Tennis

Roger Federer assesses his one-sided loss today to Rival Rafael Nadal in Rome.

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini Articles: Racquet Reaction: Nadal d. Federer – by Steve Tignor (tennis.com) Nadal Masterclass Stuns Federer, Wins 24th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Crown – via atpworldtour.com Rafael Nadal crushes Roger Federer to show clay supremacy in Rome final – by Kevin Mitchell (guardian.co.uk) Rafael Nadal hammers Roger Federer in Italian Open final – via bbc.co.uk Rafael Nadal routs Roger Federer, but French Open triumph isn’t assured – by Courtney Nguyen (si.com) Ruthless Rafa blows away Federer to conquer Rome – by Nathan Williams (sport360.com) Nadal dominates Federer to win in Rome – AP via usatoday.com Rafael Nadal crushes Roger Federer in Italian Open final and races back into the world’s top four – by Simon Briggs (telegraph.co.uk) Entering the Lion’s Lair – Rome semifinal write-ups by Jesse Pentecost (thenextpoint.com) Nadal Grabs No. 4 Seed At Roland Garros – via atpworldtour.com Rafa to play an exhibition in Argentina in late November? (mangle) Rafael Nadal vuelve a la Argentina – looks like it (mangle) Videos/Audio: In case you missed me adding them to the video post, post match interview in English and Spanish Match highlights 2013 Internazionali BNL d’Italia Hot Shot Countdown – the lesson of this video seems to be you have to play really hot shots to win a point against Rafa. Music Montage Of 2013 Internazionali BNL d’Italia – video wrap-up of the tournament Signing autographs after the win. Photos: Inés made screen grabs of the final. Marianne Bevis has some Rafa in Rome photos. Photo set via Zimbio Photos by @Rafaddicted. Rafa does social media: Rafa proven he’s speedy off the court…and that he’s a sponsor’s dream. Social media related to Rafa: Post win Vine Nike salutes Rafa’s win and ponders the future. KIA celebrated Rafa’s win. Since there was so much social media for today, I’m doing this via Storify instead of embedding each tweet. Don’t forget to vote in the poll for which method you prefer. I can’t embed Facebook stories in Storify, so they are above. [View the story "May 19th - Rafa in Social Media" on Storify]

Hi Fedfans. So Roger didn’t end up winning his first Rome title and it was a disappointing display from him, but as I said in my preview post I view this as a freebie match for Roger and I will not go back on my word and bash him for not showing up in the final. It wasn’t close, with Nadal breadsticking Roger 6-1, 6-3. It was funny because last night there was a tornado in my town. The power lines got torn up which meant there was no electricity in my town and I couldn’t watch the match. So when I woke up this morning I quickly drove to the next town to find a Wi-Fi spot, where I got a $128 ticket for speeding and I also ended up missing the first set. When I started watching I could immediately see Roger was not into the match. So it cost me $128 to watch the second set of a blow out. Haha! Still I wasn’t very upset. I was disappointed that Roger did not at least try to make the match competitive, but I wasn’t mad. It has been a good week for Roger regardless of what happened in the final, and I won’t let one disappointing match spoil that for me. I honestly though that there was nothing for Roger to lose in this match however, and that he would at least go out there and be competitive and just enjoy it. Even if he then loses it will be better for his confidence than not even trying and being blown off the court. Lets say he plays really well and Nadal wins 6-4 in the third. That is still a really good result and would have given him confidence. But it didn’t work out that way. It was really a lackluster performance from Roger. His whole body language said ‘I don’t want to be here’. So yes I am disappointed that I lost $128 for nothing but in the big picture I am still satisfied. After this performance you feel there is a much slimmer chance that his quarter final streak will be broken at Roland Garros anyway. And he made his first final of the year, including a much needed 60o ranking points. After this loss I hope people understand better when I say that Roger sometimes sub-consciously tanks to avoid Nadal. I don’t think people realize the emotional scars Roger have from matches against Nadal. You have to look no further than the 2006 Rome final which I posted about yesterday to understand that. It is because of matches like that that Roger showed up disinterested today and appears disinterested when he knows Nadal is in his draw. Another important thing to realize is that Nadal is currently in the ascendancy. He has been riding a wave of confidence while Roger has been struggling. In 2012 it was the other way around when they faced off in Indian Wells and that time Roger won 6-3, 6-4. So from that perspective today’s result was pretty much expected. Roger is not in the ascendancy right now. Making the final here is one good result, but it doesn’t mean that Roger 3.0 is back all of a sudden. I mean Nadal has just won his 6th title from 8 finals since his comeback. He is clearly on a serious roll. How he does it I don’t know. He constantly complains about his knee problems and downplays his chances in spite of having won an event 6-8 times and being the clear favorite. He plays year after year and wins tournament after tournament with the most taxing game style in history, but neither tires nor burns out. He also lives in a country where doping has been legal in sport until 2006, and blood bags gets destroyed by court order. The situation borders on the absurd. As a Fedfan you may be disappointed by Roger’s performance today. But let me put things in perspective for you. What does Roger represent as a human being? What does Nadal represent as a human being? Here, let me help you out with that. Let me start with tennis. In tennis Roger is the artist, the lover. He plays for the love of the sport and he is a creator. He creates things on a tennis court that has never been created and he entertains unlike any player in the history of the s

The post Rome rankings are up. Looks the seeding issue for Roland Garros is the total non-issue I’ve thought it was all along. Other than that, the only movement was with Wawrinka dropping back out of the top ten to be replaced by Tipsarevic. Pos Name Points Pos Moved Tourns Played 1 Djokovic, Novak 12,310 0 19 2 Murray, Andy 8,670 0 18 3 Federer, Roger 8,000 0 20 4 Nadal, Rafael 6,895 +1 20 5 Ferrer, David 6,740 -1 26 6 Berdych, Tomas 4,700 0 25 7 Del Potro, Juan Martin 4,320 0 22 8 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried 3,795 0 25 9 Gasquet, Richard 3,090 0 23 10 Tipsarevic, Janko 2,640 +1 29 In the race for the World Tour Finals, Rafa is #1.

ATP World Tour 250 Nice, France (+2 hours GMT) 19-25 May, 2013 Surface: Clay RESULTS – SUNDAY, 19 MAY, 2013 Singles – First Round R Berankis (LTU) d [8] D Istomin (UZB) 62 62 [WC] E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) d A Falla (COL) 75 ret. (left calf) SCHEDULE – MONDAY, 20 MAY, 2013 CENTER start 11:00 [...]

  ATP World Tour 250 Düsseldorf, Germany (+2 hours GMT) 19-25 May, 2013 Surface: Clay May 19, 2013 Results Singles – First Round D Brands (GER) d [5] L Rosol (CZE) 64 63 J Hajek (CZE) d E Donskoy (RUS) 62 62 I Dodig (CRO) d B Kavcic (SLO) 75 64 Doubles – First Round [...]

BRUSSELS OPEN Brussels, Belgium May 20-25, 2013 $690,000/Premier Red Clay/Outdoors Order Of Play – Monday, May 20, 2013 Center Court (from 11.30hrs) 1. Coco Vandeweghe vs.. Yulia Putintseva (Singles Q Final) 2. Olga Govortsova vs. Arantxa Rus (NB 13.30hrs) 3. Varvara Lepchenko vs. Bojana Jovanovski 4. Sloane Stephens vs. Tsvetana Pironkova (NB 18.00hrs) Court 1 [...]

Just like Adidas for Ana Ivanovic, Fila opted for navy for the upcoming French Open, one of Fila's signature colors which perfectly suits the red clay. The contrast is provided by pink and white. The Summer 2013 Baseline collection features various types of shirts, two versions of the Summer Baseline dress, skorts in white, pink and navy, a hooded jacket and matching pants, wristbands and a pink visor. Jelena Jankovic, the most recognizable face of Fila, will wear the dress with thick straps, racer back and laser cut mesh overlay on upper back and skirt. Other high-profile Fila representatives Julia Goerges and Nadia Petrova are expected to sport the separates – the skort and tank – Goerges in pink and Petrova in navy. (source: Tennis Identity)

La Jolla, Calif. – (May 19, 2013) – Third-seeded Vicki Buholz of Dallas ended the USTA National Senior Women’s Hard Court Championships on a winning note as she won the Women’s 50 Consolation singles title for the second consecutive year. Playing on the historic Court No. 1 at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, [...]

Roger Federer knows that the taming of Rafael Nadal on clay requires a superhuman effort after the Spaniard beat him 6-1, 6-3 to win a seventh Rome title in nine years and a sixth from eight starts this season.