Wednesday at Queen's

Only few dasy after the Roland Garros Final, the Grass season begins at the Queen's Club in London as well as in Halle in Germany where Federer won 4 times there. But I decided to go to the legendary Queen's Club to see the best grass court event in the World.

And I was right, 5 players of the Top 10 where in London this week to prepare for Wimbledon.

Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt both kept their hopes of a record fifth title at The Artois Championships alive after contrasting wins in the second round at The Queen’s Club on Wednesday.

Defending champion Roddick survived an early scare against fellow American Robby Ginepri before booking his place in the third round with a 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-1 victory, while Hewitt dropped only five games against Belgian Xavier Malisse.

Hewitt, who along with Roddick has dominated this event since 2000 with four titles of his own, booked his place in the third round against Paul-Henri Mathieu with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over Malisse.

Elsewhere today, fifth seed and last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist Richard Gasquet claimed only his second win since April with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
The two-time Nottingham Open champion will now meet Mario Ancic for a place in the quarterfinals.

Just three days after claiming his record fourth French Open title in Paris, Rafael Nadal made an impressive transition to grass by defeating former Wimbledon semifinalist Jonas Bjorkman at The Artois Championships.

Nadal, who is attempting to become the first player to win Roland Garros and at The Queen’s Club in the same year, took just 65 minutes to register a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Bjorkman to reach the third round.

Now playing in his first tournament on grass, the 18-year-old is looking forward to the challenge of playing Nadal. “It's going to be fun,” said Nishikori. “I mean, it's fun to play like one of best players in the world. He’s my favorite player, too.”

Meanwhile, second seed Novak Djokovic also made a quick adjustment to grass with a 6-2, 7-6(7) victory over Croatia's Roko Karanusic, and No. 10 seed Fernando Gonzalez booked his place in the third round after defeating former World No. 1 Marat Safin in straight sets.

Rafa Nadalissime !

ATP World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (pictured) captured his fourth straight Roland Garros crown on Sunday with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 victory over No. 1 Roger Federer in Paris. The score line reflected the second most one-sided Roland Garros final in the Open Era after the 1977 final, where Guillermo Vilas defeated Brian Gottfried for the loss of just three games.

Nadal becomes just the second player after Swede Bjorn Borg (1978-81) to win four consecutive Roland Garros titles since the event went international in 1925. The achievement also sees him join Federer, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras as the only players to have won at least four consecutive titles at a Grand Slam in the Open Era.

The Spaniard now extends his unbeaten run at Roland Garros to 28-0 and his record in best-of-five set matches on clay to 41-0. He first captured the title on his debut in 2005 (d. Puerta), becoming the first player since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the event on his first visit. He then won his second and third titles in 2006 and 2007 with victories over Federer.

Nadal, who for the fourth year had already won three clay court court events prior to arriving in Roland Garros, enjoyed the better start in the match. He broke Federer in the first game courtesy of one of an eventual 49 unforced errors from the Swiss’ racquet. From there, Nadal did not look back and went on to break Federer for a second time with an accurate backhand pass cross court, one of many that would trouble Federer throughout the match. The 26-year-old Federer was unable to claw his way back and surrendered his serve for the third time at 1-5 to concede the set 6-1 as he drifted a forehand volley long.

The second set looked to be going in the same fashion as Nadal capitalized on the Swiss’ many unforced errors to go up an early break. However, Federer immediately hit back, finding some inspiration with an angled backhand to earn himself two break points and he was able to convert as Nadal netted a forehand. With the Parisian crowd urging him on, Federer had a chance to gain a key break through when presented with a break point chance in the seventh game. However a well-worked point from Nadal moved Federer from side-to-side before he placed a drop shot that Federer could only return in the net.

This is the fewest number of games that Federer has won in 173 Grand Slam matches, his previous lowest was seven games against Andre Agassi (l. 6-1, 6-2, 6-4) in the fourth round at the 2001 US Open. It is also the fewest games he has won in the 372 matches since he has been at No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, going back to February 2004.

The Swiss, who has amassed 12 Grand Slam titles with five Wimbledons, four US Opens and three titles at the Australian Open, was looking to move to within one title of leveling Pete Sampras’ record haul of 14 titles. Federer now slips to a 12-3 record in Grand Slam finals, all three of his losses coming to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros and falls just one match win short of claiming his 150th Grand Slam victory (149-23).

The Swiss becomes just the second player after Jaroslav Drobny since 1925 to lose his first three Roland Garros finals. Having lost the finals in 1946, 1948 and 1950, Drobny did go on to capture two Roland Garros titles in 1951 and 1952.

Monfils !!!

For this second week of Roland Garros I saw the unbelievable match between Gael Monfils the last Frenchaman remaining and the n°5 seed the Spaniard David Ferrer. They both already spent a lot of time on court with a couple of 5-setters.

The 21-year-old Monfils, whose previous best Grand Slam result was a fourth round finish at Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic) in 2006, now faces No. 1 Roger Federer in the semifinals. Federer has won all three of their previous encounters, two of which have been played this year, most recently at ATP Masters Monte Carlo, where Federer prevailed in straight sets.

Monfils broke twice to love in the first set to seal it 6-3 after 40 minutes, before World No. 5 Ferrer hit back to break twice in the second set and level up the match as Monfils sent a backhand long. However, buoyed on by the home crowd, Monfils broke serve twice more to claim a two sets to one lead, clinching the set as Ferrer netted a half volley. Monfils carried his momentum into the fourth set, breaking the Ferrer serve twice to defeat the Spaniard after 2hr., 27min in their first meeting.

Monfils, who had won just five ATP-level matches all season prior to arriving at Roland Garros, has now won five successive matches for the just the second time in his career. He did so for the first time at 2005 Sopot when he won his sole title to date. Prior to Roland Garros, he had won back-to-back matches on clay just once in 2008 (at AMS Monte Carlo).

Monfils will meet the n°1 player in the world for a place in the final match

First Week in Roland Garros

Ahh, a first week in a Grand Slam is very long as a lot of match are going on and a lot of surprised comes with it.

This week was kind of rainy with Tuesday where less than 3 hours of play, and matches finishing late to get back on schedule. Nadal played his first 3 rounds in back-to-back days, while some player like Federer had two resting days between his first and second round match.

In the first round, the most expected match was Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten against Paul-Henri Mathieu. It was an exiting match and very emotional in the end for the 3 times Champion here in Roland Garros.

Argentine qualifier Eduardo Schwank sensationally beat 1998 Roland Garros champion Carlos Moya, the former World No. 1 from Spain, in the first Grand Slam match of his career. The 22-year-old Schwank held his nerve to beat Moya 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-7(1), 4-6, 6-3 in the longest match of the day over four hours. It was his 19th straight win, he was coming to RG with 3 challenger tournament won in a row (3x5=15matches) and 3 more in the Qualification of Roland Garros.

Canas, Baghdatis, Ferrero, Juan Monaco, Tipsarevic and Seppi lost in the first round are the other seeds who have lost in their first match here.

Some seeds were getting some troubles to get through as Robredo against Coria in a 4 set battle or Verdasco in a 5 set one. Even Djokovic had to recover from a set down against German Gremelmayr.

In the second round Federer had to recover from a first set loss under rainy conditions, Berdych falls to the Frenchman Michaël Llodra in 5 sets, while Davydenko was storming through his compatriot Marat Safin.

David Ferrer blasted away the "Magician" Fabrice Santoro 6-0 6-1 6-0, probably in his last match here in Roland Garros, Santoro has the record of most participations in a Grand Slam tournament with 62.

Blake lost to the surprisly good Letton Ernests Gulbis in 4 sets and will meet Nicolas Lapentti in the next round.

3rd round matches are the last one to win to get into the 2nd week. It is a record of 5 Frenchman who reach the Last16 with Jeremy Chardy who created the surprise beating Nalbandian after losing the first two sets. Paul-Henri Mathieu who ended the 20 match winning streak of the Argentine Eduardo Schwank. Mika Llodra who came through the talented Italian Simone Bolelli. Gael Monfils who battled in all his matches to get at this point and will meet Ivan Ljubicic who eventually beat Nikolai Davydenko in a very intense 5 set thriller. And the last Frenchman is Julien Benneteau who played his first two rounds in 5 sets, he is playing next Roger Federer.

It is the first time since 1971 that as many Frenchmen reach the 1/8 of the French Open.

The others to reach the 1/8 are Fernando Gonzalez who recovers from 2 sets and a break down to beat Swiss n°2 Stanislas Wawrinka. Stepanek beat easily Robredo in 3 sets. He will play David Ferrer who had a scare against former n°1 Lleyton Hewitt who was 2 sets to 1 up.

The end of the tournament could have some interesting encounters with Federer who could play Gonzalez and Ferrer en-route to his 3rd consecutive Final. And Nadal will meet fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro before Djokovic in what could be THE match of the tournament.

Nadal Right in Time

In a fabulous and epic final, Rafael Nadal completed his clay court trophy collections as he won the Masters Series of Hamburg for the first time in his career and maybe for the last one, because last year this event shouldn't be a Masters Series any more and could replaced by an event in Madrid. But the German federation is still fighting for his best tournament.

Federer started the match very strongly and took an early 4-0 lead and then 5-1. At this point he had won 14 games in a row against Nadal in this special stadium after last year final 2-6 6-2 6-0. But when he served for the opening set he got broke and Nadal called the ATP Trainer. This obviously troubled Federer as he lost the next 6 games (it made 7 with the break before the trainer came) to be trailing 7-5 1-0 and down a break in the 2nd set. He eventually waked up and broke back scoring 4 games in a row and was once again serving for the set a 5-3. Then Nadal was hitting less powerful shot but much more precise ones and manage to levelled the set at 5 a piece and even 3 break points to lead 6-5. Then Roger Federer focused on his serve and with 5 straight winning serves he hold serve to go to a tie-break. There he let the unforced error behind him to win 7 points to 4 the 2nd set tie-break.

In the third set Nadal has the advantage of serving the first and in the 4th game he broke Federer's serve and even if Federer try to fought back it was too little too late as Nadal saved perfectly the break point he faced and then served out the match and with a last cross-court backhand winner he left his arm to the sky and was down to his knees while Roger was waiting to congratulate him for his 11th ATP Masters Series title and his 6th different Masters Series.

Federer was very disappointed and said "I wish I could have won today, then I would have an even better feeling, the way the match went today I can also say I feel well, the three hours wasn’t a problem whatsoever. From a physical standpoint that is a good thing for me. I just take two days off and I will be in Paris practicing. It's going to be fun next week and then I will hopefully be ready for the tournament."

"I could have maybe served a little bit better," explained Federer. "When I served for the set, the second time where he broke me at 5-1, but I thought, all in all it was all right. It wasn’t my best performance; if you get broken so many times there is always something you are a little bit unhappy about. But I think I am finding the right type of play from the baseline."

They both will be ready for next week 2nd Grand Slam in my hometown of Paris, see you then ........

When the 2nd spot is at stakes

Once again the Big Three are in the Semi-final of a tournament, it already happenned 3 times this year, in Australia, Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo. The 4th men is the Italian Andreas Seppi who reach his first Semi-final of a Masters Series event in his career.

ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer (pictured) shone through the rain at Masters Series Hamburg presented by EON Hanse on Saturday as he fired into his fifth final with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Italian Andreas Seppi. Federer broke for a second time to lead 4-1 and, with Seppi later serving at 1-5, Federer was quick to put the Italian under pressure, converting on his second match point at 30-40 as Seppi sent a forehand long after less than 80 minutes.

It is the 14th straight ATP Masters Series event that one of the Top 3 players in the South African Airways ATP Rankings has featured in the final. Between them, they have accounted for three of the four ATP Masters Series events already played in 2008; the only exception was Nikolay Davydenko’s victory over Rafael Nadal in Miami.

Rafael Nadal overcame Novak Djokovic in a titanic battle 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 after more than 3 hours Saturday to keep his No. 2 spot in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and set up a final against No. 1 Roger Federer.The 21-year-old Nadal, who has ranked No. 2 behind Federer for a record 147 consecutive weeks, wasn't ready to leave this spot to somebody else yet.

Nadal was made to work hard for his final place. In a first set featuring five breaks of serve under the roof on Center Court, Djokovic began in blistering form, breaking Nadal early to lead 3-0. The lead was short lived though as Nadal went on to break back with a forehand winner to level. The Spaniard looked to have got the upper hand as the pressure began to tell on Djokovic, and Nadal broke again to lead 5-4. However, with Nadal serving for the set, Djokovic relaxed, went for his shots and it paid off as he leveled for 5-5. With the atmosphere rising, Nadal found more outstanding tennis and a forehand pass broke Djokovic’s serve again and gave Nadal the 6-5 lead.

Both men continued to produce their finest tennis for much of the second set, before Djokovic was able to edge out a break of serve to lead 3-2 with some deep, aggressive hitting bullying Nadal into errors. With Nadal serving at 2-5 15-30 a reflex volley from Djokovic set up two set points and the pressure told on Nadal as he put a forehand wide for Djokovic to level the match.Djokovic was unable to capitalize on his momentum though, as Nadal immediately earned a break of serve in the third set with a wonderful backhand cross court pass to lead 1-0. After failing to convert break back chances, Djokovic’s resistance began to crumble and he surrendered his serve again to trail 2-5. In an epic final game, Nadal missed four match points and saved four break points before closing it out on his fifth match point as Djokovic’s drop shot failed to make it over the net.

It will be the 16th career meeting between Federer and Nadal and the 9th on clay with Nadal leading the Head-to-head 9-6 and 7-1 on clay. He has won 105 of his last 107 matches on clay since Monte Carlo 2005.

Who's the fastest competition !

It was a battle of who will win his match the fastest today in the Quarter final day in the Masters Series of Hamburg presented by Eon-Hanse. Exept for local hero Nicolas Kiefer when he faced Seppi in a Marathon match.

Four-time champion Roger Federer recorded his 28th victory in his last 29 matches at Masters Series Hamburg presented by Eon Hanse Friday, when he overcame unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3 in 81 minutes. It was the pair’s first meeting since the 2005 tournament.

Italian Andreas Seppi advanced to his maiden ATP Masters Series semifinal after a marathon and hard-fought encounter against Nicolas Kiefer, who was attempting to become the highest-ranked German in the South African Airways ATP Rankings. The Italian Andres Seppi served for the match at one set and 5-3, but Kiefer recovered and went on to serve for the match himself at 5-4 in the deciding set. Seppi eventually ran out a 3-6 5-7 7-5 winner in the pair’s first career meeting over three hours and 13 minutes on Center Court. Three years ago Seppi lost to eventual finalist Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals. He now has a 14-12 record on the season.

Djokovic, who has been No. 3 every week since July 9, 2007, booked his place in Saturday’s semifinals after beating Albert Montanes of Spain 6-2, 6-3 in the pair’s first career meeting. Djokovic hit four aces and converted four of seven break points opportunities for victory in 78 minutes on Center Court.

Second seed Nadal improved to 6-2 lifetime (4-1 on clay) against fellow Majorcan and No. 11 seed Carlos Moya, after a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 76 minutes in the night match Friday. Nadal, who has been ranked No. 2 since July 25, 2005, dropped three points on serve in the first set and saved two of three break points overall.

So Nadal wins this fastest competition but he will next face Novak Djokovic to decide who will be ranked n°2 in the next release on Monday of the South African Airways ATP Rankings.