Estoril wrap-up article

Federer Snaps Title Drought in Estoril
ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer snapped a five-month title drought by winning his 54th career ATP trophy at the Estoril Open on Sunday.

The Swiss was leading World No. 4 and 2003 champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6(5) 1-2 after one hour and 20 minutes, when Davydenko retired due to a muscle strain in his left leg that he sustained towards the end of the first set.

Federer extends his perfect 12-0 record over Davydenko, who captured his second career ATP Masters Series shield at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, two weeks ago. It was the pair’s third clay-court meeting.

The 26 year-old Federer put Davydenko under pressure from the start, failing to convert two break points in the first game and three more in the fifth game. Davydenko went 0-4 into the tie-break. Federer moved into a 5-1 lead in the tie-break and eventually won 7-5 in 62 minutes.

Davydenko received treatment for his injury at the end of the first set, and while he responded with a break of the Federer serve in the opening game of the second set - the 26-year-old retired minutes later.

Federer has now won 54 ATP titles in 17 different countries, the most among active players on the ATP circuit.

Earlier this year, the Swiss reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in January (l. to Djokovic) and ATP Masters Series events at Indian Wells (l. to Fish). He also made a quarterfinal exit at AMS Miami (l. to Roddick).

He improves to 16-4 on the season, with his first ATP title since capturing his fourth Tennis Masters Cup title in Shanghai in November 2007.

Federer has been working at the Estoril Open with Spaniard Jose Higueras, the coach to former Roland Garros champions Jim Courier and Michael Chang. Higueras will be at ATP Masters Series Monte-Carlo next week.

Davydenko, who was on an 11-match winning streak going into his ninth career clay-court final, drops to 24-6 on the season. Having made his debut at the Estoril Open in 2001, the Russian has a 13-5 record at the Estádio Nacional. He captured the 2003 title (d. Calleri) and finished runner-up in 2006 (l. to Nalbandian). Davydenko drops to 17-39 lifetime against Top 10 players.

Federer wins €59,100 in prize money and 175 South African ATP Rankings points, while Davydenko collects €31,000 and 120 points. The Estoril Open had a record attendance of 53,888 spectators this year.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Federer: “It feels great to win a title again and the circumstances were unfortunate. It would have been nice for Nikolay to finish. I think it’s the first time in my life that someone has retired against me – in 70-80 finals. It was cool in the cold conditions, but it is a great start to the clay-court season to win a title.

“It’s a good week for me to start off with. I think [Higueras] is happy for me, he didn’t confuse me and we’ll be off together to Monaco for hopefully a good week there.

“Nikolay felt something at the end of the first set, I saw Nikolay holding his leg before the changeover. I congratulated on a great run in Miami, Davis Cup and it is unfortunate to celebrate a win in this way. I’m still very proud to have won this tournament.”

Davydenko: “When I ran to the left, I felt pain. I felt the muscles in my left leg stretch at the end of the first set. I went to speak to the ATP physio at the end of the tie-break and received a quick massage, but I quickly knew I could not continue. I’m playing on Wednesday in Monaco, and I’ve been told by the physio that he expects me to be okay by then.”

Source: Estoril Open News and Events

FED'S FIRST TROPHY OF THE YEAR (Djoko-book parody, anyone?)

Weirdest win ever
Got home from church, showered, and turned on my laptop to check Estoril final live scores.

Turned out Fed won the first set 7-6(5) , but the second set was 0-2 in favor of Denko.

After 5 minutes of me scoreboard-staring, Fed broke back to make the score 1-2. Now he just needs to hold serve to even it out to 2-all and try to get a break later. Or so I thought.

2 (unsuspecting) minutes later, my faithful and trusty laptop screen shows this:






Winner by RETIREMENT? At a tournament final? Did I read that correctly? O_o;;;;;

Obviously can't say much as I didn't actually watch the match. But one thing's for sure - this was clearly one of the most flabbergasting, dissatisfying, jawdrop-worthy ways for Rog to win a title.

With all that's happened this 2008, I guess anything can happen. Anomalies galore. Let's do a recount of the year's Roger-strangeness, shall we:

• Rog was diagnosed with chicken poisoning
• Rog was diagnosed with mononucleosis
• Rog didn't reach a GS final for the first time in the last 13 GS's
• Rog didn't reach any final for that matter, let alone win anything
• Rog loses in R1 of Dubai where he was supposedly defending champion
• Rog loses to Mardy Fish who was then-ranked 98
• The low-down: Rog loses to Andy Roddick whom he's owned since 2003
• Rog's forehand died and went to heaven
• Rog's backhand followed suit
• Rog's serve showed similar symptoms (lacked the saving grace it used to have)
• Rog trial-hires a coach (...an anomaly that makes sense, finally!)
• Rog displays repeated attempts at nonsensical drop shots
• Rog's first title of the year comes, ironically, on CLAY
• Rog is currently sporting the world's biggest pimple/zit/bee-sting/whatchamacallit, which for all we know might have actually been the secret to this victory O_o;;

It's been a year of 'reverse-karma' for Rog so far (...probably to make up for having had four too-good years. Selfish guy, eh.) ^^;;

Ah well. You win some you lose some. What matters right now is this: a W is a W :-)

Cheers and beers for all,

-tmsh-

Where's Wally, tennis version

Where's Roger?
Props to whoever can find him in under 5 seconds:

















-tmsh-

One down...

Another night of tennis-less tennis
Thank God for live scoreboards. And MTF chat forums.

Positives:
+ 17 aces on clay, not bad
+ Good come from behind in 2nd + 3rd set..

Negatives:
- Where in the world did his backhand disappear to?
- 53 UEs? Are you kidding me? O_o;;

After 2 hours of me nailbiting at the laptop screen ...he did it! Vamosss.. (phew...)

First round down... another four to go, Rog.

-tmsh-


[edited to add related articles]
Federer wins after Rochus scare, Federer joins Davydenko in second round

Hello from Estoril

Dear Fans,

Today I arrived in Estoril for my first clay court tournament of the year. I am excited to be playing this tournament for the first time and look forward to playing in front of the portuguese fans. Joining me in Estoril this week will be my fitness trainer, Pierre Paganini and Swiss Davis Cup capt, Severin Luthi will come later in the week from Belarus.

I am also excited as I have asked Jose Higueras, one of the most respected and accomplished coaches in the world of tennis, to join me. Jose has coached many of the games great players including former #1 Jim Courier and Michael Chang. We are going to spend the week together to see if we could make a good team.

I am feeling great, eager and ready for the next several months of tennis in Europe,

Love
Roger

Source: RF.com

---

Slightly amused by how he ends his letter on a similar tone to my last post,
-tmsh-

Fed is back (hopefully)

Rogerrr Federerrr
Estoril starts tomorrow. No livestream for this end of the world, though (oh woe is me). The draw looks easy enough, but I won't jinx myself (or Fed for that matter.) ^^;

Here he is practising on clay. Looking good, Rog. (Now do your best and WIN IT, you.)

Speaking of, this is the new Nike (fake!) training ad, which started airing on cable a few days ago. Saw it in the cinemas earlier today as well. It features Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo, Manny Pacquiao, and Xiang Liu. (/dork remark: ...in which tennis represents 2 out of 6 = 33% = more than fair share of all sports in the world. /end dork remark) :D



Happy to be back to the tennis season,
-tmsh-