With Wimbledon’s dust settled, Steve Bierley asks: Who’s number one now?
Rafael Nadal dethroned five-time champion Roger Federer as king of Wimbledon on Sunday with an epic 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (8/10), 9-7 win.
Roger vs Rafa III, coming soon to a grass court near London.”It’s a huge thrill every time when I get to another Wimbledon final,” said Roger Federer.
Roger Federer beat Marat Safin in straight sets on Saturday to move one win away from his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title.
Champion Roger Federer banished menacing storm clouds on Wednesday to set up a tantalising Wimbledon semifinal date with Marat Safin.
Roger Federer moved to within two victories of a record sixth successive Wimbledon title when he crushed Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova joined the Wimbledon scrapheap on Monday as the second week began with more shocks.
Roger Federer returned to his favourite stamping ground at Wimbledon on Monday and banished painful memories to reach the second round.
Five-time champion Roger Federer put his growing army of doubters firmly in their place by storming into the Wimbledon second round on Monday.
It was one of those ”could have been worse, could have been better” draws for South Africa’s two Wimbledon tennis championships hopefuls.
Roger Federer’s traditional Wimbledon waltz is set to be transformed into a dogfight as Rafael Nadal plots to shatter the world number one’s dream.
Roger Federer is counting on the green, green grass of Wimbledon to help him bury the memory of the worst defeat of his career and a miserable first half of the year.
Rafael Nadal produced a flawless exhibition of claycourt tennis to demolish world number one Roger Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0 on Sunday and win his fourth straight French Open title.
Roger Federer said victory over Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open on Sunday would be the crowning moment of his career.
Top seed Roger Federer powered into the French Open semifinals on Thursday, but he was given a scare early on by Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will square up in a French Open heavyweight clash on Friday determined to ignore the history-tinged implications of their mouth-watering contest.
Top seed Roger Federer set up a French Open quarterfinal against old rival Fernando Gonzalez on Monday but he was below par in a 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in a rain-hit tie. Gonzalez had looked impressive earlier in the day when he swept past the final American, Robby Ginepri, in straight sets 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1.
Top seeds Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova both moved smoothly into the last 16 at the French Open on Saturday. Federer outplayed close friend Mario Ancic of Croatia, winning 6-3, 6-4 6-2 in cool, rainy, evening conditions on the Philippe Chatrier Centre Court. Earlier in the day, Sharapova defeated Italy’s Karin Knapp 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.
Triple champion Rafael Nadal and the man whose ambitions he has thwarted each time in winning those titles, Roger Federer, both made smooth progress into the third round at the French Open on Thursday. Second seed Nadal brushed aside French qualifier Nicolas Devilder 6-4, 6-0, 6-1 to take his Roland Garros record to 23 wins in 23 matches.
Maria Sharapova almost became the first women’s top seed in French Open history to lose in the opening round on Wednesday as Rafael Nadal showed her the way to master a Roland Garros sandstorm. Russian golden girl Sharapova toiled for two-and-a-half hours before squeezing past teenage compatriot and world number 104 Evgeniya Rodina 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.
Roger Federer cruised into the French Open second round on Monday while rival and triple champion Rafael Nadal was left kicking his heels in the locker room as torrential rain swamped Roland Garros. The world number one then had the unexpected bonus of seeing potential quarterfinal danger man Richard Gasquet pull out of the tournament.
Roger Federer cleared the first hurdle in his campaign to finally land the only Grand Slam title missing from his collection at the French Open on Monday. World number one Federer, still missing a Roland Garros title among his 12 Grand Slam trophies, saw off world number 40 Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in his first-round match.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have turned to playing mind games ahead of the latest instalment of their epic French Open rivalry. Federer believes he is the more positive of the two men while Nadal, bidding for a fourth historic trophy, says the world number one’s decision to bring in Jose Higueras as coach could backfire.
Pete Sampras tried 13 times to win a French Open and 13 times he failed. Roger Federer, who is surely destined to surpass the American’s 14 Grand Slam titles, is about to embark on his 10th attempt to solve the intricate mysteries of the Roland Garros clay. The 12-time Grand Slam title winner, is enduring, by his lofty standards, a poor season.
Rafael Nadal’s ruthless pursuit of an historic fourth straight French Open title is likely to deliver another, possibly fatal blow to Roger Federer’s lingering dream of an elusive Roland Garros crown. The Spaniard boasts a perfect record of three titles and 21 wins in 21 matches since his debut in Paris in 2005.
Roger Federer expects Rafael Nadal to wilt under the physical burden of defending his French Open title when the world’s top two players continue their rivalry at Roland Garros next week. Federer slumped to his eighth dispiriting defeat on clay to the Spaniard in the Hamburg Masters final on Sunday.
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.
Top seed Rafael Nadal will meet David Ferrer in an all-Spanish showdown at the Barcelona Open after contrasting semi-final victories on Saturday. Nadal produced a claycourt masterclass to demolish German Denis Gremelmayr 6-1 6-0 while Ferrer had to work much harder to tame big-hitting Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 6-3.
Gustavo Kuerten has just two more tournaments left before he slips reluctantly into retirement, a desperate leave-taking forced on him by a crippled hip that simply refuses to heal. But the former world number one, and triple French Open champion, is taking a sackful of memories with him and even the bad times are being filed away amongst the golden moments.
At this point, Roger Federer will take a title victory however it comes. Top-ranked Federer won the Estoril Open on debut and his first title of 2008 when fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko retired with a left leg injury while trailing 7-6 (5), 1-2 on Sunday. He hadn’t won a tournament this late into the season in nine years.
Manhattan is a famously elitist place when it comes to fine dining. Who you know is often the key to securing a table at one of the hot new restaurants. Imagine the horror then, when the latest hyper-chic establishment of New York’s most happening chef opted for an egalitarian alternative.
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.