* ENGLISH VERSION
PUBLICADO POR
TENIS PRESS
Davis Cup 2009
Israel won a place in the Davis Cup semifinals
Israel won a place in the Davis Cup semifinals for the first time ever Saturday after completing a stunning victory over tennis giant Russia.
Doubles pair Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich closed out a 3-0 series sweep for Israel in its quarterfinal against Russia, defeating Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn in five sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 6-4 in front of a capacity crowd at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena.
The Israeli pair had the chance to finish things early when they served for the match in the third set, but were made to fight harder than expected after the Russians fought back to force the tie into a fifth and deciding set.
Ram and Erlich, the 2008 Australian Open doubles champions, said Saturday’s win was the biggest moment of their careers.
“This is something I will cherish for all of my life,” said Erlich, who recently came back from a 10-month injury layoff.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday telephoned Israel Tennis Association Director-General Moshe Haviv and congratulated him on the Israeli national team’s win over Russia in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
“We are again on the map,” Netanyahu said. “You have filled the nation’s heart with pride.”
Israel took a surprising lead in the series on Friday after Dudi Sela and Harel Levy both won their singles matches.
Sela, who moved up 13 places to number 33 in the world rankings after reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon last week, came from one set down to beat former world number eight Mikhail Youzhny, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5.
Earlier, Levy, ranked 210 in the world, set the tone for the series when he upset world number 24 Igor Andreev, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Two-time Davis Cup winner Russia had made it to the semifinals in each of the past five years. In contrast, Israel had only reached the quarterfinals once before, losing to India in New Delhi in 1987.
Israel will play Spain away in the semifinals, which take place on September 18-20.
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New York, September 8, 2008
Federer, Federe, Federer, Federer, Federer ..
Who would argue that Arthur Ashe Stadium does not belong to Federer in the aftermath of his fifth consecutive Us Open championship? In a men’s final that made up in historical appeal what it lacked in drama, Federer disposed of Andy Murray, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, on Monday night to become the first player to win five titles in a row at the Open and Wimbledon.
“It’s all about wins, and that’s why this is huge,” Federer said. “This is massive, really, and I’m very, very happy about this Grand Slam.”
Federer is the first man in the open era to win the Us Open five consecutive years; Bill Tilden won the Us Open six straight times in the 1920s. It was Federer’s 13th major championship, bringing him to within one of another immortal, Pete Sampras. “One thing’s for sure,” he said in an on-court interview. “I’m not going to stop at 13. That would be terrible.”
Terribly unlucky, that is, which sums up the first eight months of Federer’s 2008 season. At the Australian Open he lost in the semifinals while battling an illness that turned out to be mononucleosis. He lost in the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon to a surging Nadal, who ended Federer’s four-and-a-half-year stay at No. 1 last month.
For any other player, Federer’s run in the Grand Slams would be called resplendent. But because Federer had held the tennis world up like a 21st century Atlas, people openly wondered what was wrong with him. On Monday came his answer: Absolutely nothing. Murray, a 21-year-old Briton, came into the match No. 4 in the world and did not play badly. But he was no match for Federer, who produced 36 winners to Murray’s 16. “I felt great,” Federer said. “I felt like I was invincible for a while again.”
His vulnerability spurred a cottage industry of cure-alls for Federer’s game. “All sorts of crazy people started writing me and trying to reach me, telling me I need some help either mentally or physically,” Federer said. Laughing ruefully, he added, “People come out of the closet and think they can start helping me now. It’s just a pain. This sort of puts them to rest a little bit, and calms down the phones at my parents’ house a little bit, which I’m happy about.”
While Nadal emerged this year as Federer’s toughest opponent on any surface, mononucleosis provided his stiffest challenge. The virus that causes the illness can tear through the body like a storm, with vestiges affecting the body for months. In 2007.
Mario Ancic, who had cracked the top 10 at the end of 2006, contracted the illness, sat out 6 months to recover and saw his world ranking plummet to No. 85. Federer, 27, dropped only one spot, from No. 1 to No. 2, but his fall set off seismic shock waves in tennis because of his seeming invincibility the previous four years.
He left tennis for six weeks after losing to Djokovic in the Australian Open, a tournament he played believing his general malaise was due to food poisoning. It was not until March that Federer found out his lingering fatigue was a function of much more than bad food, frequent travel or physical exertion.
Federer was still feeling the effects of the illness this summer. Traveling 12 time zones to New York after winning the gold medal in doubles for Switzerland in Beijing, Federer experienced the Olympic hangover that dominated the conversation during the first week of the Open. Fatigue was cause for concern. “I was so tired after Beijing coming here, and then of course I’m a bit worried,” Federer said. He added, “Maybe I put it down as sickness when I still feel a little bit slow sometimes.”
There was no rest for the weary. Federer’s draw provided inviting targets for him to shoot for and ammunition in the form of revenge. One by one, he picked off players who had beaten him earlier in the year. In the third round, he prevailed in four sets against Stepanek, who had upset him in Rome; in the semifinals, he knocked off Djokovic in four sets.
Murray’s upset of Nadal in a semifinal, which was contested over two days because of Tropical Storm Hanna’s intrusion, afforded Federer one more chance to avenge an earlier
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London, July 6 2008
Rafael Nadal triumphs in epic Wimbledon final
Lawn ranger Rafael Nadal ended Roger Federer’s five-year reign as Wimbledon champion last night after the longest and greatest final in the history of the tournament.
Nadal, who stormed into a two-set lead, appeared to have bottled his chance for glory when he blew two championship points in a dramatic fourth-set tie-break.
Two stoppages for rain - the second at 7.53pm with the final set deadlocked at 2-2 and deuce, added to the sense of drama. And in appalling light at 9.17pm, Nadal clinched his first Wimbledon crown with an epic 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7 victory over four hours and 50 minutes of gripping play.
Afterwards Nadal paid an emotional tribute to Federer, who saw his 65- match winning streak on grass finally come to an end. “It was tough right the way through because Roger never gives up,” said Nadal.
“I lost the last two finals here against Roger but now I have won. So for me it is a very very important day but he is still the No.1. He is still the best.”
Nadal celebrated by climbing into the players’ box, Pat Cash-style, to hug his parents before scaling the Royal Box to chew the fat with Spanish dignitaries. It completed a famous sporting month for Spain, whose footballers had won Euro 2008 a week earlier.
Anyone who witnessed the clash will never forget two amazing points in the fourth set tiebreak, when both players played incredible passing shots in succession.
Federer edged that shootout, but could not stop Nadal in the fifth. It is only the second time in six years on grass, that Fed Express has been taken to five sets - and the other was in last year’s final against Nadal, which he won.
Most people who watched that classic believed Federer and Nadal would struggle to top it for quality and excitement - but they were wrong.
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London, January 5, 2008
Hingis Banned for Cocaine Test
Martina Hingis, scribbled the phrase, ‘’All good!'’ in the comment box on her doping control form at Wimbledon. Six months later, those two words couldn’t be further from the truth.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, who is already retired, was banned from tennis for two years Friday when it was announced she was found guilty of testing positive for cocaine at the All England Club. A three-person, independent tribunal rejected Hingis’ defense, calling it ‘’a simple and straightforward case.'’ Her manager said she won’t appeal the ruling. ‘’Since Martina has retired from competitive sports, it makes no sense for her to challenge the judgment,'’ manager Mario Widmer said in Switzerland. ‘’She just isn’t going to play anymore.'’
The failed drug test after Hingis’ loss to Laura Granville on June 29 at Wimbledon came to light Nov. 1. That’s when the 27-year-old player choked back tears at a news conference while revealing she tested positive for cocaine and said she would leave the sport she once ruled.
That day, she called the accusations ‘’so horrendous, so monstrous,'’ and added, ‘’I believe that I am absolutely, 100 percent innocent.'’ Hingis‘ agent did not respond to e-mail and telephone messages requesting comment.
Hingis is the second WTA player suspended for testing positive for cocaine. Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain was banned for three months in 2002. One other woman has been suspended since tennis’ anti-doping program was formed in 1993: Sesil Karatantcheva was banned for two years in January 2006 after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone.
Hingis drew support from Venus Williams, a six-time Grand Slam title winner and current Wimbledon champion.
‘’I like Martina. I think she’s a nice girl. I was shocked with everyone else,'’ said Williams, who is playing an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong. ‘’For me, personally, I give her the benefit of the doubt.'’
The suspension runs from Oct. 1, 2007, through Sept. 30, 2009, and Hingis‘ results at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and three smaller tournaments last year were wiped out, meaning she must forfeit $129,481 in prize money plus her ranking points.
‘’It’s going to be an element of her record and her legacy that I’m sure she hopes wouldn’t be there and, I guess, to some degree does take away something from all of her great accomplishments,'’ WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott said.
In the 46-page decision, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the tribunal wrote that Hingis ‘’reiterated her denial that she had ever knowingly taken cocaine,asserted cocaine is a ubiquitous substance which can easily be present in the body through contamination, for example by handling banknotes.'’
Her side also denied that the sample that tested positive was the sample provided by her and presented seven specific criticisms of the drug-testing process. But, the decision said, ‘’the force of the case against the player was overwhelming and the tribunal’s task was ultimately quite simple.'’
The ruling outlines the drug-testing process and provides a minute-by-minute account of what happened when Hingis provided her sample at Wimbledon a result of a random draw that determined the loser of her third-round match against Granville would be tested. Among the details: Hingis wrote ‘’All good!'’ before signing her name on the doping control form.
Wimbledon was her first tournament after missing 1 1/2 months with hip and back injuries. ‘’I just didn’t want to miss Wimbledon,'’ Hingis said at the time. ‘’Probably at the end of the day, it wasn’t, like, the smartest thing.'’
The former No. 1 player, nicknamed ‘’The Swiss Miss,'’ quit tennis in 2002 because of foot and leg injuries and missed three years’ worth of majors. When she returned to the circuit full time in 2006, Hingis reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals, won two smaller tournaments and finished the year No. 7. This season was more difficult, and she was ranked No. 19 at the end of last season.
At the height of her powers, Hingis was brilliant at controlling points and working every angle. She was the youngest major champion of the 20th century when she won the 1997 Australian Open at 16, and later that year she became the youngest woman at No. 1. She went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that season, too, coming within a loss in the French Open final of a calendar-year Grand Slam.
‘’Her record is so stellar,'’ Scott said. ‘’The warmth that she enjoys from so many fans around the world … runs very deep, and over time I don’t think this is going to have a very detrimental effect on her legacy.'’