Federer Overcomes Defending Champion Nalbandian

ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer beat defending champion David Nalbandian 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the opening match of the red group to avenge his loss to the Argentine in last year’s Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai final.

Nalbandian, currenly ranked No. 7 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings, broke the Federer serve in the first set before the Swiss regained his composure.

"I had to make him hit some errors - he wasn't doing that at the beginning," Federer said. "A couple of years ago I wouldn't have known what to do."

Nalbandian blamed a weak first serve for his loss but said of Federer: "He has all the shots. I mean, he can make any shot from anywhere."

Federer won 15 straight points in the third set cruising to a 5-0 lead before Nalbandian finally held serve.

The Swiss, who captured the Tennis Masters Cup title in Houston in 2003 and 2004, has now won eight of the pair’s last nine meetings.

They contested the opening round robin match at Shanghai in 2005, which Federer won in three sets before losing a dramatic five-set final against Nalbandian.

(ATP Tennis)

Read more...

Official Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai 2006 Player Portraits

Click the links below for the high resolution images of the Official Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai Player Portraits. Media may use these images free of charge, courtesy of ATP. Please credit Quentin Shih.

Link

Read more...

Justine Rises To Challenge, Wins Season-Ending Honors

MADRID, Spain - Eight women arrived in Madrid in a fight for season-ending honor. Justine Henin-Hardenne was arguably the least-prepared, having missed the entire fall Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season with a right knee injury; but she stayed true to her reputation as one of the grittiest competitors in the history of the game and rose above the all-star field, clinching her return to No.1 with a semifinal triumph over Maria Sharapova on Saturday, then capturing her first Sony Ericsson Championships title with a resonant 64 63 victory over Amélie Mauresmo, whom she had lost to in the round robin, on Sunday.

Henin-Hardenne was by and large the aggressor against Mauresmo, crushing her big groundstrokes and serves into the corners and, in particular, dominating play on her opponent's serve. She won over half the points on the Frenchwoman's delivery and had break points in eight of those 10 games, converting six times. A double fault on match point handed the Belgian her first season-ending title.

"I was close to winning our match two days ago, but it wasn't good enough at the end of the second set," said Henin-Hardenne, who lost 46 76(3) 62 to Mauresmo in the round robin. "So from the first point to the end today I decided to put more pressure. I played amazing at the end. I had a lot of motivation and that's what I missed in my last match against Amélie on Friday. So that was the difference."

"No excuses; she just played better than me today," Mauresmo said. "She took the opportunities when she had them, and I felt I didn't serve so well, and wasn't so effective on the forehand side when I was going to the net. But that's just the way it is. And, as I said throughout the week, I didn't expect to be here today, and maybe with the energy I gave every match, today I didn't have enough."

Henin-Hardenne was 2-1 in the round robin portion of the event, beginning with a 62 67(5) 61 win over Martina Hingis (a match that went to three sets despite her having led 5-2 in the second) and a 64 64 victory over Nadia Petrova, before the aforementioned loss to Mauresmo. In the semis she continued to blossom into top form, holding off a late charge from Sharapova to reach the final, 62 76(5).

The win over Sharapova secured for her a return to the No.1 ranking, a place she held for 45 non-consecutive weeks between 2003 and 2004. This year will be her second time finishing No.1, after 2003.

"I've been very consistent, very solid," said Henin-Hardenne of her year. "I can only be happy. I can look back and say in my Wimbledon and US Open finals, I was not at my best but I'm not going to think too much about that. I'm just going to keep everything that went well, and say it's been the best year of my career.

"I can't say I was 100 percent this week but it was amazing what happened for me in the last few days."

Mauresmo, semifinalists look back at their seasons

Despite the dismay of surrendering her season-ending title and the No.1 ranking, Mauresmo still has a lot to be proud of when looking back at her 2006 season.

"It's tough, because the disappointment is here right after the match. But, later on, I'm sure I'll look back on my season thinking I would have signed for it any time if somebody would have told me, before January, that I was going to get two Grand Slam titles and be in the final here again. That's why you play tennis, to have these big matches, even if sometimes you lose; but it makes you stronger.

"What I look forward to now is resting a bit and getting ready for '07 - because once you've tasted these emotions, these big moments, you want to have more."

Others who left lasting impressions in Madrid were Sharapova, the only woman who was 3-0 in round robin play going into the semis; Kim Clijsters, who went 2-1 in the round robin portion before dropping a three set semifinal to Mauresmo; Nadia Petrova, who notched a win over Mauresmo in the round robin; and, last but certainly not least, Martina Hingis, who pushed both eventual finalists to three sets in round robin play, narrowly missing out on a semifinal berth.

Sharapova was part an historic three-woman race for year-end No.1, alongside Mauresmo and Henin-Hardenne, but needed to win the title and have the Belgian fall before the final. The Russian finishes with her highest year-ending ranking of No.2, and also extended her win streak to 19 before seeing it end in the semis.

"I've had an amazing year. When you lose it's always disappointing, but at the end of the day I have a month and a half off. I'm happy with the way I've been playing lately, and I hope I can improve and take that into next year."

Clijsters was in her second week back from injury, having hurt her wrist during her opening round in Montréal. She was forced to miss her US Open title defense.

"I've had a really good week here. I'll take the positives with me to Australia. It's always nice to end the year when you're playing well I guess. But it's been frustrating. There've been times where I wanted to stop but especially after the injury in Montréal. I didn't know how much I had left of trying to get back."

But the week truly belonged to Henin-Hardenne, who silenced all nay-sayers with her return from injury and profound victories over several of her closest rivals.

"I didn't know if I'd be healthy to play the whole tournament, play five matches at this level in six days; it was a challenge, I didn't know what to expect, and then I come, I win. I finish No.1. What more can I ask for? I'm just so happy right now.

"I don't want to think about next year. I want to enjoy the moment. Life goes by too fast, and if I start thinking about what's going to happen next year I think I'll miss very important emotions right now."

SonyEricsson WTA Tour

Read more...

2006 ATP Singles Money Leaders

** 2006 ATP Singles Money Leaders ***
(Complete Through Sunday, November 5)

From The Sports Network


1. Federer, Roger $6,783,025
2. Nadal, Rafael 3,396,690
3. Davydenko, Nikolay 1,785,065
4. Roddick, Andy 1,483,855
5. Ljubicic, Ivan 1,361,475
6. Robredo, Tommy 1,214,680
7. Nalbandian, David 1,168,025
8. Blake, James 1,153,775
9. Baghdatis, Marcos 1,127,565
10. Ancic, Mario 1,036,525
11. Gonzalez, Fernando 1,025,947
12. Haas, Tommy 941,760
13. Nieminen, Jarkko 822,640
14. Berdych, Tomas 812,090
15. Ferrer, David 809,975
16. Stepanek, Radek 788,645
17. Gasquet, Richard 731,537
18. Hrbaty, Dominik 650,605
19. Youzhny, Mikhail 627,117
20. Murray, Andy 625,210
21. Tursunov, Dmitry 619,850
22. Djokovic, Novak 612,542
23. Ferrero, Juan Carlos 578,910
24. Safin, Marat 524,790
25. Hewitt, Lleyton 522,520
26. Srichaphan, Paradorn 492,537
27. Verdasco, Fernando 485,380
28. Rochus, Olivier 478,885
29. Bjorkman, Jonas 478,542
30. Chela, Juan Ignacio 475,900
31. Grosjean, Sebastien 475,155
32. Acasuso, Jose 474,147
33. Gaudio, Gaston 461,955
34. Calleri, Agustin 460,612
35. Soderling, Robin 460,355
36. Monfils, Gael 455,605
37. Wawrinka, Stanislas 455,595
38. Massu, Nicolas 445,967
39. Benneteau, Julien 441,615
40. Malisse, Xavier 438,245
41. Henman, Tim 433,717
42. Vliegen, Kristof 432,210
43. Moya, Carlos 427,322
44. Volandri, Filippo 422,967
45. Santoro, Fabrice 418,630
46. Clement, Arnaud 414,822
47. Mirnyi, Max 404,675
48. Mathieu, Paul-Henri 393,660
49. Ginepri, Robby 389,625
50. Kiefer, Nicolas 388,465
51. Almagro, Nicolas 382,342
52. Melzer, Jurgen 363,352
53. Rochus, Christophe 358,517
54. Horna, Luis 350,295
55. Serra, Florent 347,567
56. Simon, Gilles 339,390
57. Lopez, Feliciano 337,590
58. Bracciali, Daniele 324,505
59. Martin, Alberto 304,380
60. Kohlschreiber, Philipp 302,295
61. Johansson, Thomas 297,750
62. Mayer, Florian 288,890
63. Phau, Bjorn 285,670
64. Ramirez Hidalgo, Ruben 283,966
65. Fish, Mardy 282,480
66. Seppi, Andreas 278,992
67. Spadea, Vincent 263,192
68. Gicquel, Marc 254,510
69. Hernych, Jan 253,705
70. Monaco, Juan 251,165
71. Sanguinetti, Davide 249,715
72. Schuettler, Rainer 236,992
73. Vik, Robin 232,237
74. Moodie, Wesley 229,385
75. Goldstein, Paul 229,075
76. Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo 228,725
77. Pavel, Andrei 228,595
78. Andreev, Igor 223,925
79. Gimelstob, Justin 223,507
80. Mahut, Nicolas 221,205
81. Dlouhy, Lukas 214,287
82. Lee, Hyung-Taik 212,042
83. Novak, Jiri 208,125
84. Karlovic, Ivo 204,052
85. Starace, Potito 201,632
86. Pashanski, Boris 199,010
87. Montanes, Albert 197,957
88. Kunitsyn, Igor 197,335
89. Coria, Guillermo 196,605
90. Muller, Gilles 192,824
91. Kim, Kevin 180,290
92. Sluiter, Raemon 178,220
93. Vanek, Jiri 177,487
94. Tipsarevic, Janko 171,735
95. Becker, Benjamin 171,535
96. Rusedski, Greg 165,395
97. Marach, Oliver 165,242
98. Greul, Simon 163,925
99. Waske, Alexander 159,627
100. Di Mauro, Alessio 158,195

Read more...

Sharapova 2007 SwimSuit Calendar

Download

Read more...

Fed's all about the record book

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - In case you haven't already noticed, the sublime Swiss that is Roger Federer is turning into a walking tennis record book.
When Federer titled at the Madrid Masters two weeks ago, he locked up his 10th championship of the year. And In the process, he became the first player in the Open Era to capture at least 10 titles in three straight seasons. In his case, the steady Swiss has won 11 titles in each of the last three years.
Read more here

Read more...

Masters Cup Berth Showdown Culminates in Paris

Russian Nikolay Davydenko fifth singles player to qualify for Shanghai
Seven players, including defending Paris champion Berdych, vie for final three spots.
The tightly contested Race to the Tennis Masters Cup comes down to the wire this week at the BNP Paribas Masters, the ninth ATP Masters Series event of the season. Paris provides the sole stage for three more players to earn a spot in the prestigious circuit finale in Shanghai.
Russian Nikolay Davydenko, No. 5 in the INDESIT ATP 2006 Race, secured his second consecutive qualification in the Tennis Masters Cup on Sunday. Davydenko is assured of his circuit finale berth as four players cannot surpass him in the Race standings at the BNP Paribas Masters. This week’s winner will add 100 Race points to his 2006 total ahead of the Tennis Masters Cup to be held at Shanghai’s Qi Zhong Stadium from November 12-19.
The 25-year-old Davydenko reached the semifinals in his Tennis Masters Cup debut last year, going a perfect 3-0 in round robin action before falling to eventual champion David Nalbandian, who currently stands at No. 6 in the Race standings with 439 points. Davydenko joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Ivan Ljubicic and Andy Roddick as players who have already qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup.
Chilean Fernando Gonzalez and Croat Mario Ancic, respectively No. 9 and No. 10 in the INDESIT ATP 2006 Race, take their heated Tennis Masters Cup pursuit to Paris this week, and are seeded to face off in a third round meeting that will end one contender’s Shanghai bid. The two have split their previous four encounters, with Ancic claiming the last two.Gonzalez moved to within eight points of No. 8 Tommy Robredo in the Race standings and nine points of No. 7 James Blake following his appearance in the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel final on Sunday, his third consecutive runner-up finish. The Chilean has added 122 Race points to his season total over the past three weeks, putting him within reach of his second appearance in Shanghai. Last year, Gonzalez went 1-1 in round robin action as an alternate.
Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Ancic moved ahead of Marcos Baghdatis (out of Paris with an injury, and therefore out of contention for a Tennis Masters Cup berth) to No. 10 in the Race standings and closed the gap on the final Shanghai spot to 23 points by winning the St. Petersburg Open title. Ancic will earn 25 points should he advance to the Paris quarterfinals. He said: "I am still in the race to qualify for Shanghai's Masters Cup, and next week it is all going to be decided. I am sure it will be an exciting week."

Read more...