Posted on August 16th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Rafael Nadal of Spain is indeed the heavy favorite against
Fernando Gonzalez of Chile going into the Olympic Gold Medal match for the Men’s Singles Tennis event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A look into Rafael Nadal’s recent accomplishments include a championship at the 2008 French Open and at the 2008 Wimbledon.
Clearly, Rafael Nadal is the best player in the world right now. Even though Roger Federer of Switzerland still leads the ATP Men’s rankings, his inability to win more tournaments than usual in the 2008 season has allowed Rafael Nadal to come very close to overtaking Roger Federer.
Roger Federer didn’t have a good campaign for an Olympic Gold Medal, losing out to James Blake of the USA. According to Roger Federer, the schedule of the tennis ttournament in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was just ridiculous because it would have the players go through as much as 11 games within one week. Certainly, even if they were tennis professionals, that kind of schedule doesn’t make it easy for the players. In fact, the tennis tournament would be a survival of the fittest as players will be given little time to recuperate before they have to go back in the court again.
Well, that’s how things go in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and if you stick on who the fittest tennis players really are, then perhaps Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Rafael Nadal of Spain are it!
The winner of the Nadal vs Gonzalez match will go on to win an Olympic Gold Medal while the loser will be awarded the Silver medal.
When the Olympics is done, the last grand slam tournament of the tennis season will be played. The 2008 US Tennis Open will kick off on August 25 in New York.
Find out the latest odds on Rafael Nadal vs Ferando Gonzalez by visiting the 2008 Beijing Olympics sportsbook.
Posted on April 7th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Serena Williams ties Steffi Graf record with 5th win at Sony Ericsson Open!
No. 8 seed and former World No. 1 Serena Williams retained her Sony Ericsson Open title with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 win over fourth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.
The eighth-seeded Serena Williams triumphed on her eighth match point with an overhead smash. Leading 6-1 3-0 with two breaks in the second set, Serena Williams was in control but then hit a sticky patch and surrendered three breaks to Jelena Jankovic in the fourth, 10th and 12th games.
Serving for the match at 5-4, Williams made four errors and lost her serve leaving Jelena Jankovic to go on and win the set.
Both players turned down the offer of a 10-minute heat break between the second and third sets and Serena Williams broke Jelena Jankovic in the first game of the decider.
Jelena Jankovic, who has suffered with a cold throughout the tournament, immediately called the trainer and complained that she had a headache and felt she was going to choke.
Serena Williams took advantage and stormed into a 5-0 lead but just when it seemed she would serve out the match Jelena Jankovic came alive to clinch a service break when the American netted a forehand.
Serena Williams, serving for the match for a third time at 5-2, let a 40-0 lead slip away and lost her serve again. She showed her frustration by smashing her racket against the court, which earned her a code violation for racket abuse.
However, Serena Williams was all smiles after a smash of a different kind clinched the title again following her 7-5 6-3 victory over world number one Justine Henin last year.
With already 2 wins in the 2008 WTA Tour, Serena Williams looks like a good contender to win the 2008 French Open in Paris, France.
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by JJ Duque
American
Serena Williams is the defending champion of the Sony Ericsson Open, having beat
Justine Henin of Belgium in last year’s final. This year, Serena Williams seems to be right on track to defending her Sony Ericsson Open title after defeating No. 1 seed Justine Henin in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-0.
Other Women’s Singles quarterfinals results for the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, saw No. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeat American Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4. No. 4 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was able to get through to the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open after Elena Dementieva of Russia retired in the second set due to injuries. Vera Zvonareva of Russia was able to upset No. 13 seed Dinara Safina of Russia 7-5, 6-4.
The semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open Women’s Singles will feature Serena Williams vs Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic vs Vera Zvonareva.
Crowd favorite and No. 2 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia was knocked out on the 3rd round by No. 32 seed and former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. Despite, Lindsay Davenport’s upset of Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-2, Davenport was eventually taken out in the 4th round by Dinara Safina.
Well, that’s tennis for you.
Posted on March 30th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Serbian tennis sensation Ana Ivanovic is just coming off a huge championship win in the 2008 Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, California, and hopes to continue her winning ways with another championship at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida. Ana Ivanovic is seeded No. 2 in the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open and looks like she might just be on her way for the championship.
However, she must still survive a few more rounds of tennis, and then perhaps even come across a showdown with World No. 1 and tournament number 1 seed Justine Henin of Beligum. No. 1 seed Justine Henin may not be in top form, having missed out several tournaments of the WTA tour after suffering an injury in the 2008 Australian Open. Justine Henin did play well against Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the second round of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open, winning 6-4, 6-2. The true test of her health and conditioning will still be put to the test as the competition gets stiffer in the later rounds.
Ana Ivanovic has had more tennis conditioning with her participation in several tournaments, and that might just be the advantage she might need over Justine Henin, should the two square off in the finals of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open. Of course, other players also in top form for a 2008 Sony Ericsson Open title include 2008 Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova of Russia and American Serena Williams, who is the defending champion of the Sony Ericsson Open.
2008 Sony Ericsson Open Betting. Bet on Women’s Tennis. Bet on Ana Ivanovic .
Posted on March 28th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Top-seeded
Ana Ivanovic wins the 2008 Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, California, after defeating No. 2 seed
Svetlana Kuznetsova in the finals 6-4, 6-3.
Serbian Ana Ivanovic claimed her sixth career WTA Tour title with another blazing forehand winner after 81 minutes. Svetlana Kuznetsova lost her third final of the season, following Sydney and Dubai. The Russian, a former U.S. Open champion, has lost eight of her last nine finals, and the lone title last August at New Haven came on an injury retirement.
Ana Ivanovic, the 20-year-old Serb who reached the Australian Open final, pushed Svetlana Kuznetsova twice off the court into forced errors for the 5-4 break then served a love game for the first set.
“It’s a great victory for me,” Ana Ivanovic said waving the Serbian flag. “When I managed to break her on 4-all it gave me confidence, and I went strong from that point on. That game I stepped up a little bit more, and I realized that’s what I had to do.”
In the second, the two traded early breaks but Svetlana Kuznetsova was under increasing pressure and lost the last four games.
“She wasn’t giving me any free points and she was attacking,” Svetlana Kuznetsova said. “You feel like it’s her day, like everything goes her way. I was trying to be there and play every point, and she just played better today.”
Svetlana Kuznetsova, runner-up to Daniela Hantuchova last year, ended Maria Sharapova‘s 18-match winning start to this season in the semifinals on Friday. She has a career mark of 9-15 in tour finals.
“It’s always painful to lose, but I prefer to get to the final losing than to lose in second round,” she said. “”I still played a retty good tournament.”
Posted on March 28th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Serbian
Novak Djokovic, the World No. 3 in Men’s Tennis, held off a comeback by American
Mardy Fish to win the 2008 Pacific Life Open final 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Sunday and secure his second prestigious ATP title of the year.
“It’s been a dream start to the year,” said third-seeded Novak Djokovic, “Before I started this year, I said my goals were to be consistent with results, reach the Masters and hopefully win a Grand Slam. I did that in a very, very small amount of time.
“I also want to congratulate Mardy on a fantastic week. He’s a much better player than that [98th] and deserves to be ranked much higher.”
Mardy Fish, ranked a career-high 17th four years ago, capped a remarkable week that featured three victories over top-10 players by stunning Swiss world No. 1 Roger Federer in the semifinals.
“This has been a tremendous week for me, definitely one I will never forget,” said Mardy Fish, who won the last of his two ATP titles in Houston in 2006. “Yesterday was one of the best days of my life and this is my favorite tournament.”
Novak Djokovic made a fast start in the final, winning the first six points of the match and breaking Mardy Fish in the second game when the American crowd favorite hit a forehand long.
The second set went with serve until breaks were exchanged in the sixth and seventh games, with Novak Djokovic throwing his racket in frustration after double-faulting for his lead to be pegged back to 4-3.
Mardy Fish began to replicate the form he produced the previous day to stun World No. 1 Roger Federer, and piled on the pressure in the 11th game before breaking when Novak Djokovic netted a backhand.
That put Mardy Fish 6-5 up and he served out for the set, leveling the match with 1 set a piece when Novak Djokovic blasted a backhand drive into the net.
“I was nervous in that moment and it resulted in some unforced errorsNovak said of his inability to close out after leading 4-2 in the second set. “I gave him the opportunity to come back into the match, which he used.”
Novak Djokovic fought back from 0-40 down on his own serve in the first game of the third set to hold the game, and broke Mardy Fish in the second game of the third set with a backhand winner down the line.
The rest of the set went with serve until Novak Djokovic fired his 10th ace of the afternoon for his first match point before sealing victory at the second attempt when Mardy Fish struck a backhand long.
Posted on March 19th, 2008 by JJ Duque
Australian Open champion
Maria Sharapova extended her 2008 unbeaten run on Tuesday, booking a quarter-final showdown with defending champion
Daniela Hantuchova at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California.
Maria Sharapova, the fourth seed, escaped with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, overcoming some erratic play to stretch her match-winning streak to 17. That run includes her Aussie Open triumph and a victory at Doha.
But she’ll likely face her stiffest test of the tournament against fifth seed Daniela Hantuchova, who has claimed two of her three career WTA titles at Indian Wells and hasn’t dropped a set in three matches this week.
Against Alona Bondarenko, Maria Sharapova was twice up a break in the second set, but both times she was broken back, and she surrendered her serve in the final game as the match went to a third set.
“I did a solid job of winning that first set and had so many opportunities in the second set to finish it off. I was up a couple of breaks and just couldn’t,” Maria Sharapova said.
In the final set, the Russian said, “It was just a dogfight.”
Although she managed to capture a second-set tiebreaker, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova had her problems before defeating India’s Sania Mirza 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
After the two traded breaks in the second and third games of the second set, Daniela Hantuchova - who won her first WTA title here in 2002 - finally earned her first break of the set in the 11th game, taking a 6-5 lead.
She couldn’t serve it out, however, immediately dropping her serve to bring on the tiebreaker, which she dominated. Daniela Hantuchova raced to a 4-0 lead, then finished it off confidently with a service winner and a forehand winner.
BET ON ANA IVANOVIC vs VERA ZVONAREVA
Top-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic, whose runner-up finish to Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open propelled her to number two in the world, rallied for a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone.
Ana Ivanovic will play Russian Vera Zvonareva, who ended the run of Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 6-4.
BET ON SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA vs AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA
Second-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, lining up a meeting with Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 winner over American Ashley Harkleroad.
Agnieszka Radwanska shocked then world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round of the Australian Open.
BET ON JELENA JANKOVIC vs LINDSAY DAVENPORT
Third-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic booked a meeting with US favorite Lindsay Davenport. Jelena Jankovic beat Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 to advance, while Davenport downed sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-2, 7-5.