Czech Republic deprive Spain of Davis Cup title

By Alexia Krause

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (TheSportsNEXT) November 19, 2012: Radek Stepanek outlasted Nicolas Almagro in a four-set thriller in front of around 14,600-people home crowd at the O2 Arena on Sunday as Czech Republic dethroned Spain from the Davis Cup supremacy in an exuberant fashion.

Radek Stepanek won the first set by 6-4 but found stiff resistance in the second set but still managed to keep Nicolas Almagro at bay and clinched the second set by 7-6.

However, the Spaniard Almagro bounced back in contention with a strong show in the third set which he eventually won by 6-3 but failed to keep his momentum and concentration level in the fourth set which the Czech grabbed by 6-3 to win the final match of the Davis Cup by 6-4 7-6 3-6 6-3.

As soon as he won the final set, Stepanek jumped over the net and was hugged by his team-mates before he raced to his wife with tears making an ace on to his cheeks.

This is the first time for Czech Republic as an independent country that they have won a Davis Cup title. They won it 32 years ago when they were part of the Czechoslovakia with Ivan Lendl leading the side.

With this title, the Czech Republic also became the first nation to win the Davis Cup, Fed Cup team trophies for men and women as well as the mixed Hopman Cup titles in a calendar year.

Earlier in the day, David Ferrer, who is enjoying the best form of his lifetime, stunned the local crowd when he outplayed the local favorite Tomas Berdych by 6-2 6-3 7-5 to equalize the five-match tie at 202.

Read More

Spain tie Fed Cup final 2-2 with Ferrer victory

By Alexia Krause

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (TheSportsNEXT) November 18, 2012: Spain equalized the Fed Cup final series against Czech Republic by 2-2 on Sunday when David Ferrer defeated Tomas Berdych in straight sets to make for an intriguing final match at O2 Arena in Prague.

Czech Republic had achieved 2-1 lead with doubles victory over Spain and needed Tomas Berdych to beat David Ferrer to seal the deal.

However, David Ferrer, who is enjoying the form of his lifetime, got the better of the Czech with final score of 6-2 6-3 7-5.

Read More

ATP World Tour Finals: Juan Martin del Potro keeps SF fight alive

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 9, 2012: World number seven Juan Martin del Potro of Argentine kept the ATP World Tour Finals Semi-Finals fight alive on Thursday when he defeated world number nine Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia by 6-0 6-4 in 71 minutes at The O2 Arena in London.

Juan Martin del Potro, who has won one of his two matches at the ATP World Tour Finals, will have to beat world number two Roger Federer of Switzerland in his final round-robin match of the tournament on Saturday to make sure he joins the Swiss into Semi-Finals of the event.

World number give David Ferrer of Spain had defeated Juan Martin del Potro and now the Argentinean is in a must-win position and he would take inspiration from his victory over Roger Federer last month in final of the Basel Open 2012 last month.

Juan Martin del Potro looked completely a different player on Thursday when compared with his previous outing at the ATP World Tour Finals against David Ferrer as he never gave any window of opportunity to Janko Tipsarevic who has already crashed out of the tournament after facing two defeats in as many matches.

The big Argentinean, who is sixth seeded at the ATP World Tour Finals where he ended as runner-up in 2009, smashed six aces and clinched 84 percent of his first serve points as he turned the Group B alive.

The Saturday’s matches will decide who is going to join Roger Federer into semi-finals of the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals. David Ferrer and Juan Martin del Potro both have got realistic chance of making it into the last-four stage where the Spaniard is better placed as he is going to face the weakest opponent in the tournament in shape of Janko Tipsarevic while the Argentinean has his work cut out against the legendary Roger Federer.

Talking about his first victory at the current tournament, Juan Martin del Potro told ATP, "I'm glad to beat Janko tonight. I play much better than my first match here. A win in two sets gives me a chance to go to the next match. I know if I want to beat Roger, I should play much better than today and my first match."

With this victory, Juan Martin del Potro has surged to 4-0 lifetime record against Janko Tipsarevic and won his 64^th match of the year as against 16 defeats. He has also won four titles this season.

Janko Tipsarevic told ATP about what went wrong for him against del Potro, “I wouldn't really blame my loss on the sickness. I am generally feeling fine. The problem was that I was sick and I didn't play a lot of tennis lately. I feel sorry that I don't play my best tennis here in London, which is probably the best event of the year. But I fought hard to be in a position to come to this event. I'll just do my best for one more match.”

Juan Martin del Potro had some support in the crowd at The O2 Arena where his fellow countryman footballer Sergio Aguero was there to buck him up. Following the match, Juan Martin del Potro and Sergio Aguero, who represented Manchester City in the English Premier League, exchanged some shots at The O2 Arena court.

Read More

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.

Read More

ATP World Tour Finals: Tomas Berdych ignites SF qualification race

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 7, 2012: World number six Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic ignited Group A qualification race on Wednesday when he defeated world number eight Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France by 7-5 3-6 6-1 in the ATP World Tour Finals played at the O2 Arena.

Tomas Berdych, who is seeded fifth at the ATP World Tour Finals, took an hour and 52 minutes to do away with seventh-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsogna who crashed out of the tournament after recording second straight defeat in front of the 17,587 fans at The O2.

This is the first time Tomas Berdych has won a match on British soil this season as the 27-year-old qualifier looks to achieve the pinnacles of success at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in his third attempt in as many years.

Tomas Berdych player will have to defeat Novak Djokovic for staying alive in the hunt on Friday while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be up against Andy Murray in his final appearance in this year’s ATP World Tour Finals.

Talking about the calculations involved in his possible qualification, Tomas Berdych told ATP, “I don't like mathematics at all. I will try to play tennis, and that's it. I will try my best. But Novak just has shown how great he's playing right now and that he deserve to be the No. 1 player in the world. It's a huge challenge for me. But the other hand, he already has two wins, so let's see what's going to be in that last match.”

Tomas Berdych, who has won eight ATP World Tour titles in ATP career, hit 33 winners and eight aces, winning 16 of his 24 points at the net during his 60^th victory of the current season against 21 defeats and improved his record against the Top opponents to 7-12 in 2012.

On the other hand, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga committed 31 unforced errors and is now languishing at last place in Group A after witnessing defeats in his two matches against Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has now won 55 matches this year as against 24 losses in the ATP 2012 season. He had won the same amount of matches during the ATP 2011 season. This year, the Frenchman has lost 11 matches against Top 8 players.

Tomas Berdych Girlfriend Ester Satorova watching him play

Read More

Novak Djokovic beats Andy Murray in ATP World Tour Finals

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 7, 2012: World number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia lived up to the expectations on Wednesday when he outlasted world number three Andy Murray of Great Britain by 4-6 6-3 7-5 in the Group A match of the ATP World Tour Finals at a packed O2 Arena.

The season-ending ATP World Tour Finals has the world’s top eight players in the ATP Rankings but this year Rafael Nadal of Spain, the world number four, is not part of the tournament owing to an injury which paved the way for Janko Tipsarevic at the London event.

Novak Djokovic found it difficult to cope with the aggression of Andy Murray in the initial part of the match as the British world number three as the local lad took the first set by 6-4.

However, Novak Djokovic stormed back into the contention in second set and claimed it by 6-3.

The third set went to the wire where both players tried their best to overcome each other but it was Novak Djokovic who repeated US Open final victory in London as he clinched the penultimate set by 7-5 after pendulum kept swinging both ways in the final moments of the match.

After this victory, Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion, is now 2-0 in Group A play at the ATP World Tour Finals and is on course to end the 2012 with yet another title as number one player in the world.

It was one of the most-anticipated matches of the ATP World Tour Finals where finalists of Sony Open Tennis, US Open, and Shanghai Rolex Masters revived the rivalry which is touching new highs as both players looked under pressure for the best part of the match.

Novak Djokovic committed 40 unforced errors but Andy Murray had 44 unforced errors btu the Serb pounced on the point scoring chances as he won 22 of his 30 points at the net in an aggressive fashion as the high quality encounter was relished by an attendance of 17,651 at the O2 Arena.

Novak Djokovic told ATP after his victory, “It was another great match, another great performance from both of us. I hope that people who watched it agree with my opinion? I didn't expect anything less other than a tough match that went down the wire and was decided on the last point. The good thing about this format, it gives you a day to recover. I'm going to need that day tomorrow. I will just try to take it easy, work on some things a little bit on the practice. Then, of course, get on the court and try to win. It was really important obviously for me to win this match today, as it was for Andy. I will try to focus and win every match that I play on”.

The world number one Novak Djokovic will be up against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in his final match of the round-robin league on Friday which will decide the other qualifier from Group A.

Andy Murray told reporters, “The last two minutes of the match probably is what decided it. He broke from 15/40, and then I had 15/40 next game and didn't break … I had a chance in the third set. You would hope that one game wouldn't decide the outcome of a whole match."

Djokovic said, “It was important for me after dropping a first set to stay mentally tough and believe that I could get my opportunities, and when they were presented to try to step in and use them. I don't think I played bad in the first set. It was him playing really well, serving extremely well. He lost only [a] couple of points on his first serve throughout the whole set and then he made some unforced errors. He allowed me to get back to the match. Then I think it was quite even up to the last point."

On Tuesday, Djokovic received two 2012 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. ATP Executive Chairman and President Brad Drewett presented ATP World Tour No. 1 and Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year awards in a special on-court ceremony.

Andy Murray has now won one out of his two matches of the ATP World Tour Finals 2012 thus far and his chances for last-four qualification will depend largely on his performance against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday. Tomas Berdych also stands a good chance of qualification but he will have to defeat Novak Djokovic to get there.

Read More