Uncle Tony Nadal in cap with head down

PS : Pics of Xisca in Barcelona were taken by me .

Also, I am really excited to see my two favorite wag's Mirka Federer and Maria Francisca Perello or 'Xisca' cheering for their men tomorrow in the finals of Italian Open, 2013. THis will be first time that they both will be spotted together after French Open finals, 2011. People call their men as Fedal and I call my two favorite WAG's as MirSca ...

1st set

Benoit Paire in his previous two clashes vs Roger Federer had managed to win only 11 games. But, clearly, since his previous clash vs Roger Federer at Australian Open, 2013, Paire has really matured as a player. He came out with a clear gameplan of being aggressive and getting to the net as often as possible.

Paire had two break points in the opening game of Roger Federer's service. Federer saved both to win the opening service game. Paire once again got break point on Federer's service at 2-all, Federer again managed to save that. 

In the 6th game, on Paire's service at 2-3, Federer had three break points, but the French Man saved all three break points to make it 3-all.

The very next game, Paire broke Federer's service to lead 4-3. But, the very next game, Federer managed to break Paire's service on the 2nd break point after Paire's dropshot was comfortably picked up by Federer and Federer ended the point with a smash. That made it 4-all & Federer's fist pump was a strong enough indication that he was keen to win this match.

The next 4 games went on serve and the first set went to tie-breaker.

Paire won the first two points but Federer managed to make it 3-all before the change over of the ends. At 5-all, Paire had a chance to get a set point on his service, but Federer won that point and the next point to win the tie-breaker 7-5.

Here are the 1st set stats

2nd set

In the third game of the 2nd set, Paire double faulted to gift Federer the early break and as we have seen in the past, after Federer gets an early break, he normally puts the match to bed quite comfortably.

But, in the sixth game, on Federer's service at 3-2, Paire had two break points, but couldn't capitalize as Federer made it 4-2.

Federer then comfortably served out the set & the match in the 10th game winning the set 6-4 and the match 7-6 (5), 6-4 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.

Here are the overall match stats for you all ---------

With this win, Federer ensured himself of a 30th clash vs his arch rival Rafael Nadal. (Rafa Nadal leads the head to head 19-10 vs Federer).

This will be Federer's 34th final at an ATP Masters (ATP 1000) levels, with Federer having won 21 titles so far.  While, this will be Rafael Nadal's 35th final at an ATP Masters (ATP 1000) levels, with Nadal having won 23 titles so far.

Also, this will be the first ATP final after French Open, 2011 finals (played on 5th June, 2011) involving the two legends Federer and Nadal.

With this win, Federer will be ranked #6 in the 2013 Year to date or as ATP likes to call it, Race to London O2 Rankings.

(After semi-finals of Rome 2013, Nadal is at top with 4600 points, Djokovic is 2nd with 4310, Murray 3rd with 2910, Ferrer is 4th with 2880 points, Berdych 5th with 2405 & Federer 6th with 1860 points).

Scroll down for pictures, video highlights, full match recording, interview and quotes from both players.

In the First Set, Roger Federer saved 2 break points on his service in the 3rd game. Other than that, both players continued to hold their service game comfortably. Some of Janowicz serve speeds even touched 226 kmph. Federer service also looked impeccable at times and the Swiss maestro also served 7 aces in the first set. 

However, Federer manged to get a break point in the 10th game & was able to convert it as Janowicz's drop shot was comfortably picked up by Federer and the Swiss maestro won the set 6-4 on his 1st break point in 36 minutes.

Here are the First set stats

Federer had 7 aces compared to Janowicz's one and what mattered the most was that Federer was able to convert the only break point that he got, thanks to a wrong shot selection by Janowicz.

How ever, the 22 year Pole who will rise to 23rd Rank in the ATP rankings to be announced on Monday after Rome Masters started the Second set in great fashion as he broke Federer's game in the very first game with three stringing returns.

The next 8 games went on service, but, Janowicz impressed all with his disguised drop shots in between and some aggressive forehand shots. Inspite of Janowicz's firepower, Federer kept his composure and served quite well.

Jerzy Janowicz had a set point on his service in the 10th game serving at 5-4, but once again made the error of making a cheeky drop shot which didn't cross his side of the net.

Janowicz double faulted to give Federer a break point. Though Janowicz saved the first break point with a forehand cross court and then saved the second break point with an ace, how ever, he once again double faulted to give Federer the third break point, Federer this time gave Janowicz a taste of his own medicine as he made a perfect drop shot to make it 5-all. That perhaps, dashed Janowicz's hope for a come-back in the match.

Federer had a comfortable hold to make it 6-5, then on Janowicz service had two break points (match points), but the Pole managed to saved both to take the 2nd set to tiebreaker.

Janowicz managed to win the first point of the tie-breaker and that was the only time, he was ahead in the tie-breaker. Federer proved to be too good for the Pole, but however Janowicz showed some superb reflexes on the net at 1-4 in the tie-breaker and that for me was the point of the match. (See the video in the following post)

Federer comfortably won the tie-breaker 7-2 and won the match 6-4, 7-6(2) in 1 hours and 25 minutes. 

Here are the overall match stats

Federer will face Benoit Paire (who earlier defeated Granollers 6-1, 6-0) in the second semi-final starting at 8 pm local time.

In the first semi-finals, Rafael Nadal will play Tomas Berdych at 4 pm local time.

More pics ,video highlights and interviews to follow in the following posts.

Serb Djokovic was attempting to win his third Rome title, but had been troubled by pain in his ankle recently.

"I played very well and was two points from winning. Then the entire match changed," the 25-year-old said.

Djokovic lost in the second round in Madrid last week, and defeat to Berdych, 27, comes a week before the clay-court season reaches its climax at the French Open.

The Australian Open champion looked set for a routine victory when he took a 6-2 5-2 lead, but Berdych broke Djokovic as he served for the match at 5-3.

World number six Berdych had previously lost twice to Djokovic this year, his only previous victory against the Serb coming in the 2010 Wimbledon semi-finals.

"I know I can play well on clay and so I shouldn't allow myself to have these drops. Let's hope it won't happen for Roland Garros," Djokovic said of the French Open, the only major he has not won. "I'm fine. I just lost my rhythm." "It's a very strange situation."

It was also only Berdych's fourth win vs. a top-ranked player in 20 attempts, with all three previous wins coming over Federer.

"He has been for quite a few years just behind the top four," Djokovic said. "He's able to play big matches. He has proven that. So (he) is definitely a very dangerous player on any surface with a serve like that."

Source:BBC

In the First Set, Roger Federer broke Simon's service in the 4th game & 6th game & comfortably held on to his service to win the first set 6-1 in 23 minutes.

Federer immediately broke Simon's service in the opening game of the 2nd set & that pretty much dashed any hopes that Simon had of any comeback. In the 7th game, Simon managed to save 4 break point but Federer converted on his 5th break point to make it 5-2 and then served out the set in no time to win the match 6-1, 6-2 in 62 minutes.

Here are the match stats :

As you can see, Federer's service was immaculate and he gave absolutely no chance to break to Simon. Federer's backhand, forehands were absolutely a treat for the eye and his majestic drop shots and the divine net play working so well is a big enough proof that he is returning back to his prime form.

Also, it needs to be mentioned that his hunger to do well & succeed that looked a wee bit missing in the earlier part of the season seems to be coming back and its a good sign for the rest of the season.

Federer will play against Jerzy Janowicz tomorrow at 9 pm local time.

More pics and video highlights, interview quotes to follow in the following posts.

Federer with Italian actress Claudia Gerini

Roger Federer talks with Italian tennis icons Nicola Pietrangeli and Lea Pericoli

Roger with Italian journalist Sarah Vaelchi

Federer with Italian actress Katy Saunders

Can there ever be a dull moment in a match involving Ernests Gulbis? For a change, it had nothing to do with Gulbis .

During the 2nd Round match between Gulbis and Victor Troicki, the chair umpire Cédric Mourier overruled a call and the Serbian Troicki got angry on the overrule and had a long argument with the chair umpire and threatened that he will retire from the match and also, even forced the cameraman to show it to the whole world that the ball was touching the line and had no space as the chair umpire suggested.

Troicki shouted that you can see the ball mark even as far away as the space, it seems, which made every one in the crowd to giggle.

Here is the picture of Victor Troicki pushing the cameraman to show the ball mark live to the whole world

Here's the video of Troicki emotional outburst, meltdown and the cameraman incident and the verbal fight with the French Chair umpire Cédric Mourier

Video credit: Chris Oddo TheFanChild

Andy Murray take treatment shortly before retiring from his 2nd round

Murray, who is celebrating his 26th birthday, required treatment for a lower back injury midway through the second set and now faces a race to be fully fit for Roland Garros which begins on 26 May.

Asked about why he retired after the second set, Murray said, "I pulled out because there is a good chance I wouldn’t be playing tomorrow. We'll have to wait for Paris. I'd be very surprised if I were playing in Paris.

"I need to make plans and see what to do. Tonight I'll speak with the physio and come up with a plan for the next few days and then make a decision on Paris after the next five days. I'll need to take some days off and see how it settles down."

"I'll try and get it sorted but its been an issue for some while," explained Murray. "So I want to make sure that it's something that I can sort out. It's not enjoyable to play now."

Granollers led by one set and 4-1 before Murray staged an amazing comeback. Murray was unable to convert one set point on Granollers serve at 5-6, 30/40, but won the tie-break 7-6(5). Murray then retired after one hour and 51 minutes of play.

In their first FedEx ATP Head2Head clash at the 2006 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell clash, Granollers led by one set and 4-1, but lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. 

Source:ATP

Ryan Brough asking questions, and Charlie Ridout did the filming and directing of this video.

PS: Isn't he perfect in imitating? Probably, he sounded almost 100% like Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic .

Here are a couple of videos from the event

Scroll down for More pics and videos.

On Monday (13th May, 2013), Roger Federer posted a picture on his official Facebook account asking, "Does anyone know the best way to get rid of a fly?"

Yesterday, Nike Tennis released the Nike Free Trainer 5.0 commercial featuring Roger Federer where in Roger Federer was seen swatting a fly with his Nike strain free Trainer shoes .

The video, “Fly Swatter” , was directed by Adam Hashemi and was filmed in a private home in Meilen, Switzerland, just outside of Zurich.

Here's the video of the commercial --------

Scroll down for the pics from the commercial.

Picture of Roger Federer in his new haircut. His new short haircut received a thumbs up from Majority of fans.

Roger Federer playing in his first match after last week's loss at Madrid Open to Kei Nishikori started off in grand fashion holding on to his opening game in 51 seconds.

With some blistering forehands, precise backhand shots, dropshots and a couple of unbelievable volleys, Federer broke Starace in the 4th & 6th game and then served out the first set after saving two break points to win the first set 6-1 in 19 minutes.

Federer then immediately broke Starace's service in the first game of the Second set. Federer then again broke the Italian's service in the 7th game and then comfortably held on to this service to win the set 6-2 and the match 6-1, 6-2.

Here are the overall match stats

As you can see from these stats, not only was Federer's service effective, but also, his high winners to unforced errors ratio showed that Federer is returning to form. Also, Federer was keen to come to the net and won 75% of his points.

Federer's next opponent (in Round-3) will be the winner of Giles Simon (who today defeated Volandri) vs Mikhail Youzhny (who defeated Tommy Haas in straight sets).

More pics and video highlights to follow in the following posts.

Cheered on by the home crowd at the Caja Magica, the fifth-ranked Nadal cruised to his 55th career title and extended his head-to-head record with the Swiss to 9-0.

Nadal grabbed the first set in just over half an hour and closed out the second after Wawrinka put up more of a fight.

It was Nadal's seventh straight final since recovering from a nagging case of tendinitis in his left knee that sidelined him for seven months.

Wawrinka, who came through gruelling matches against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych on the way to his second Masters final, never looked like claiming a first win against Nadal at the ninth attempt.

Nadal broke his serve three times in the match and did not face a single break point himself and collapsed on to his back in celebration when Wawrinka went long with a backhand to hand the Spaniard victory.

“Maybe this win is even more special given where I have come back from”,  Nadal said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster La Sexta.

“Playing in Madrid is always very exciting for me and the tournament couldn’t have worked out better,” he added.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Here are the mens seedings (based on the ATP Rankings as last announced on 5th May, 2013)

1. Novak Djokovic

2. Roger Federer

3. Andy Murray

4. David Ferrer

5. Rafael Nadal

6. Tomas Berdych

7. Juan Martin Del Potro

8. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

9. Richard Gasquet

10. Janko Tipsarevic

11. Marin Cilic

12. Nicolas Almargo

13. Milos Raonic

14. Tommy Haas

15. Stanislas Wawrinka

16. Kei Nishikori

The first 8 seeds will receive bye from Round-1. Scroll down for the main draw.

Stanislas Wawrinka reached his 3rd ATP Masters semi-final (after Rome Masters 2008, Cincinnati Masters 2012) after he defeated French Man Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-7 (9-11) , 6-4 in front of empty stands at La Caja Magica as the match finished at nearly 2 am local time.







The Frenchman got off to a really slow start in the first set and was broken twice in the opening four games as Wawrinka raced to 5-0 lead.


Tsonga did break once to make it 5-2, but the Swiss number two went on to break his opponent's serve for a third time and comfortably take the opener 6-2.


The two competitors were inseparable in the second set, with Wawrinka first to break for 3-1, only for Tsonga to find his form and break back immediately and make it 3-2.


Neither serve faltered for the remainder of the second, and a tiebreak ensured, which was no less close than the set that preceded it.


Wawrinka squandered three match points during an intense breaker, with Tsonga pulling off a magnificent save with his back to the net at 8-9, and going on to seal it 11-9.

The deciding set was also fiercely contested, but Wawrinka's break at 2-2 proved decisive, allowing the world number 15 to serve out the match in the 10th game to win the set 6-4.




Stan Wawrinka dedicated the match win to his daughter Alexia




Screenshot of Wawrinka's signature in the camera lens after defeating Tsonga.Screenshot taken by Nida Alibhai as RT'd by Stan Wawrinka.




Scroll down for video highlights and how Stan Wawrinka can reach ATP #10 Ranking this or next week and get #10 seeding at French Open, 2013.

Berdych took the 5-4 edge in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series against the British No. 1, improving to a 3-0 mark in matches played on clay. He also broke their tie in career matches won, with 402 to Murray's 401. Both players had joined the 400 match wins club with their opening victories this week in Madrid.

Though Murray took the first break of the match to go up 4-3, Berdych hit back in the next game before winning the tie-break. After trading breaks to start the second set, the World No. 6 broke Murray at love to go up 3-2 and closed out the victory in just over two hours.

"I was able to turn the first set on my side, which was very important," said Berdych. "I'm really happy for that. With him it's never easy. Even that we played two sets, it was really long two sets. You really have to fight a lot for a small chance."

With Murray's loss, Rafael Nadal remains the last of the Big Four standing in Madrid. When Nadal, Murray, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer contest the same tournament, they have won 26 straight titles going back to Rome 2010. Berdych lost to Federer in last year's final.

Source: ATP

Roger had won their only other encounter - the final of his home tournament (Basel) in 2011. Although prone to injury, Kei has been known as a prodigious talent and he showed why, exactly. 

Salient highlights, Set 1:

» Federer dropped one point on serve in the four games that he won. But the one game when he did fumble, Nishikori made him pay

» Nishikori was not threatened on serve and comfortably took the set 6-4

» Point to note: Nishikori played the angles well, making Federer run from pillar to post before hammering away winners

Salient highlights, Set 2:

» Federer continued to comfortably hold serves

» A slight dip in concentration from Nishikori was all that Federer needed and he finally capitalised on his sixth breakpoint. Federer would go on to win five straight games from 1-all to take the set 6-1

» Point to note: Federer's array of shot-making simply overwhelmed Nishikori, highlighted by a couple of running crosscourt forehand pass winners from the baseline

Salient highlights, Set 3:

» Federer was clearly unable to sustain his level of play from the previous set and Nishikori gleefully accepted his break point chance in game 4 before going on to consolidate for 4-1

» Nishikori seemed to have all answers; he was quick around the court, drew Roger from one side to the other and the depth of his shots spelled trouble for his opponent who was - uncharacteristically - framing more returns

» Nishikori's backhand down-the-line, one of the best in business today, was in full view and another poor service game from Federer sealed the deal

Game, Set and Match, Kei Nishikori - 6/4 1/6 6/2

The world number 28 had not won a set against Djokovic in two previous meetings but was in inspired form to win 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (8-10) 6-3.

The Bulgarian, 21, saved set point at 5-4 down in the first and another in the tie-break before winning the set.

Djokovic won a second-set tie-break but Dimitrov showed incredible courage to secure the biggest win of his career.

Serbian Djokovic, who won his third title of the year at last month's Monte Carlo Masters, received treatment on an injured ankle midway through the second.

Dimitrov, who beat Javier Marti in the first round, had an injury break of his own and looked physically drained after the second set.

But, with the Spanish crowd chanting his name, he drew on his reserves of energy to break Djokovic in the opening game of the third set and hold on to win the match.

Source: BBC Sport

More pics to follow in the following posts