Tennis | Sports News from TimesOnline

Novak Djokovic begins defence of ATP World Tour Finals with nervous victory

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:21:00 GMT

Novak Djokovic, playing his 95th match of an extraordinary year, started like a tortoise but finished like a hare to win his opening match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals last night.

Andy Murray can use crowd to his advantage against Roger Federer

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Considering how much he talks up its home city, Andy Murray would have loved to play at Madison Square Garden. It may happen to him one day, for they give the old place a lick of paint and set it up for tennis now and again.

Rafael Nadal out of sorts as he succumbs to Robin Söderling

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

The roof didn’t cave in on Rafa. That was the problem. The roof of the O2 arena stayed solidly in place, all ready for Eddie Izzard next week, and so Rafael Nadal, a man who needs much sunlight and fresh air, was forced to cave in himself.

Sparkling tennis let down by dull attire at the ATP World Tour finals

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:26:17 GMT

Tennis, we are reliably informed, is thriving. London’s 02 Arena has been universally hailed as a superb stage for the Barclays ATP World Tour finals. The stars have come to play and whole production is breathtaking, bright and brash in technicolour. Why then are the majority of the players sent out in playing attire that can only be described as drab?

Rafael Nadal loses to Robin Soderling in ATP World Tour finals

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:25:38 GMT

Rafael Nadal, the player who doesn't like confined spaces, lost to Robin Soderling, who is one of the finest indoor players in the world, in his opening round robin of the Barclays ATP World Tour finals yesterday and very few people were surprised at the outcome.

Roger Federer takes some time to become his old self again

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:38:00 GMT

There is a dark-haired, bronzed South American reporter at the O2 arena, wearing an RF cap, who bears such an uncanny similarity to Roger Federer that you need at least two takes to make certain you have not been taken for a fool. For an hour on court yesterday, it appeared as if he had gone the whole hog and swapped places with the world No 1.

Andy Murray opens with victory on people’s Sunday

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

As he prepared to toss a pair of sweat-stained wristbands into the crowd, Andy Murray looked up, craning his neck still farther, to the rafters of the O2 arena, packed with British people who had come to watch his sport on a Sunday afternoon somewhere other than Wimbledon. It really was a sight for sore tennis eyes.

The Net Post: Doubles is a beautiful distraction

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:52:40 GMT

Has doubles ever been played before the kind of massed ranks that flocked to the 02 yesterday? Even when the end-of-year tournament used to go its own way from the singles and was treated to glamorous venues - Johannesburg, Jakarta, Sanctuary Cove and the Royal Albert Hall were on the rota - they never pulled in yesterday's numbers. Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak must have thought they had died and gone to heaven.

Andy Murray edges past Juan Martin del Potro in ATP finals opener

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:50:39 GMT

Andy Murray overcame a second-set slump to beat Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the opening group match of the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.

Andy Murray serves up song debut

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:00:21 GMT

Andy Murray is to make his debut in the music charts after becoming an unlikely rapper on a new record.

Andy Murray is a fighter

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

A majority still believe it’s merely a matter of when, but others insist that the troublesome if must be edging further into the reckoning. Confidence in Andy Murray’s ability to win a Grand Slam tournament is bound to be infected by a trace of anxiety, given the mountainous legacy of frustration that came with his precocious accession to the standard-bearing role in British tennis. And, while there’s no realistic basis for nervously reining in optimism about the future of a player who won’t be 23 until next May, it is equally true that neither age nor lack of experience can any longer figure prominently in explanations of the absence of a major title from his otherwise impressive record.

Novak Djokovic: Joking apart

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Just as the world’s greatest players have their signature shots, so too do they possess a trademark expression. Rafael Nadal employs that inquisitive, almost puzzled curl of the eyebrow. Andy Murray usually wavers somewhere between a grimace and a glower. Roger Federer? Simply tears. But of late, more often than not, Novak Djokovic is a portrait of self-contentment grinning the broadest of smiles.

Tennis beats credit crunch

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Andy Murray has grown accustomed to carrying a nation’s sporting hopes on his shoulders but the British No 1 will enter the ATP World Tour finals today with the unfamiliar pressure of knowing he might also serve a timely boost to the country’s economy. In September, a report from Barclays Bank estimated that the arrival of the season-ending tournament in London, when combined with Murray’s continuing success, could boost the UK economy by about £405m, evidence that tennis now accounts for more than just national pride.

Roger Federer aware of pitfalls in chasing fifth end-of-year title

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Roger Federer, appearing in his eighth successive end-of-year finals, is favoured to win his fifth, which would simply add to the majesty of his career. He was the last of this year’s eight to speak his mind yesterday and, as ever, the most beguiling.

After a year of pain, happiness is the No 1 objective for Rafael Nadal

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Rafael Nadal is reading Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser, the novel of which P. G. Wodehouse wrote: “If ever there was a time when I felt that watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet stuff, it was when I first read Flashman.”

Queen’s Club hand strengthened by Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Novak Djokovic spent yesterday afternoon watching his beloved Serbia face South Korea in a football friendly at Craven Cottage.

Andy Murray faces tough path to success in ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Dressed to kill in their Essential British garb, the eight players who are to draw the largest one-week crowd at a tennis event in this country to the O2 arena will be pictured tomorrow on the banks of the River Thames, hoping that the forecast gale force winds do not force a constant reshaping of their hairstyles.

Andy Murray given difficult draw in ATP World Tour Finals

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:51:37 GMT

Andy Murray has been drawn in the same group as Roger Federer, the world No 1, for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Andy Roddick to miss ATP World tour finals

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:18:28 GMT

Andy Roddick, who departed from London in July on a wave of appreciation for the way he handled defeat in one of the most memorable Wimbledon finals in the event's history, has lost his battle to be fit to perform in the first staging of the Barclays ATP World Tour finals in the capital.

Novak Djokovic stays strong to defeat Gaël Monfils and boost his form for London

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:42 GMT

Had Novak Djokovic not won the BNP Paribas Masters yesterday — and only a scattering of souls inside the Palais Omnisports wished it were so — who knows whether he could have delivered one last great push in London next week. Now watch him go.

Djokovic beats Monfils to win Paris Masters

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:47:23 GMT

Novak Djokovic of Serbia secured back-to-back ATP titles on Sunday by edging past battling Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3) in a thrilling Paris Masters final.

The Net Post: French could teach the LTA how to develop talent

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:49:02 GMT

A familiar face was stalking the grimy corridors of the Palais Omnisports this week - Patrice Hagelauer, coach to Yannick Noah when he won the 1983 French Open. Hagelauer was hired to become the director of performance at the Lawn Tennis Association in 1998 - he departed, unfulfilled, four years later and has now been restored to lead the French Federation (FFT) in its determination to retain its foremost position in the hierarchy of world tennis.

Roger Federer: confessions of a tennis dad

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:46 GMT

How did Roger Federer become the greatest? He was not born in Sweden (Bjorn Borg). He was not shaped by a dominant parent (Ivan Lendl). He is not fuelled by rage (Jimmy Connors) or tortured by demons (John McEnroe). He has never had sex in Nobu (Boris Becker), smoked crystal meth (Andre Agassi) or been afflicted with odd sleeping habits (Pete Sampras). He is as affable as Tim Henman.

Novak Djokovic going up in the world

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:36 GMT

ROGER FEDERER beaten in front of his adoring public in Basel one week, Rafael Nadal destroyed in Paris the next. Novak Djokovic has not just hit a rich vein of form, he is making a statement that the time appears to be coming close when he, rather than the illustrious Swiss and Spaniard, may well be hailed the world’s finest tennis player.

Subdued Rafael Nadal downed by Novak Djokovic

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:45:36 GMT

In-form third seed Novak Djokovic reached the Paris Masters final after eliminating second seed Rafael Nadal with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 victory at the Bercy Arena.