MASTERS 1000: FEDERER CLAIMS NEW AGE RECORD

Following an impressive run during the Indian Wells and Miami Open, Rogers Federer has gone on to claim the opening two Masters 1000 titles. This would make it the first time since 2006 he achieved this feat.

In lieu of this, the Swiss tennis star has busted through some serious records, and has now become the oldest player to win this series at the age of 35 years and 7 months.

Before this, Andre Agassi held the record as the oldest winner of the Masters 1000 title when in 2004 in Cincinnati, he lifted the trophy at the age of 34 years and 3 months.

It took another 11 years for anyone to get close to the feat posted by Agassi. It was achieved by Federer who went on just after his 34th birthday to conquer Cincinnati.

This season has seen Federer raise the bar quite higher and it could take more than a decade for anyone to surpass or even match this feat. Read more »

NALBANDIAN NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH IN ARGENTINA

In a recent occurrence, 34-year old tennis superstar David Nalbandian, who is an ex-Wimbledon finalist and also widely known as the world number three tennis player at the peak of his career, narrowly escaped death in the fatal car crash of his vehicle.

He lost control of his car during a national competition as it rolled twice during the event held in Argentina. Video footage captured by spectators shows the star’s Chevrolet spinning before ending up on its side.

Fortunately, both Nalbandian and his co driver were helped out the ruined car by surrounding fans and spectators who were on scene, both occupants were unhurt. Thankful to be alive, David Nalbandian popularly remembered as the runner-up at the Wimbledon final in 2002 to lleyton Hewitt was quickly reunited with his family and was reported to be relaxing in a swimming pool alongside his daughter much later in the day.

One would recall that the player retired from professional tennis back in 2003. After deserting the court, the former star decided to try his hand at rally car driving. The unfortunate car crash happened in the province of entre Rios at San Justo located at around 200 miles from Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. Read more »

DEL POTRO FACES LOPEZ

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Juan Martin Del Potro, will take on Feliciano Lopez of Spain in his opening match in the BNP Paribas Open. It will be a second round match.

There have been concerns over Del Potro’s fitness. His wrist has not been in a perfect condition in the last 10 days or so and there had been speculations in the last few days that he might decide to pull himself out of the Indian Wells event, but, he hasn’t released an official statement regarding that yet. So, it is believed that he would take part in the competition.

Del Potro’s performance in the 2014 season has been a little up and down. He lifted the trophy at Sydney right at the start of the season and thus, entered the Australian Open as a strong contender, but, as a few other top players, he also had to get knocked out pretty early from there and it was in that tournament that his wrist began giving him a few problems.

The Argentinean took part in a couple of events even with that wrist trouble, but, he was far from his best and in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, he had to leave his match against Somdev Devvarman in between.

As far as Lopez is concerned, his form has been very poor this season. But, in his first match at Indian Wells, he secured a comfortable victory in straight sets. So, he would have been confident about taking on Del Potro who is coming back from a short break.

Del Potro is clearly the favourite, but, the chances of him being in rhythm are not that good because he had been giving his wrist some rest and thus, has not trained that much before this tournament.

DEL POTRO TIPPED

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Juan Martin Del Potro, had an absolutely fantastic time in the last season. He won more than 75% of the matches that he featured in and at the end of the season; he was in top 5 in the world rankings. However, one thing that the Argentinean superstar didn’t manage to do during the season was winning a major tournament. He went close to doing that at All England Club, but, he didn’t succeed eventually.

Del Potro has so far won just one Grand Slam in his career. He had done that at Flushing Meadows 4 years back by beating one of the all time greats Roger Federer in the final.

Del Potro’s performance in the major tournaments in the last couple of seasons has not been encouraging at all and on most of the occasions, it’s Federer who has knocked him out of those tournaments. The Argentinean player has faced Federer 15 times in the major tournaments till now and has ended up being defeated 12 times.

However, Federer is approaching the end of his career now and the one guy who would welcome this news big time is Del Potro.

There is plenty of tennis still left in Del Potro. He is just in his mid twenties at the moment. So, it’s not that the time is running out for him. But, he needs to learn a few things and the first and the most important of them all is how to play during the big matches.

Del Potro can surely get better of any player in this world on his day. If he just manages to improve himself a bit temperamentally, he will certainly have some more Grand Slam titles under his belt in a few years’ time.

DEL POTRO MISSES OUT

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Juan Martin Del Potro, has been defeated by the Swiss superstar Roger Federer in a Group B match of the ongoing ATP World Tour Finals. Federer won the match in three sets by 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

With this win, Federer has reached the semi final round where he will face his arch rival Rafael Nadal.

Federer had lost his last 3 matches against Del Potro and he seemed to be on his way of losing another one against his Argentinean rival as he lost the first set, but, he re-gathered his focus after that and came on top in the next two sets to win the contest.

Overall, it was the 20^th match between these two players and Federer defeated Del Potro for the 15^th time.

Talking to the reporters in the post match interview, Federer said, “I wasn’t fluent, but, I tried to hang in there and I am delighted that I ended up winning. Probably, luck also favoured me on a few occasions.”

“I don’t have enough time to rest. There is another game for me tomorrow. Hopefully, I continue in the same way and make things tough for Rafa.”

Federer’s start against Del Potro was horrible. He lost his serve in the very first game of the opening set. The next 3 games went with the serve and then, in the 5^th game, Federer’s serve was broken again. Now, to recover from there was not easy at all for the Swiss maestro. He did get a breakthrough in the 8^th game and managed to reduce Del Potro’s lead to 5-3, but, that was not enough. He needed one more breakthrough which he didn’t get and Del Potro held his serve in the 10^th game to finish off the set.

Federer began poorly in the second set as well. He dropped his serve in the 3^rd game and got down by 1-2, but, he broke back in the 6^th game to level the scores. There were no breakthroughs in the next 6 games and the set went into the tie breaker.

In the tie breaker, Federer was the dominant player. He had no problems whatsoever in pulling that off.

Federer seemed to be losing his focus in the decider as he lost the first 3 games in a row. But, he managed to equalize the proceedings with a breakthrough in the 5^th game and a serve hold in the 6^th game.

Both the players held their serve in the next 4 games and then, in the 11^th game, the Swiss maestro got another breakthrough which took him ahead by 6-5. He served out the next game and with that, he secured his entry into the next round.

NERVOUS TIMES

David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Martin Del Potro, has admitted that he couldn’t keep his nerves during the crucial times in the semi final match of the Wimbledon Championships.

Del Potro got knocked out of the Wimbledon Championships on Wednesday after suffering a close defeat against the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic.

Although, Del Potro lost the match but, he made Djokovic toil extremely hard for each and every point. He matched the Serbian superstar shot for shot and took the match into the fifth set.

Unfortunately, in the decider, the 8^th seed Argentinean panicked a little bit and ended up getting knocked out.

Talking to the reporters in the post match interview, Del Potro said, “I think I played at my very best in this tournament. I defeated some fine players on my way to final 4. Unfortunately, today, things didn’t go my way, but, I am happy with my outing in this tournament.”

“Novak is a world class player and it’s not easy to compete against him at any surface. He played the return shots incredibly well today.”

This was the first time that Del Potro had reached the semi final round of the Wimbledon Championships. He was not the favourite against Djokovic, but, he was expected to give the world no. 1 a tough fight and he did exactly that.

A large part of the crowd was behind Del Potro. They were chanting his name and cheering him up.

When asked about that, Del Potro said, “It was overwhelming to get that kind of support from the crowd. They motivated me and helped me to come back from tough situations. I want to thank all the spectators from the bottom of my heart.”

In the final match, Djokovic will take on the local boy Andy Murray.