Pinoy wins in Australian Open 09

I have been following the developments of Rafa Nadal in the Open too closely that I ignored this interesting fact that a Filipino is making waves in the tournament too. And it is only after the said tournament that I learned that our Filipino bet in the first grand slam of the year has made waves and won in the boy’s doubles event. The country’s entry was junior netter Francis Casey Alcantara. Now is good news for the country and for the sport too. Our junior tennis player partnered with Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Pei Hsieh to win the boy’s double title with the score of 6-4, 6-2. The boy is from Cagayan de Oro and is currently ranked number 20th in the world by the International Tennis Federation. And his recent exploits has surpassed the achievement made by Barrientos, another Filipino tennis player who made it to the quarters in the Wimbledon in 1985 for the junior’s event. Could he be the country’s best bet to battle it out with the finest in tennis circuit a few years from now? Hope so. It’s better to cheer a fellow countryman.

Dominating..

File photo of Serena Williams

That’s how you have to describe the performance made by Serena Williams in the latter half of the Australian Open. In winning her 10th grand slam title, she defeated four Russians starting in the quarterfinals. First she made a second set escape against Svetlana Kuznetsova, then she defeated in straight sets Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva and in the finals, she defeated my favorite in the absence of Maria Sharapova- Dinara Safina. The score was lopsided and reminds of the drubbing suffered by Sharapova in the hands of Serena.  With her 10th grand-slam title, she also assumed the number 1 ranking.

The clay court tennis championships

Tennis clay courts are popular in many parts of the world. This playing surface is most popular in Europe and in South America. A number of clay courts are available in the United States as well. Though clay courts are popular in these places, there is only one tennis grand slam event that makes use of the clay courts as its playing surface. That tennis grand slam event is the French Open hosted at Paris, France.

This is one of the four major tournaments in tennis and held in May or June at the Stade Roland Garros. This grand slam tournament is the second in the season and follows the Australian Open in Melbourne. The other two grand slam events in tennis include US Open in Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon in London. The French Open with its clay courts is considered as one of the toughest events in tennis. This is due to the unique characteristics of the clay surface.

In clay, the tennis ball tends to slow down after it touches the surface and the tennis ball tends to bounce higher after impact on the surface. For this reason, the surface tends to blunt and tame the big servers in the game. This weakens the serve-based players from fully dominating the game. Two examples of big-servers who failed to win the crown include Roger Federer of Switzerland and Pete Sampras, all former number ones.

Tennis clay courts and Roland Garros

In the sport of tennis, tennis players usually play in a variety of surfaces. One such surface that is used in tennis competitions is usually made of crushed shale, stone or brick. The clay court can come in red or green clay which is also called as American clay. One of the four grand slam events in tennis, the French Open, uses the clay courts thus making this grand slam tournament stand out from the pack.

In general the clay court is often much cheaper to construct if compared to the more common grass courts and the hard courts. But the drawback of the clay court is that this tennis surface costs more to maintain. This is one reason why grass courts and hard courts outnumber the clay courts right now. The maintenance of the clay court is labor-intensive. The court needs to be rolled every now and then in order to preserve the flatness of the court. Since the court is primarily clay, the court’s water content needs to be taken into consideration. The water content needs to be balanced.

Between the red and green clay courts, the green court is harder to maintain since the court needs to be sloped so as to allow water run-off. Clay courts are seen most in Europe, where the Roland Garros tournament is hosted and in South America.

Murray OUT

In a five-setter encounter, Spain’s Verdasco edged out the fair-haired boy of Australian Open 09. Verdasco of Spain took the fifth set, 6-4. Yipee!

This leaves Roger Federer with a good chance of winning his Australian Open trophy and equal the feat made by Pete Sampras. If things go his way, then he can surpass the record of Sampras during Wimbledon or the US Open where he as a bigger chance of doing it. So the Federer is correct after all; the contenders for this year’s Australian Open inlcudes him, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal. The pressure was really on Andy Murray, with sports writers and betting firms putting him ahead of the pack. Look at Venus Williams, their favorite too before the tournament started. These two players came crashing down. So will it be Federer, Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic?

Rafa Nadal-less Spain tackles Argentina

Rafa Nadal is out, and Spain is pressured. But not Argentina with its hot and streaking players. Just think of Del Potro. I’m all about for Rafa Nadal and Spain, but since Rafa Nadal will be out of the Davis Cup I think Argentina has the best chance to win the title. In fact, Argentina captain Alberto Mancini finds so much comfort in the absence of Rafa Nadal. The top-ranked tennis player pulled out of the best-of-five championships because of the tendinitis in his knee. But he was still being true when he says that even without Rafa Nadal, the Spanish team is still strong and tough to beat. The best of five series will open Friday with two single matches. Tennis players to watch include Del Potro and David Nalbandian.

Djokovic back in groove; dismisses Davydenko

After winning the Australian Open last January, Novak Djokovic retreated to the sidelines. Now the flamboyant player is now in top form after winning the Year End ATP Masters in Shanghai by defeating Nikolay Davydenko. With the win, the 21 year old tennis player becomes the first Serbian tennis year-end champion and he takes home 1.24 million in prize money. Aside from winning the crown, the win by Djokovic is significant in a sense that he is no just 10 points off the former number 1 tennis player Roger Federer. Roger Federer is the former world number one tennis player, who is no ranked second to Spain’s tennis star Rafa Nadal. The 6-1 7-5 win by Djokovic over Russian tennis star Nikolay Davydenko gives him his second major trophy for the year, and very fitting way to end his 2008 campaign.

Rafa Nadal out of Masters

Rafa out of Shanghai 2008

Rafa Nadal, world’s number one tennis player has pulled out of the Shanghai Masters, citing the long season and fatigue as his reasons. Just last week, Nadal pulled out of Paris Masters after losing the first set to Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal made the announcement on his website and indicated that this was one of the most difficult decisions in his career. This was a long and avery successful season for Rafa Nadal. He supplanted Roger Federer at the top spot, and he won two Grand Slam titles (French Open and Wimbledon). He also won the Olympic gold medal for Spain.

So what’s the impact of Nadal’s non-participation? On the surface, Frenchman Gilles Simon will fill in the vacant slot. On a deeper level, this will allow Roger Federer to have his fun in the cup and should allow him to capture his fifth Masters titles.

For  a fan, this is bad not to see Rafa Nadal compete in the year-end event. But this is a good decision for Rafa in order not to complicate his injuries. So will it be Roger Federer winning the year-end event? This might be difficult for him since there is Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, my two bets to make a good impression on the said event.

Nadal, who won two Grand Slam titles and the Olympic gold medal this year as he supplanted Roger Federer at No. 1, said he was physically rundown.

13th for Roger Federer

Be sure to thank the tennis Gods that you did’nt have to face Rafa Nadal. Bitter?  Heheh. So Roger Federer is on to his 13th grand slam title. So fickle the tennis sites now, as if Roger Federer did’nt leave the scene. They are now once again hailing Federer, all the possible positive descriptions are used. As I’ve said, the player who faced Roger isn’t up to the challenge. Andy Murray isn’t the one that can topple Federer off the top. Sites say that Federer is back at his best; I say he is playing good tennis coupled with luck that he did’t have to face Rafa. This victory is definitely a relief for Raja. One more grand slam and your place in tennis history can no longer be denied. Pete Sampras holds the record with 14 grand slam titles. And I think that Roger Federer can win his last piece of the puzzle this coming Australian Open. From ‘what’s up doc to hail the king’, that’s how fickle-minded the sites are nowadays. Yes, I’m bitter. Hehe.

Rafa Nadal booted out

Might as well give the trophy to Roger Federer.  Andy Murray who defeated Rafa Nadal is no match to Roger Federer. And Federer wil get his 13th grand slam of his career, and he wil be just one off the record of Pete Sampras. As much as I want to beleive that Murray will pull a surprise, well I just don’t see that coming.

Andy Murray

I’m just so disappointed that Rafa Nadal was defeated by Murray in four, 6-2 7-6(5) 4-6 6-4. Well Rafa Nadal cannot have it all. He had a great year and this was his best results at the US Open so far. Murray is trying to become the first British man to win a major tennis championship. Can he?