Federer whips Wawrinka to set up clash with Djokovic, Li Na in last four again

DEFENDING champion Roger Fede rer demolished fellow Swiss Sta­nislas Wawrinka to reach his eighth straight Australian Open semi-final yesterday, setting up a grandstand clash with Novak Djokovic.

Women’s top seed Caroline Woz niacki survived a thrilling quar ter-final with tenacious Italian Francesca Schiavone and will now need to beat Li Na, who ratcheted up Chinese hopes of a first Grand Slam singles title.

Federer, who can become only the second man to win five Australian Opens after Roy Emerson (six), showed no mercy against close friend Wawrinka as he took him apart 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in just one hour 47 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Federer matches Connors’ record, Schiavone in longest women’s match

MEN’S champion Roger Federer stuttered to a record-equalling 27th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final at the Australian Open yesterday, as Francesca Schiavone won the longest women’s match at a major.

While Federer needed four sets against Tommy Robredo, Novak Djokovic stayed in dazzling form and women’s top seed Caroline Wozniacki also progressed, as Germany’s Andrea Petkovic stunned 2008 winner Maria Sharapova.

However, all attention was on Hisense Arena, Melbourne Park’s second-biggest court, where Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova treated the crowd to an epic, 4 hours 44 minutes slugfest which outstripped the previous record by 25min.

French Open champion Schiavone saved six match points and needed three of her own before volleying the clincher and raising her arms aloft, and turning her thoughts to a quarter-final with Wozniacki.

The final set alone lasted three hours as the 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 marathon eclipsed the longest Grand Slam women’s match of 4 hours 19 minutes between Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Regina Kulikova in Melbourne last year.

Federer takes five sets to beat bogeyman Simon

REIGNING champion Roger Federer was taken to five gripping sets by French nemesis Gilles Simon yesterday before scraping into the Australian Open’s third round.

The world number two, defending his only remaining Grand Slam crown, was pegged back from two sets up before scoring his first-ever win over Simon, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, to stay on course for his fifth Open title.

It was a desperately close call for the 29-year-old, who holds a record 16 Grand Slam titles and only narrowly avoided his worst performance at a major in eight years, and his poorest ever Australian Open outing.

Nadal, Federer and Co. headline flood fundraiser

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP): Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal teamed up with other top players in a special sold-out "Rally for Relief" charity match to raise money for Australian flood victims, a day before the start of the Australian Open.

Players cracked jokes and poked fun at each other, mixing entertainment with pledges of support at Sunday's fundraiser.

Third-seeded Kim Clijsters told the cheering crowd: "Hopefully, we can take some of the stress away."

Organizers aimed to raise more than $1 million for flood relief at the tournament.

The floods have caused at least 27 deaths in Australia's northeast since late November, and 14 other people are missing, most of them from a flash flood that swept through towns west of Brisbane on Monday.

Spaniard Nadal targeting the historic ‘Rafa Slam’

MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal has already achieved a career Grand Slam but has never owned all four major titles at the same time.

That may all change for the Spaniard in next week’s Australian Open when he vies with his great rival Roger Federer for the first major of the season.

Nadal became only the seventh man in history – and the youngest at 24 in the Open era – to claim a career Grand Slam of the four major tournaments when he conquered Novak Djokovic in the US Open final last September.

Nadal finished 2010 reigning supreme at the top of the rankings and enters the Australian Open 3,145 rankings points ahead of Federer, aided by his French Open, Wimbledon and US Open wins.

And Nadal admits he may never have a better chance than in the coming fortnight of taking possession of all four major crowns simultaneously, a feat not accomplished since Rod Laver in 1969.

Federer not leaving the Grand Slam party yet

MELBOURNE: For many of his exasperated rivals desperate to clean up, Roger Federer is the epitome of the annoying party guest – grudgingly invited but typically the last to leave.

The Swiss 29-year-old has guzzled more than his fair share from the victory cups of a record 16 Grand Slams, frustrating the thirstiest of title contenders.

Federer returned this week to Melbourne Park, where he notched his fourth Australian Open win in 2010 and savoured his first grand slam title with his wife Mirka and twin baby daughters.

While his performances at the year’s other three majors may have suggested a hangover, the Swiss maestro’s recent form has shown efforts to usher him out the door may again be set to backfire when the year’s first major starts on Monday.

Federer eyes return to No. 1

DOHA: Roger Federer has set his sights on a return to the world number one spot after demolishing Nikolay Davydenko to capture a third Qatar Open title and 67th career crown.

Federer, who will defend his Australian Open title from Jan 17, eased past his Russian opponent 6-3, 6-4 and immediately pondered regaining the world number one ranking from Rafael Nadal in the opening months of the season.

“Rafa has a lot of points to defend but at the same time he’s very confident,” said Federer.

“It’s going to be really difficult, but if I keep playing at the level I have here, and playing only finals as I have lately, I feel like I have a chance. But I have to keep it up.

Federer brushes aside Davydenko to regain Qatar Open crown

DOHA: Roger Federer hammered out his determination to hang on to his Australian Open title when he brushed aside Nikolay Davydenko to regain the Qatar Open crown yesterday.

Last year the Russian beat the Swiss master on the way to the title.

This time world number two Federer overwhelmed the defending champion, who had put out top seed Rafael Nadal in Friday’s semi-finals, 6-3, 6-4 to complete the capture of the trophy without dropping a set.

He was assertive, consistent, and very intent on taking his 67th career title and third in Doha.

Federer caps hard-fought win with sensational winner

DOHA: Roger Federer began the season which he hopes will see him add to his record 16 Grand Slam titles with a fighting win and a finish which took the roof off in the first round of the Qatar Open.

The tennis legend was forced to save three successive set points to get past Thomas Schoorel, an enterprising 21-year-old qualifier from Holland, but then concluded the match amidst laughter and tumultuous applause for a shot which should get endless on-line video replays.

For no accountable reason, Federer struck a ground stroke between his legs when he was in no apparent difficulty and watched it go for a sensational winner in the penultimate game of his 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 win.

It was at least a minute before the next rally could start, with Federer unable to contain his grin as he stood to receive and Schoorel still smiling generously as he eventually began his service action.


Swiss stroke: Roger Federer returning a shot to Holland’s Thomas Schoorel during their Qatar Open first-round match in Doha yesterday. Federer won 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. — AFP
Somehow Schoorel rescued that service game and was still smiling broadly as Federer wrapped up the match in the next game, with the crowd again going wild.

“My opponent was good and has quality,” Federer said of a player who was competing in only the second ATP World Tour event of his career. “He hit hard and had good chances in the first set.”

They happened when Federer slipped to love-40 on his serve at 4-5, only to produce three wonderfully timed first serves in a row to repair the damage - though he face other mini-crises too.

He had been 30-40 down in the eighth game, when he also produced a winning first serve, and he had to save two more break points in the third game of the second set.

The first was saved with an approach and a delicately angled stop volley winner, and the second with an ace.

“I took time to get into the match,” Federer admitted.

That may have been partly to the cool, slowish, early evening conditions, but it was also to the awkward angles the left-handed Schoorel projected into Federer’s backhand side, and the uninhibited way he struck fierce flat groundstrokes.

Federer acknowledged that he played better after the morale-booster of winning a tight first set, and said that he hoped it would help him go on to win the Qatar Open title back.

He added:“But I hope to win many tournaments around the world this year,” which sounded like a statement of intent for the Australian Open, where he will begin the defence of the title in less then two weeks time.

Federer now has to play his fellow Swiss player Marco Chiudinelli, a qualifier who came from the brink of defeat to beat Reda El Amrani, a wild card player from Morocco, by 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. — AFP

Nadal wins Abu Dhabi exhibition

ABU DHABI: Top-ranked Rafael Nadal started 2011 with a win over his main rival, beating Roger Federer 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3) yesterday to defend his title at the invitational World Tennis Championships.

Both players held serve throughout the match, and Federer had the early momentum in the first tiebreaker, hitting a couple of blistering forehand winners to go up 3-0. But Nadal won the next five points and clinched the set when the Swiss hit a forehand long.

In the second tiebreaker, Nadal went up 3-1 with a drop volley and Federer sent his return long on the next point. The Spaniard then set up match point with a crosscourt forehand winner and converted it when Federer hit a forehand long.

“For both of us, these are the first matches of the season. So it is special for us,” Nadal said.

“This is the perfect place to start the season here in Abu Dhabi.”