Monaco: Rafael Nadal extended his winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters to 43 matches, beating Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-2 Wednesday in the second round. The eight-time defending champion nearly trailed 3-0 in the second set, but he saved break points before taking control of the match. The third-seeded Nadal will face Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the third round. Later, top-ranked Novak Djokovic was to play Mikhail Youzhny as...
06:22 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Islamabad: Pakistan hopes to restart their Davis Cup tie against New Zealand in an appeal to the International Tennis Federation against awarding the match to New Zealand this month. Pakistan was up 1-0 and leading the second singles at Yangon, Myanmar, when Sri Lankan referee Ashita Ajigala declared the grass-court unplayable and ruled the Asia-Oceania Group II tie in New Zealand's favor. Waqar Yousuf, the secretary of the Pakistan Tennis...
03:07 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Monte Carlo: World number one Novak Djokovic, who has been struggling to shake off an ankle injury, will play in this week's Monte Carlo Masters, organisers said on Tuesday. Last year's runner-up picked up the injury when he led Serbia to a Davis Cup quarter-final win over the United States last week. Djokovic practised on Tuesday but did not put too much pressure on his right leg when serving. He...
10:24 PM, Apr 16, 2013
Monte Carlo: Leander Paes and his Austrian partner Jurgen Melzer advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters here with a comfortable straight sets victory over local pair Benjamin Balleret and Guillaume Couillard. The unseeded Indo-Austrian pair beat the wildcards 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and eight minutes on Monday. Paes and Melzer will play Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, who were given a bye in the opening...
08:27 PM, Apr 16, 2013
Monaco: Ninth-seeded Marin Cilic overcame a shaky serving performance to beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday. Cilic looked set for an easier win after converting all three of his break points in the first set, before both players dropped serve three times in the second set. Cilic stepped it up in the third, hitting three aces...
08:52 AM, Apr 16, 2013
Monaco: Rafael Nadal will talk about almost anything except his knee injury as he bids to win the Monte Carlo Masters for the ninth straight time. The Spaniard has made a staggering return to the circuit after seven months out with a left knee injury, reaching the final of the four tournaments he's played in - winning three - and racing to a career best 17-1 start to the season....
07:57 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Monaco: Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain upset Gilles Simon 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday. Bautista Agut closed it out on his fifth match point when the 11th-seeded Frenchman hit a forehand into the net. The Spaniard will play either Florian Mayer of Germany or Benjamin Balleret of Monaco. In other first-round matches, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and...
06:56 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Moscow: Rising Russian women's tennis star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Monday announced that five-time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis will be coaching her. Pavlyuchenkova rose to 20th in the world on the back of her third title in Monterrey last week, and has enlisted the retired Swiss star's help for this weekend's Fed Cup match and beyond. "Now I'm starting my collaboration with Martina Hingis and we are going to try...
05:01 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Paris: Prize money at the French Open will rise significantly for both singles champions and players who lose in some of the early rounds. Roland Garros organisers said on Monday that the overall total for the tournament will go from 18.7 million euros ($24.6 million) last year to 22 million euros ($28.7 million), with winners receiving 1.5 million euros ($1.96 million) compared to 1.25 million euros ($1.64 million) in 2012....
03:04 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Houston: American John Isner beat Argentina's Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the US Men's Clay Court Championship on Sunday. Isner won his first tournament of the year and the sixth of his career. He had seven aces in the match - including two at more than 140 mph in the 10th game to hold serve - and a record 64 for the tournament. The players were on...
08:27 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Monaco: Sixteenth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria all won in straight sets in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Sunday. Kohlschreiber broke Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci's serve five times in a 6-4, 6-2 win; Dolgopolov saved all three break points he faced in a 6-2, 6-4 win against Bernard Tomic; and Dimitrov broke Xavier Malisse twice in each set on...
11:04 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Sania Mirza has also joined Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) as one of its vice presidents, it was revealed on Sunday. Sania is now one of the four vice presidents of the newly-formed body with Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Somdev Devvarman being the other VPs. "Happy to announce that @MirzaSania has consented to be a VP of @TennisITPA and she has been co opted unanimously. Welcome aboard...
08:24 PM, Apr 14, 2013
Houston: John Isner and Nicolas Almagro, two of the biggest servers in tennis, aced their way into the final of the US Men's Clay Court Championship. Top-seeded Almagro of Spain, the ATP Tour leader with 261 aces, needed only 58 minutes to beat American wild-card Rhyne Williams 6-2, 6-1. Isner, second in tour aces with 251, recovered from a slow start to top defending champion Juan Monaco of Spain 1-6,...
09:17 AM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Indian paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and K Shamini have failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the 26th Table Tennis Asian Cup, being played at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong. Honk Kong's Tang Peng defeated Sharath (70), the highest-ranked Indian in the world, 13-11, 7-11, 5-11, 11-1, 11-8, 11-7 in the qualification play-off round. Sharath grabbed a 2-1 lead over the local favourite after losing...
06:17 PM, Apr 13, 2013
Houston: Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated Italian Paolo Lorenzo 6-4, 6-4 on Friday to advance to the US Men's Clay Court semi-finals. Fifth-seeded American John Isner also advanced, hitting 19 aces to overpower Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Almagro, ranked 12th in the world, will next face American wild card Rhyne Williams, who rallied from an 0-3 deficit in the third set to beat Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo,...
08:22 AM, Apr 13, 2013
Spain's David Ferrer has pulled out of the Monte Carlo Masters event that starts on Sunday due to injury. "Unfortunately I will not be able to be in Monte Carlo because of physical problems," the world number four said on his Twitter feed on Thursday, without elaborating. Ferrer is hoping to recover in time to play in the Barcelona Open that starts on April 20. The Monte Carlo Masters launches...
11:03 PM, Apr 11, 2013
New Delhi: If troubled Myanmar can host Davis Cup matches then Pakistan should be allowed to follow suit, captain Mohammad Khalid said on Thursday as the country continued to protest at being disqualified from a weekend tie. Khalid is still smarting after Pakistan were controversially disqualified from their 'home' Davis Cup match, played in Yangon, Myanmar, against New Zealand last weekend because of "unplayable" court conditions. The three-day Asia/Oceania Group...
06:06 PM, Apr 11, 2013
Tennis player Sania Mirza was spotted at the Women's Prerna Awards in a stunning white 'anarkali' dress with red border. ...
01:22 PM, Apr 11, 2013
Karachi: Pakistan's top player Aisam-ul-Haq says he will compete in the inaugural International Tennis Premier League, which is to be launched by Indian star Mahesh Bhupathi by the end of this year. "I have been asked about my availability and I have told them I am definitely interested in playing in the league," said Aisam who once formed a successful doubles partnership with Indian Rohan Bopanna on the ITF circuit....
10:25 AM, Apr 11, 2013
New Delhi: The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has zeroed in on 10 paddlers who will be attending the coaching camps in Sweden and China for about 15 days in order to prepare themselves for the forthcoming World Table Tennis Championships to be held in Paris in May. The men's team, consisting of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Sanil Shetty, Harmeet Desai, Soumyadeep Roy and Anthony Amal Raj will...
09:38 AM, Apr 11, 2013
