they missed a first serve and you made a good return down at their feet, they’re pretty much almost out of the point,” Mike said. “When the big-hitting Isner served for the first set with a 5-3 lead, we were already looking forward to the second, we figured a break there would be awfully tough”, stated Mike.

In addition to make the strategy work, the twins won the point and with their hurting breaking serve, the Bryans twisted the match roughly and triumph by far at the end.

Now the twins prepare themselves to play against Luis Horna and Pablo Cuevas on Monday. (O lo deja como estaba, si va a agregar que ganaron el partido)

Bob and Mike won the French Open in 2003 and were finalists in the year 2005 and 2006. In contrast, Isner and Querrey are playing just their second tournament together as a team.

“They’re still pretty green on doubles,” Bob said. “They’re both young in their careers, and you could just see them being better and better as the match went on.”

On the other hand, Rafael Nadal will play on the single’s quarterfinal against his fellow countryman, Nicolas Almagro, who celebrated his qualification to the quarterfinals by shaving the head of some friends and family members. Almagro, who’s number 19th in the ATP world ranking, defeated Jeremy Chardy 7-6, 7-6, 7-5.

“I’m going to shave their heads. I’ll use the razor. I don’t know if I’ll shave just part of it. We’ll see,” Almagro said. “I don’t know how my father is going to react when I shave his head. I won’t do that to my mother, because this is the person who is the most important for me in my life.”

Additionally, triple champion Rafael Nadal scored his 25th win in 25 Roland Garros matches, defeating Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the 22nd seed, with a 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 result.

Verdasco was broken three times in the first set and had to wait until the sixth game of the second set were he managed to cut out a break point, which Nadal comfortably saved. Fernando, had been beaten by Nadal in all five of their matches.

On Tuesday Nadal will face Nicolas Almagro, for a trip to the semis, where he most likely will meet No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic. The Nadal-Djokovic winner will play the final against Roger Federer.

Australian Open – Nadal Advances to Quarterfinals by Beating Gonzalez

The 5-time Grand Slam champion and currently No.1 of the world, Rafael Nadal, was able to maintain his unbelievable record of not losing a set in this tournament by beating Fernando Gonzalez in great way 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. The game lasted a little less than 2 hours, which was not as long as everyone expected for this game, especially because everyone though that the battle between this two players was going to be more fierce. However, the Spaniard played incredibly good, hitting 33 winners with amazing power shots from different angles and touch, varying speeds and heights.

During the match, Nadal was really confident on his game and it was shown in the first two sets where he won comfortably 6-3, 6-2. Gonzalez was fighting but his poor shots and unforced errors were not helping in the first two sets. Nevertheless, the 2007 runner-up and Chilean Fernando Gonzalez found his way and went up 3-0 in the third set. But the motivation and focused mind of Nadal, gave him the strength to come back to the game by winning five straight games of the set and getting up 5-3 to later enclose the victory with a winner serve. Gonzalez made 35 unforced errors compared to the 11 of Nadal, whereas Nadal had 33 winners contrasting to 22 from the Chilean.

“I am playing well… but you never know if it’s gonna be enough. I hope I continue playing like this, because all the (remaining) matches are very, very difficult. I have to be ready for everything. Maybe the only thing today I can improve a little bit more is the serve,” expressed the Spaniard.

This was the first meeting between Nadal and Gonzalez since the final match of the Beijing Olympics, where Nadal also defeated him in straight sets and won the gold-medal. But we also cannot forget that Gonzalez beat Nadal two years ago in this same Grand Slam scenario. Nevertheless, this time was the chance for the No.1 of the world, who has clearly improved his game since then.

According to some analysts, Nadal’s game is currently ahead of Federer’s, especially in this tournament were Nadal has been unstoppable and Federer has struggled a little on some games, especially in the one against Thomas Berdych, where he lost the first two sets. However, Federer has a great mental strength and a great capacity to get out of the hole when things are not going his way, both are great players and had their goals pretty set for this tournament; Federer is willing to recover the No.1 spot in the ATP and Nadal is looking to win his first hard-court Open.

The next opponent of Rafael Nadal will be the French Gilles Simon, who got into the quarterfinals after his victory against his countryman and friend Gael Monfils. On the other hand, the next contender of Roger Federer will be No. 8 seeded Juan Martin Del Potro, who defeated Marin Cilic in four sets.

We hope the best for Rafael Nadal, who is giving a display of great tennis and amazing mental strength at Melbourne, especially by not dropping a single set in the tournament. His next contender, Simon, is entering to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal and may have a difficult time against this experienced and talented Spaniard, who is in such a great streak.

French Open – Federer Continues; Kuznetsova Upsets Williams in Quarterfinals

World No.2 Roger Federer is just two victories away from obtaining the only Grand Slam title that he has never won in his entire professional career and if he wins, he will also tie the record that Pete Sampras currently has of 14 titles of major tournaments. After some regular participation in the last tournaments and after being defeated by Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, Federer is now working very hard to achieve one of his main goals for this year. He defeated Gael Monfils on Wednesday at the Roland Garros quarterfinals 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-2. As expected, the local Monfils was the crowd’s favorite, but Federer knew how to overcome that pressure and at the end he obtained the victory. Federer said that it was not an easy match for him; at the beginning, he said, maybe he took many risks and that is why the first set was kind of difficult for him to win because he was worried about Monfils forehand. For the second and third set he took everything with calm and with a very solid game he demonstrated why he is one of the best tennis players of the world. Federer has lost during the last three years the French Open final against Rafael Nadal, who was the four-time defending champion, but he is now out of the tournament since this time he was beaten by a surprising Robin Soderling in the fourth round. However, the tournament itself has not been very easy for Federer; most of the matches that he has played had been extended to four sets and the one against Tommy Haas was extended to five sets, were he had to overcome the two sets that he lost at the beginning. Nevertheless, this may be the best chance that the Swiss has had to complete his career Grand Slam, since his most fierce rivals – Nadal and Djokovic – are out, and the rest of the players remaining have negative records against him. “Doesn’t mean because I have a great record against all the players left in the draw that, you know, I’m going to win this,” Federer said, “but I’ll definitely try everything I possibly can to do it.” Federer will have to face Juan Martin Del Potro in the semifinals on Friday. As for the women’s singles, Serena Williams was defeated on Wednesday by the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets 7-6 (3), 5-7 and 7-5. Williams had a great opportunity to reach the semifinals when she took the lead 3-1 in the third set, but then it got lost when the Russian made a great comeback and end up the set winning 7-5. Serena blames the defeat on her nerves. She was seeking for her third consecutive major title and the 11th of her career at Roland Garros. For her part, Kuznetsova is looking for the second major title of her career; she had a breakdown on the second set but then he took all of the energy that she had and with a solid performance she sealed the victory with a defeat on the third set. The match that lasted almost three hours was a reminder of what had happened in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but backwards; this time Kuznetsova gave everything that she had and overcame the nerves and tension and the one left out was Williams. Kuznetsova will have to face Samantha Stosur from Australia in the semifinals on Thursday.

Australian Open- Federer Advances To Quarterfinals After Beating Lleyton Hewitt

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer continued his winning streak on Monday, defeating Lleyton Hewitt and qualifying for the Australian Open’s quarterfinals for the seventh consecutive year. The world number 1 showed his best game against his old rival, reaching a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory in less than two hours in front of a packed Rod Laver Arena. Hewitt, the last local player at the tournament, hasn’t beaten Federer since 2003, and the gap between the current and former world no. 1 has never seemed greater. Federer was very effective from the beginning, with clean backhands and spectacular serves. Hewitt, on the other hand, approached the net only three times in the first set, winning two games. Hewitt didn’t win any points serving, volleying, or charging; his mission was to get Federer out of position on the baseline, then come in and put away a comfortable volley. His strategy, however, gave little in the way of results. At the end of the first set, Hewitt lost 6-2. In the second set, Federer kept up his good performance, breaking Hewitt in the fourth game of the second set with a wrong-footing backhand drive. With the same shot, Federer won the second set 6-3 and increased his advantage to two sets. In the third set, though, things finally got a little complicated for the Swiss player. Hewitt tied the set with a score of 4-4, but the world No. 1 upped the ante, finally beating the Australian 6-4. With the final score, Federer moves into the quarterfinals, where he will face the Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who beat the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in an electrifying match, 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3. Federer managed seven aces and 49 winners; he only needed an hour and 55 minutes to put the Australian away. Now, with Hewitt’s exist, Australia has no representative players in the final stages of its Open. After the game, Federer stated that he was very pleased with his performance and his ability to maintain his focus, committing hardly any errors and concentrating on his game plan. “Hardly made any unforced errors. If there were some, they were at moments I can live with. I was really able to press on the offensive, serve well when I had to, and I moved well as well, overall I’m extremely happy” said the Swiss, who committed 30 errors and converted 49 winners. Hewitt, on the other hand, despite his loss, was happy with the way he played. He acknowledged Federer’s skill and recognized him as the best player in the circuit. “He played special tennis. Tonight was as good as the US Open final in 2004. I prepared exactly the way that I wanted to prepare for the Australian summer. Gave 100% every time. But I ran into the best player at the moment, I would say.” Now in the quarterfinals, Federer will face Davydenko on Wednesday January 27th. Davydenko is certainly the most constant tennis player in the circuit, as he closed in 2009 with victories at the Masters 1000 of Shanghai in China and the Masters Cup in London, and opened 2010 with a successful victory in Doha. Despite losing the last Australian Open to Rafael Nadal, Federer is the favorite to win the tournament.