Sports Then and Now

Roger Federer captured his 7th Wimbledon title in 2012.

In a Wimbledon fortnight fraught with rain showers and major upsets, order was finally restored.

The Sunday resolution revived a familiar tradition on Centre Court.

After all, the man who had won the All-England Club championship for six of the last nine years managed to capture his seventh title on Sunday.

In the process Roger Federer defeated the great British hope—Andy Murray.

Once again, the roof had to be closed over Centre Court when rain interrupted play

This happened incessantly during week two.

At that particular point in the match each player had won one set. Momentum, however, seemed on Federer’s side since he had taken the second set.

Once play resumed, Federer ratcheted his game up a notch, denying Murray his moment in the sun.

Federer won his seventh Wimbledon crown in a place that felt like home.

The Swiss Maestro’s magic had returned, absent the past two years on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

Lifting the trophy in 2012 seemed every bit as sweet as it did when he captured his first title in 2003.

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2012 French Open Final - Djokovic vs. Nadal

This year’s French Open men’s champion had much riding on the outcome.

Rafael Nadal entered the grounds of Stade Roland Garros to defend his only Grand Slam title of 2011.

Diminishing Nadal’s tennis aura throughout 2011 was the Serb Novak Djokovic who needed to win this title in Paris to complete his career grand slam—just as Roger Federer attempted in 2006 and 2007 when Nadal turned the great Swiss back, denying him his due.

No other man in the history of the Open Era has dominated a surface more than Rafael Nadal on clay.

Greatest of his achievements on the red clay, however, have come on Court Phillippe Chatrier where Nadal has suffered defeat only once since 2005.

Nadal’s journey to seven Grand Slam titles on the clay has been one of almost total domination starting back when the World No. 2 was a teenager…

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Rafael Nadal is gunning to regain the number one ranking while winning major titles in 2012.

Former world number one, Rafael Nadal, says that he is not preoccupied with the possibility of regaining the top spot, this season, noting that he is fully concentrated on winning more tournaments.

The Spaniard’s most recent season was plagued by injuries, but he is back in form, and has laid down an early psychological marker ahead of the French Open, in May, by winning the Monte Carlo Masters, at the weekend.

The tournament in Monaco was Nadal’s first since he pulled out of the Miami Masters, in March, but he looked comfortable throughout, and ended his seven-match losing streak against world number one, Novak Djokovic, easily beating the Serb 6-3 6-1 in the final.

Djokovic has dominated the sport over the last 18 months, but the Serb has yet to beat Nadal on the Spaniard’s preferred surface, clay, in a Grand Slam, meaning that Nadal is the favorite to win the French Open in the tennis betting odds. It would be his sixth title in seven years.

His performance in Monte Carlo has promoted some pundits to suggest that Nadal could once again rise to number one by the end of the year, but the 25-year-old says he is not worried about his ranking, and is only concerned with winning.

My challenge is to play well in Barcelona, not to be number one”, said Nadal. “It was important to beat Novak but, if I am honest, it was more important to win in Monte Carlo. After my career, all that will remain are the titles, the victories, and not who I managed to win them against. Read the rest of this entry →

Roger Federer continues to add to his tennis record totals.

Roger Federer possesses many, many ATP records.

Because he is the man many consider the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), that fact should surprise no one who has been following tennis since Federer began his assault on the record books.

Turning pro in 1998, Federer announced his arrival at the top of the men’s game in February of 2004 when he captured the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

From 2004 through 2007 Federer dominated, often winning three slams in a season. He held the No. 1 ranking a record 237 consecutive weeks.

But after winning slam No. 16 at the Australian Open in 2010, Federer’s pace slowed considerably.

Of late, however, Federer has once again been advancing upon long-held tennis records—those many believed safely chiseled in stone for the ages.

Federer has lost only two matches in 2012—to Rafael Nadal in the 2012 Australian Open semifinals and to John Isner in a five-set Davis Cup match in Switzerland.  The world No. 3 stands at 22-2 having just won his last three tournaments in Rotterdam, Dubai and most recently at Indian Wells.

But no one individual can own all tennis records—can he?

Following are eight tennis milestones which many be beyond the Maestro’s reach.  Or are they?

Number of Titles Won in the Open Era

Ensconced ahead of Federer for the record for the Most Titles Won in the Open Era are three tennis giants.

Federer, who remains active and able to add to his totals, has his work cut out for him if he hopes to end his career as No. 1 in this category.

By the end of 2011, Federer had won 70 titles since his first triumph in 2001. On average, the Swiss wins over six ATP titles a season

At age 30, however, and leaning toward the end of his career, winning six trophies a year might be a stretch, although you never count Federer out of any challenge.

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While the "big four" slug it out for major titles, Mikhail Youzhny and other second tier players fight for ATP titles.

While Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray are dominating the majors, other talented men’s tennis stars are fighting it out for ATP titles in an attempt to build their game toward a level capable of competing with the top stars.

One of those players, world number 32 Mikhail Youzhny, claimed the eighth ATP title of his career by easily beating the unseeded Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-3 in the final of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors tournament. The 29-year-old Russian, who was the third seed, had not won on the ATP Tour since his victory in Kuala Lumpur in 2010, but was far too good for the world number 97, who was competing in his first Tour final.

Youzhny did not face a break point throughout and broke his opponent’s serve three times. Those betting Betfair money will have been impressed.

“It feels really good as it was my best match of the tournament, and that’s why I won,” said Youzhny. “It’s tough to compare my level with previous years, it’s impossible. But for sure this was my best tennis of the week.” Read the rest of this entry →

Roger Federer will be looking to win Title No. 6 at the WTF in London.

For men’s tennis, the season is a long one—starting in January and ending in early December with the Davis Cup finals. The ATP, however, ends its year with the World Tour Finals which get underway on Sunday.

The tournament is the crowning event of the 2011 season where the top eight man do battle to determine the champion of the champions.

The World Tour Finals is the latest title for the ATP year-end tournament for men’s professional tennis to be held in London for the second consecutive year.

The Masters year-end tournament, first played in 1970, features the top eight players on the men’s tour selected based on accumulated calendar year ATP ranking points. The top eight men draw to create two teams with members of each four-man team competing with each other in three round-robin matches.

This year in Group A are Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych. In Group B we find Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Mardy Fish.

From each group, the two players with the best results move onto the semifinals where the top-ranked player from each group plays the second-ranked player from the other group.

The final is contested by the winners of the semifinal contests.  The winner of that match is accorded 1500 ranking points as well as the honor and prestige of winning in a field of the best eight players in the world.

Last year Roger Federer faced Rafael Nadal in the final which Federer won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1— giving the Swiss his fifth title in this event.  That ties Federer with Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl at five championship titles at the ATP year-end tournament.

So in the 41 years the championships have been held, who are the multiple winners of this event?  Who reigned as the best of the best at the end of the season?

We will count them down here.

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