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/ 1 September 2008
Andy Roddick used an overwhelming serve to power past Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 on Sunday and reach the fourth round of the US Open.
Former champion Andy Roddick withstood a barrage of winners from young Ernests Gulbis before fighting back for a 3-6 7-5 6-2 7-5 second-round victory.
Maria Sharapova was floored at Wimbledon on Thursday by Alla Kudryavtseva, the daughter of a Greco-Roman wrestler.
Roger Federer settled a score with his bogey player Guillermo Canas on Tuesday, easing his way into the third round of the Rome Masters with a 6-3 6-3 victory. Canas went into the game as one of the few players on the tour to hold a winning record against the world number one, but Tuesday’s result evened things up at three victories apiece.
Once-unstoppable Roger Federer finds himself without a title entering the clay-court portion of the ATP season, a situation that has the world number one looking for reasons why and finding few answers. The Swiss superstar was upset by Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open on Thursday.
Tennis greatness is measured in Grand Slam triumphs, but that doesn’t make the game’s best players immune to the lure of Olympic gold. Andy Roddick has decided to skip the Beijing Games in August in order to prepare for a run at the US Open, but for most of the top players on the ATP and WTA tours, the Games remain a key event in the 2008 calendar.
World number one Roger Federer, in search of his first title of 2008, took no chances on Sunday as he moved smoothly into the third round of the Indian Wells Masters Series. The top-seeded Swiss, who enjoyed a first-round bye, defeated Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-2 in his first ATP outing since a first-round ouster at Dubai last week.
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/ 10 February 2008
Defending champions America and France, two of the most successful countries in Davis Cup history, will clash in this year’s quarterfinals after cruising through their World Group first-round ties. The United States, the 31-time champions, saw off Austria 3-0 while nine-time winners France also opened up a 3-0 lead over Romania.
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/ 20 January 2008
A rattled Roger Federer was given a major scare in a five-set epic at the Australian Open on Saturday, but he avoided the fate of number-two seed Svetlana Kuznetsova who skidded out of the tournament. Other casualties included women’s sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze and men’s seventh seed Fernando Gonzalez.
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/ 18 January 2008
Sixth seed Andy Roddick was knocked out of the Australian Open after a bad-tempered five-setter early on Saturday, joining 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo on the third-round scrapheap. The American fell on his sword after a marathon three hours and 53 minutes of intense tennis against German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.
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/ 18 January 2008
Rafael Nadal wore down an early challenge from French seed Gilles Simon to steam into the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday. The Spanish second seed fought off six first set points to seal a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win on his fifth match point in two hours 26 minutes.
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/ 17 January 2008
Novak Djokovic may soon be copping a satirical look at his own leisurely serving style from Maria Sharapova. The Russian court diva is among a handful of tour players said to appreciate — or at least not go ballistic — when the fun-loving Serb delivers one of his exaggerated impersonations of their serving styles.
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/ 16 January 2008
Police defended their use of pepper spray on rowdy tennis fans and the sport’s big guns kept on blasting at Melbourne Park as the Australian Open got back on track on Wednesday. As the fall-out of Tuesday night’s crowd trouble settled, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova all blasted their way into the third round of the year’s opening Grand Slam.
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/ 15 January 2008
Three-dimensional images, which helped to show that double amputee Oscar Pistorius receives advantages from carbon-fibre blade attachments, have become a significant tool in the drive to improve athletic performances. The science of biomechanics — the study of the mechanics of animate structures — is already being applied to tennis.
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/ 14 January 2008
Andy Murray crashed and burned at the first obstacle but Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko made stress-free starts in the men’s singles on the first day of the Australian Open on Monday. Murray, the world number nine, has plenty of free time on his hands after coming off second-best to flamboyant Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a centre-court showpiece.
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/ 12 January 2008
Andy Roddick warmed up for next week’s Australian Open in ideal fashion with a 7-5 6-3 win over Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus on Saturday to win the Kooyong Classic for the third successive year. The American, who is seeded sixth next week, outgunned Baghdatis in 76 minutes.
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/ 10 January 2008
Andy Roddick continued his bid for a Kooyong Classic hat-trick on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Marat Safin to reach his fourth consecutive final. Roddick braved 41°C temperatures for the quickfire win, which sets him up for Saturday’s final against either Marcos Baghdatis or Fernando Gonzalez.
Roger Federer is poised to advance to within one Grand Slam of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 in the year’s opening major tournament at the Australian Open, which gets under way in Melbourne on Monday. Federer has been unchallenged as world number one since February 2004 and won three of last year’s four Grand Slams for the third time in four years.
Roger Federer’s Australian Open preparations suffered a blow on Monday as the defending champion was forced to withdraw from the Kooyong Classic warm-up event owing to a virus. Federer said that he came down with the bug on the weekend after arriving in the city on Friday from Dubai, where he trains in the off-season.
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/ 2 December 2007
The United States captured the Davis Cup on Saturday, dethroning defending champions Russia to end a 12-year drought in the international tennis competition. A doubles victory by Bob and Mike Bryan gave the Americans an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Russia in the best-of-five match World Group final.
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/ 12 November 2007
Top-ranked Roger Federer lost consecutive matches for the first time in four-and-a-half years, falling to number seven Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5 on Monday at the Masters Cup. It was the defending champion’s first loss in 11 meetings against Gonzalez.
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/ 10 November 2007
World number one Roger Federer will aim to put an unusually patchy tennis season behind him with victory number four at the elite Masters Cup starting on Sunday. The defending champion, smarting from two rare defeats in the past month, signalled his determination by arriving nearly a week early for the year-ending showpiece.
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/ 9 November 2007
Rafael Nadal hit the practice court with 48 hours to go before his start at the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai, determined to fulfil the goal of ending this season on a high note. Nadal, losing finalist last weekend in the Paris final to David Nalbandian, said he wants to put a winning stamp on this season.
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/ 23 September 2007
The United States and Germany each won their doubles matches on Friday to move within one point of reaching the Davis Cup final. Top-ranked doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan gave the US a 2-1 lead at Sweden by beating Simon Aspelin and Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (11), 6-2, 6-3.
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/ 22 September 2007
Sweden and Germany rallied on Friday to ensure their Davis Cup semifinal matches will be decided on the final day. Thomas Johansson beat James Blake to put Sweden even at 1-1 in their best-of-five series against the visiting United States, and Philipp Kohlschreiber did the same for Germany by defeating fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.
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/ 9 September 2007
Roger Federer hoisted aloft the US Open trophy for a fourth straight year on Sunday after victory over Novak Djokovic before swiftly turning his gaze to Pete Sampras and the all-time record for grand slam titles. The victory was worth ,4-million to the Swiss world number one, but the only figure Federer really cared about was moving his grand slam titles haul to 12.
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/ 7 September 2007
Serb shot-maker Novak Djokovic and Spanish grafter David Ferrer on Thursday set up a US semifinal showdown for a possible challenge to top seed and defending champion Roger Federer. Dvkovic, the 20-year-old revelation of the year, showed remarkable composure in defeating Spanish veteran Carlos Moya 6-4, 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
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/ 6 September 2007
Three-times defending champion Roger Federer outslugged Andy Roddick 7-6 7-6 6-2 in a near flawless display of power tennis to reach the US Open semifinals on Wednesday. The first two sets featured sizzling skill from the service line as neither player lost a game on his own delivery and both sets went to tiebreaks.
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/ 2 September 2007
World number one Roger Federer answered the threat of big-serving United States giant John Isner to join top challengers Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and James Blake in the US Open fourth round on Saturday. Federer is trying for a 12th grand-slam crown and fourth US Open title in a row.
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/ 1 September 2007
World number one Roger Federer faces a lofty challenge in his bid for a fourth straight US Open title when he takes on wildcard John Isner in the third round on Saturday. Former champion Andy Roddick and women’s title holder Maria Sharapova are also in action but Federer could have the toughest match.
After a lavish ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s first United States title, Venus and Serena Williams, the two women who carry the hopes of the nation at this year’s US Open, played their first-round matches back-to-back in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Maria Sharapova produced another display of fearsome big hitting to roll into the US Open third round on Thursday, while top American hopes Andy Roddick and James Blake struggled to stay on course. The 20-year-old Russian glamour girl opened her shoulders to blast past overmatched Australian Casey Dellaqua 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes.