Nadal seeded 2 at the Beijing Olympics overcame the challenge of Gonzales by beating him in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 and 6-3. He had a stiff opponent in the form of Gonsales who notched up nine aces through the course of the game, but Nadals’s powerful forehands down the baseline were a treat to watch for the hundreds who had gathered to watch the finals match and Nadal didn’t disappoint any of them. It had been a great year for Nadal after he had begun at auspicious note by winning his favourite French Open beating Roger Federer in the final. But the shot in the arm came from the Wimbledon victory when Nadal went on to beat his swiss rival in a humdinger of a match stretching into 5 sets and two days. This was the first Wimbledon triumph for Nadal after having lost the last two consecutive finals in London to Roger Federer.
For more than two years, Nadal had been ranked two and was in hot pursuit of the Swiss prodigy. But this year had been a special one for Nadal as he won two major Grand slams on clay as well as grass. The Beijing triumph will surely sky rocket the confidence of the Spaniard for the Olympics comes only once every four years. And it is a special moment to be winning gold for your country. A feeling that transcends all other Grand Slam wins. The Olympics would also turn out to be a confidence booster for the Spaniard as he sets out to play the US Open starting in a few days time after the Beijing Olympics.
Tennis lovers who were waiting to see their dream Olympic final of Nadal vs Federer had their hopes dashed once Federer was knocked out of the tournament at the hands of James Blake of the United States of America. Federer had lost out on the number 1 ranking and this seems to have psychologically affected his performance at Beijing Though the swiss made up for it by winning the doubles gold at the Beijing Olympics.
As Rafael Nadal is set to take up the Number ranking in tennis after being second for a record time, this will be the dawn of a new chapter in tennis. The Federer Nadal rivalry is something that all tennis lovers have cherished over the years but it waits to be see whether Federer has it in him to bounce back at the US open this year. For now this has entirely been Nadals year as he has gone from strength to strength and his Olympics Gold medal win will surely set the ball rolling for the No. 1 ranked tennis player in the World.
The rise of Serbia as a tennis power has been phenomenal. Just in the past year and a half, players like Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic have emerged out of the blue and taken the tennis world by storm. So meteoric has been the ascent of Djokovic , that he was repeatedly being touted as the man capable of beating Federer, more capable than Rafael Nadal even. In the Australian Open semi finals, he did exactly that. By beating Roger Federer in straight sets, he not only proved to the world that the reign of the Swiss may be coming to an end, but also emerged as the No.1 contender for the top spot. Only one man stands between him and his first Grand Slam title: an unseeded young Frenchman.
If Djokovic’s emergence has had the pundits stand up and take notice, that of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga has had them stare in disbelief. People have egged, cheered and applauded him as he has waylaid one big name after another. His energy, determination and fearlessness has seen him pack off Mikail Youzhny and Rafael Nadal in straight sets, and shockingly enter the finals of the first Grand Slam of the year.
So it all boils down to Sunday. Will the emerging giant stamp his authority on the hard courts of the Rod Laver Arena? Or will he fall to the Giant Killer who has been living a dream? Will it be the smooth and powerful Serb with his big serves? Or will it be the exuberant, indefatigable Frenchman with nothing to lose? Time will have all the answers.
Earlier in 2006 after the Doha Asian Games, Leander Paes had questioned Mahesh’s commitment and this may have caused a rift in between them. Both of them had publicly said that they would not be playing as a team again after winning the Gold at the Doha Asian Games. It had all seemed to be over for this terrific duo. But it brings great relief to all their fans that Mahesh and Lee will be playing together. Lee and Mahesh have been really consistent and have always ranked among the top players in doubles. Sadly, they have never got India glory at the Olympics. Leander did win a bronze for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
A country of over a billion people but we yet do not have an individual Olympic Gold to show for it. On the other hand Chinese with similar population numbers generally finish within the top three at the Olympics. Indian Sports Infrastructure is abysmal. And there are only a few sports in which it has a serious chance of winning a medal, namely Shooting, Hockey, Weight Lifting and Tennis. India’s best chance of winning a Gold would be in the doubles event where they would have the experience of Paes and Mahesh to sail through. They had earlier won the French Open as well as the Wimbledon in the year 1999 and repeated their French Open victory on clay in the year 2001. These two have also won numerous other grand slams with other partners in the doubles and the mixed doubles category. Mahesh has to get over his back surgery so that he can be completely fit for the Olympics. It will be great if we have both of them playing with full fitness.
If India are to realize their dream of winning a Gold at the Beijing Olympics which will most definitely be the greatest sporting spectacle ever on Earth, its hopes will lie with Paes and Mahesh. These two certainly have the talent and temperament to do it. If they play with their heart and cohesively as a team, they are our best bet at the Olympics. Let’s just hope that their coming together as a team was out of Choice and not out of Compulsion.
Rastogi, sidelined with a back injury during the ATP Mumbai Open in September, told the Indian Tennis blog that his back was better and he planned to play both the hardcourt challenger events in the Indian capital at the end of 2007.
The 21-year-old Mumbai resident, currently ranked 344 in the world, had won the Morocco F5 claycourt Futures in July this year.
News of Rastogi’s comeback should please fans of Indian tennis, which has seen many of its stars fall prey to injury this year.
Sania Mirza finished her season early while Prakash Amritraj, Harsh Mankad and Mahesh Bhupathi are also recovering from injuries. With Sunitha Rao withdrawing from two consecutive Challenger tournaments in the US this month, speculation about another injury scare were rife.
Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes have also not played since the Stockholm Open and the BA-CA Tennis Trophy in Vienna earlier this month.
With the country’s top players taking a break from tennis courts, the India F10 Futures in Gulbarga got more than its share of attention.
But India’s second-string players, with the exception of world number 605 Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, failed to make it beyond the second round in the singles. Eighth seed Sipaeya lost to eventual champion Ivan Cerovic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.
There was better luck for India in the doubles with the second-seeded pair of Vijay Kannan and Kazakhstan’s Alexey Kedryuk beating Tushar Liberhan and Rupesh Roy 6-4,3-6,10-3 in the final of the $15,000+ hardcourt tournament.
Across the border, sixth seed Ashwin Vijayragavan justified his seeding by making it to the singles quarterfinals of the Islamabad Futures. Pairing up with Korean Jeong-Han, Vijayragavan lost to home crowd favourites Aqeel Khan and Asim Shafik in a closely fought doubles semifinal 6-2,4-6,9-11.
Other Indians had little success abroad. Mustafa Ghouse lost in the singles qualifiers of the ATP Seoul Challenger before he and Israel’s Dudi Sela bowed out in the opening round of the doubles event.
World number 728 Prerana Appineni also lost her opening singles and doubles encounters at the ITF tournament in Valencia, Venezuela. Down under in Traralgon (Australia), world number 359 Tara Iyer lost her singles opener and then forfeited her doubles quarterfinal match.
The action now shifts to the Pakistan F2 Futures grasscourt tournament in Lahore starting on Monday where a host of Indian players, led by Sipaeya, are in the fray.
Amritraj, who grew up in the Californian city of Calabasas, partnered American Adam Davidson to reach the doubles semifinal at the ATP Calabasas Challenger.
The duo, who gained entry as lucky losers because of an injury default to Jan-Michael Gambill, stunned top seeds Bobby Reynolds and Rajeev Ram 6-3,6-4 in the opening round.
Amritraj, 23, and Davidson eventually lost 5-7,2-6 to fourth seeds Robert Kendrick(US) and Cecil Mamiit(PHI) in the semifinal.
Stephen, son of former tennis player Anand Amritraj, had partnered cousin Prakash to reach the semifinals of the Fergana Challenger earlier this year.
Back home in India, newly crowned National hard court champion Ashutosh Singh spearheaded the country’s challenge at the India F9 Futures in Bellary, Karnataka.
Singh’s splendid run in the singles event, which began with ousting top seed Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 6-3,6-4 in the opening round, came to an end in the semifinals.
Singh, ranked 659 on the ATP list, lost to third seeded Austrian Rainer Eitzinger 4-6,3-6.
But he gained revenge by partnering Vivek Shokeen to beat Eitzinger and Philipp Oswald 7-6(4),3-6,10-5 in the doubles final.
Wildcard Rupesh Roy, who lost in the quarterfinals to Singh, also impressed with a second round win over Romania’s Adrian Gavrila.
Elsewhere in Europe, Sania Mirza lost in her Zurich Open opener before retiring for the season while Leander Paes and Martin Damm lost in the second round of the Madrid Masters doubles.
Sunitha Rao, who reached the finals at the ITF San Francisco Tennis Classic last week, withdrew from the ITF Lawrenceville Challenger at the last minute.
Down under in Gympie(Australia), Tara Iyer couldn’t do much against fourth seeded home favourite Monique Adamczak and lost 1-6,6-7(5) in the first round.
Partnering Nungnudda Wannasuk of Thailand, Iyer also lost to Adamczak and Briton Jade Curtis 7-6(2),6-7(3),5-10 in the doubles quarterfinal.
India’s number one singles player pulled out of the WTA Generali Ladies Linz tournament starting next week and said she will not be playing any more in 2007.
“It has been a long and hard year for me, where I had to make repeated comebacks from two serious injuries and a surgery,” Mirza was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
“I am mentally tired and my body is crying out for a break. I’m looking forward to a rest and then a great season next year.”
Mirza, currently ranked 30 on the WTA list, had lost to lesser-ranked players in the opening rounds of the Kremlin Cup and the Zurich Open this month.
The 20-year-old ends the year with a 30-19 win-loss record on the WTA Tour having recently touched career best rankings in singles (27) and doubles (18).
Mirza reached the final of WTA Stanford in July and can boast of wins over the likes of Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina and Patty Schnyder in an injury-riddled season. A knee injury had kept her out of action in the first half of 2007 while a wrist injury forced Mirza to withdraw from Kolkata’s Sunfeast Open in September.
Her best Grand Slam result for the year was a third round spot at the US Open in August – eventually losing to good friend and nemesis Anna Chakvetadze.
Four doubles titles came her way this season with victories at Morocco (with Vania King), Cincinnati (with Bethanie Mattek), Stanford (with Shahar Peer) and New Haven (with Mara Santangelo). Mirza ended the year with a 32-11 record in doubles.
India’s performance at this year’s Hopman Cup mixed team challenge had earned Mirza and Rohan Bopanna direct entry into the 2008 edition in January but it remains unclear whether Mirza can recover in time for the event in Australia.
Wildcard Krajicek, ranked three places below the Indian at 33, breezed through the match 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 16 minutes to ensure Mirza’s quick exit from picturesque Switzerland.
The result was Mirza’s 19th defeat as opposed to 30 wins on the WTA Tour this year and her ranking is likely to slide further.
It was also Mirza’s second opening round ouster in as many weeks – having also lost to Argentine Gisela Dulko at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow last week.
Krajicek, the half-sister of 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, had started off well – winning the opening game and then swiftly breaking Mirza’s serve. Mirza broke back in a game riddled with deuces but the 18-year-old from the Netherlands quickly recovered from that setback.
Krajicek, who has struggled with her form of late, unleashed her attacking game and a stronger serve to take the next nine games.
A spirited Mirza comeback in the second set saw her break Krajicek’s serve twice but the Dutch girl was in no mood to take the match into the decider. She broke Mirza’s serve for the sixth time to advance to the second round.
By the end of the match, Krajicek had blazed 6 aces as opposed to zero for Mirza although the Indian had a better first serve percentage (65 as opposed to 60).
In the doubles, the wildcard pair of Sania Mirza and home crowd favourite Patty Schnyder is pitted against China’s Shuai Peng and American Meilen Tu.
Mirza returns to the Tour next week at the WTA Generali Ladies Linz tournament at Linz, Austria.
The loss was a disappointing one for Rao but it was still her best result for 2007 – gaining her $3,990 in prizemoney and 25 valuable WTA points. Her latest ranking shot ten places up to 175 and Rao is now within striking distance of her career-best ranking of 152 (achieved in July 2003).
The Florida-based player had started the year ranked 232 and had dipped as low as 278 in June before jumping 100 places in just four months. Rao had also been the losing finalist in a $25,000 ITF event at Tampa in July.
The San Francisco result had not been an unexpected one. Harkleroad, although now ranked just 92, is a former Top 40 player and not one to be taken lightly. Interestingly, Rao had won their previous encounter in the 2003 Australian Open qualifiers, albeit in three sets.
Rao, who will celebrate her 22nd birthday on October 27, also had luck on her side – she didn’t face anybody ranked higher than her in the four matches till the final.
In the latest WTA rankings (October 15), Rao led an army of Indian women moving up the list. Tara Iyer moved one place up to 358, Rushmi Chakravarthi gained two places to be ranked 368 and Isha Lakhani moved up three spots to 432.
But Indian number one Sania Mirza dropped one spot to 30, thanks to a first round exit at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
In the doubles, Mirza moved up one spot to 19, while Rao lost three places to be placed 141. The biggest loser of the week was Shikha Uberoi – who slid 43 places to 209.
Rohan Bopanna, the best Indian player in the men’s singles, was down nine places (260) while Prakash Amritraj slid two spots (270). The big gainer – no. 343 Karan Rastogi who moved up four places.
In the doubles rankings, Bopanna’s semifinal run at ATP Stockholm saw him jump seven places to 79 while Leander Paes(17) and Mahesh Bhupathi(21) retained their spots on the list.
Middle-level Indian players have a chance to earn valuable points at the men’s $15,000 India F9 Futures event at Bellary, Karnataka which kicked off on Monday.
Her luck in the doubles was only marginally better. Partnering Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, Mirza was ousted by the world’s best doubles pair – Cara Black and Liezel Huber – in the quarterfinals.
Be that as it may, ATP Tour veteran Justin Gimelstob had this to say about the 20-year-old in his SI.com column this week.
“Mirza has ignited a continent with her success. She is a cult figure in her native India, and can’t walk down the street without a full security detail. She possesses one of the biggest forehands in the game, and is attractive and charming. She’s also integral to growing the game in the Far East.”
As such the flag for Indian tennis was held high by Leander Paes. Just weeks before he ends his partnership with Martin Damm, the dynamic duo reached the semifinals of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy tournament in Vienna.
Paes and Damm even had two matchpoints before the fourth seeded Polish pair of Marciusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski advanced to the final with a 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 win.
Paes would be partnering Paul Hanley of Australia in 2008 and his reasons for splitting with Damm are purely professional.
“We have different goals next year…Martin wants to cut down on his tennis, while I want to play a full year, so we decided to get new partners,” Paes told The Telegraph from Vienna.
Also impressive this week was Rohan Bopanna whose semifinal appearance with Belgium’s Olivier Rochus at the ATP Stockholm Open is further proof he’s going to make it big in doubles. His stint as lucky loser in the singles draw had ended after he squandered a 4-1 lead to lose in straight sets to Spain’s Albert Montanes in the first round. But Bopanna made good in the doubles with a win over South Africa’s Jeff Coetzee and Dutchman Rogier Wassen.
It was only in the semis that second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi got the better of the Indo-Belgian pair in straight sets – 6-3, 7-5.
On the ITF circuit, Sunitha Rao has made the quarterfinals of the $50,000 San Francisco event. Her match against Indonesia’s Romana Tedjakusuma wasn’t over when this report was filed but there’s a good chance the eighth seed will get through easily to the semis. Rao had routed Tedjakusuma in straight sets at a $25,000 tournament in Tampa, USA earlier this year.
Top seeds Rao and American Julie Ditty stumbled in their doubles opener – falling to an unseeded pair from South Africa.
Down Under in Rockhamption, eighth seed Tara Iyer made it to the second round before qualifier Robin Stephenson proved too strong for the Indian on the Australian hardcourts.
In domestic action, Bellary in Karnataka will play host to the $15,000 India F9 Futures event next week with most of India’s top singles players in attendance.
Playing their first match since the defending champions were ousted in their US Open opener in August, second seeds Paes and Damm took nearly an hour-and-a-half to subdue their opponents 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.
Awaiting them in the quarterfinals is the American duo of Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri.
Paes has been absent from the tennis scene for more than a month. He skipped the Kingfisher Airlines Open in Mumbai, ostensibly to play in Bangkok with Jamie Murray but the duo never showed up in Thailand. The two were also to play doubles as a pair in Tokyo last week but that didn’t happen either.
Arguably the best Indian doubles player ever, Paes has been at loggerheads with former partner Mahesh Bhupathi (probably the real reason for bypassing ATP Mumbai – a tournament promoted by Bhupathi’s company).
Paes, 34 will quit playing with Damm at the end of this season and is slated to team up with Australian Paul Hanley in 2008.
A good performance at Vienna should help Paes and Damm garner enough points to qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. The duo are currently in fourth place in the ATP Doubles Race.