Monica Seles vs A.Sanchez-Vicario 1996 Tokyo Highlights

Video Score: 4 / 5

ALMAGRO BETAS TIPSAREVIC

Rafael Nadal’s countryman, Nicolas Almagro, has defeated Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in a match of the Mubadala Tennis Championship on Friday. Almagro won the match by 2-6, 7-6, 6-2.

This was the first match for Almagro in this tournament. He was given a bye in the opening round, so, he started his campaign by directly playing in the semi final match.

Almagro was not looking in great touch at the start of the match and he played a lot of loose shots in the opening set. But, as the match went on, he slowly got into his rhythm and eventually came out victorious. He took one hour and 48 minutes to win the match.

In the first set, Tipsarevic was in fine form. He broke Almagro’s service in the very first game and didn’t let the Spaniard make a comeback after that. He sealed the first set easily by 6-2.

In the second set, neither of the two players managed to get a breakthrough in the first 11 games and at the end of the 11^th game, the score was 6-5 in the favour of Almagro. In the 12^th game, Almagro got a couple of breakpoints, but, he didn’t manage to capitalize on them and the set went into the tie breaker.

However, in the tie breaker, Almagro didn’t waste the opportunities. He got a mini break early and after that, he didn’t look back. He won the tie breaker easily and came back into the match.

In the final set, Almagro was at his very best. He started with a breakthrough in the first game and enhanced that lead with a serve hold in the next game. He got one more breakthrough towards the end of the set.

At the end of the seventh game, Almagro was ahead by 5-2. Tipsarevic needed to break Almagro’s service at least a couple of times to come back into the match, but, he failed in doing so. Almagro easily served out the 8^th game and finished off the match.

In the final, Almagro will take on the world no. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Tennis player hits ball at crying baby

Online video Ranking: one / 5

SPAIN BEAT CZECHS

Spain has been defeated by Czech Republic in the final of the Davis Cup by 3-2. The hero of Czech’s victory was Radek Stepanek who defeated Nicolas Almagro in the final singles rubber match and secured the victory of his team. It was a pretty close contest, but, Stepanek managed to soak the pressure towards the end. Stepanek won the match by 6-4, 7-6(7-0), 3-6, 6-3.

Stepanek had tears in his eyes after defeating Almagro. The whole Spanish team was delighted with this victory. These two teams had taken on each other in the final in 2009 as well, but, in that match, Czech Republic was thrashed by Spain by a huge margin of 5-0. So, the Czech team got its revenge by defeating Spain in the final this time around.

In the post match press conference, Almagro said, “I still can’t believe that we have pulled it off. It has been our dream since quite a while and I want to thank the almighty for this.”

“It was a huge pressure game. I had never felt more pressure in my career before. At the start of the match, I was awfully nervous, but, after a couple of games, I settled down.”

“It got a bit tight after I lost the third set, but, thankfully, Nicolas lost his composure towards the end and things went in my favour in the fourth set.”

“I can’t tell you how happy I am right now. I am the happiest man in the world. Nothing can get better than winning a Davis Cup final for your country. Every tennis player dreams of this.”

“There is going to be a big celebration tonight. We have won the biggest tournament in tennis and it’s worth a big celebration.”

David Ferrer vs Alexandr Dolgopolov – ATP Valencia 2012. FINAL Highlights (bojan svitac)

Video Rating: 5 / 5

COMEBACK IS DIFFICULT

Rafael Nadal has said that it’s very difficult for him to make a comeback towards the end of this year. A few days ago, Tony Nadal, the coach of Rafael Nadal had said that Nadal would get 100% fit towards the end of this year.

When asked whether he thinks that he would be able to make a comeback towards the end of 2012, Nadal said, “I am not sure about it. It’s hard for me to regain 100% fitness towards the end of the current season. But, one thing is for sure, I will not make a comeback until I get 100% fit. I don’t want to go out there with 90% fitness and then, discover the injury again. That’s why, I am taking so much time.”

When asked how frustrating it is for him to sit at home and watch the matches on television, Nadal said, “It’s very frustrating to remain out of the game for so long. I have missed some major tournaments in the last few months and I can’t express in words how disappointed I am. But, that’s how it goes. Every sportsman has to deal with injuries at some point of time in his career.”

“Initially, I thought that I would get fit in a month and I would be able to participate in the US Open. But, unfortunately, I didn’t recover as fast as I had anticipated.”

“The most important thing is to follow the instructions of the doctors and that’s what I am doing. I have felt considerable improvement in my injury in the last two weeks and that’s a very good sign. I desperately want to play in the Australian Open next year and hopefully, I would be able to get fit before it.”