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.
Former champion Nigel Mansell has hailed Lewis Hamilton as the Formula One driver to beat while rejecting comparisons between the 23-year-old Briton and golfer Tiger Woods. ”Lewis is the man to beat,” said Mansell, who took his title after winning the 1992 season-opener in South Africa.
Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko became the highest seed to exit the Pacific Life Open but three-times champion Roger Federer barely broke sweat in reaching the fourth round on Tuesday. Davydenko, the fourth seed and world number four, was swept aside by American Mardy Fish 6-3 6-2 in an evening match lasting 75 minutes.
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.
World number one Roger Federer enjoyed a special moment on Monday when he beat Pete Sampras in an electrifying exhibition match in New York’s Madison Square Garden. ”It was like a dream come true for me,” Federer said. ”Playing my childhood hero here at the Garden. I had never played here. It was great. We had lots of fun.”
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/ 29 February 2008
Thirteen-year-old British diver Tom Daley is set to compete at the Olympic Games in Beijing later this year. His age has raised the question of whether there should be should be an age limit for competing at the Games? Two prominent sports people offer their opinions.
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/ 19 February 2008
Top-ranked tennis stars Roger Federer and Justine Henin received the Laureus Awards on Monday as the world’s top sportsman and woman for 2007. Federer won an unprecedented fourth Laureus, all in succession, while Henin was voted top for the first time. South Africa won the world team of the year award after going unbeaten to win the Rugby World Cup.
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/ 28 January 2008
Novak Djokovic stood toe-to-toe with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and soaked up everything the Muhammad Ali of tennis could throw at him before delivering a knock-out blow to clinch the Australian Open title on Sunday. Tsonga, nicknamed Ali for his resemblance to the former heavyweight boxing champion, was the crowd favourite to win his first Grand Slam but Djokovic was too solid and too steely.
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/ 25 January 2008
Roger Federer’s invincibility was pierced, then pummelled and finally pulled apart at Melbourne Park on Friday, the world number one being brutally ejected from the Australian Open semifinals by Novak Djokovic. The Swiss champion and top seed fell 7-5 6-3 7-6, ending his bid to reach an 11th consecutive Grand Slam final.
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/ 25 January 2008
Wimbledon crowds could learn a lot from the Australian Open. Like the British, the Australians have no players to speak of, so they do the next best thing and adopt a few for the purposes of the fortnight. They fell in love with Martina Hingis. Then it was Kimmy Clijsters, the Belgian obliging by getting engaged to Lleyton Hewitt. Now it’s Aussie Ana.
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/ 24 January 2008
Unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stunned second seed Rafael Nadal with an unbelievable display of tennis to storm into the final of the Australian Open on Thursday. In an astonishing performance of clean winners and aces, the 38th-ranked Tsonga claimed his fourth seeded scalp of the tournament, winning 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
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/ 24 January 2008
The tennis world has been yearning for someone to challenge Roger Federer’s record-breaking domination and Novak Djokovic is being touted as the one in Friday’s Australian Open semifinal. The peerless Swiss secured the number one ranking for an unprecedented 209th week after sweeping into a record 15th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal.
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/ 23 January 2008
Europe tightened its stranglehold on the Australian Open when America’s sole survivor in the women’s singles, Venus Williams, was blasted out of the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Venus went the way of sister Serena, battered by a Serb baseliner, losing 7-6 6-4 to fourth seed Ana Ivanovic.
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/ 23 January 2008
Novak Djokovic survived a late bout of nerves to beat Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer 6-0 6-3 7-5 on Wednesday and reach the Australian Open semifinals. The Serbian missed four match points and was broken when serving for victory but recovered to set up a semifinal against either Roger Federer or James Blake.
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/ 22 January 2008
A bullish mood is spreading among his rivals that dominating world number one Roger Federer is beatable coming into the showpiece rounds of the Australian Open. The Swiss top seed, the winner of 12 Grand Slam titles, second only to Pete Sampras’s 14, has ruled men’s tennis for four years and has been a constant in the last 10 Major finals.
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/ 21 January 2008
It was back to business as usual for Roger Federer on Monday as he clinically moved into an Australian Open quarterfinal against James Blake, with Venus Williams also working up a head of steam. The world number one rebounded from his uncharacteristic five-set scare in the third round to resume his sprint towards a 13th Grand Slam title.
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/ 21 January 2008
Swiss top seed Roger Federer recovered from his major scare in the previous round to cruise into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a straight sets victory over Tomas Berdych on Monday. The 12-time Grand Slam champion overcame the Czech 13th seed, 6-4, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 in one hour 59 minutes.
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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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/ 20 January 2008
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt says behind-the-scenes scheduling dramas unsettled his build-up to his big Australian Open match with Marcos Baghdatis that led to the latest finish in grand-slam history. Meanwhile, fifth seed Maria Sharapova brushed aside fellow Russian Elena Dementieva and Justine Henin stormed into the quarterfinals.
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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
Roger Federer stepped up his unrelenting charge towards a third successive Australian Open title with an emphatic win on Thursday, but Venus Williams had to dig deep to reach the third round. The Fed Express, chasing a 13th Grand Slam title, crushed wily Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, playing in a record 62nd Major tournament, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.
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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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/ 17 January 2008
Roger Federer’s sleight of hand proved too bamboozling for court magician Fabrice Santoro as Melbourne Park was treated to a masterclass on Thursday. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Lleyton Hewitt also reached the Australian Open third round but none could match the mastery of Swiss top seed Federer.
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/ 15 January 2008
Crowd trouble and police ejections cast a shadow across Melbourne Park on Tuesday, diverting attention from world-class sport at the Australian Open. A violent incident marred a tennis fiesta in which fans bathed in glorious sunshine and the world’s best players showcased their skills.
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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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/ 13 January 2008
Roger Federer has shaken off a stomach virus and is 100% fit for the defence of his title at next week’s Australian Open, the Swiss said on Sunday. The world number one, who will be bidding for his 13th grand-slam title, will go into the event having not played a competitive match for two months.
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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.
World tennis number one Roger Federer said he was fresh and motivated ahead of this month’s Australian Open as he arrived in the country on Friday in pursuit of Pete Sampras’s record 14 Grand Slam titles. Federer (26) is favourite to complete an Australian Open hat-trick at Melbourne Park from January 14 to 27, which would take him to within one slam of Sampras’s benchmark tally.