Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal – The Greatest Rivalry?

When we think about tennis, even if you are a complete newbie, you definitely knows something about two of the most charismatic tennis icons Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. They continue an old tennis tradition of intense rivalries that streches over the years, Federer being the favorite on hard surfaces and Nadal on clay.

Well served aces, powerful backhands, precise movement and a Swiss watch tempo. This could be a short description of the tennis machine called Roger Federer also known as Fed Express or Maestro. He held the number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks wining an amazing 16 Grand Slam titles and played in 23 finals, also holding the record of reaching ten consecutive Grand Slam finals. In 2008 he won the Olympic Gold Medal in doubles after some amazing games. After his amazing results in tennis he was voted as the Sportsman of the year on four consecutive years from 2005 to 2008. He is curently ranked as World No. 4.

Federer’s rival, Rafael Nadal, is currently ranked as No.2 after relinquishing his No 1 position in 2011 to Novak Djokovic. As his fans like to call him “The King of Clay” many experts feel that he could be the greatest clay court player of all time. He has won 10 Grand Slams so far, an Olimpic Gold Medal and 3 Davis Cup title with Spanish team. He played against Federer in 19 tournament finals and won 13 of them.

As many consider their rivalry to be the greatest in tennis history, it is a privilage for the viewer to see their clashes in which grandeour and gods are divided by a net and their victories are decided by a rubbery green ball.

Wozniacki and Federer in Domination

Caroline Wozniacki lost her serve in the first game, but then she came back and rolled off 12 of the next 13 in a 6-2, 6-0 victory against Arantxa Rus at the U.S. open on Thursday.

In the quest of her first Grand Slam Title, Caroline Wozniacki lost six games in total in the first two matches held at Flushing Meadows.

She will be facing against the American Vania King in the next match. King, who beat Jarmila Gajdosova – 29^th seeded, on Thursday.

In the late match, top seeded Novak Djokovic took the win in the first 14 games in a 6-0, 6-0, 6-2 victory against Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.

Novak has lost three games in total in the first two matches held at Flushing Meadows. His first challenger retired down 6-0, 5-1.

No. 3 Roger Federer also had an easy time. He was asked in an interview after his U.S. Open victory against Dudi Sela of Israel on Thursday to give other players some quick pointers and advice on how to dial in their serve.

He said, “It all starts with a good ball toss. Sometime, people think it’s just the swing, but I think the ball toss creates your motion after that. You should keep your elbow high on the serve, then the better you get, the more you can use rotation and legs.”

Rafael Nadal Tried Hard in Match against Golubev

The first competition as defending U.S. Open champion was only just a tour de force of Rafael Nadal.

He would go down after in a set, after that return.  Go down after, come back.

His serve was busted six times.  His shots did not have their usual deepness.  He wanted to save seven set points throughout the second set.

Locked in a fight, for closely three hours, the second-seeded Nadal finally obtained past 98^th-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 7-6(1), 7-5 on Tuesday night to arrive the second round.

Nadal conded, “I was a little bit lucky to win today in straight sets.”

Serena Williams, three-time U.S. Open champion followed Nadal into Arthur Ashe Stadium for her first singles competition in the tournament since her 2009 diatribe at a line judge.  She never was challenged by 54^th ranked Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, requiring below an hour to win 6-1, 6-1.

It as well did not get long to observe that the right should of Novak Djokovic, the top-seed is feeling good.

He started his first-round competiton with a 121- mph service champion.  He closed that game with a 120 mph ace four points afterward.

Playing his first competition since August 21, when he give up for the reason of a sore, tired shoulder, Djokovic achieved a 6-0, 5-1 lead prior to 197^th ranked Conor Niland of Ireland retired after 44 minutes with food poisoning.

Day 2 of the tournament as well included wins of Caroline Wozniacki and previous French Open champions Francesca Schiavone and Ana Ivanovic and a loss by present French Open Champ Li Na.

Nadal Says Novak Djokovic Is Worthy of World No. 1 Rank

World No.2 Rafael Nadal said man in form Noval Djokovic is worthy as a No. 1 rank in the men’s singles ATP Rankings, where he played outstanding season in his profession.

Novak Djokovic, 24 years old, has won two Grand Slam crowns at Australian Open and Wimbledon including six ATP World Tour titles.  Djokovic is the one of the hot favorites to confirm the title at US Open this year at Flushing Meadows, according to Nadal.  The latter has ended a profession Grand Slam by defeating Djokovic in the 2010 US Open finals in four sets.  The only player to win three successive major championships in a season with French Open, Wimbledon and US Open is no other than Nadal.

The 2011 French Open winner said that he was amazed by the ability of Djokovic to keep constantly strong of mind and he wants to congratulate him. Djokovic had 57-2 win loss record in the season, where Nadal shocked 5-0 win loss head-to-head record against Djokovic in this year.  Djokovic rose to No. 1 position, after arriving the 2011 Wimbledon final at All England Club.  Nadal says he is not yet thinking about some new plans versus Djokovic, where he is busy with his practice sessions for US Open title.

Nadal was disappointed at the Cincinnati Masters, after losing the quarter finals to Mardy Fish in straight sets. However, he has been working at the Center Court, prior to the US Open from next Monday, where he will play his opening round versus Andrey Golubey of Kazakhstan.

Ivan Dodig Gives Rafael Nadal a Shock in Montreal Rogers Cup

Ivan Dodig shocked the world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the next round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

Nadal, who gave up his Wimbledon title and the top ranking of the world to Novak Djokovic in the previous month, appeared in charge in his first match since the final in south west London, when he got a one-sided opening set.  However, Dodig, the world No. 41, struggled back to get the next two sets on tie-breaks, twice coming from a break of serve behind in the deciding set to win 1-6, 7-6, 7-6.  The 26-year-old fired 19 aces to seven by Nadal, as he avenged a straight-set defeat on clay in the Barcelona semi-finals earlier this season.

Roger Federer and Djokovic came through their opening tests, having been handed first-round byes. Federer will now have an opportunity to get vengeance versus his Wimbledon conqueror, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, after the pair advanced to a meeting in the third round.

Tsonga came from two sets down to beat Federer at the All England Club and he as well improved a large shortfall to beat the Swiss start the last time they met in Montreal, two years ago.

Federer strike the Canadian wild card Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 17 minutes, while Tsonga took the same time to beat one more Wimbledon star, the Australian Bernard Tomic, 6-3, 7-6.

According to Federer, “I will not think about that Wimbledon match as much as I might think about the match we had here two years ago. Both matches were, so to speak, not normal matches.”

Djokovic won with 7-5, 6-1 versus Nikolay Davydenko, even though the score did not reflect serving problems which saw the world No. 1 broken four times.  Gaël Monfils strike the Alex Bogomoloy, Jr. the American qualifier with 6-2, 7-6, and there were as well wins for the seventh seed, Tomas Berdych, Nicolas Almagro, the eight seed, Richard Gasquet, Stanislas Wawrinka and Ivo Karlovic.

Another Croatian, Marin Cilic, caused a minor upset by beating Juan Martin Del Potro, the Argentinian 16^th seed.  The Serboam 12^th seed, Viktor Troicki, beat John Isner, the American with 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

Novak Djokovic Rises up to No. 1

Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic rose to No. 1 in the ATP positions for the first time Monday as expected.  It’s the first time in almost 7 1/2 years that a man other than Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer is ranked No. 1.

Nadal is No. 2, and Federer No. 3.

24-year-old Djokovic said last Monday, “Times are changing.  It’s good for the sport, I think, to have some new faces.”

Serenhata Williams went down to 175^th on the WTA catalog, her lowest mark since 1997. Williams’ older sister Venus went from 30^th to 34^th.

The one who stayed at 31^st after a first-round Wimbledon exit, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, is the highest-ranked U.S. woman.

The last time someone other than one of the Williams sisters was the top American in the WTA standings was January 2007, when Lindsay Davenport was ahead of them.

Caroline Wozniacki stayed at No. 1

According to the teams’ research, the Dayton Dragons, the Cincinnati Reds’ Class A team, are expected to sell out their 815^th consecutive home game on Saturday, marking a record for a professional team in North America.

They will pass the Portland Trail Blazers’ mark, with their 7,230 chairs filled and hundreds more fans stretching out on a verdant hill away from the outfield wall, set from 1977 to ’95.

Serena William Gets Seeded No. 8 at Wimbledon

Serena Williams, defending champion was seeded No. 8 for Wimbledon on Wednesday and will avoid playing the longest-ranked players until at least the quarterfinals.

13^th Grand Slam title was won by Serena Williams at the All England Clud, but after that walked on broken glass, finally leading to blood clots on her lungs.  She was out of action for closely a year prior to going back to competitive tennis on Tuesday at Eastbourne.  William rallied from a put down to strike Tsvetana Pironkova 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Wimbledon begins Monday.  The draw is scheduled for Friday.

From her injury, Williams had gone down to No. 26 in the WTA rankings.  If Wimbledon organizers had seed her according to her position, Williams can have arise against a top player in the third round.

Venus, her sister, a five-time Wimbledon champion, was seeded No. 24.  She had gone down to 33^rd in the rankings from missing most of this season with a hip injury.  She as well went back to action this week in Eastbourne.

Wimbledon organizers said, “The seeding order follows the WTA ranking list, except where in the opinion of the committee, a change is necessary to produce a balanced draw. The only changes this year are Serena Williams and Venus Williams moving to 8 and 24, respectively.

This reflects the balance between their proven records and also their lack of competitive play in the past 12 months.”

Caroline Wozniacki was at the top ranked of the seeding record.  The no. 2 was Kim Clijsters, an Australian Open Champion, 3^rdwas Vera Zvonareva and the no. 4 was the French Open champion Li Na.

Maria Sharapova, one more winner in 2004 was seeded No. 6 one after Victoria Azarenka.

Rafael Nadal, defending champion was seeded No. 1, next by Novak Djokovic then Roger Federer at No. 3 and No. 4 was Andy Murray.  Federer and Nadal have joined for the previous eight titles at the all England Club.