ATP World Tour Finals: Roger Federer cruises into semis

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 8, 2012: World number two Roger Federer of Switzerland stormed his way into semi-finals of the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals with a straight-set victory by 6-4 7-6 (7-5) over world number five David Ferrer of Spain at The O2 Arena in London on Thursday.

Roger Federer took an hour and 48 minutes to race to his second straight victory at the ATP World Tour Finals after defeating Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia the other day.

David Ferrer, however still has the chance of qualifying but he will have to defeat Janko Tipsarevic with an outright margin in his last match of the round-robin stage.

Roger Federer withstood a strong challenge by David Ferrer in both sets but used his experience and sheer talent to see off the Spaniard as the Swiss tennis maestro hit four aces.

David Ferrer didn’t hit even a single ace during the match but outscored his Swiss opponent in double faults as he committed five unformed errors as against Federer’s three.

Roger Federer still has one match up his sleeves before the semi-finals and that is against Juan Martin del Potro who recently defeated him in the title match.

The season-ending ATP World Tour Finals has been a happy-hunting tournament for Roger Federer as he has won the title six times and it would prove a different-ball game altogether against the Argentinean top player.

Juan Martin del Potro and David Ferrer will be fighting for the other qualification spot from Group B while Janko Tipsarevic also holds a good chance if he beats the above-mentioned players in his remaining last two matches.

The Group B is getting interesting with each match as Roger Federer has already book himself a place in the last-four, as expected, and all the other three players have a realistic chance of joining the Swiss from Group B.

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Janko Tipsarevic cruises into Vienna quarterfinals

By Alexia Krause

Janko Tipsarevic doing his best to qualify for ATP World Tour Finals

VIENNA, Austria (TheSportsNEXT) October 19, 2012: Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia did a world of good to his chances of featuring in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday when he outplayed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in straight sets by 6-3 6-4 at the Erste Bank Open.

This is Janko Tipsarevic’s 13^th quarterfinal of the current season where he will face off against Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia who edged out Donald Young of United States in a hard-fought match by 7-6 (4) 6-7 (2) 6-3.

Janko Tipsarevic is currently ranked ninth in the ATP Tour Rankings and he needs to be among the top eight best tennis players to ensure his inclusion into the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals.

Tipsarevic looked good with his game Thursday as he dropped one serve in each set but used his dominance over the baselines to topple his opponent.

Talking to reporters after his impressive victory, Janko Tipsarevic said, “I have to be pumped for every single point and not think what's going on behind me or ahead of me. The only thing I care about now is winning my next match. I don't think about winning the tournament or about reaching London”.

When asked about his consistency in reaching the last-eight encounters of the ATP tournaments, Tipsarevic said that Serbia winning the Davis Cup pumped new attitude and confidence into his game which has helped him becoming one of the most consistent top 10 players of the current season.

When asked about his game, the Serb said, “I don't feel I improved my forehand, backhand or serve dramatically. I just feel that now I am living and breathing tennis outside of the tennis court as much as I am on the tennis court. ... This changed after winning the Davis Cup. I realized I wasn't getting any younger and that I would regret it if I realized one day that I could have reached more in my career”.

 

In another match played Thursday, Marinko Matosevic got the better of wild card entry Dominic Thiem by 6-3 7-6 (5) to set up a tough quarterfinal match against Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro. Greg Zamlja outdid Matthew Ebedn by 7-5 6-4 while Paolo Lorenzi saw off Vasek Posposil by 6-4 6-4.

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Murray, Roddick to play exhibition match on Miami white court

By Luther Jefferson

MIAMI, Florida, United States (TheSportsNEXT) October 19, 2012: Olympic and US Open champion Andy Murray of Great Britain and retired Andy Roddick of United States will an exhibition match on white court in Miami next month.

Apart from Andy Murray and Andy Roddick, 2003 French Open title winner Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, Nicolas Almagro of Spain, Aljandro Falla of Colombia, and America’s top ranked tennis player John Isner will also take part in the inaugural edition of the Miami Cup.

Andy Roddick, who announced his retirement from international tennis at the US Open 2012 in August, is playing a series of farewell events across the United States.

The inaugural Miami Cup will be held at Crandon Park, which is home to the annual Masters Series, Sony Ericsson Open and the stadium court will be transformed from its purple and green color system to white with red lines, painted within blue surrounds.

The game of tennis is going through a phase of experimentation these days and earlier this year Madrid Masters was played on blue clay for the first time but some of the players disdained the move.

The first edition of Miami Cup will be held from November 30 through December 2, 2012.

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Djokovic catches up on Federer in ATP Rankings

By Ashley Williams

Novak Djokovic scored 1,000 ATP rankings points with Shanghai Masters triumph.

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) October 15, 2012: Novak Djokovic scored 1,000 ranking points with the Shanghai Masters title Sunday which took him just 195 points below world number one Roger Federer in the latest ATP Rankings published on Monday.

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Roger Federer, who lost to Andy Murray in the semis, has 12,165 points as he is now number one for a total of 300 weeks.

Djokovic is 195 points away with three championships yet to be decided in 2012 ATP calendar.

Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in three sets by 5-7 7-6 (13-11) 6-3 in final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters which spanned for over three hours on Sunday which showed him in great form and shape to challenge Roger Federer on top of the ATP Tour Rankings.

As per the ATP rules, the Masters tournament has worth of 1,000 rankings points and with three Masters left this season there are a maximum of 3,000 rankings points up for grab and with Roger Federer enjoying a pretty slim lead of 195 points over Novak Djokovic, the battle has just heated up tremendously right towards the end of the season.

Roger Federer could have had a bigger lead on his Serbian opponent had he defeated Olympic and US Open title holder Andy Murray in Semi-Final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Interestingly, all the three ATP Masters events will have Roger Federer as the defending champion after the Swiss tennis maestro revved up his game right at the end of the last year to came back into contention.

Andy Murray trails Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as world number three while out-of-action Rafael Nadal is ranked fourth. All of these four players have qualified for the World Tour Finals and David Ferrer also joined them as fifth qualifier on Monday, which means the battle for the top spot will get to the wire. It also means that the battle will also have some means left for the players down the rankings as well.

As per the latest ATP Tour Rankings released Monday, the only change in the Top 10 was Tomas Berdych who improved his position by a place as he moved to sixth from seventh after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Shanghai Semi-Finals. He has replaced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at sixth and has a slender 30 points lead over the Frenchman.

There are three ATP tournaments this week where four top 10 players are in the draws. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych will be seen in action in Stockholm in Sweden while Juan Martin del Potro and Janko Tipsarevic will be vying for the laurels at Vienna, Austria.

Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro are the leaders for the last three invitations to the World Tour Finals.

Following are the latest ATP Tour Rankings.

01-Roger Federer              12,165

02-Novak Djokovic            11,970

03-Andy Murray                 7,690

04-Rafael Nadal                6,995

05-David Ferrer                 5,360

06-Tomas Berdych             4,840

07-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga        4,810

08-Juan Martin del Potro     3,670

09-Janko Tipsarevic           3,265

10-Juan Monaco                2,775

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Battle for ATP World Number One Heats Up

By Ali Ahmed

Can Roger Federer equal Pete Sampras record of ending season as World Number 1 for six years?

KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) October 16, 2012: World number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia won Shanghai Masters in big time on Sunday to get closer to world number one Roger Federer.

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Serbian tennis ace won his fifth title of the year in Shanghai this weekend and now he has won three ATP Masters titles this season.

Novak Djokovic who had a phenomenal last year was able to win only one Grand Slam this year and thus lost his number one ranking to Roger Federer in Wimbledon where the Swiss tennis maestro got the better of him in semi-final.

On the other hand, world number one Roger Federer added another feather to his crown by staying world number one for over 300 weeks and became only male player to do this and is still far ahead with this record because he is followed by Rafael Nadal who could get hold of number one position for 102 weeks thus far.

Roger Federer has been enjoying number one spot and can add another feat by finishing the year as best male tennis player for the sixth time in his ATP career. If he is able to do that he will equalize Pete Sampras’s record who achieved it from 1993 till 1998.

But at the same time Swiss player is struggling to retain his top ranking after getting defeated by Andy Murray in the Shanghai Masters last week.

After 2003 this is the year where no player is dominating so far and Grand Slams shared by four different players, In 2003, Andre Agassi, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer, and Andy Roddick had won the Grand Slam titles and this year Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray have got their hands on the Grand Slam titles. Interestingly, ATP Masters titles this year have been shared by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

But Rafael Nadal couldn’t increase his winning tally after a shock defeat in Wimbledon because of injury and still couldn’t return to the court and now Andy Murray is 4,400 points away from world number one Roger Federer. Failing to win the ATP Masters is one of the biggest reasons for Andy Murray’s massive points-difference with the number one.

So, the battle for world number one is still on for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Conditions are quite tough for Roger Federer because he has to defend his all three scheduled tournaments.

Last year, Roger finished the season with an astonishing run, claiming the Basel, Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals titles. Djokovic and Murray will be the part for all these three events this year so Federer will have to be at his very best to repeat the feat.

So Defending 3,000 points will be quite tough for Swiss maestro but don’t forget Roger has won 20 Titles in Indoor Stadium and boasts a very impressive record in Basel and ATP World Tour Finals where he has won five and six titles respectively but surprisingly he won Paris Masters only once.

Novak Djokovic couldn’t make into any of the finals of these tournaments last year but managed to win Basel and Paris Master in 2009 and ATP world Tour Finals in 2008 and showed fabulous performance in last two weeks.

So the race will virtually be on till second week of November this year.

Will Novak Djokovic finish the year with number one rank for second consecutive time or will it be Roger Federer who will equalize Pete’s feat to finish the year with number one rank for sixth year?

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Novak Djokovic wins Shanghai Masters title

By Liu Shiwen

Novak Djokovic takes revenge of US Open final defeat

SHANGHAI, China (TheSportsNEXT) October 14, 2012: Novak Djokovic of Serbia took revenge of his US Open final defeat to the hands of Olympic champion Andy Murray of Great Britain in great fashion on Sunday when he dethroned him from Shanghai Masters title.

Novak Djokovic came from behind to stun the Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray as the British tennis ace won the opening set by 7-5.

Djokovic clawed his way back in the second set by winning it with 7-6 (13-11) before completing the victory by claiming the third set by 6-3.

The match went to the wire, as expected, where Andy Murray, who won the US Open 2012 title by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final, failed to make use of five match points.

It all started with a promise for Andy Murray as he looked the better player of the two right from the start and won the initial set by 7-5 and ghosts of Flushing Meadows started haunting Djokovic’s mind as he came close to record back-to-back defeats against the British tennis player.

In front of the packed house in Shanghai, Andy Murray looked good to win the second set but failed to pounce on any of the five match points with Novak Djokovic keeping his cool in the times where it mattered the most and won the second set after a long tie-break of 13-11.

The world No 3 now had things under his control and the momentum was also favoring him amid claps from the local fans as he registered a rather easy victory in the third set to complete the title victory in about three hours and 21 minutes.

It was the first defeat ever for US Open champion Andy Murray, who has won Shanghai Masters title twice. He has played a total of 13 matches in Shanghai thus far.

It is important to mention here that Andy Murray had defeated Novak Djokovic in an epic five-set thriller to clinch the US Open crown last month.

Murray came into the Shanghai Masters final oozing with confidence after his classic victory over world number one Roger Federer on Saturday.

For Novak Djokovic, the comeback was mammoth as Andy Murray was serving for the match at 0-30 leading 5-4 in the third set but the Serb showed great resilience and rose from 3-1 down in the tie-break to eventually win it by 13-11. He also saved two match points at 8-7 and 10-9 in the second set tie-breaker.

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Murray, Djokovic set up mouth-watering Shanghai final

By Liu Shiwen

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray for Shanghai Masters title

SHANGHAI, China (TheSportsNEXT) October 13, 2012: Defending champion Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic of Serbia set up a mouth-watering final at Shanghai Masters on Saturday after winning their respective semi-finals in straight sets.

 

Olympic champion Andy Murray continued his mental advantage over world number one Roger Federer as he raced to victory with score of 6-4 6-4 in the second semi-final.

In the first semi-final, Novak Djokovic of Serbia outclassed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic by 6-3 6-4.

The Shanghai Masters final will be played on Sunday.

The Shanghai Masters final would be a rematch of the US Open 2012 final where Andy Murray won his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows last month.

This is the 10^th time this season that Novak Djokovic has entered final of an ATP tournament and this time he smashed fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych ferociously.

In its tour-leading 69th victory of the year, Djokovic hit 25 winners and converted all three of his break points to improve his head-to-head record against Berdych to 10-1.

Novak Djokovic, who is in search of his fifth title this season, looked in great touch as he gave no opportunity to the Czech Berdych to regain the advantage and seemed all set to win back-to-back titles after his last week’s title triumph in Beijing.

Novak Djokovic told reporters, "Movement today was very important from my side, to be on a very high level so I can try to get into the longer rallies where I find more chances on my side to win the rallies. I played tactically right. I was putting a lot of returns into the court, making a lot of pressure on his serve."

On the other hand, Tomas Berdych said, "First of all I need to give credit to Novak, he started really like a champion. He started really, really great, and didn't give me a chance at all."

"He's the second player in the world, chasing for the first place. It's really tough to find the way and have a positive record with him”, Berdych added.

In the other semi-final, Andy Murray continued enjoying mental advantage over Roger Federer which he got after the Olympic victory in London earlier this year as he needed only two sets to complete the win.

Game looked all tight and stiff until fifth game of the first set when Andy Murray broke Roger Federer for the first time but from that moment on he never looked back and despite of a couple of rain breaks, he completed the victory in two sets.

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