A Serena smash- point Miami Final 2008

DOUBLES DRILL

Have a look at a

 

NESTOR DOUBLES VOLLEY DRILL.

DAVYDENKO CRUSHES NADAL

 

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko claimed the second Masters Series title of his career with victory over Rafael Nadal at the Sony Ericsson Open in Florida.

The 26-year-old went into the match as the underdog but dominated both on serve and return as he won 6-4 6-2.

Davydenko broke twice in each set to wrap up victory in one hour 30 minutes, adding the title to his Paris Masters win of 2006.

Nadal had been looking to win his first tournament since Stuttgart last July.

That fact had clearly been a motivation all week for Nadal, who had looked supremely focused on his way through the draw.

And having won both previous encounters between the pair, the world number two went into the match as the favourite.

But after they swapped early breaks, Davydenko went ahead again in game seven and confidently served out on his second set point.

Nadal, 21, was making more errors than usual as he faced one of the few players capable of matching his energy and consistency from the baseline.

Davydenko kept up the pressure with another break at the start of the second set, and when he extended that advantage to 4-1 it was all but over.

Nadal suffered a heartbreaking five-set defeat by Roger Federer in the final three years ago but the end came considerably quicker this time.

By the closing stages, Davydenko was totally dominant on serve and even coming into the net to finish off some points.

The world number four put Nadal out of his misery on the second match point for a win that solidifies his position among the game's elite.

DAVYDENKO BEATS NADAL

6-4, 6-2.

DAVYDENKO BEATS RODDICK

Roddick tried for an encore Friday night, but Davydenko stole the show, winning 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Roddick was coming off an emotional victory the night before, when he ended his streak of 11 consecutive losses to top-ranked Roger Federer. This time it was the No. 4-seeded Davydenko with the breakthrough - Roddick was 5-0 against him previously.

"That's probably the best he's played against me," said Roddick, who was philosophical about his roller-coaster 24 hours.

"I'll choose to leave here looking at the positive. I'm obviously disappointed tonight. But to have a win like I did over Roger was big for me, and hopefully that will stick with me a little bit more."

Davydenko's opponent in the final Sunday will be No. 2-seeded Rafael Nadal, who beat Tomas Berdych 7-6 (6), 6-2

RODDICK BEATS FEDERER

Andy Roddick whacked one last thunderous serve to finally beat Roger Federer, then slowly walked to the net with his head down, as if unsure how to celebrate such a rare achievement.

With an almost flawless performance, Roddick ended a streak of 11 consecutive losses against his nemesis Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Open. Roddick dominated with his serve and took advantage of Federer's suddenly shaky play down the stretch to win 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

QUARTER FINALS

OUCH!!! THAT'S GOTTA HURT!!!

A GRADUATE OF THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF SELF-LOATHING AND HATE

RODDICK PLAYS MIXED DOUBLES

The 25-year-old American star is engaged to Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, 20.

The official announcement was made on his website.

"We are thrilled to announce that Andy and Brooklyn Decker are engaged to be married. Andy proposed in early March. The couple wanted to tell their family and close friends first but good news travels fast. By the time Andy arrived in Miami for the Sony Ericsson Open, the tournament was bustling with the news.

"The couple met in New York City last year and have been dating since. With their hectic travel schedules, Andy and Brooklyn plan to enjoy their engagement and will wait to set a wedding date."

PROFILES

   

Mardy Fish

Both champs from the Pacific Life Open, as well as finalist Mardy Fish (pictured), don't survive the first weekend in Key Biscayne.

Kevin Anderson

Hard-serving South African scores one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, outlasting Novak Djokovic in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Lindsay Davenport

Mama Mia!  Former No. 1 beats second-seeded Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-2. Wow!!!!

Gustavo Kuerten

Nice that the Miami fans could send him off for the last time. But the guy is simply no longer playing ATP-level tennis.

 

Norm Chryst

Veteran umpire had the guts and good sense to warn Djokovic for his chronic time violations. This isn't a question of aesthetics; it's one of rules.

Bring on the   courtside shot-clock.

Novak Djokovic

Indian Wells winner bounced by South African Kevin Anderson in his first match in Key Biscayne.

Marat Safin

Latest loss is a 7-6-in-the-third-job against Bobby Reynolds.

TSN SCHEDULE

TODAY'S RESULTS

KICK AND SLICE

These two pictures show the difference of impact points that the receiver faces on 2 of Roger's second serves. The orange ribbon is the flight of his serve.

The white spot is the point at which Roger hits the ball, the pink where the ball hits the service court, and the yellow the point at which Bjorkman hits the ball.

The upper pix is a kick serve which bounces high and to the left of Bjorkman before he hits it.

The lower is a slice serve which curls into your right side after the bounce. Bjorkman didn't pick up the difference early enough and dumped this return in the net.

How does a returner distinguish the two:

[1] the flight of the ball after Roger's hit it, arc a little more on the kick serve before the bounce

[2] Roger's impact point on the kick is slightly lower [6-8 inches] than the slice. If you stare at the virtual court upto virtual blindness, you can see the difference.

NO DJOKING

Novak Djokovic often bounces the ball more than a dozen times before serving, and the tedious ritual may have cost him a match Friday.

The defending champion at the Sony Ericsson Open went into a funk after being warned for taking too much time between points, then blew a third-set lead to lose his opening match.

Qualifier Kevin Anderson, a 6-foot-7 former NCAA doubles champion at Illinois, beat the third-ranked Djokovic 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-4.

Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title at this year's Australian Open and was coming off a title at Indian Wells last week. But he struggled from the start against Anderson and was rattled by the warning from the chair umpire.

Serving at 2-0 in the third set, Djokovic won the next point after the warning to reach deuce, then lost 13 points in a row. Jeers from the crowd further agitated him, and by the time Djokovic collected himself, Anderson was up a break at 3-2.

This early loss in Miami will damage Djokokvic's chances of  overtaking Nadal this summer. Last year , he won Miami. The points he earned at Miami last year [winner] will be replaced by this year's points [second round].

Another qualifier, Benjamin Becker, had no luck against second-seeded Rafael Nadal, who won 7-5, 6-2. No. 7 David Nalbandian lost to Xavier Malisse 6-1, 6-4.

BOBBY REYNOLDS?????????

Bobby Reynolds figures he never will reach the top level of tennis, the place where players such as Marat Safin win Grand Slam titles.

It didn't matter on Thursday, when Reynolds, the late-blooming American who got into the Sony Ericsson Open as a qualifier, outlasted the fading former world No. 1.

Reynolds' 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5) victory over Safin didn't change his belief that elite-level tennis isn't in his future. After all, a tennis career wasn't really part of his plan until he developed into the No. 1 NCAA singles player at Vanderbilt University and turned pro after his junior season.

Cracking the top 100 of the world rankings has been a struggle for Reynolds since then. So beating Safin is significant even if the Russian hasn't been in the top 20 since early 2006.

"I already had a lot of confidence, but obviously that gives me a lot more," said Reynolds, 25. "In this game, it's all about confidence."

Safin seems to have lost some. The 2000 U.S. Open and 2005 Australian Open champion has won just one match in five events this year after a lackluster 2007 by his standards.

The questions for Safin, 28, were about his desire to continue playing. He said he still enjoys playing and hopes " the good days will come" again at some point.

"I have plenty of cash to do what I want to do, so what I want to do is play tennis," said Safin, who's earned more than $13 million in career prize money.

Reynolds admitted to being nervous early while playing Safin on stadium court. Still, he pulled out the first-set tiebreaker and rallied from down 3-1 in the other.

More results like this, and Reynolds, an outgoing personality who is popular with other players, might stick around on tour for longer than he suspected when he left college.

"I feel like I've done better than I thought I would do," Reynolds said. "Do I think I have the potential to [be] top 10? No. But do I think I can stay anywhere from 40 to 100? Yes!"

Also eliminated was Mardy Fish, who beat Roger Federer en route to a runner-up finish last week at the Pacific Life Open. Arnaud Clement caught Fish on the rebound and won 6-3, 6-3.

"It's obviously a little disappointing to go out so early here," Fish said. "But I'm going to take a lot of memories from last week."

ROGER'S OUTLOOK

World number one Roger Federer said on Thursday he had fully recovered from his semi-final loss to Mardy Fish at last week's Pacific Life Open.

"You move on, you analyse it, then you look forward. "

The 26-year-old Swiss, who has won 12 grand slam titles, has made a slow start to his 2008 campaign due to a bout of glandular fever.

He has played in only three tournaments and is still looking for his first title of the year in Miami.

Federer reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic and lost in the first round in Dubai to Andy Murray.

Federer said he believed that once he got back into the swing of playing matches on a regular basis again his game would flourish as it had in the past.

Most of Federer's closest competitors agree with his positive outlook as his health improves.

Second-ranked Rafael Nadal said: "You know how difficult it is to play four years losing three, four, matches, five? So he didn't have a bad start of the year. He played semi-finals in Australia. He played semi-finals in Indian Wells.

"So I think any one day you have to lose some matches, no? You have to be always very strong mentally."

While Federer is hoping to pick up his third career Sony Ericsson Open a week on Sunday, he is already looking ahead to Roland Garros, where he hopes to win the French Open for the first time, Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open.

"I picked this schedule to be in my best possible shape for what's coming up, and that's in the next few weeks and months ahead of me," Federer said. "Especially through the French Open until the U.S. Open where I'll have four massive tournaments in a short span.

"This is really when I want to be at my peak."

MIAMI ON TSN

MIAMI BEGINS

Russian Dmitry Tursunov was among Wednesday's first-round winners at the $3.77 million Sony Ericsson Open, the second of nine ATP Masters Series events this year.

Tursunov came from behind to beat fellow Russian Evgeny Korolev 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Crandon Park.

American qualifier Sam Warburg defeated Italian Potito Starace 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, while Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro erased American wild card Jesse Levine 7-5, 6-1.

Additional opening-round wins came for Spaniard Albert Montanes, Italian Andreas Seppi, Croat Marin Cilic, Frenchman Nicolas Mahut and German qualifier Benjamin Becker.

Serbian star Novak Djokovic defeated gritty Argentine Guillermo Canas in last year's Miami finale. The high-flying Djokovic is also the reigning Australian Open champion and captured last week's Masters Series title at Indian Wells.

The top seeds at this 12-day, 96-player hardcourt tournament are two-time champion Roger Federer, French Open titlist Rafael Nadal and Djokovic.

The 2008 winner here will claim $590,000.

FEAR - FUL BACKHAND

VERTICAL RACQUET FACE AT IMPACT

JOKER HAS LAST LAUGH

Djokovic succeeded where Roger Federer failed, beating qualifier Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 Sunday to win the Sony Ericsson Open.

Canas upset the top-ranked Federer twice last month, including in the fourth round Tuesday. But the 29-year-old Argentine's relentless baseline game failed to faze the 19-year-old Djokovic, who dominated with his versatile shotmaking and held every service game.

Seeded 10th, Djokovic will improve to a career-high No. 7 in the rankings Monday. With his first ATP Masters Series title, the slender Serb became the youngest men's champion in the tournament's 23-year history.

Canas can take consolation in a career resurgence. Ranked as high as eighth before serving a 15-month doping suspension that ended last summer, he was 143rd at the start of the year but will climb to about 31st.

Djokovic mixed pace, spins and angles so well that some of his shots were beyond reach even for Canas, whose forte is retrieving. The Serb's repertoire ranged from 130 mph serves to feathery drop shots, including one to end the match's longest game.

That game in the second set lasted 20 minutes and 22 points and included an important replay reversal. Djokovic hit a shot ruled wide that would have given Canas a service break for 3-all, but the review led the umpire to order the point replayed.

Djokovic saved two more break points in the game, including one by outlasting Canas in a 37-shot rally, and eventually held for 4-2.

Djokovic faced only two other break points and erased them. He lost serve just once in 59 games in the tournament.

Even as he pulled away, Djokovic's teenage temper occasionally showed. He twice threw his racket and once slammed a ball into the net. He hardly had cause for anger, however, committing only 30 unforced errors while hitting 44 winners.

The sunny weather and grinding rallies seemed to favor Canas, the stockier, more physical player. But he began to clutch his left hamstring between points and received a massage from a trainer in the third set.

While he declined to blame the hamstring injury as a factor in his loss, he appeared to favor the leg when he double-faulted in his final service game to fall behind 5-4.

Djokovic wavered serving for the match with his lone double-fault and a wild forehand, but smacked confident strokes on the final two points for winners - and the championship.