Serbia’s Novak Djokovic eliminated Belgian, Olivier Rochus, at the $1 million Gerry Weber Open today with a straight set victory. The second-seeded star won the match 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 in 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Djokovic moves on to the event’s finals where he will attempt to secure his third title of 2009 with a win over German wildcard, Tommy Haas, who was the No. 2 player back in 2002 but has failed to win a tournament since 2007 in Memphis.  The pair have battled twice before with Djokovic winning both times. 

The winner of Sunday’s match will collect $160,000.  If Djokovic wins, this will be his first grass-court victory this year.

image: TSN

Rafael Nadal is the master of the clay court. On Sunday (May 3), he defeated Novak Djokovic, 7-6 (2), 6-2 at the Rome Masters. This is his fourth Rome Masters title, his third clay-court title in three weeks and his 30th consecutive win on clay. It seems defeating Nadal on clay is next to impossible these days.

Djokovic took the Rome Masters title last year and had a chance to take it again after he defeated Roger Federer on Saturday (May 2) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. This now makes Federer’s title drought extended to seven months. That’s got to hurt.

Since Djokovic did not hold on to the title at the Rome Masters, he has to give up his No. 3 ranking to Andy Murray on May 11th. He’s been number 3 since August of 2007.

Starting May 25th, Rafael Nadal will try for his fifth consecutive title at the French Open. Do you think he can do it?

Source: NY Times

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Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are facing each other today (May 2) at the Rome Masters and their match has been halted due to a rain delay. Swiss second seed Federer was leading 6-4 2-1 when the match had to be stopped.

Djokovic’s focus was interrupted when someone in the stands whistled just as he was about to serve a crucial point. I hope they found out who it was and booted that jerk out of there!!

Rafael Nadal will play against Chilean 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez later today. If Nadal defeats him, the winner of the Federer/Djokovic match will play Nadal on Sunday in the Rome Masters finals. I am predicting that Federer wins, goes on to play Nadal and Nadal takes yet another title for the year. What are your thoughts?

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This was my prediction! Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all have advanced into the Rome Masters semifinals. Nadal defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3. Federer defeated Mischa Zverev 7-6 (3), 6-2 and Djokovic defeated Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4. Next meeting: Federer against Djokovic today, May 2nd.

Djokovic and Federer both like the fast clay court, so it should be a great match.

“I think both of us like it, so it’s going to be interesting,” Djokovic said. “I feel quite confident playing here. Each match I play, I feel more comfortable moving on the court and just playing my style of the game.”

Federer’s thoughts are still on how he played in Miami. He needs to erase those thoughts and focus on today’s match!

“I hope I can play better than in Miami,” Federer said.

Federer is seeking his first title of the year, so to say that his match against Djokovic is important is an understatement.

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Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic all defeated their third round opponents on Thursday (April 30) and have cruised their way into the ATP Rome Masters quarter-finals. Nadal played against Robin Soderling of Sweden and won 6-1, 6-0. Federer defeated Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 and Djokovic defeated Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-1.

In the match against Nadal, Soderling took the first set, but Nadal came back to win the match in 1 hr and 24 minutes.

“I think the match was really tough, if not the result," insisted Nadal. "In the beginning I was winning 4-1 but at the same time I could have been losing 4-1.

"I think I played really well. It was one of my best matches on clay this year or maybe even in my career."

Nadal will face Fernando Verdasco next. Federer will face Mischa Zverev of Germany and Djokovic will face Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. The quarter-finals are this Friday, May 1st.

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On Sunday (April 19) Spain’s Rafael Nadal made tennis history by winning the Monte Carlo Masters title five times in a row. Congrats to the hunky tennis star! Nadal defeated third-ranked Serbian Novak Djokovic 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Nadal is known to be great on the clay surface, but he knows there is always room for improvement.

“Everyone can improve in every surface, no? No one is perfect. Sure, I can improve,” Nadal said. “I always work to improve because when you feel you can’t improve, is difficult to wake up and go on court and practice.”

Nadal was not too happy with the way he served at Monte Carlo and plans to make some improvements in that area before heading off to Roland Garros, which is next month.

“This tournament I didn’t serve very well. Especially the second serve was sometimes 120 kph (74 mph). So that’s (a) disaster,” Nadal said. “Yeah, I have to play more. Have to serve better.”

Djokovic definitely gave Nadal a run for his money. He trailed 3-1 in the first set and in the third set struggled with is serve. He managed to come back with a little bit of luck and a lot of amazing tennis talent.

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Andy Murray has defeated Novak Djokovic at the Sony Ericsson Open today in Miami. FL. He grabbed the title with a 6-2, 7-5 win. It was an unexpected win and was one fun match to watch. Murray was the first Brit to win this title.

Djokovic seemed to be a little confused in the second set and it was Murray’s to win.

The best example of that was the penultimate game of the second set today, in which Murray broke Djokovic in a way that was both unexpected and mortifying. Djokovic, playing spectator at his own execution, lost four straight points, at least two of them because his mind didn’t seem to be on the task at hand, and another because he got caught in the mid-court area, uncertain about whether to hang back or swarm the net.

Djokovic, like any great tennis player, knew what cost him the match.

“I was really impatient,” Djokovic said. “I made huge number of unforced errors and he was playing solid and waiting for his chances.”

Andy definitely started to struggle a bit in the second match, but was able to bag the win after getting his rhythm back.

“Novak started rushing me, he started to shorten the points and I struggled a little bit. He was coming in (to net) 60, 70 percent of the time in that second set. I lost my rhythm a little in that second set but I got it back.”

Check out some video highlights from the match below. Read more

So the Australian Open finished off with the results I had predicted in this post. Masha, aka, Maria Sharapova sailed through to the trophy. As I said, nobody in the tournament weiled the kind of power she did, and on the men’s side, Djoker, aka, Novak Djokovic, got the better of suprise finalist Tsonga. We had been pretty much hooked to the tournament, so much so that we missed out on a lot of cricket. With the Commenwealth Bank Series on, we’re back to bats and balls. Read more