Thfire.com – iNews

MADRID: Rafael Nadal clinched a record-breaking 18th career Masters title on Sunday when he defeated old rival Roger Federer 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) in the Madrid final, landing a powerful psychological French Open blow in the process.

The Spaniard, who will reclaim the world number two ranking on Monday, became the first man to claim three major clay titles prior to the start of Roland Garros while victory also gave him an 18th Masters trophy, one more than Andre Agassi and two ahead of Federer.

A year ago, Federer defeated Nadal in the Caja Magica final, then carried the victory momentum to Roland Garros where he lifted his first title at the venue with a defeat of Robin Soderling to complete a career Grand Slam.

Nadal now heads to Paris with all guns blazing as he bids to wipe out last year’s fourth-round loss to Soderling and resume his trophy chase after winning the first four editions he played in the French capital.

“Winning here at home is a dream,” said Nadal, who took the victory honours over the past weeks in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would win all three of these big events,” added the Spaniard, unbeaten this clay season with 15 consecutive victories.

Nadal, now with 39 titles to his name, leads Federer 14-7 in career meetings, winning ten of their last 12.

He now stands 28-2 in claycourt finals, his two losses coming at the hands of Federer, including Madrid a year ago.

Federer missed out on chances repeatedly in the final, which lasted just over two hours, converting on only one of seven break points in an hour-long opening set.

In the second, the world number one twice recovered from a break down and once into the tiebreaker, took a 4-2 lead.

But four consecutive unforced errors meant a wasted effort, with Nadal claiming victory on his second of three match points, a Federer miss-hit.

“It’s been a wonderful event for me,” said the Swiss. “I’m sorry I couldn’t defend the title. Rafa’s had an incredible clay season, he was supreme today.

“I’m looking forward to Paris, I’m happy with my claycourt game, I know I’m not Spanish but I tried to play some clay court tennis here.”

Federer, whose only title this season came over Andy Murray for the Australian Open title, fired nine aces, including three in the ninth game of the second set as the drum-tight contest wound toward the tiebreaker.

The Swiss saved seven of the 11 break points he faced while Nadal was broken three times.

Nadal moved into a tie in fifth place in the list of claycourt title winners with his 28 alongside Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastese. Argentine Guillermo Vilas leads the table on 45.

Nadal and Federer have combined to win 18 of the past 20 Grand Slam titles.

News taken from  /timesofindia.indiatimes.com   .

The credit for the post goes to them

Oh Boy, Serena williams is back again in Breaking news but for wrong reasons.  Serena Williams has lost all her temper in the latest Semi Final match of the US open.

The incident occured during her Semi-Final match with Kim Clijsters, with Serena being called for a foot fault during her second serve. She then approached the line judge with a barrage of abuse, which led to a code violation against her, causing her to lose the point and match to Clijsters.

As you can see in the video, Serena certainly doesn’t hold back in her choice of words, although they have been censored by the TV broadcasters.

I have added the video below, have a look at it

John Albert Kramer, the wimbledon star and the united states single champion, also a Well known Legend of the Tennis world has died.

The report of his death was announced  by ESPN’s Cliff Drysdale in the on going semi final match between Rafael Nadal  and Juan Martin Del Potro.

John Kramer is a powerful promoter of Tennis of his days and is regarded as the most influential personality of the tennis history.

John Albert Kramer was born in Las Vegas on Aug. 1, 1921, the son of a brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad. He learned to play tennis in the Los Angeles area as a teenager when his family moved there. His idol was Ellsworth Vines, the former United States Nationals and Wimbledon champion, whom he played against in workouts.

Kramer won the united states singles championship at 1946 and he consecutively retained the title at 1947. He won his first ever wimbledon title at  1947.

Kramer also  took over as promoter of the pro tour in 1952 and expanded it into an international operation, the players transporting a portable court in a host of one-night stands. In a 12-day period in 1957, Kramer’s entourage made 11 appearances in 8 cities, from South Africa to the Philippines.

Wilson Sporting Goods sold millions of Jack Kramer-autographed wooden racquets, Kramer receiving a percentage of the sales revenue. He was a longtime commentator for American network broadcasts and for the BBC at Grand Slam events.

The dead of Kramer is a huge loss for the game of tennis. His talent was well spoken by his way of handling tactics for the tennis game. His loss can never be fulfilled by any other person.

The 2009 US Open Tennis tournament began yesterday, and some good games have already been played. Britain’s Andy Murray play Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the US Open.

Murray Uses Patient Game to Beat Big-hitting Gulbis. Andy Murray played a patient, steady game to defeat big-hitting Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-5 6-3 7-5.

In the first set, Murray traded baseline blows with 95th-ranked Gulbis and the Latvian responded with wild misses and blistering winners and pushed the Scotsman to five set points before finally succumbing to a service break in the 12th game.

Andi Murray, runner-up last year (the champ was Roger Federer) in his first grand slam final, then varied his attack by mixing in forays to the net and took advantage of mounting mistakes from Gulbis, who had 51 unforced errors, 30 more than Murray.

Murray advanced to a second-round match against 87th-ranked Paul Capdeville of Chile.

The only two male tennis players who are believed to travel regularly on private jets are Roger Federer, the world No 1, the US Open champion for the past five seasons and the greatest racket-swinger of all time, and Ernests Gulbis, the world No 95 from Latvia.

Tennis King Roger Federer has finally wed his long waited girlfriend.Roger federer who is world number 2 at present met with Mirka Vavrinec during the  olympics games in 2000.

“It was a beautiful spring day and an incredibly joyous occasion,” the 27-year-old Swiss told in his website.And the couple is now expecting a child.

Since october last year federer has not won any titles.And he played poorly to lose the match against Novak Djokovic in Miami

Federer was due to take part in a tournament Monte Carlo Masters next week and is about to play the opening match of  the clay- court tournament.Actually federer was to skip this tournament due to scheduling reasons  but made his mind at the moment considering his recent form and his losses.

Rafael Nadal is also in the tournament.Rafael was originally called the King of clay. Man i am definitely waiting to watch the dual finals between Federer and Nadal.

If Nadal wins the tournament, he will attain and record 5th straight win. This makes the tournament more special. I think only to stop Nadal win the 5th tournament this year did Federer choose to play. Let’s hope for the best.

“We  congratulate Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec  for their Marriage and wish them Best for their life”   [thfire.com]