Italian tennis star Flavia Pennetta trounced American teenager Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2 to hand Italy their second straight win over the US and third Fed Cup title in five years. The win gave Italy an unassailable 3-1 lead in the match following victories for Pennetta and reigning French Open champion Francesca Shiavone in Saturday’s opening [...]
Andy Murray began the defence of his Valencia Open title with a straight-sets win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez. The Briton, seeded number one, had to work hard for a 6-3 7-6 (7-1) victory in one hour and 27 minutes, and goes on to face Juan Monaco in round two. Murray beat the Argentine in the [...]
The Williams sisters will hold another family reunion on centre court at the U.S. Open after registering wins on Monday that set up a tiebreaking, sibling clash in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows. Fourth seed Serena routed French wildcard Severine Bremond 6-2 6-2, while seventh-seeded elder Venus crushed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1 6-3 to [...]
Andy Murray reached his first Masters Series final with victory over Ivo Karlovic in Cincinnati on Saturday. The British number one came through 6-4 6-4 to set up a meeting with Novak Djokovic at 2000 BST on Sunday. Karlovic had beaten Roger Federer earlier in the week but went into the semi with an 0-2 [...]
Roger Federer’s long reign as world number one is looking perilous after he crashed out of the Toronto Masters in his first match since Wimbledon. Federer, who had a first-round bye, lost 2-6 7-5 6-4 to unseeded Frenchman Gilles Simon in the second round. Nadal, however, had a 6-4 6-2 win over Jesse Levine and [...]
Rafael Nadal held off an incredible fightback from Roger Federer to win his first Wimbledon title and end the Swiss star’s reign at the All England Club. The Spaniard missed two championship points in the fourth set but recovered to win a dramatic rain-interrupted match 6-4 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (8-10) 9-7. The final shot [...]
Venus and Serena Williams, who will face each other in Saturday’s Wimbledon singles final, continued their domination of the championships on Friday by reaching the women’s doubles final. The American sisters, seeded 11th, beat Nathalie Dechy of France and Australia’s Casey Dellacqua 6-3 6-3. They have yet to drop a set in singles or doubles [...]
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cleared the last treacherous hurdles on Friday to set up a dream final at Wimbledon for the third year running. Five-times champion Federer earned the chance to re-ignite one of the most fascinating rivalries in sport when he suffocated Russian maverick Marat Safin 6-3 7-6 6-4 at the All England [...]
Second seed Rafael Nadal crushed Andy Murray in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday, racing to a 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory. The Spaniard was simply unstoppable as he picked apart the Scot in front of a Centre Court crowd who had been hoping for a repetition of Murray’s epic fourth round win over Richard Gasquet. From [...]
Andy Murray overcame a second-set wobble to beat former world number two Tommy Haas of Germany in the third round at Wimbledon. The British number one, 21, came through 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 16 and give further evidence he could be a real contender this year. Murray won in two [...]
It was a case of so near yet so far for Nathalie Dechy on Wednesday. The Frenchwoman came within a point of dumping world number one Ana Ivanovic out of Wimbledon in the second round but found the gods were not on her side. Leading 7-6 5-4, Dechy came to the brink of pulling off [...]
Andy Murray safely negotiated his opening match at Wimbledon, but not without some nervous moments against wily Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. The British number one, seeded 12th, came through 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-5) to set up a meeting with Xavier Malisse. Santoro, 35, frequently bamboozled Murray with some devilish spin and forged a 4-2 lead in [...]