Random pictures at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai

Everyone already know why Rafael Nadal is not in Shanghai for Tennis Masters Cup.

But I don't see Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko either. I've been surfing some of the popular Chinese websites trying to dig some photos of the two but to no avail.

However here are the rest of the guys. But before that look at the robin group allocations below (numeric prefix denotes seeding)

Red group
1. Roger Federer (SUI)
3. Andy Murray (GBR)
5. Andy Roddick (USA)
8. Gilles Simon (FRA)

Gold group
2. Novak Djokovic (SER)
4. Nikolay Dawydenko (RUS)
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
7. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)

The lovely Mirka and Roger Federer. You know what? I'm actually rooting Federer to win here.

Novak Djokovic has not been his usual self lately. Either the US Open impacted his

confidence or he has been partying really hard.

Andy Murray is a hot favourite but let's rewind back to the recent Olympic Games, he was beaten
by Rendy Lu in the first round. China has been quite tough on Murray, so he's not really my pick to win here.

Murray took part in the Tennis Masters Cup draw ceremony at the Hilton Shanghai on
Wednesday. The names of the players were inside traditional Chinese fortune cookies.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, fresh from winning the Paris Masters looks confident and ready
to win again.

The Chinese people believe that number 8 is a lucky number. Gilles Simon believes it too.

Frenchmen Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga practice together.

Juan Martin del Potro looks yummilicious here.

Thanks to anon, now we can finally see Nikolay Davydenko in Shanghai!

(Via sina.com, fft.fr)

Andy Murray clinches Madrid Masters; Marcin Matkowski & Mariusz Fyrstenberg win dubs title

World no. 4 Andy Murray beat Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 7-6 (6) on Sunday to win the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Masters.

The U.S. Open finalist became the first Briton to win four titles in a season.

He will be the first Briton in the Open era since Fred Perry in 1936 to finish the year at No. 4.

“Gilles was hitting much better from behind the baseline, but I got a lot of free points from my serve,” Murray said.

“That was probably the key to my win today.”

Simon had previously won five straight three-set matches at Madrid.

“I couldn’t move like I’m used to and Andy knew it, so he tried to kill me by making me run,” said Simon, barely able to walk the step up to the microphone.

“Often I missed two easy shots, one after another. That’s why I lost today; I couldn’t focus on every point. It was too much effort for me.”

Murray beat Roger Federer in the semifinals, while Simon defeated top-ranked Rafael Nadal to reach his fourth final this year.

Their victories denied a fifth Nadal-Federer final of 2008.

I know you guys would have liked to have seen a Roger-Rafa final but you brought a great atmosphere, so thanks for coming,” Murray told the crowd at the Madrid Arena, which hosted the tournament for the final time as it moves to the newly built “Caja Magica” (Magic Box) next year.

The 23-year-old Simon is ninth in the race to qualify for the season-ending tournament—seven points behind No. 7 David Ferrer and six back of Juan Martin del Potro and the eighth and final qualifying spot.

“It won’t be easy because there are one or two tournaments left. I don’t know if I play in Lyon because right now I just want to rest,” Simon said.

In the doubles final, 7th-seeded Poles Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg won their second ATP title of the season on Sunday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 4th seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles at the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid.

It is the first ATP Masters Series title for the Poles, who finished runners-up to Bob and Mike Bryan in the Madrid final last season.

In the quarterfinals this week they knocked out second seeds and Wimbledon champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic and they saved three match points in their semifinal win over Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie.

The Poles began the week at No. 9 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race with 307 points, 17 points behind Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa in eighth position.

They won their first ATP title of the season at Warsaw, and have also finished runners-up at Barcelona, Bucharest and Metz; this is their seventh career team title. They now have a 33-23 match record on the season.

(Via AP, ATP official website, Images via Yahoo! Sport)

James Blake out in Madrid; Ball girls & off-court photos

James Blake becomes the first seed to lost in Madrid after lost to Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the $3 million Mutua Madrilena Masters (Madrid Masters).

Simon will face either 5th-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko or American qualifier Robby Ginepri in the third round.

Headlining today's five 2nd-round matches is top-seeded Rafael Nadal, who will clash with unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

This is the first single match for Nadal since claiming a pair of singles victories in Spain’s Davis Cup win over the U.S..

The world no.1 is now leading the ATP with eight titles and a 77-9 record this season.

The world No. 1 and 2005 champion of this hardcourt event, Nadal faced Gulbis for the first time at Wimbledon earlier this year, dropping the first set before taking the second-round encounter, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, en route to the championship.

Also slated for second-round play is U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray, the 4th seed, and world no. 15 Richard Gasquet.

That pair will try to avoid the same fate as no. 13 Fernando Verdasco, who suffered a 6-2, 6-3 second-round loss to Marin Cilic of Croatia.

Phillip Kohlschreiber, Gael Monfils, Jarkko Nieminen and Marcel Granollers-Pujol claimed first-round victories Tuesday.

Photos:

Madrid Masters is probably famous for its hot Hugo Boss ball girls. These are the ball girl on the Andy Murray vs Simone Bolelli match. Murray was leading the match with 6-0, 2-1 when Bolelli retired due to an injury.


And here are more off-court photos.

Feliciano Lopez signing autograph for young fans.

Agustin Calleri signing autograph in Diadora's stand.

Marin Cilic was in Air Europa's stand.

Carlos Moya in front of a Mercedes.

(Images via Yahoo! Sport, Madrid Masters official website)

Gilles Simon beats Carlos Moya in BCR Open final

Gilles Simon of France won his second straight BCR Open Romania by beating Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 on the weekend final.

The second-seeded Simon broke the Spaniard at 3-2 in the first set and saved all six break points he conceded in the match to secure his fifth career title.

The final only lasted about 90 minutes, just half the time it took Simon to defeat eighth-seeded Jose Acasuso of Argentina in Saturday’s semifinal.

Simon beat local favorite Victor Hanescu in last year’s final, and has an 11-1 record in Bucharest.

In the men's doubles final, French duo Nicolas Devilder and Paul-Henri Mathieu won an epic battle against top seeded Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-6(4), 6-7(9) 22-20 in the final of the BCR Open Romania in Bucharest to clinch their first team title.

(Via Yahoo! Sports)

Post-Wimbledon nightmare: Gilles Simon ousts Roger Federer

I wonder why 'tennis greats' like Boris Becker and John McEnroe like to come in between the 'rivalry' of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Recently, Becker and McEnroe have suggested that Nadal is now the unofficial world no. 1 - as he is by a hefty margin in the 2008 ATP Race and of course winning two Grand Slams back-to-back at the French Open and Wimbledon.

However Federer will not hear of that as the world rankings are a moving 12-month window that includes his 2007 US Open triumph.

Roger Federer has denied that Rafael Nadal is the top man, contradicting the view of two former greats.

"There is never an unofficial world No1. Of course he has still won two unbelievably difficult tournaments and whoever wins those is supposed to be No1. But I have had a very good end to the past two years. It's hard to snatch the No1 position, he knows that."

On the other hand, I think Nadal is smart as he was playing a psychological game too by saying, "Right now I don't want to be No1. I only want to play a good tournament here (at Rogers Cups)."

Still battling to adapt to the loss of his Wimbledon title after five years, Federer is now trying to gain back his confidence and respect at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada.

However, his hope falls short after losing in the second round to French hottie Gilles Simon 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

"It's a bad start, no doubt. I wish it could have been different. Now I'm going to get some practise in."

Federer obviously not happy with his game but yet gave credit to the Simon, the world no. 22.

"As the match went on I struggled a little bit to put the forehands away. He's a good baseliner. We saw that today. He moves well. He's deceiving because he's kind of thin and tall but moves really well for his height, you know."

"He flicks a lot of balls with his backhand as well, so when you come in you can't see where he plays."

Nadal, meanwhile, won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday over Canadian Jesse Levine to move into the 3rd round.

Should second-ranked Nadal win the Rogers Cup, he would have a chance at next week's Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati to end Federer's 234-week reign as the top- ranked player.

Federer had begun 2008 with a 1,445 point lead over Nadal in the rankings. That advantage had almost halved going into the Toronto event, where 500 points are awarded to the winner.

(Image by AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)