Can you say cheese! Newly crowned US Open mens singles champion Juan Martin del Potro has become the fifth player to qualify for the end of year Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. He has joined Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic for the event which takes place at the O2 in London from 22-29 November.
It has been reported that Rafael Nadal has purchased a new beachside house in the exclusive residential complex Playa Nueva Romana in the Dominican Republic.
The community will have “1,200 luxury homes, a marina, a five-star hotel, and an 18-hole golf course. This new development represents an investment of more than US$180 million and covers an area of 620 acres of coconut groves, just 45 minutes from Santo Domingo’s international airport.”
Here is Darren Cahill’s take on Rafael Nadal and his injury.
Here is the official Rafael Nadal press conference about his plans for Wimbledon.
Rafael Nadal is out of Wimbledon and he stated it was one of the toughest decisions of his career. He has a huge amount of points to defend here at Wimbledon and this is really going to affect his ranking and could even give Roger Federer a chance to catch up.
Now that Rafael is out of Wimbledon he cant defend the 2000 points he received from Wimbledon last year thus meaning that Roger needs to win the tournament and gain his record 15th Grand Slam title.
Toni Nadal who is the coach of the 4 time French Open champion Rafael Nadal said some quite rude remarks about the French crowd on Spanish radion Station Cadena Ser.
Toni was none too pleased to hear how little the Parisian crowd was supporting the 4-time defending champion:
In an interview with the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, Toni Nadal said there was some truth to the phrase: “There is only one set of supporters that is worse than the French and that is the Parisians.”
“They say it themselves and it’s true, the Parisian crowd is pretty stupid. I think the French don’t like it when a Spaniard wins,” he added. “Wanting someone to lose is a slightly conceited way of amusing yourself. They show the stupidity of people who think themselves superior.R”
Rafael had made mention of the crowd’s waning support in his post-match presser after the loss saying,
Maybe at one stage they supported Soderling more than me, and that was a bit sad. But I wish when I’m back they can support me a bit more in key moments.
I know it is great to see the underdog do well, but we are still talking about 4-time defending champion who was little put back by the lack of support. Although I can see why the French crowd might have supported Soderling, because it was a turn point in French Open history and its great to see something like this happen.
Although nearly everyone would put their house on Nadal to win his 5th straight French Open title, Robin Soderling is one of the dark horses that he should be wary of.
Nadal beat him so convincingly a few weeks ago in Rome 6-1, 6-0 and is 3 and 0 in head to head results against Soderling but there has been some fierce rivalry between these two which started at this very tournament in the first round of 2006 in which Nadal clinically won in straight sets.
The tension between these two esculated at Wimbledon 2007 in a match that was played out over 3 days due to the weather. There was alot of niggling going on from Soderling in response to the time Nadal took between points and also some of his mannerisms. There was no love lost here between the two and Nadal went on to win 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5. This to me proved there was enough fire inside the belly of Soderling to take revenge and upset the world number one on what could be described as his very own court having never lost a match on it and over the course of the last four years only losing 7 sets from 31 matches.
The key to this victory could be put down to many things like Nadal not at his best or Nadal had peaked too soon this year winning so many titles already on the red surface, but the two things that really stood out for me in this match was (1) Soderling believed in himself and his game plan and (2) he went out there to make Nadal work and put him more on the defensive by hitting more to the strength of Nadal (forehand) and then exposing more of his weaker side in the backhand.
After yesterday when I mentioned that there was a big upset at the French Open and it was the loss of Novak Djokovic, well today has got even better. Today both defending champions have been beaten, Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic.
Rafael Nadal lost in four sets to Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6. Nadal’s hopes of becoming the first player, man or woman, to win the French Open five times in a row are gone, dashed as the scintillating Swede played the game of his life.
After 31 consecutive match wins dating back to 2005, the King of Clay lost his first-ever match at the French Open and can have no complaints after playing on the back foot virtually throughout, while the inspired No23 seed blitzed him from every corner of the court.
Ana Ivanovic had a really tough day on court today after getting a little bit of a lesson from Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The defending womens champion was never really in the match beaten 6-2 6-3. Azarenka will now face Dinara Safina who seems to be in amazing form. Safina defeated Aravane Rezai 6-0 6-1 in less than an hour.
Prior to the French Open starting Rafael Nadal the current world number 1 lost an exhibition match. At the exhibition match Rafael Nadal was defeated by Argentinian player Brian Dabul who is located on 109th on ATP list.
The match was part of “Benny Berthet” charity exhibition matches. The match was only one set and Rafa was defeated 7-5. However, it is completely understandable that Rafa did not want to risk injury before Roland Garros and has not demonstrated the full power that has made him the number one player in the world. However, young Dabul succeeded in something that none of the world`s greatest tennis players have, which is to defeat the king of clay in his invincible Paris.
Andre Agassi said that Rafael Nadal actually has a shot at winning the Grand Slam this year. The Grand Slam is winning all four majors in one calendar year and it is a feat accomplished by only two men, Don Budge and Rod Laver. Currently Nadal is the 2-7 favourite for the French Open title, while Roger Federer is at 6-1.
“Certainly you have to be good enough to win all four, but then you have to get lucky to win all four. I think this is the first time in a really long time that we’re going to see somebody maybe pull that off.” The Spaniard isn’t counting on it. “Thanks to Andre for his word, my goal now is to practice well to play well in Roland Garros,” he told reporters in Madrid.
