Nadal still the King of Clay

On this beautiful Sunday, there was a beautiful match. For the 3rd straight year the top 2 players in the world were in the Monte-Carlo final. Nadal won the final the last 3 years, once against Coria and twice against the Swiss Roger Federer.

But today seemed different that the other times. Federer started with a decision to let Nadal serve first, a rare fact as he always like to start his matches serving. It seemed a smart decision as he broke Nadal serve on the very first game. With some obvious stress Nadal broke right back. In the middle of set Federer played very well and use this momentum to win 12 of 14 points and got the break of serve. Then he was broke by Nadal, and it was the Spaniard time to have his momentum. It lasted a bit longer as he levelled the match at 4-4 and then broke Federer to clinch the first set 7-5.

We could feel that Federer was disappointed with the end of this set, and he felt like the other meetings with Nadal on clay. Will Federer respond like he did against Nalbandian 2 days before or like in last year final in Hamburg ?

It started well again as he broke twice Nadal serve by hitting the line and playing very well. And then while leading 4-0 he lost a bit of his concentration maybe and let Nadal back in the set and the Spaniard did like in the first set, levelled the match at 4-4 before eventually win the match in straight sets 7-5 7-5.

In both sets, the two players had their momentum, and each time Federer started very well the set and Nadal was doing a superb come back and finish.

Nadal claims his 4th straight Monte-Carlo title and will try to do the same next week in Barcelona, and then in Rome and Roland-Garros. If he can he will try to claim the Masters Series of Hamburg, the only major title on clay which still resist to him.

Federer leaves Monte-Carlo disappointed by the results of the match, but confident with the way he played against Nadal without giving up like he used to do and being dominant during the points. He will use this experience to complete his Grand Slam hope for Roland Garros. Next week he will rest a bit before heading to Rome, Hamburg and Paris.

Royal Final for Sunday, after 2 revenges !

This Saturday was the place for the exiting Semi-Final. Federer were looking forward to take his revenge against the young Serb player Novak Djokovic. While on the first match, revenge was in the air as this time it was the young Spanish Rafael Nadal who was trying to get over his defeat in the last Masters Series final in Miami against Russian Nikolai Davydenko.

Davydenko looked confident coming up to this match, and was getting a lot of ball back to Nadal but soon we could see that he was a bit tired with his recent matches. Even though Davydenko had a lot of break points opportunity, Nadal managed very well those points and won on a relatively easy score 6-3 6-2 but in 1h41. Davydenko didn't manage the important points well at all and the score line went very quick in his disfavour.

Nadal reached his fourth Monte-Carlo final without dropping a single set since the 2006 Final against Roger Federer.

The Swiss N°1 started his match facing 4 break points against Novak Djokovic, but produced a good tennis to make Djokovic breathless, at the point that after getting broke a 4-3 and leaving the first set to Federer 6-3, Djokovic called the trainer because of breath trouble and after the beginning of the second set while trailing 3-2 and a break down he decided to retire and gave Federer the opportunity to be in his 3rd Monte-Carlo final against Rafael Nadal.

It is the second time in less than a week that Federer win a match with the retirement of his opponent after the first set loss. Davydenko had to retire in last week final in Estoril.

The last time Federer and Nadal met in a final was in Wimbledon, it is the 11th final between both player and their 15th overall encounter. Nadal leads 6-4 in finals 8-6 overall and 6-1 on clay.

Federer found back his Ferocious eye

This Friday, it was the Quarter-Final of the Masters Series of Monte-Carlo. The 6 top seeds were in the last 8 since 1984.

First match of the day was facing the two Russians Nikolai Davydenko and Igor Andreev the last man to beat Nadal on clay except Federer. It was another marathon match for both Russian, and the N°4 player of the world eventually came through 6-3 4-6 7-5.

Then it was the match of day between two of the best rivals in today's game. Federer was facing Argentine David Nalbandian for the 17th time of their career having the confrontation tied at 8-all but with a 2-1 advantage for Federer on clay. Lots of specialist said before this match that Nalbandian will beat Federer very easily if he plays like he did in his previous matches. It was maybe the best match of the tournament. But as all great champion do, he took his game to the next level, and after a disputed first set he cruised to victory in the last two sets 5-7 6-2 6-2.

The two top 10 Spaniard were facing off in the third QF match. Rafael Nadal was getting his first real test on clay this year against in-form David Ferrer who recently won in Valencia. In the first set the World N°2 was too strong and closed out the set quickly 6-1, then Ferrer fought back and broke Nadal serve twice in the second set leading 3-0 but couldn't keep his game this good, and let Nadal come back to win the match 6-1 7-5.

After those 2 exciting matches, World N°3 and local resident Novak Djokovic was up against the young American Sam Querrey. There was no match at all as the Serb was too strong for his opponents and he won the last eight games of the match, result 6-4 6-0.

For the first time since a long time ago, the 4 top seeds were in the Semi Finals of the Masters Series of Monte-Carlo. Will we assist to the third straight final between the 2 best players of the world ? Will Federer as the top seed will win this tournament for the first time since Ivan Lendl 20 years ago ? We have to wait Sunday to know those answers.

Warm and Sunny Thursday at M.C.C.C.

I did the same thing that the previous day, and was at 8.30 at the Monte-Carlo CC to get tickets for the central court. It was really sold out this time and only the Court des Princes was available. In fact there were better matches on this court than in the Central Court, even though the Top 3 players were on Central Court.

Today I only saw Davydenko, Ferrero and Nadal warming up. The first match on the Court des Princes was Russian Igor Andreev against Spaniard Nicolas Almagro who has already to clay court titles this season and was finalist last week in Valencia. It was a long and entertaining match with Andreev wining the most important points and went to the victory in almost 2h30, 7-5 4-6 6-4.

During that time David Ferrer blasted Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 6-0, and World N°2 Rafael Nadal already started his match against fellow Spaniard Juan-Carlos Ferrero. He won the match 6-4 6-1.

The second match on the Court des Princes was another marathon match between Davydenko and German Phillip Kohlschreiber. Davydenko eventually came through 6-3 5-7 6-2 in 2h11. There was amazing points during that match and it was very entertaining. In the same time on Central Court, Federer was playing against Gael Monfils and in just over 70min Federer won 6-3 6-4.

On Central Court it was already the 4th match of day facing Andy Murray and local resident Novak Djokovic. The match was also really fast as the Serb won 6-0 6-4 in less than 1h20.

It was the 3rd match on the second main court, it was getting faster as Nalbandian gave a lesson of tennis to Tommy Robredo as in 1 hour the Argentine won 6-1 6-0. Then it was the time for the match between the 7th seed Richard Gasquet and the only American player in the draw, unseeded Sam Querrey. The match started very fast as Gasquet took the first set 6-2 in less than 25 min, then I left the stadium thinking that Gasquet would finish his match without a problem. And when I came back home I saw on TV that he lost in 3 sets 2-6 6-4 6-3.

It was my last day at the M.C.C.C. and I enjoyed a lot my week. It was sunny the all week and I was very happy with that.

Wednesday at Monte-Carlo Country Club

As they told me, I was at the opening of the tickets desk, to try to buy one for the Central court, because it was a very nice scheduled as Federer, Nadal and Davydenko were playing ! I got one with ease as there were more than 100 tickets resold.

Between 9 and 10, players were practicing before matches start. I saw Kiefer, Del Potro, Santoro, Nadal, Andreev and Federer getting warm for their matches. It was funny because Andreev and Federer were practicing together and it is the only two players that have beaten Nadal on Clay since 2005.

On the first match on Central Court, World N°4, and recent Estoril Open finalist Nikolai Davydenko was taking on Italian Simone Bolleli who qualified. It was with no real trouble that Davydenko won the match 6-2 7-6.

Then Roger Federer was up against another qualifier Spaniard Rubens Ramirez-Hidalgo. Federer won his first title o the season last Sunday in Estoril in some different conditions. He still won the first set very comfortably 6-1, and then his opponent was starting to play better and better and took the second set 6-3. He kept his momentum going as Federer was getting frustrated, and went 2 breaks up in the third set to lead 5-1. Then Roger had all the public behind him and won 5 games in a row to level the match and took the 3rd set into a deciding breaker. With no problems he won this one 7 points to 1.

It was a scary first match for him and all of his fans and everybody was very happy to see him come through.

It was Nadal's turn to go on Central Court to begin his Clay court season and his campaign to a four consecutive Monte-Carlo crown and a dreaming 4th Grand Slam title in Roland Garros. Mario Ancic was his opponent today, and had absolutely no answer to beat the King of Clay as He lost in straight sets 6-0 6-3.

It was the same story for the World N°8 and French Number 1 Richard Gasquet facing Kristof Vliegen from Belgium. He won 6-1 6-2 without long rallies.

In the other matches of day 3 seeds lost, 2 of them had to retire, N°8 Youzhny (neck) and N°11 Juan Monaco (right hand). The third one was the 15th seed Ivo Karlovic against Frenchman Gael Monfils. Monfils won in straight sets 7-6 6-1, and it was the first of 225 career match of Karlovic that he didn't record an ace at all.

In the evening I went to a bar to watch to football game between Barcelona and Manchester United. Result 0-0.

Tuesday at Monaco

I landed on Tuesday morning at the airport of Nice-Cote d'Azur, then I went to the Monte Carlo Country Club to buy my tickets for Wednesday and Thursday, because Tuesday's matches wasn't very interesting. They told me that everything was sold out, but there will be few tickets avaible in the morning.

I was a bit disappointed, and I decided to visit Monaco. They were doing a lot of works because of the upcoming Formula 1 Grand Prix and the other car races this May. The all town was upside down because of that. I went first to the Japanese Garden made for the Princess Grace de Monaco. It is a very beautiful garden and very relaxing.

Then I went into the famous tunnel that Formula 1 cars take for the GP. I decided to walk following the GP tracks. After the tunnel I went to the harbour where I saw lots of yachts and amazing boats. I walk through the stands as well, they were building the seats for the spectator and the garage for the cars. I turned at Sainte-Devote to go in the direction of the Casino Place where there was tons of gorgeous cars, in front of the Hotel de Paris and the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

I went back to Nice, because that is where I was staying, by train. It is very pleasant to take this train because it is right on the coast and you can see very nice places. In Nice I went to the Promenade des Anglais, and walked back home.

Monte-Carlo Preview

All the very best player in the world will be here in Monte-Carlo for the first Masters Series of the season on clay and in Europe. Also there will be "Guga" Gustavo Kuerten will make his last tournament here in Monte-Carlo on his last year on the Tour. He is facing Ivan Ljubicic in the first round. Marat Safin received a Wild Card as well and will try to do his best, he will play against Xavier Malisse of Belgium.

N°1, 4 and 6th seed, Federer Davydenko and Nalbandian will play Qualifier, while defending champion will start his campaign for a 4th crown against Mario Ancic who receive a Wild Card.

I'll be covering the matches from Tuesday, see you then...

2 out of 3 for Top Seeds

The 3 Top seeds made it to the Final in Estoril, Valencia and Houston. Only two of them won the title. Federer defeated Russian World N°4 Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 1-2 ret. due to a left leg injury at his muscle. Then another top 10 player won David Ferrer took 3 sets to beat Nicolas Almagro 4-6 6-2 7-6 in over 2h. On the other side of the ocean, in Houston James Blake lost to Marcel Granollers from Spain in 3 sets as well 6-4 1-6 7-5.

At the Estoril Open it was the top 2 seed battling it out for the title, it was the 3rd meeting between them on clay and Federer kept his record perfect overall (12-0). It was a very tight first set as Federer had few break point opportunities early on, and then saved a couple a set points on his serve. With no breaks of serve, Federer won the tie-break 7 points to 5. During the changeover, Davydenko went to the lockers to have a massage to his left leg, and then came back firing as he broke Federer and led 2-1 before he decided to retire.

It was the first time that Federer won a title with his opponent forced to retire. Federer said it was a shame for Nikolai to do that in the final, but he was still very happy with his first win of the season and a perfect start for the Roland Garros campaign. He also is very happy with Jose Higueras who will follow him in Monte-Carlo next week.

In Valencia, it was local resident and hometown favourite David Ferrer against Nicolas Almagro who already won 2 tournaments this season on clay, and seems like a good contender for the French Open. Ferrer who saved match points against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the QF. Ferrer won his 6th career title and his first of the season he improved to 6-4 in his ATP finals.

In Houston it was the seed N°7 Marcel Granollers from Spain who made the surprise as in his maiden ATP final he won the title defeating the World N°8 player, James Blake.

Rainy Thursday at the Estoril Open

Thursday morning I didn't do anything special, I just had some more pasteis and a coffee before going to the tennis matches. I was early at the Estadio Nacional so I was able to see some of the remaining players on the draw practicing.

There was Nikolay Davydenko and his coach and brother practicing as he didn't have to play that day. And on another court were Gicquel and Serra practicing as they will both meet Davydenko in the next rounds (Davydenko beat Gicquel Friday and will meet Serra on the second SF). As there were few people watching players practicing, they were all on Davydenko, so when both Frenchman went back to the lockers room, I had the opportunity to talk with them and they were very nice and we had a good talk. Then Olivier Rochus went out to practice for his doubles afternoon match, as he lost in the first round against Federer in the singles tournament.

Then after the lunch it was the time for the second Round match of Federer against Victor Hanecu, when both players entered the court it started raining ! They still played their match without any interruption, but it was raining the all match. Federer didn't have to force his talent as he crushed to the victory in 61 min, 6-3 6-2 without facing a single break point.

Then it was scheduled a match between two Portuguese players Frederico Gil and Joao Sousa, but they had to stopped the match after Gil won the first set 7 points to 5 in the tie break.

I didn't stay on the central court to see this match because I wanted to visit a bit more the city, so I was heading to exit slowly when I saw Federer coming out of the lockers to have some practice because his match was very short. So I stayed to this his practice session where he still worked on his backhand, and it was very impressive because I was right behind him, it was like I felt the ball, it was really nice sensation. He also practice his serve on the left side and we could actually really see how the ball bounce after the serve and each time he does the same movement to serve and the bounce is different, there I understood that it was impossible for his opponents to read his serve.

After that I went to Estoril but it was raining a lot more than during the matches, so I went into the famous Casino of Estoril to have some fun, and to be in a dry place !

This was my last day in Lisbon, and I was very happy with my trip and the good tennis matches I've saw. I loved the tournaments because it is a small one and you can really see the player practicing or playing, the Central court is quite small as there is only 6500 seats, so every seat is a good one, you are never too far away from the game, and if you are in the first rows you have a really good look at the matches and it is a lot of fun.

See you next week in Monaco, for the 3rd ATP Masters Series of the Season and the first on clay this year. All the big players are there so I think it will be a nice tournament, see you there...

Wednesday at The Estoril Open

I started my day well rested at 10. I decided to visit the city and walk around some nice places. So I went to the Restauradores, Marques de Pombal, Rato, the docks at Alcantara, the bridge of the 25th of April and Belem once again ! I was a very sunny morning and I enjoyed it very much.

I arrive for lunch at the Estoril Open and have a nice meal before watching the match between Frenchman Florent Serra and a fan favourite Rui Machado. The match started well for the Frenchman as he took an early double break advantage leading 4-0 then 5-1. Then he had some trouble to closed out the set as he got broke 2 times and machado levelled the set a 6-6 to try his best in the tie-break but Serra did as he did in the set having a 4-0 lead and then they were tied a 5-5 before Serra wins it 7-5.

After this first set, I had the information that Federer was practicing on an outside court so I went to see him practice instead of watching the end of the match which Serra won 7-6 6-1.

The practice session of Federer was very impressive to watch as we are very close to him and seeing him hit the ball is amazing. He was practicing a lot on his backhand when returning serves, and seemed pretty frustrated with it as he doesn't feel great to hit the ball when returning serve on his backhand. He prefer to play a nice and low slice, he is more comfortable with it.

Then when he got off the court I managed to get my tickets signed.

After that entertaining moment I went back to the central court to see the match between the N°2 seed and World N°4 Nikolay Davydenko against Czech Ivo Minar.

Davydenko had some early trouble against his opponent losing the first set 6-2. Then he kind of waked up hitting the line and having and incredible precision to eventually win the match 2-6 6-2 6-4.

In the other match of the day, Frenchman N°5 seed was forced to retire against Flavio Cipppola, and the N°7 seed Marc Gicquel beat his fellow French countryman Thierry Ascione in straight sets 7-6 6-3.

Tuesday at Lisbon and the Estoril Open

My day started with a lot of stress as I almost missed my flight because I overslept ! I waked up 1h before the departure of the flight but arrive at the airport 40min before thanks to a great taxi driver !!! I made a nice flight and I was in the hotel at 11. Just enough time to settle down and took the special bus at noon at Cais do Sodre. The weather was perfect as it was sunny and more than 20°C.

I was at the Estadio Nacional for the Estoril Open about 40 min later on, I had the time to walk through the alley of the tournaments, had a couple a pizza slices and went into the Central Court waiting the 1st round match between Roger Federer and Olivier Rochus of Belgium.

Prior to this match there was a ladies match between Sanda Mamic from Croatia and local hope Michelle Larcher de Brito. It wasn't very interesting as there was a lot of mistake and in the end the Croatian won in 3 sets.

Then it was a match between the N°3 seed Ivo Karlovic and another local hope Rui Machado. The match was even less interesting than the first match as Karlovic was injured at his right leg and retired after losing the first set 6-1.

Then we had to wait for about 1h before Federer and Rochus enters on the court, so I went into the Fun Centre tried to beat the fastest serve record (120 mph, about 200kmh) and I did 75 mph (about 120kmh) !! I had another snack, and took a hot dog this time before Federer enters the Central Court with a lot of people watching him walking in the alley with over 5 bodyguards.


The match was the 6th meeting between both players with Federer wining all of the previous encounters, but some with trouble. It was also the first clay-court match of Federer since last year Roland-Garros final where he lost to Nadal in 4 sets. We could see clearly that he needed some time to adjust his game to this surface. That's why he took a new coach, Jose Higueras. He was the former coach of Jim Courier when he won his two Roland Garros title.

The match started well for Federer having few break point opportunities in the second and fourth game of the match and then on a bad game an a couple of very good return of serve from Rochus, Federer was broken and lost the first set 6-4. We could after this first set loss ha was ready to play more aggressive and didn't let his opponent take control of the points as he won the last 2 sets with ease 6-3 6-2.


After his win he stayed on the court for a race with small cars, it was very funny and he seemed to enjoy it. Of course he won the race !

I was very happy to see that this match lasted 3 sets as it permitted to see more Federer in the very nice sunshine. It was the last match I've saw on this day. After that I took the train which is on the coast. And I stopped in Belem, which is a must see place for any tourist and where there is the most famous pasteleria of Lisbon where they make this little pasteis and it is delicious.

Then I came back at the hotel very tired, had a nice dinner and went straight to bed.

Estoril Preview

Ahhhh, I am so excited what a plaisir this is, the European clay court season starts Monday in Estoril and Valencia. There is also a tournament on clay in Houston. This week means the beginning of my incredible journey. I am leaving today to Lisbon, Portugal to follow this week event.

This week in Estoril, the top two seed are World N°1 Roger Federer and recent Miami champion Nikolay Davydenko.

Federer is clearly the favourite to win this tournament in preparation for the Masters Series of Monaco where he was finalist the last two years (l. to Nadal both times).

He will have a first round match against his long time good friend, Olivier Rochus from Belgium, and then he could meet the local hope Frederico Gil in the QF. In the final the other expected player to see is Davydenko, but I am sure we will have a surprise with him, maybe the 5th Seed Frenchman Gilles Simon can do somlething.

Other notables player in the draw are N°3 seed Ivo Karlovic and Finnish N°4 seed jarko Nieminen.

No Deciding 5th Rubber !

In this week Davis Cup matches none of the 4 had to be decided on a deciding match. Spain had finalized their win Saturday with the double while Roddick gave the win to the USA with a very easy straight set win over Mathieu of France in the first match. Nalbandian though had to fight to win his match 9-7 in the 5th set.

Davis Cup champions USA had no trouble to beat France this weekend winning all four singles matches and lost to a very good doubles team. It was Roddick's 9th straight Davis Cup win as he beat Mathieu 6-2 6-3 6-2 in 1h37. Roddick is still the only player this player to have beaten the World Top 3 players. He is now 29-9 on Davis Cup matches.

James Blake win over fellow Top 10 Richard Gasquet 6-7(4) 6-4 6-4 in 1h40 gave the last point to his country.

They will meet Spain next to try to reach their second Davis Cup final in a row. Spain won their match on Saturday, and the last two singles matches were kind of practice match as Verdasco beat Berrer and Kiefer beat Lopez to win at least one point in this match with no real contest from the German team.

Nikolai Davydenko from Russia replaced Igor Andreev in the first single match. He fought hard against Czech N°1 Tomas Berdych. Unfortunately, in the beginning of the 5th set Berdych slept and was forced to retire giving the match to Russia. Davydenko won 6-3 2-6 6-7 6-3 1-2 ret. in a marathon math of 3h40.

Czech Lukas Dlouhy beat Marat Safin 6-3 6-3 in over 1h to finalized Russia win 3-2.

It is the second time in a row now that Russia wins due to a retirement as Djokovic retired for Serbia last time, to Davydenko as well. Russia won their last 16 match at home; their last loss was to the USA in 1995 when Pete Sampras won 3 games.

Far away from Russia, in Buenos Aires there was another marathon encounter with World N°7 David Nalbandian and Robin Soderling. Nalbandian hit 69 clean winners and won 3 more points in total than his opponent to sealed the match and the victory for his country in 4h10, 6-4 1-6 4-6 6-4 9-7.

Nalbandian is now 15-3 in Davis Cup matches and 8-0 on clay, he might one of the favourite for the upcoming clay court season as he already won the title in Buenos Aires (d. Acasuso )and made the final in Acapulco (l. Almagro).

Juan Monaco won the fifth rubber 6-3 6-3 over T. Johansson to make it 4-1.

The Semi Final will take place the 19-21 of September and Spain will receive USA with the choice of surface, clay probably. And Russia will receive Argentine letting the away team choose the surface, probably clay as well.

Crazy Doubles !

Both Spain and USA had a 2-0 lead with Friday's matches, it produced wonderful doubles this Saturday. But first let's talk about the other two Davis Cup ties.

Russian pair Davydenko-Andreev survived a 6-3 first set loss to win the match in four sets against Czech Stepanek-Vizner 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4 in less than 3h. If they win on Sunday it would the fourth consecutive times Russia reaches the Semi-Final of the Davis Cup, they won in '06 and finalist last year.

Argentines Canas-Nalbandian recorded their second win together (2-1) to gave a 2-1 lead to their country before the last 2 singles games of Sunday. They beat Sweden's Bjorkman-Lindstedt in straight sets 7-5 6-4 6-4 in 2h17.

In Bremen, Germany, the home doubles team were composed by Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner. They were playing against Spain lefty Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez. They spilt the first two sets in Tie breaks, and then Lopez-Verdasco won the 3rd set 6-4 before dropping twice their serves in the 4th to lose it 6-2. But in the fifth both team served very well and saved few break point until The left-handers converted their 4 break point of the match (out of 17 opportunities) at 11-10 to eventually win the match 7-6 6-7 6-4 2-6 12-10 in 4h45 and win the Davis Cup tie as well 3-0.

They will meet the winner of USA-France at home in September.

The last match of Saturday was the encounter of doubles specialist, World N°1 Bob and Mike Bryan, and 2007 reigning Wimbledon champion Frenchmen Arnauld Clement and Michaël Llodra. The match started well for the home team as they won the first set in a tie break 9 points to 7. Then the French duo produced some exquisite tennis to win the last three sets to secure Saturday's victory and have some hopes for Sunday's deciding matches. They won 6-7 7-5 6-3 6-4 in 2h45 without dropping their serve and saved all 4 break points they faced.

The Bryans suffered their second loss in Davis cup matches and will have to wait to become the best US doubles team in the Davis cup (Fleming-McEnroe were 14-1) as now they slip to a 14-2 record.

The Frenchmen are now 4-2 lifetime against the Bryans, with one of their previous wins coming in the Wimbledon final last year.

Blake Comeback give a 2-0 Lead for USA

The Davis Cup tie between USA and France in North Carolina, USA, showed a dramatic 5-set thriller last night as James Blake saved two match point to beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 6-7 6-3 3-6 7-5 in almost 3h50. Earlier in the day Andy Roddick gave the first point to his country beating Llodra in straight sets 6-4 7-6 7-6 in 2 hours.

In the first two sets between Frenchman N°3 Mathieu and James Blake there was no breaks of serve, and they split the two tie-break. The next two sets were also split but with a break this time as Blake got the fist of it breaking at 4-3 to serve it out for 6-3. And in the fourth Mathieu did the same thing as he broke early in the set.

In the deciding set, Mathieu got the first break to lead 2-0 but Blake broke back in the next game. Then Mathieu broke again and had the chance to serve for the match at 5-4. He led 40-15 and procured himself two match points, served 2 good first serves and played well the points but on an almost wining Mathieu's forehand Blake got the ball back with the very end of his racquet to saved this match point, then he managed to brake Mathieu's serve and closed out the match breaking once again Mathieu.

Between the two 2-time ATP winners this year, the American came through firing 30 aces and won the big points in the breaker as he won 6 straight points in the second set tie-break. It was Roddick's eight consecutive win in a Davis Cup match and improved to a 28-9 overall.

In the others Davis Cup ties, Germany is receiving Spain and the top two Spanish players, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, won their match not so comfortably but gave a 2-0 lead coming to Saturday's double match. Nadal was pushed in the first set converting only 1 of 10 break points he had to eventually win the set 7 points to 5 in the tie break in almost 90 min, then it becomes easier as he closed out the match in straight set and 3h 7-6 6-0 6-3. Ferrer fought back from losing the first set to give the 2nd point of the day for the Spanish team, beating Kohlschreiber, apparently a bit tired, 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-2 in more than 3h.

After his win Nadal said in the press conference that he wasn't pleased with this year clay court season schedule as there is only one week between the two Masters Series or Monte-Carlo and Rome and that he will play 4 tournaments in 4 weeks and will have only one week off before his favourite Grand Slam, Roland Garros in Paris.

Spain could receive the US team next September if they both win one more match.

The two other encounters Argentina-Sweden and Russia-Czech Republic are tied 1-1. Nalbandian giving the first point beating 2002 Australian Champion Tomas Johansson 6-2 5-7 6-4 6-2, before Soderling tied the match coming through Acasuso in straight set 6-0 6-4 6-1.

The Czech could have had a 2 points lead before the weekend as Tomas Berdych led 2 sets to love against Marat Safin before eventually losing to the prodigious Russian in a dramatic five set comeback 6-7 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4. Then Stepanek beat easily Igor Andreev in straight sets 6-3 6-2 6-4 in less than 2 hour.

Davydenko Outplays Nadal to clinch Miami Title

Nikolay Davydenko became the first ever Russian to win the Sony Ericsson Open beating the World N°2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets 6-4 6-2. It is his second ATP Masters Series shield after the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris Bercy he won in 2006.

In the beginning of the final both player felt the pressure early on as they exchange breaks of serve. But the Russian manage to win 9 points in a row a broke Nadal to love to lead 4-3. He kept the momentum going and took the first set 6-4 in 50min.

Nadal tried to fight back in the second set but Davydenko covered the court way better than his Spaniard opponent. Nadal struggled a lot and conceded 2 more break in the 2nd set. Davydenko with a 5-1 lead waited for his serve to closed the match as he won 90% of his serve in this second set to eventually win the title in 1h30, 6-4 6-2.

It is the 12th career title for Davydenko in his 15th career ATP final. He has now the best record in ATP finals tied with Thomas Muster (44-11) at 80%. Nadal slept to 23-8 at only 21 years old.

It has been an incredible week for the World N°4 as he saved match point in his 2nd round first match against Ernest Gulbis. then lost the first of the match a couple of times more and then beat unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic, Andy Roddick and world n°2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets. He never beat his last two opponents before this week.

"My tennis was so good today. I think it's the best tennis of the hardcourt season. Here Nadal was favorite, and also in semifinal Roddick was the favorite. Just to beat two guys in two sets is like amazing for me." said Davydenko after his match.

Davydenko will enter to the clay court season full of confidence as he played the best tennis of his career. His next tournament will be Estoril in Portugal where he'll the 2nd seed as World N°1 starts his Roland Garros conquest there. See you then...

Preview : Davydenko vs. Nadal

Rafael Nadal will try to win his 10th ATP Masters Series title and his first Sony Ericsson Open at his second attempt against the Russian and World n°4 Nikolai Davydenko in tonight's Final. Before Nadal became the well-known Spaniard and world N°2, he reached the 2005 Miami final as the n°29 seed. He led 2 sets to love against World N°1 Roger Federer before losing in a thrilling 5 sets final. It's after this final, his first major final at 17 years of age, that he become the clay court king and started his 81 matches wining streak on this surface.

Both players will try to play the same kind of tennis they did in their Semis, in a best of three sets match and not in a best of 5 anymore. Miami was the AMS event to be played in a best of 5 matches. From now on only Grand Slam tournaments and the Tennis Masters Cup Championship match are played in this format.

The Spaniard will try to join Federer and win his 6th different ATP Masters Series; one behind "The Kid" Andre Agassi won 17 AMS title and 7th out of the 9 of the circuit. The winner also will be the first man from his country to capture the singles title in the tournament’s 24-year history. While Davydenko reached SF or better in 8 Masters Series Events (except Cincinnati - QF in '06).

Both players have a better record in ATP career finals than Roger Federer (76%) with 79% (11-3) for the Russian and 77% (23-7) for Nadal. They met 2 times previously, and both time they had to go to a deciding sets with Nadal wining it by 6 games to 4. Each time they played, even on clay court it is a very close match with Davydenko close to the victory each time. The match is played on only few points here and there. Davydenko doesn't seem to pay a lot of attention of the head to head as he showed against Roddick where he was down 0-5 in their H2H, wining only one set.

Nikolai Davydenko is known to be the player to attend to the most of tournaments, he played 30 tournaments last season, but coming into this week's final he played 5 tournaments and as much as Nadal.

En-route to the final Davydenko had a lot of trouble as he lost the opening set 3 times on 5 matches, and spent 10h30 on the court while Nadal had lost only one set (to Blake) and spent 8h34. Nadal has an impressive record on his serve this week as he held 92% of his service games and broke 43% while returning.

Regarding the rankings, Nadal had a good month of march as he had to defend his Indian Wells title and a Quarter-Final here last year (i.e. 625 pts), he lost to eventual Champion Djokovic in this year first ATP Masters Series event and with this week final he saved 575 pts, he can win 150 more points with the title. And gets closer to the N°1 spot by 50 points with this March tournaments. But now is the time to the Clay court season where he can't win any point (except by winning Hamburg). The N°1 spot is on the hands of Roger Federer and on his hands only as he is the only one who can change things if he doesn't have great results. Current World N°3 Novak Djokovic might be too far behind to be N°1 by the end of the Clay court season, but who knows...

Davydenko joins Nadal for Sunday showdown.

This second semi-final between World N°4 Nikolai Davydenko, and the fan favourite American Andy Roddick was the same match as the first semis. With the best seeded player eventually coming through in less than 1h30 (7-6[5] 6-2).

The first set was a real battle of serve as both players had 75% of their 1st serve in, without facing any break point. In the tie break Roddick had an early 3-1 lead before losing it by 7 points to 5.

In the second set Andy Roddick had a good start by converted the first break point of the match and break to love the Russian and took the advantage 2-1.

And then Nikolai Davydenko won the last 5 games, without wining any points in his second serve, to eventually beat for the first time of his career the American in their 6th meetings. He won the match on his first match point when Roddick's forehand failed to clear the net.

As Roddick said at the net : "you're too good, too good" Davydenko as usual stood on his baseline and picked the ball as early as possible to have his opponent on the run all the time.

Andy Roddick as the only player, who took advantage of the Top 3 player this year, didn't find his way to beat the world n°4.

Rafa booked his place in the Final.

Rafael will be attempting to win his first title of the year after his win against the number 10 seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets (7-6[6] 6-2 in 1h42).

Both players had met 6 times prior to this match, and the series was tied at 3-3 but with Berdych wining all of their matches on hard court.

From the beginning of the match we felt the pressure, as Nadal got a time violation warning in the 3rd game. Tomas Berdych had 3 break points opportunity but didn't convert, and then he faced what all the big champion do, win the important points, as Nadal converted his first break point to lead 5-3.

But the 22 year-old Czech fought back and tied the set at 6-6 saving 2 set points. So it comes to a tie break where Nadal took a 6-3 lead, but once again Berdych saved those set points. At his 7th chance Berdych served a terrible double fault and gave the set to Nadal, the match was almost over as 30min later Nadal closed out the match with an impressive 94% of serve point won in the 2nd set.

Rafael Nadal reach his second final of the year (l. to Youzhny in Chennai), and his second here in Miami (l. to Federer in '05) which he both lost.

Tomas Berdych said after the match that he got tired after the first set loss and Nadal took advantage that he wasn't at 100% anymore.

Nadal advances to his 13th career ATP Masters Series final (9-3) and he is trying to become the fourth player since 1990 to win at least 10 AMS titles, joining the elite company of Andre Agassi (17), Roger Federer (14) and Pete Sampras (11). He will try to win his first title since last July. He improved his record to a circuit-best 21-5 for this year. He could be the first Spaniard to win the Miami title.

What can happen in the next release of the ATP Ranking ?

In the new release of the ATP Entry Ranking on Monday April 7th, only few changes can happen, here is how it works.

In the top 6 player there will be no changes. But...

Roger Federer will only win 50 pts by reaching one more step than last year.

Nadal could be trailing Roger Federer by only 520 points if he wins this week Masters Series.

Novak Djokovic has a big loss in term of points (495pts) after his second round loss against South African Kevin Anderson.

Nikolai Davydenko has 3025pts and surpasses the 3000 points mark by going into this week's final.

David Ferrer made the Last 16 in 2007 and lost 70pts with his second round loss.

James Blake after in QF loss to Nadal gains 120 pts and is guaranteed to gain at least one spot.

Richard Gasquet has already lost 2 spots and would be World N°10 as he lost in his first match this week.

The big mover in the next week ranking is Tomas Berdych as he moves up to the N°9 spot and could reach a career high number 7 if he wins the Sony Ericsson Open.

Outside the Top 10, Igor Andreev (32) will now move inside the top 30, and Janko Tipsarevic (41) will move inside the Top 40 to reach his career high around the 38th place.

Actual World Number 15 Guillermo Canas will lose 375pts and around 10 spots. As Andy Murray currently N°13 and Ivan Ljubicic (24) will both lose 220 pts as they were semi finalist last year. They will lose around 10 and 5 spots respectively.

___________________________Finalist_______Champion

1 - Roger Federer_______6600
2 - Rafael Nadal _______5805*__---> 5930___-->___ 6080
3 - Novak Djokovic ______4785
4 - Nikolai Davydenko ___2900*___---> 3025___-->___ 3175
5 - David Ferrer ______)_2570
6 - Andy Roddick ______2260
7 - David Nalbandian ___)2070
8 - James Blake ______)_1920
9 - Tomas Berdych _____1875
10 - Richard Gasquet ____1850

*Before the Final takes place, and updated with SF points.


Concerning the ATP Race rankings.

Djokovic stays N°1, and Nadal N°2, Tsonga and Federer lose a spot to Andy Roddick. Davydenko could take a spot to Federer by one point if he beats Roddick and could be the Race N°3 with the title. Tomas Berdych will move well into the Race top 10.

Roddick solves a 5 year long mistery.

In a dramatic match last night Andy Roddick finds his way through the semi-final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. His win against the Swiss superstar and world number 1 Roger Federer was the result of an epic match in the Thursday night session of Key Biscayne (7-6[4] 4-6 6-3 in 1h55).

It was Federer's 700th match as a professional player and his loss against Roddick was the first since the 2003 AMS Cincinnati Championship Match. During that stretch, Federer won 11 times against the American Number 1 and even faced match point a couple of times before eventually coming through.

Last night, as often, it was a battle of serve in the first set as none of them faced a single break point, with 73% of point won on his serve (1st and 2nd combined) for Andy Roddick. So the decision of this first set had to come to a tie break, where the American took an early advantage before winning it by 7 points to 4 with an ace.

In the second set, Federer had to do something to get to a deciding set, he served perfectly by wining 80% of his service points and had great return games as he managed to win almost 40% of the points when Roddick was serving, and eventually at the most crucial time at 4-4 he converted his 3rd break point opportunity, and clinches the 2nd set.

In the beginning of the last and 3rd set, both players were handling their services games with no problem. But at 3 games a piece, Federer had his chances leading 0-30 on Roddick serve but didn't find a way to have a break point opportunity. Roddick said after the match that this game was the key game in the match and he tried to stay in the game, especially mentally...

In the very next game, Federer faced his first and lone break point of the match, which Roddick converted with ease as Federer made an unforced error with his forehand into the net. Roddick leading 5-3 in the final set didn't let this match slipped off of his racket, and closed out the match on his 3rd match point with a wining serve down the middle.

Roddick's win was his second against a player ranked World N°1, and today Andy Roddick is the only player to have beaten the Top 3 player of the world this year with his win against world N°3 and N°2 back-to-back in Dubai last month.

Former 2004 Miami Champion and World Number 1, Andy Roddick will now face Russian world N° 4 Nikolai Davydenko in the semi-final. The 26 year-old Russian is the first ever Russian to advance to the semi-final of this Masters Series in Miami. However he trails Roddick 0-5 in their encounter. The last time they met was in Shanghai in the round robin stage of the tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last year. Davydenko managed to take a set from the Rod for the first time of his career but still lost by 6-3 4-6 6-2. They both are in the top 10 for quite a while now but it will be only their second meeting since the 2005 Australian Open Quarter-Final.

N°4 Seed, Davydenko advanced to his third semi-final of the year after losing at this stage in Doha, and Dubai, by wining with ease his Quarter-final encounter against unseeded and very talented Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-2 6-1 in just over 1h10. He converted 5 break points out of 6, and won more then 60% of the points overall. Their last meeting was in the SF in Moscow last year, where the Russian clinched his only title of 2007.