Olympics - Tennis Results & News
August 12, 2008 3 wins for Venus, Serena at Beijing Olympics
Even by the lofty standards of the Williams sisters, three victories at the Olympics is a good day's work. They won in singles and doubles Tuesday, and the toughest match was the one they played together. Venus and Serena rallied in first-round doubles to beat Iveta Benesova and Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Earlier, the Williamses won second-round singles matches. Serena beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-0, and Venus swept Benesova 6-1, 6-4. The sisters could meet in Saturday's singles final. "That would be fantastic," Venus said. "Obviously, it's a long ways away, but the third round makes it closer. I'm really excited for both of us to be playing really well for the U.S." In men's singles, No. 1-seeded Roger Federer earned an Olympic rematch Wednesday against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Federer wept after losing to Berdych in the second round at the Athens Games four years ago. "He has got a great game," Federer said. "Obviously I'm aware of the danger." This time they'll meet in the third round. Federer advanced by beating Rafael Arevalo of El Salvador 6-2, 6-4. Berdych, seeded 17th, defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-6 (4). No. 2 Rafael Nadal sustained his summer surge by defeating Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-2. "Very happy about my performance," Nadal said. "I think I play one of my best matches in the last weeks on hard court." This year's French Open and Wimbledon champion, Nadal is assured of climbing to No. 1 in the rankings next week, ending Federer's 4 1/2-year reign. Nadal and Federer seek their first Olympic medal, while the Williamses are trying to add to the family collection. They won the gold in doubles at Sydney in 2000, and Venus won the singles that year. "I've never played singles at the Olympics, so this has been really cool for me," Serena said. "Every time I walk out there, it's like I'm playing in my match, but at the same time I have the whole U.S. team on my side. It's good. I really like that feeling." First-time Olympian James Blake, the lone remaining U.S. player in men's singles, beat Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3 in a late-night match. That gave the Americans a 6-0 record for the day. "Hopefully it continues Wednesday and the next day," Blake said. "And hopefully some of us will hear the national anthem at the end of the week." Americans Lindsay Davenport and Liezel Huber won their first-round doubles match, beating Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-2, 6-1. Davenport said a knee injury that forced her to withdraw from singles last week didn't bother her in the match. "It has slowly been feeling better," she said. "It's hard to train for singles and always dealing with swelling. I've just really been playing careful with it. I really wanted to be here in whatever capacity it was, and it became painfully obvious to me that role was doubles. I was very happy to accept that and move forward." No. 1-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States won their opening match in doubles, defeating Mark Knowles and Devin Mullings of the Bahamas 6-2, 6-1. In women's singles, new No. 1 Jelena Jankovic beat Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 7-5, 6-1. Jankovic supplanted Ana Ivanovic atop the rankings Monday. On the men's side, No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-4, 6-2. With the temperature rising and the sun making its first appearance at the Beijing Games, the stands became a sea of fluttering Chinese fans — the hand-held kind — for Serena Williams' morning match on cozy Court 1. "It was early," she said. "But with the time difference, I'm still waking up, like, at 5 in the morning. So it's good. I like the early matches." She was done in 44 minutes. From 2-2, Williams won 40 of the final 49 points and 10 consecutive games. She whacked service winners, overpowered Stosur from both wings on the baseline and came forward for an overhead slam that prompted an appreciative "Ooooh" from the crowd. Williams punctuated her best shots with a fist pump. She made the gesture one last time after ripping a backhand return winner on match point, then shouted "Come on!" as she trotted toward the net and into the round of 16. Williams lost just five points in the second set, and dropped only six points on her serve in the match. "My way of improving on it is to keep it up," said Williams, who is seeded fourth. "I played really clean matches in the past, the next one would be kind of streaky. I don't want to do that any more. I just want to keep playing the same consistency." No. 7-seeded Venus Williams was less dominating because she struggled with her forehand and second serve, hitting six double-faults. But she never faced a break point and lost only two of 24 points on her first serve. "I felt like any time that I needed to serve well, I did — if I was down love-30, or a 30-all point," she said. "That's good for me going on in the later rounds, that I'm tough on my serve." |
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Sharapova Out of Olympics
International tennis star Maria Sharapova will miss the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of a shoulder injury sustained during the WTA Rogers Open in Montreal, Canada.
Sharapova, 21, defeated Poland's Marta Domachowska during the second round of the Open, but was in pain during the three-hour match. "This is something that needs a lot of time to heal. It really hurts me to say I have to miss the Olympics," she said on her official website, according to the BBC. "After Wednesday's match I knew there was something seriously wrong with my shoulder." "There are so many mixed feelings because on Wednesday night they were almost positive there was something wrong with my nerve, which could have ultimately been much more serious," Sharapova said, according to The Daily Telegraph. "But after Thursday morning's tests, for the first time in a while, they were able to give me a different answer and a different problem. This is something that needs a lot of time to heal. It really hurts me to say I have to miss the Olympics." The Associated Press reports that Sharapova, three-time Grand Slam champion, has has two small tears in tendons in her shoulder, discovered through an MRI exam and other medical tests. The tennis section of the Olympics will start on August 11 and run through to August 15. The U.S. Open tournament will start Aug. 25 and the Associated Press reports that Sharapova may also miss that tournament. The Daily Telegraph reports that Sharapova joins former world No 1 and Athens Olympic silver medalist Amelie Mauresmo and fellow French star Mary Pierce on a list of tennis players not competing in the 2008 Olympics. The Kommersant reported Friday that Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina will play for Russia in Beijing. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...9.7xFdDbri.jpg |
Sharapova will also miss the upcoming US Open. She's currently no. 5 but due to her injury, she could fall further.
It's tougher for Ana Ivanovic. She already arrived at Beijing and participated in the opening ceremonies. But due to her inflamed right hand, she had to pull out even before she started her first match |
Federer hit by shock Olympic loss
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ederer_512.jpg Roger Federer's disappointing season continued as his hopes of winning Olympic gold in the men's singles were ended by an inspired James Blake. Blake had not beaten the top seed in eight previous attempts but won their quarter-final 6-4 7-6 and will play Fernando Gonzalez in the semi-finals. Second seed Rafael Nadal will play Novak Djokovic in the other semi-final. Spaniard Nadal beat Jurgen Melzer 6-0 6-4 and Djokovic, from Serbia, defeated Gael Monfils 4-6 6-1 6-4. In the other quarter-final 12th seed Gonzalez, who is from Chile and claimed the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, cruised past Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-4. Federer, who will lose his world number one ranking to Nadal on Monday, made a number of unforced errors and will need a dramatic reversal in fortunes if he is to successfully defend his US Open title later this month. "It's a big disappointment obviously. The Olympics was one of the goals of the season for me. So obviously the quarter-finals is not going to do it," he said. "But I've still got to look forward to the US Open. I still have that and then the Masters Cup in Shanghai to really do well now and try and save my season. "I think James played well. I can only really say how well he played. I've played him on many occasions, but I think this was the best I've seen him. "I'm happy for him. I hope he can go all the way now." Blake, the world number seven, had won only one set in his previous matches against Federer, but he unnerved the five-time Wimbledon champion with a near faultless service game and an aggressive forehand. "I always believed in myself," said Blake. "I'd lost to him eight, nine, 10, 50 times, I don't know how many, but I had the feeling it could be my day. "He didn't play a good first game and that put me up straight away. I played loose and free and I always fancy my chances on the 5-4 game. "I know I can beat the best in the world on my day and I proved it." The 28-year-old broke Federer when the Swiss was serving to stay in the first set and then broke again early in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Federer, who was struggling with his serve and forehand, broke back in the fifth game to take the set to a tie-break only for Blake to win it after racing into a 4-1 lead. Federer was due to play in the doubles quarter-finals with Stanislas Wawrinka later on Thursday against the Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi but the match was postponed because of rain. |
Men's Singles finals (gold medal match)
[2] Rafael NADAL (ESP) vs. [12] Fernando GONZALEZ (CHI) Bronze medal match [3] Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) vs. [7] James BLAKE (USA) http://tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=141968 Federer is guaranteed an Olympics medal as he and teammate Wawrinka reach the Men's Doubles finals http://tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=141970 |
nadal the best
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