Tennis News

Rafa Nadal bounced back from his Roland Garros quarter-final loss to Novak Djokovic with a solid performance in Germany, where he managed to capture the 2015 Stuttgart grass court tournament title, beating Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in the final. The Spaniard hit 11 aces on the way to his straight sets 7-6(3) 6-3 victory. This is his third Stuttgart title in total (the previous two being on clay).

Rafa will be competing at the Queen’s Club Championships in London this week, where he will face Alexandr Dolgopolov in the opening round.

Following a tough week with several rollercoaster contests on grass, Rafael Nadal is through to the final of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, where he will come compete for the third time, but the first time on grass. The Spaniard will come up against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, whom he has faced on four previous occasions on the professional tour. He holds a 4-0 lead yet has not faced the Serb in five years.

For the first time since 2011, Nadal is through to the final of a grass court tournament, even though he was at risk of exiting the tournament from his opening match. In his semi-final contest, he defeated Gael Monfils in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 19 minutes to secure his place in the Mercedes Cup final.

“It’s a great feeling to be back in a final, especially on grass,” said Nadal. “It’s been since 2011, I didn’t play a final on grass. So it’s very good to be back and I think I’m playing well. It was a tough match but I played well against a very difficult opponent.

“He’s a charismatic player and does different things on court… I just tried to be ready and wait for my moment. I was solid with myself.”

While some expected Marin Cilic to make it through to the final, it was Troicki who defeated the US Open champion in three sets to set up his final against Nadal.

This marks the fifth time that Nadal and Troicki will cross paths on the professional tour, with the Spaniard leading the head-to-head series 4-0. However, this marks their first meeting in five years, which could mean the contest may be far different. In this particular case, it would not be surprising to see Nadal end up in another three-set contest.
 

For just the second time in his professional career, Rafael Nadal lost a match at the French Open. It was a quarter-final loss to Novak Djokovic, who would go on to finish runner-up at the tournament to Stan Wawrinka. The nine-time Roland Garros champion will now look to regain his lost form and gradually rise in the rankings again when he competes at the Mercedes Cup for the first time. He will begin with a second round match against Marcos Baghdatis, whom he holds a 7-1 head-to-head record against.

Now that the king had been downed at the French Open, it is clear that Nadal is far from the form that won him 14 Grand Slam titles over the years. Given that grass courts were never Nadal’s favourite surface, it will be interesting to see if the Spaniard has enough time to practice and get comfortable on court.

“It’s time to think about practice,” said Nadal. “First time on grass is always hard. I’m going to try my best, practise as much as I can today and tomorrow and Wednesday for my first round match.”

“I played on the Centre Court yesterday and for a first-year event, the court is in great shape, so congrats to everyone for that,” said Nadal. “Now I get to play two weeks before Wimbledon for the first time, so I hope that helps.”

Nadal will come up against Baghdatis, who defeated Lukas Rosol in the opening round of the tournament in straight sets. The Cypriot struck 10 aces, won 89% of his first service points and converted four break points to close out the match 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and six minutes.

This marks the ninth time that Nadal and Baghdatis will cross paths on the professional tour, with Nadal leading the head-to-head series 7-1. This is just their second meeting on grass after their first one took place back in 2006 at the Wimbledon semi-final. Given that the former Australian Open runner-up has already had a warm-up match on grass, it will be interesting to see if he offers up a challenge for the Spaniard en route to the following round.
 

Last year, Eugenie Bouchard made history as the only Canadian player (male or female) to reach the final of the Wimbledon Championships, where she finished runner-up to Petra Kvitova. Now, nearly a year later, Bouchard is a shadow of her former self, as she crashed out of the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event in Holland.

Seeded No. 1 at the s-Hertogenbosch event, Bouchard played three sets against Yaroslava Shvedova and was close to securing the victory before she wilted away to allow a comeback from the No. 76 Kazakhstan native. Bouchard dropped the opening set, then rebounded emphatically in the second frame and even led 4-1 in the deciding set before she lost the next five consecutive games and, evidently, the match.

Shvedova withstood five aces, won 66% of her first service points and saved six break points to close out the match 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in one hour and 54 minutes.

Bouchard, clearly dejected following the loss, admit that she loves the grass court surface and expected to play with more confidence given her exceptional performances last season.

“I love grass. I think it’s my favorite surface,” she said. “I have great memories from last year, and I think it really suits my game – the ball bounces low, and the grass is just so pretty and nice.

“When I go to Wimbledon I’ll have memories from last year popping into my head, which will hopefully give me confidence that I’ll play really well, but right now I’m still just taking it one match at a time.”

Sunday, June 7 was supposed to be the day that many would remember as the one where Novak Djokovic became the eighth payer in tennis history to accomplish the Career Grand Slam. However, while the stars were aligned for his eventual success, few accounted for the Swiss star who would alter the Serb’s plans in shocking fashion.

Wawrinka dominated the contest following the opening set, as he fired shots through Djokovic and outplayed the Serbian star en route to a emphatic four-set win at Roland Garros. He rallied from a set down to defeat the top seed 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

“He played some really good tactical tennis and also very aggressive shots in some breakpoints, like when it was 4-4, that passing shot winner down the line…all I can say is, ‘well done’; he deserves it,”

“You go through emotions when you are playing for the title. 3-0 up, I wasted some chances and he started getting more confident; he started going for his shots.”

Djokovic has a particularly sour memory of the fourth set, where he held a significant lead before allowing Wawrinka back into the contest.

“You know, you go through emotions, you get frustrated, you come back. All in all, may be that was the turning point. After that, I did try to comeback. I did try to fight up to the last point, to the last ball, but it wasn’t that day.”

However, while Djokovic was clearly disappointed with his loss on Sunday, he made it clear that his ambition to win the French Open did not overshadow the ambitions of all the other players in the draw. He did admit to being more nervous than any other final beforehand, though.

“As I said, you go through emotions. Of course I was nervous than any other match. It’s final of Roland Garros. We both were aware of the importance of this match, and that’s why you tend to have these particular situations.”

In one of the more surprising results this season, Swiss No. 2 Stan Wawrinka played the match of his life on Sunday afternoon in Paris to defeat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in four sets to lift his second Grand Slam title.

In a match that was believed to be Djokovic’s to lose, Wawrinka dominated the contest following the opening set, as he fired shots through Djokovic and outplayed the Serbian star en route to a emphatic four-set win at Roland Garros. He rallied from a set down to defeat the top seed 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

“I’m still surprised that in two months I can win the French Open because I wasn’t in good shape after Monaco [in April]. It was a tough, tough moment for me. To say that now I won the French Open, it’s something completely crazy.”

During the post-match trophy ceremony, Djokovic enjoyed a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd, which moved him to tears. He has now lost three French Open finals, 2012, 2014 and 2015. He will have to wait one more year to become the eighth person to complete the career Grand Slam.

With regards to his unique shorts, Wawrinka found it endlessly amusing that the shorts that most hated during the fortnight were the ones that won him the French Open.

“I don’t think they will allow me to wear the shorts at Wimbledon,” Wawrinka joked. “Everybody has talked about the shorts since I put them on. I quite like them but apparently I’m the only one. I know a lot of people have talked about them and it’s quite funny that they won the French Open.”

Following a fortnight of enjoyable matches, the French Open will culminate with the latest chapter in the riveting rivalry between top seed Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka. The two have played some of the best ATP World Tour matches over the past three years. Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 17-3, including a win at the Australian Open semi-final this year.

In a match that required two days to complete due to stormy weather, Novak Djokovic needed five sets to dispatch a valiant Andy Murray and secure his place in the final of the 2015 French Open. After playing sublime tennis during the opening two sets of the match, Djokovic witnessed a momentum shift that saw Murray pounce to snatch the third set with spectacular play before the match was called off for the evening due to stormy weather. Once play resumed the following morning, Murray forced a fifth set against Djokovic but was unable to stop the Serb’s final charge to the final.

“I don’t think I was lucky,” Djokovic said. “I think I was playing some great tennis yesterday. He found his game late in the third. I had many opportunities to finish the match in straight sets, but credit to Andy.

“He showed why he’s one of the biggest competitors and fighters on the tour. A bit different conditions, with sun and then later in the evening it got a bit slower. He was using his variety in the game very well. It was a really tough match, over four hours all together, yesterday and today. No different from any other match that we played against each other. It’s always a thriller, always a marathon.”

After suffering an opening round exit at the French Open last season, Stan Wawrinka found himself in the final of that very same tournament the following year when he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets to earn a place in his second Grand Slam final. He won the match 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(3), 6-4.

This is the 21th time that Djokovic and Wawrinka will cross paths on the professional tour, with the Serbian star leading the series with a convincing 17-3 record. However, it was only over the past couple of years that Wawrinka because competitive against Djokovic, and they have since produced some sublime tennis together. However, is Wawrinka going to be able to do what Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray could not do, which is deny Djokovic his career slam title this year.