Thanks to a contest by Astrolife I had the opportunity to toss coin for the doubles semifinals match last night.
It was such an honour to be able to step onto the Centre Court. [Click here to check out the court preparation, if you haven't seen it yet]
I was introduced to the chair umpire Carlos Bernardes by the international Media Director Craig Gabriel.
I congratulated Carlos as his country Brazil won the rights to host the Olympics 2016.
I teased him by saying that the organiser should have a special autograph signing session for the chair umpires as he and Mohamed Lahyani are very popular here.
Then we started talking about Malaysia - he said he had now know the meaning of 'Malaysia Truly Asia'.
Carlos said he had seen the commercial countless times on CNN but only understand the true meaning of that famous tagline when he reached this country.
Everywhere he went, including the KLCC, he was truly amazed by how the different races in this country able to live together despite social and cultural differences.
As we walked towards the middle of the Centre Court, waiting for the players to join us, Carlos added that the ATP World Tour tried very hard to promote the doubles event - having the players' names on the back of their t-shirts is one way to do so.
I shook hands with all the players and tossed the coin. Mariusz Fyrstenberg joked/praised me for that nice flip :P
What a priceless experience that was on Friday night.
I'm glad I made full use of that opportunity to speak to one of the best and nicest chair umpires in the world.
(Images by HSFoo/hcfoo.com)
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)
Top seeds and two-time defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan took time out from their first-match preparations at the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid yesterday to sign autographs and copies of the new ATP Feel the Speed of Doubles book for fans.
The American twins, who have amassed a 60-14 doubles record and clinched five titles this year, will contest their first match since winning the US Open crown last month against Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa in Madrid on Thursday.
In second round action, fifth seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett—who are tied No. 5 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race—boosted their chances of qualifying for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai after beating Tomas Berdych and Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in 80 minutes.
Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, who are locked in a two-team battle with the Bryan brothers for year-end No. 1 honours, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco.
Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski also advanced to the quarterfinals on Wednesday, after edging past French duo and recent Metz titlists Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 7-5, 7-6(14) in 91 minutes.
Rafael Nadal, who had been due to partner compatriot Carlos Moya in the second round against fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles on Wednesday afternoon, withdrew from that match due to slight pain in his lower back.
(Images by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Dmitry Tursunov captured the Open de Moselle title on Sunday with a three-set victory over French crowd favorite Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The fifth-seeded Tursunov notched a 7-6 (8-6), 1-6, 6-4 triumph for his fifth career title and second of 2008.
He also won in Sydney at the start of the season, and Sunday's win improved his career finals record to 5-2. One of those losses came in July at Indianapolis.
Mathieu, seeded fourth, was playing in his first final of the year and the seventh of his career. He fell to 4-3 in title matches, last winning a tournament last year in Gstaad.
The victory was worth $82,000 for Tursunov, who was born in Moscow and resides in California.
He improved to 2-0 lifetime against Mathieu, also winning a three-set match at the Queen's Club in 2007.
Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra retained their Open de Moselle title after defeating top seeded Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 in a repeat of the 2007 final.
(Via sportsnetwork.com, Image by Yahoo! Sport)
Top seed Nikolay Davydenko defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5 to win the Malaysia Open on Sunday.
Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski took the doubles title after beating Igor Kunitsyn and Jaroslav Levinsky 6-2, 6-1.
In Bangkok, Gilles Simon won the Thailand Open after down Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-3 for his first ATP title of the year and sixth overall. 
In the doubles final, Americans Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Mischa Zverev 7-6(4), 6-3.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Maria Sharapova won her first tournament since returning from a 10-month injury layoff when Jelena Jankovic retired because of an arm injury in the first set of the Toray Pan Pacific final.
