Posts Tagged ‘takes’

Rafael Nadal Takes Helicopter To Practice

World Number 1 Rafael Nadal goes from the CN Tower to a helicopter to the Rexall Centre to practice for the Rogers Cup.

QLD Premier takes a Jamie Oliver class

QLD Premier takes a Jamie Oliver class
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh will have a personal cooking lesson with Britsh celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, along with thousands of Queenslanders and other Australians tonight. The celebrity chef will take part in a live webcast streaming direct from his London kitchen into Australian homes and will be broadcast on a big screen at a special community [...]

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Atp Cincinnati Masters – Murray Takes Trophy Home

The Cincinnati Masters which is part of the nine Masters Series tournaments in the ATP tour was just recently held in Mason, Ohio and to this day it is the oldest tennis event played in the United States. For the surprise of many, the last two men standing were the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the Scot Andy Murray who has positioned himself in the number 6 spot in the rankings after grasping the title in a thriller match.

On his way to achieve his fourth title the Serbian Djokovic was able to beat the unstoppable Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who will soon become the new number one tennis player in the world, after a 32-match winning streak during their semi final game. The world number three Djokovic continues his pursuit for a better spot but the point gap between Nadal and him is now bigger, the difference stands at 1,065 points after the double win the Spaniard was able to pull by grasping two Grand Slams consecutively.

Nevertheless the US$2,750,000 Cincinnati tournament was a delight display of tennis for the fans as these two sensational players reached the final game. Both of them knew that winning this tournament will unfold the road for the final grand slam scenery in the Big Apple within a couple of weeks. Murray whose game has been in ascension after a long-time wrist injury he was unable to recover from until recently showed his best qualities and skills in the sport. He smartly enough knew how to move the pieces and with amazing back hand strokes stunned his rival in two sets.

The final score of the match was 7-6, 7-6 and it latest approximately two hours and 22 minutes. It was a game full of rallies, tie-breaks, and volleys as both players challenged each other constantly. It was amazing to see how much Murray’s game has improved in the last months and how clean his moves appear on the hard surfaces. On the other hand, Djokovic did not step back and his ground strokes continued to surprise us all even Murray who by the very end seemed tired but held on until the last second.

Murray did mention that “I played in these conditions all week so maybe I was more used to it.”There were lots of long, long rallies which took a toll and we were both tired at the end.” Regardless of the long runs this did not make a difference for the Scot who risked his games with heavy constant attacks that drained all of his opponent’s energy.

Now, the Scot moves into the sixth position of the world rankings closely followed by the Argentinean Nalbandian and the American James Blake who are approximately 200 points behind him. The next weeks will be quite in the ATP circuit as the Olympics approach but the action will continue in New York City where history will be written for the top players and those who believe can take on better positions in the 2008 ATP race.

Venus Williams takes over world number two spot

Venus Williams takes over world number two spot
PARIS -American Venus Williams, beaten finalist in Madrid at the weekend, moved up one spot to second in the WTA rankings behind younger sister Serena on Monday. Read more…

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ATP tennis: Nikolay Davydenko takes the Barclays World Tour Finals title

Since turning pro in 1999, Nikolay Davydenko has won over 18 titles; despite the fact that he has had some success in the Grand Slams (reaching semifinals in both the French and US Opens, and a 4th place in Wimbledon) this Sundays’ victory over Juan Martin del Potro in the World Tour Finals Championship Game is still his biggest win ever. In what might very well be the best week of his career, Davydenkdo defeated every 2009 Grand Slam Champion to take the World Tour Finals title. With a powerful and consistent serve that allowed him to win all but 5 serve points in the first set and 8 in the second, Davydenko, beat the young Argentinean tennis star. For what we have seen in the last two seasons, the Russian is just one of those players who are able to keep strong at the end of the season, right when most other players in the Tour are either injured or frankly a bit tired. Last year, at the Tour Finals in Shangai he had to content himself with second place after being defeated by Novak Djokovic at the season finale. But things looked a little brighter for him this time around. In the semifinals Davydenko faced quite a challenge. He had to defeat no other then Roger Federer, and the odds were certainly not on his side. For starters, Federer had won every one of the 12 matches they had ever disputed. The Swiss was the number 1 ranked player in the tournament, while out of the 8 players in the Round Robin, Davydenko was ranked 8th. But he played a smart game, taking advantage of his powerful serve to defeat Federer 6-2, 4-6, 5-2. At the end of the game, Federer confessed that his opponent took the key points of the match. “It was due to happen, sooner or later. Every friend and fan that cares about my tennis was waiting for the moment when I could defeat Federer,” said Davydenko at Saturday’s press conference. In the other Semifinal, del Potro played Robin Soderling in an intense game, dominated by the strong serves executed by both power players. Soderling was very disappointed when in the third set he lost 7-6 to del Potro. The last few points in the match were quite intense. First Del Po came from the bottom of the scoreboard, dominating most of the games in which he served. He rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the last set to take the match. He is the second Argentinean to reach the title match since David Nalbandian defeated Federer back in 2005. Del Potro faced Davydenko in the finals with a 1-2 career record. The Russian won the last two of their encounters, the last one in two straight sets, during last year’s Round Robin at this same tournament. Del Potro advanced in group A by the smallest margin possible. His three set win over Federer secured him a spot in the semifinals. Del Potro has proven to be quite an aggressive and spectacular player in the hard surfaces: 41 of his 54 YTD wins have been over hard courts. But even that impressive record was not enough to claim victory. Del Potro was able to save two break points in the 5th game of the 3rd set, and kept strong in the next game when he earned his first two break point chances in the game. But Davydenko was right on top of his game, and he denied Del Potro the chance to close his losing margin. Davydenko, with his forehand, earned three break points in the 9th game. The Russian’s 6th ace in the 10th game brought the championship point to wrap up the match after 84 minutes of a vibrant game before 17,500 spectators in centre field at the 02 arena, in London.

Tennis- Djokovic Takes his First Paris Masters from Gael Monfils

Novak Djokovic seems unstoppable after winning two tournaments in a row: first last week in Basel at the final of the Swiss Indoor tournament against Roger Federer and this week at the Paris Masters, where he defeated the local favorite Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (3) in a dramatic final on Sunday to win the title for the first time. In order to advance to the finals of the tournament, he had to beat Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. He did so smoothly in just two sets 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday. This allowed him to continue on his search to enter the tournament finals for the first time in his career. The Serb was dominant from the beginning, although he said that Nadal was a very skilled player and a difficult one to face. “He is one of the players who is very unpredictable,” Djokovic said. “He can play really, really fast. And with a big serve, he can do a lot of damage to opponents.” This is the second time on a row that he defeated Nadal, improving his 6-14 record against the Spaniard before adding another final to his growing collection. The third-ranked Djokovic looked very calm in the first set with Monfils, which he won easily 6-2 with almost no errors, losing only three points on his serve. The second set was another story; the French player gave his best and, with the crowd’s backing, defeated Djokovic. It wasn’t a hard task, with Djokovic committing 21 unforced errors and ging the opportunity to Monfils to win the first break point in the fifth game. Monfils continued pressuring the Serb to good effect; Djokovic failed to convert during three opportunities and gave space. The French player took advantage of his opponent’s weakness and broke the serve again to lead the second set 6-5. The crowd was cheering frantically for Monfils after each point he converted, dramatically increase the tension during the match. In the final set, the Serb forced an early break again and took the lead 4-1 as Monfils was left gasping for breath after a particularly difficult battle. But Monfils was able to retake the game and won three games in a row, equalizing the score at 4-4. He took advantage of Djokovic’s double fault on a break point. This eventually forced a tie breaker on the game that resulted in Djokovic’s victory over the French player, who was exhausted by the end of the match. “It was unbelievably difficult,” said Djokovic, who has won a record 76 matches on tour this season and claimed his first Masters 1000 title. He added: “Gael was very unpredictable and he was hitting the ball very good”. Djokovic is 4-0 against Monfils, who was looking for his third career title. Djokovic was proud to win this title, the first tournament title of his career. He is now preparing for the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 22-29 in London, where he will defend the title.

Olivier Rochus takes out Novak Djokovic

Olivier Rochus takes out Novak Djokovic
BIG SCALP:Olivier Rochus gives vent to his feelings after ousting Novak Djokovic on Friday.

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