No Miami, no Monte Carlo and no Basel for Roger Federer who has published his 2013 schedule on his website.
And of course no Davis Cup.
For a player who aims to be the greatest player of all time, this disinterest for the Davis Cup is quite surprising. If Berdych and Stepanek can reach the Davis Cup final two years in a row, there’s no reason Federer couln’t have done one thing or two in Davis Cup with Wawrinka.
Federer’s 2013 schedule:
Australian Open, Melbourne
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam
Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Dubai
BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells
Mutua Madrid Open, Madrid
Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Rome
Roland Garros, Paris
Gerry Weber Open, Halle
Wimbledon, London
Rogers Cup, Montreal
Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati
US Open, New York
Shanghai Rolex Masters, Shanghai
BNP Masters, Paris
Lifestyle blogger Yin was lucky to be invited down to Lacoste‘s sponsor village at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Enjoy his pics and recap on yinyang.co.uk
Extract from On this day in tennis history by Randy Walker
In the first-ever meeting between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, the 19-year-old McEnroe defeats the 22-year-old Borg 6-3 6-3 in the semifinals of the Stockholm Open in Sweden. The loss marks the first-ever professional loss for Borg to a younger player.
The McEnroe-Borg rivalry becomes one of the greatest in the sport as the two titans square off 14 times in all -each player winning 7 times. The two play in four memorable major finals, McEnroe winning 3 of 4 at the 1980 and 1981 US Open and at Wimbledon in 1981. Their epic final at Wimbledon in 1980 is regarded as one of the greatest matches of all-time, Borg winning his fifth consecutive title in a 1-6 7-5 6-3 6-7 8-6 epic.
McEnroe wins the Stockholm singles title the next day, defeating fellow American Tim Gullikson 6-2 6-2 in the final.”
Check out what McEnroe had to say about that first match. Extract from his atobiography Serious:
“Some people compare Sampras to Borg. In my mind, there’s no comparison. Even though Pete is one of the greatest players, of all time, Borg, by his presence alone, gave a lot back to the game. His story was incredible too: Who could ever have imagined such a player coming out f Sweden, a country of only eight million people, with a sub-Arctic climate?
He was the best athlete I’ve ever seen on a tennis court – I don’t think people realize how good an athlete he was. And the fact is, he had to be, because his game was bizarre, in a way: running back and forth, well behind the baseline, hitting ball after ball after ball until an angle opened up or the other guy missed. It was so side-to-side, compared to my forward-forward-forward, but Bjorn was so fast he could make up for it.
The first time we played – in the semifinals at the Stockholm Open in November 78 – was a perfect scenario for me, because it was on fast indoor, which wasn’t well suited to his game, particularly against me. I also think he felt pressure playing me in his hometown, in front of a Swedish crowd who’d gotten excited about the game because of him.
The win in Stockholm was a huge win for me – I was the first player younger than Borg to beat him – but it didn’t make me think one bit less of Bjorn. I just felt that I was with the big boys now – and this was the official coronation.”
And 34 years later, the two tennis legends still provide entertaining matches. (photos by Tennis Buzz, Optima Open 2012).
David Ferrer captures the first Masters 1000 of his career after 3 defeats in finale (Rome 2010, Monte Carlo and Shanghai 2011 ) and ends Jerzy Janowicz magical run in Paris.
The season is far from over for the Spaniard, who will play in London next week and the Davis Cup finale against Czech Republic from 16 to 18 November.
Photo by Tennis Buzz, Roland Garros 2011
All players play three round-robin matches against rivals in their group to determine a winner and runner-up from each group, who advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.
In the semi-finals the winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B and the winner of Group B plays the runner-up of Group A. Semi-final winners advance to the final.
Singles:
- Group A: Novak Djokovic (1), Andy Murray (3), Tomas Berdych (5), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (7)
- Group B: Roger Federer (2), David Ferrer (4), Juan Martin del Potro (6), Janko Tipsarevic (8)
Doubles:
-Group A: Bob and Mike Bryan (1), Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek (3), Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez (6), Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer (7)
-Group B: Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor (2), Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau (4), Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna (5), Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen (8)
Jerzy Janowicz is having the week of his life.
The unknown Polish qualifier, who ended 2011 ranked 221 and is now 69, beat 5 top 20 players: Philipp Kohlschreiber (19), Marin Cilic (15), Andy Murray (3), Janko Tipsarevic (9) and Gilles Simon (20) to reach the first ATP tournament final of his career.
For the title, Janowicz will square off against fourth seed David Ferrer who defeated wild card Michael Llodra in semis.
