TENNIS in DEPTH.

You’ve got to feel sorry for Jelena Dokic. After a long struggle to achieve some success in her comeback, she finally appeared to be turning the corner with a convincing win in the first round of the French Open. Pitted against #4 Elena Dementieva in what would appear to be a dauntless task for Jelena, she played her best tennis to take the first set and go ahead in the second when disaster struck.

Elena Dementieva advanced to the third round of the French Open when Jelena Dokic retired with a back injury while leading 6-2, 3-4 Thursday.

Dokic turned for a backhand during the fifth game of the second set, grimaced in pain and called time. She then reached toward the lower part of her back and gingerly walked toward her chair to call for a trainer.

She returned to the court and broke Dementieva to take a 3-2 lead, but then cried into her towel during the changeover. After losing the next two games, Dokic stopped.

The fourth-seeded Dementieva has reached at least the semifinals at every Grand Slam event. She lost in the finals of the 2004 French Open and U.S. Open.

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Venus Williams survived 2 match points to defeat Lucie Safarova 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in a resumption of a match halted at dusk on Wednesday. Safarova who looked so good in the first set never reproduced the form she showed earlier in today’s final two sets. Venus who is erratic when serving might just awakened by this close call.

Jelena Jankovic moved a step closer to her third straight semifinal appearance at the French Open, beating Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2 Thursday in the second round.

The fifth-seeded Jankovic won 15 of the first 17 points, and then broke her opponent in the final game of the first set. In the second, she recovered from an early break to win four straight games, and closed out the match with her sixth break of service.

Jankovic lost in the semifinals at Roland Garros in each of the last two years. She made her first Grand Slam final at the 2008 U.S. Open.

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Svetlana Kuznetsova wasted little time in reaching the last 32 of the French Open on Thursday.

The 2006 runner-up crushed Galina Voskoboeva 6-2 6-0 in just 49 minutes.

The seventh seed, rated by many as a real title threat at Roland Garros, swept through the first set on Court Two in just 19 minutes.

Kuznetsova was utterly dominant and although her opponent did manage to win two games in the second set she was shakign hands at the net well before the hour mark after sending a backhand wide on match point

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Hi everyone,

TENNIS AND FOOTBALL

I am writing this blog after the Champions League final. All of us staying here have watched it here at the hotel lobby and the first thing I want to do is congratulate all the Barcelona team. What a fantastic team. The closest thing to perfection!!!. And I say this first since it looks like this is the only thing people were really caring today was about the football match. Sure I wanted to watch it, you know I love football and I watch a lot but it was kind of funny to have questions in the press conference about me wanting to change the match today to play earlier.

I am a professional tennis player and first thing is first for me. The main thing today was to win my match and then, if I had time, watch the football match on TV. In the end I did both. I managed to win and went back to the hotel to watch the match.

DAY OFF

To be honest with you, the only thing I did really care about was to finish the match today. At some point in the third set, it started to rain. I was saying, please, please, let’s hope we can finish the match since in these kind of tournaments it is important to have that day off to practice and improve those things that didn’t work well. If the match would have not been finished then you have to go back tomorrow,

warm up for those games and who knows. If you win, you really have that kind of day that doesn’t allow you to do much.

TOMORROW

As I say day off with no match but early practice at 11 am to continue to try to improve things. After that I have a promotional action with the Balearic Islands who apart from being my homeland I also support

them and will meet with them at 4 pm together with International media.

Thanks

Rafa

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If there were any doubts about Maria Sharapova’s return to form, then today she dispelled them. She defeated fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6 in a three set match that had more momemtum swings than a grandfather clock. Petrova, until 2 weeks ago was a permanent fixture in the top ten women’s rankings before being pushed out by Azarenka, and was the toughest opponent yet faced by Sharapova in her comeback.

She served more double faults than aces, but somehow managed to win the big points. Petrova hit winners from both sides and was in control after the second set. She went up a break in the third but Sharapova came back to tie at 4-4. It will be interesting to see how far she will go, but you can be sure that all the other contenders have their collective eyes on her.

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Andy Murray survived a scare at the French Open on Wednesday, eventually winning a see-saw contest against Potito Starace to book his place in the third round.

Murray came through a 6-3 2-6 7-5 6-4 winner but not before he had found himself 5-1 down in the third set and in all sorts of trouble against the world number 104.

The first set suggested it would simply be a routine day at the office for the British star, a break in the fifth game seeing him take control.

After losing the opener 6-3, Starace, a claycourt specialist, looked almost resigned to his fate.

But he suddenly raised his level, pinning Murray back with his impressive forehand and when he claimed a thrilling third game of the second set – breaking Murray for the first time – he took control of the match.

Starace’s resurgence was startling, the Italian producing fewer errors and more winners than in the first set. In contrast, Murray’s error count rose considerably and it was soon a set apiece.

Murray was unable to stem the tide in the third set either and by the time Starace had established a 5-1 lead, his use of the drop shot baffling the Briton, Murray had lost 11 of the last 13 games.

Then from nowhere, Murray launched his fightback. The spark was a superb crosscourt winner off the forehand wing which got one of the breaks back.

He saved a set point before breaking to love to level up the set, geeing himself up with shouts of ‘come on’.

Now it was Starace lacking the craft to turn things around and after losing a sixth straight game, the Italian returned to his chair and buried his head in his towel.

To his credit, Starace refused to wilt in the fourth set, but with Murray easily holding his serve chances were few and far between.

An opportunity finally came in the 10th game as Murray turned up the pressure.

Two match points were missed but on the third the Scot came up with a rasping forehand winner to clinch his place in the last 32 where he will face either Feliciano Lopez or Janko Tipsarevic.

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Asked how to tackle Rafael Nadal, Albert Costa, the 2002 champion at Roland Garros and Nadal’s current Davis Cup captain, says: “It’s so tough because he’s also a lefty but I would try to play the way I played before.

“I would play to his backhand and wait for the short ball, but it’s not easy because he has improved the backhand a lot.”

Costa is still playing on the ATP Champions Tour, which concludes with December’s Masters Tennis in London, and was no stranger to a clay-court marathon himself.

“Rafa never misses,” he says. “He’s hitting hard so he keeps you three metres behind the baseline. If he plays at the beginning at the same level as always then his opponents don’t really feel like they want to keep playing for two hours like this.”

NADAL & BORG TITLE RUNS IN PARIS

Nadal:

2008: Sets W-L 21-0 (100%)

2007: Sets W-L 21-1 (95.5%)

2006: Sets W-L 20-3 (87%)

2005: Sets W-L 21-3 (87.5%)

Total Sets W-L 83-7 (92.2%)

Borg:

1981: Sets W-L 21-2 (91.3%)

1980: Sets W-L 21-0 (100%)

1979: Sets W-L 21-3 (87.5%)

1978: Sets W-L 21-0 (100%)

Total Sets W-L 84-5 (94.4%)

Federer has suffered repeatedly at Nadal’s hands and the 13-time Grand Slam champion’s own incredible achievements are in danger of being overshadowed by the Spaniard.

Nadal leads their head-to-head 13-7, and 9-2 on clay, and he has beaten the Swiss at Roland Garros for the last four years running, including the last three finals.

Last year’s 6-1 6-3 6-0 victory remains Nadal’s most devastating display to date.

“I know that clay’s obviously a different animal,” says Federer. “He plays extremely well on it and he crushed me in last year’s French Open final.

“For me it’s about believing that I can win playing aggressive, not playing his style, and that’s tough to get out of because he’s such a great shot-maker, such great defence.”

Ferrero believes Federer has unintentionally spurred on Nadal in his domination of the French Open.

“I think that taking the number one spot from Roger served as an extra motivation for him to win so many Roland Garros titles in a row – one led to the other,” says Ferrero.

“Roger had been number one for a long time and Rafa’s improvement has to do to with the fact he needed to get better to be able to be number one.”

So, is it worth the others turning up on Sunday, or will we see a two-week coronation of Nadal?

 Federer admits Nadal “crushed” him in Paris last year

“It will be tough to beat him but I don’t think it’s impossible,” says Ferrero. “It’s definitely a hard task but if he’s not 100%, someone could beat him.”

Asked who could topple the champion, Costa says: “Federer, Djokovic, Fernando Verdasco maybe, David Ferrer. Murray is very motivated to play on clay but I think for the moment Rafa is still a bit better, but he is going to be very dangerous this year.”

Speaking after his defeat in last week’s Madrid semi-final, in which Nadal saved three match points, Djokovic said: “Next time I’ll probably take two racquets on the match point and try to hit them past him. I don’t know what to do.”

But the man who craves the one title that would complete his Grand Slam set has not given up hope.

“The belief is always there, I’ve played him so many times,” insists Federer. “You’ve got to hope for one day when he’s not that sharp, or maybe he’s won that much that he’ll question himself ‘how many more times can I really do it?’

“I’m not saying that’s what happened to me but you sometimes start to wonder as a player when you dominate so much on a particular surface, like me on grass, you go out there and think ‘how many more can I really do?’ because the press keeps asking over and over.

“He knows that guys are chasing him, even though he’s dominating clay in an unbelievable way right now, and honestly what he’s been able to achieve at his young age on clay is phenomenal.

“But we’re there, we’re there to challenge him, and we’ll wait and hopefully take the opportunity when it comes – especially me.”

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In 2008 and during the first quarter of this year, the strong leggedRussian struggled to find her ethereal form, falling to win atournament until three weeks ago in Stuttgart, when she bested No. 1Dinara Safina for the title.

As talented and strong as she is, Kuznetsova has grappled with her on-court courage and nerves since she came of age by beating Lindsay Davenport and Elena Dementieva to win the 2004 US Open. Going into Stuttgart, she had lost her last six finals.

“I had trouble playing the finals, but I played Henin most of the timeand she played better than me. But sometimes it was meand something was disturbing me. Something wasn’t there and [inStuttgart] it was first time I walked on court I felt I could do it.”

In March, Kuznetsova let go of her former coach, Olga Morozova aftershe lost in the first round of two straight events for the firsttime. A little over a month later, she hired former top ranked doublesplayer and current Fed Cup coach Larisa Savchenko to help her duringthe clay court season. Savchenko is still in her 30s and seems to have a good idea when to let Kuznetsova go her own way.

“She’s very easy going and relaxed and we have great communication,”Kuznetsova said. “She tells me little things and it helps me find my way out. For me, external opinion helps, but it doesn’t have to be pushy and bring me down.”

Kuznetsova still sees herself as an elite player, which really was not the case last year, when many times it seemed like she put her head down during critical matches. But on clay, her footwork is superior and she is adept at constructing points to her advantage.

“It’s about me doing my tactics because most of the matches is going to depend on what do,” she said. “If I play well, I’m favoured most of the matches. But I don’t do goals now. It’s too much to think about. It’s better just to play my game and keep it simple.”

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