Posts Tagged ‘UPSETS’

French Open Day 4 Without Upsets, Stepanek & Vaidasova Split, Tennis Twitter Round-Up

Lauren Lynch reports the latest from Roland Garros. Top seeds were safe but Novak Djokovic will face Juan Martin Del Potro next and Zvonareva was almost upset by an injured Lisicki. Svetlana Kuznetsova calls in legend Anastasia Myskina as coach. Rumor squashed about Radek Stephanek’s & Nicole Vaidasova’s marriage splitting. Get the latest and funny tennis Twitter Round-Up from Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Lindsay Davenport, and Rennae Stubbs.

Del Potro Upsets Nadal US Open Semi-Finals 2009

Juan Martin Del Potro upsets Rafael Nadal in the US Open 2009 Semi-FInals. Del Potro won 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Tennis – Federer upsets Nadal at the Madrid Open final

Roger Federer beat the Top No. 1 player Rafael Nadal at the Madrid Open, finishing a five-match losing streak against the Spaniard; this was just the second victory of Federer over Nadal on clay surface, the first one was two years ago at Hamburg. The first victory of the year for Federer was very satisfying according to him, especially on a match where he won 6-4, 6-4 in just two sets. The day before Nadal played a four-hour match against Djokovic that gave him the chance to be on the final against Federer. This happened just one week before the French Open at Roland Garros starts, which is Federer’s biggest goal since it is the only major tournament that he has not win on his entire professional tennis career. On the other hand, the four-year defending champion Rafael Nadal was a little disappointed about the result and expressed that there was nothing to say about the way he played, it was very simple since Federer was better than him the complete match. Federer ended the winning streak of 33 matches on clay that Nadal had, but even so the Spaniard will be going to give it all at the French Open to try to clinch his fifth consecutive title, and he is planning to face it one step at a time. “Federer has the potential to win at Paris and at any site in the world. He’s showed that throughout his career. But Paris begins with the first round, not the final,” Nadal said. “If I was told now that I can play the final against him, show me the paper and I’ll sign.” Federer also said that everything is going back on track again for him since he has not yet won a major tournament this year. The Swiss is very excited about going to Paris where the surface is clay, and even though it is not his strongest point, he has demonstrated through his career that he’s a great player on any surface; in fact, he has become the only one capable to beat Nadal on clay, who is considered the best player in that surface right now. At the first set of the game, Federer managed to save two break points before his own break at the ninth game. Then in the second set he broke Nadal’s serve in the fifth game after a long hit and went 3-2. Later, on the last game Nadal had another break chance that put the 12.500 spectators that waited for the Spaniard to take the victory at the edge of their seats and shouting for him, but his backhand hit went wide and Federer closed the match with an ace to “spoil the party” for the Spanish crowd, as he joked when receiving the title. Nadal was not on his best shape for the final. The four-hour match against Djokovic in the semifinals the day before left him very tired and that may have had some negative effect on his game on Sunday, but at the end of the day, the tournament went for Federer. Now, we will have to wait and see how this great rivalry evolves at the upcoming Roland Garros Grand Slam.

Tennis – Rafael Nadal upsets Djokovic at the Rome Masters final

It was not a good day for the defending champion of the Rome Masters, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who lost against the Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the final of the tournament, in a great game that was very close during the first set by both players. The game of Djokovic was quite fluctuant during the whole game; at in a moment we was playing great and in the next one he was losing control and committing unforced errors. In addition, Nadal has become the best player in clay surface in recent times and this was the third tournament that he won the last three weeks.

For Nadal, this is his fourth Rome Masters title in five years and the other two clay titles he has won this year are those of the Barcelona Open and the Monte Carlo Masters. Now he will be participating in the Madrid Masters before heading to France to defend his title at the French Open that will start in three weeks. If he continues with his amazing clay run this year, he would win his fifth consecutive title at Roland Garros.

After his win at Rome, the World No.1 referred to his upcoming tournaments – “Every tournament is completely different. In Roland Garros we will see. Important thing is (to) play well. If I am playing well, I’m going to have a lot of chances to have good results in both tournaments. But you never know what can happen. Tennis is always like this,” Said Nadal.

Nadal and Djokovic had to go to a tiebreaker in the first set of the final. According to Nadal, this was one of the most difficult moments of the match for him, but Rafa stayed calmed and played with a great precision, which made Djokovic lose control and led him to convert only 2 points in the tiebreaker. The second set was entirely for Nadal as it ended 6-2 and gave the victory to the Spaniard. A very interesting fact to add is that Djokovic has been the only one capable to win a set to Nadal in clay this season, in the Monte Carlo Masters. However, at Rome it was a different story.

The 22-year-old Spaniard has improved his winning streak on clay to 30 matches, after his early defeat last year to Juan Carlos Ferrero at Rome. This year was different and Nadal has expressed that he is very happy and satisfied with his victory at Rome since for him is very important to win another title that will prove that he is the No. 1 of the world at this moment.

On the other hand, since Djokovic failed to defend his title at Rome, he will lose his No. 3 position in the rankings on May 11th to Andy Murray after last year’s points drop out. He has been the World No. 3 since August 2007and he is planning to recover his position later on this year. Among his best achievements of this year had been defeating Roger Federer in the semifinals of both the Miami Masters and the Rome Masters. Djokovic said that he had his chances on the final against Nadal, but he committed too many errors and that is why Nadal is the No.1, because he knows how to overcome the pressure.  

Halep upsets 2nd-seeded Schnyder in Morocco

Halep upsets 2nd-seeded Schnyder in Morocco
Romanian teenager Simona Halep reached her first WTA Tour semifinals by upsetting second-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-2, 7-6 (3) Thursday at the Grand Prix SAR.

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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.

VERDASCO UPSETS DJOKOVIC TO REACH FINAL

VERDASCO UPSETS DJOKOVIC TO REACH FINAL
Verdasco – dumped out top seed Djokovic. A solid performance from Fernando Verdasco saw him dispatch top seed Novak Djokovic and set up an all-Spanish final against Rafael Nadal at the Monte Carlo Masters.

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