Tennis gear for the tennis fanatic » ATP Tour

Nadal Streak Continues

Rob Keating — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:25:57 +0000

Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay continued when he racked up his 72nd consecutive victory on the clay courts when winning the ATP title in Barcelona. This was his third straight title in Barcelona. Nadal defeated Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-4 in the final. The final appearance for Canas of Argentina continued his recent good form. In his last tournament outing he made the final of the ATP Masters Series event in Miami.

With the French Open fast approaching it will be exciting to see if Roger Federer is able to get past Nadal to win the open and take the next step in claiming the Grand Slam. Before we can even think about this Federer has a bit of work to do. His form has been patchy in recent times, mainly when facing Canas who has knocked off Federer the last two times they have met.

With Nadal on such a long clay court winning streak you have to wonder when it will come to an end. Is he so good that he will end up hitting one hundred in the months ahead?

Djokovic steps up to win in Miami

Rob Keating — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:33:52 +0000

Novak Djokovic continues to impress. On Sunday he became the youngest champion in the 23 year history of the Sony Ericcson Open following his defeat of Argentine qualifier Guillermo Canas. The final score was 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Djokovic now moves up to no. 7 on the ATP ranking list. This is a career high for the 19 year old Serb player. Djokovic has the most match wins for 2007. His match tally currently stands at 24-5. Canas would be disappointed not to go on and take the title having defeated world number one Roger Federer earlier in the tournament.

This week the ATP tour is on hold while the Davis Cup quarter finals are contested over the weekend.

ATP tennis tour roundup

Rob Keating — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:46:17 +0000

Another week has gone and 3 titles were decided over the weekend. Andy Murray showed he is a class player when he defended his ATP tour title at the San Jose event. Murray defeated big Croation player Ivo Karlovic 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(2). Even 26 aces from Karlovic was not enough to stop Murray taking the title.
Guillermo Canas won his first ATP title since 2004 when he downed former world number one player Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6(4), 6-2 to take the Brasil Open played in Costa do Sauipe. Ferrero was trying to break a losing streak in finals that now stretches to five. The last time Ferrero was successful in a title was back in Oct 2003.

In the third event this past week Frenchman Gilles Simon claimed his first ATP title following his upset win over number 7 seed Marcos Baghdatis. The final score was 6-4, 7-6(3). Simon managed to win the title without dropping a set. Baghdatis was on a nine match winning streak coming into the final following his tournament victory recently in Zagreb. It was the firth time the Cypriot has appeared in a final. His most notable final appearance so far was at the 2006 Australian Open.

This week the ATP tennis action will take place in Buenos Aires, Rotterdam and Memphis. The Buenos Aires tournament is another of the round robin experimental events the ATP is conducting this year.