This example is taken from the blog www.aroundtheatp.blogspot.com , a blogsite that offers regular updates with links and photos of tennis tournaments and general tennis news.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Davydenko Takes Miami and Challenger Roundup
The fact that Nikolay Davydenko was even in the final of Miami was surprising in itself. After saving a match point in his first match and getting through some other tough matches, he finally got a win over nemesis Andy Roddick in the semifinals. Later we would find out that he had started using a new Prince racquet in the tournament and only had ONE. Yes, one racquet for the whole tournament. If he broke a string during a match, he was in real trouble.
Anyway, the final on Sunday started out pretty evenly. The players traded early breaks, and Davydenko saved break points serving at 2-3, but then Davydenko started to find his form. Attacking Nadal's short balls with apparent ease and barely missing, Davydenko raised his level notches above even that he showed against Roddick. Davydenko steadied his nerves to serve out the first set.
In the second set, Davydenko didn't let up and got out to an early lead and didn't let up. Although Davydenko has been plagued by nerves in the past, he closed out the match confidently for his first win over Nadal, his second Masters Series title, and 12th singles title overall. After the match, Nadal explained how he and Roger Federer and Roddick might get all the attention but that in the locker room, everyone knows how good Davydenko can be.

Challenger Circuit Roundup
In Naples, Italy, local favorite and #1 seed Potito Starace claimed the title over Marcos Daniel, and Tomas Cibulec and Jaroslav Levinsky took the doubles title. In St. Brieuc, France, Christophe Rochus found a little career resuscitation by taking the title over #1 seed Marcel Granollers-Pujol and Adrian Cruciat and Daniel Munoz-de La Nava took the doubles.
Posted by Murilo at 9:40 AM 0 comments
Labels: ATP Masters Series, Challenger Circuit, Miami, Nikolay Davydenko, Rafael Nadal, Tournament Updates

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Tournament Update: Semifinal Play in Miami and Bryans Take the Doybles Title
On Friday, the first semifinal pitted Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) against Tomas Berdych, who came into the match with a 3-0 record on hardcourts against Nadal. Nadal broke at 4-3 in the first set, served for it at 5-3 but couldn't close out the set. He had a set point at 5-4* but didn't convert it. Berdych lost the first set in a tie break with a double fault. What more is there to say about the second set except that it was really easy, and it seemed as if Berdych just gave up.In the second semifinal, Nikolay Davydenko didn't look like he had a 0-5 record against Andy Roddick (both players pictured left, click for larger). Looking like a different player than 24 hours before when he upset Roger Federer, Roddick was back to the passive meters-behind-the-baseline play that has lost him so many matches over the past few years. Untroubled by nerves, Davydenko took full advantage of Roddick's paceless short balls and served exceptionally well. Roddick was up 3-1 in the tiebreak but Davydenko won it in the end. At 1all in the second, Roddick played the only exceptional game of the match, pulling off an excellent backhand pass and return to break for 2-1. Just when it looked like he was getting some energy and getting the crowd to work for him, he went on to lose five games in a row and the match.In the doubles final, Bob and Mike Bryan (pictured right, click for larger) played, according to them, one of their best matches in some time with a 6-2 6-2 win over Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi. It is the Bryans' 11th Masters title and good news that they finally won a final after four losses already this year.