Novak Djokovic donates Rome prize money to serbia flood relief

I may not be the biggest fan of Novak Djokovic but what he had done recently to support his fellow Serbians back home deserves our respect. After defeating Rafael Nadal to win the Internazionali BNL d'Italia title in Rome, he donated the cheque from the tournament to relief efforts. So far, at least 43 people are reported dead in the massive flood in the Balkans. 

Djokovic's winnings are reported to be worth $749,934. Check out this year's Wimbledon betting odds or even the upcoming French Open if you're thinking of winning some money for yourself too.

Immediately after his victory in Rome, Djokovic drew a heart with his racket on the clay surface.

"This heart on the court is for you. It's also a special dedication to my country, which is suffering a lot right now. My heart is with them."

French Open will kick off next week and there is no doubt that Djokovic will come in as favourite to stop Nadal dominance in this Grand Slam tournament. As a Nadal fan, I can only say "may the best man win'.

Images via ESPN and internazionalibnlditalia.com

Weekend winners: Rafael Nadal, Justine Henin

Bite me!

Rafael Nadal's 17th Masters Series, which surpassed Roger Federer and tied with Andre Agassi, is probably the best motivation for me to get back into blogging.

You know what? Agassi achieved the feat at the age of 34 but Nadal is only 23!

Almost like Wimbledon once again - minus Roger Federer

Pure hotness

Nadal defeated compatriot David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 after two rain delays to capture his 5th Rome Masters title in six years!

Now I can't wait for Madrid Masters and the French Open, where he fell hard last year.

Where are the medals?

In the men's doubles final, Bob and Mike Bryan beat fellow Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-3 for their 4th title of the year and 60th in their careers.

The retired Australian pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde hold a record of 61 career titles.

Justine won't be retiring again anytime soon.. perhaps in 2013

Meanwhile, Justine Henin won her first title since coming out of retirement, defeating Samantha Stosur 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix.

In the women's doubles final, Gisela Dulko paired up with Flavia Pennetta to defeat Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 3-6, 7-6, 10-5

(Images via Yahoo! Sports, Sina Tennis)

Weekend winners everywhere

Rome - World no.1 Dinara Safina won her first title of the year Saturday by defeating fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Italian Open.

Estoril - Spain’s Albert Montanes battled past American James Blake 5-7, 7-6, 6-0 to win the Estoril Open on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the women's singles, Yanina Wickmayer claimed her first career title with a straight-sets victory over Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 6-2 to pick up her maiden WTA Tour crown in Portugal.

Munich - Tomas Berdych rallied from four points down in the decisive tiebreaker to beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the final of the BMW Open Sunday for his first title of the year.

Belgrade - Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat lucky loser Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-3, 7-6 (0) in the Serbia Open final to win the first ATP Tour tournament held in his home country.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports, Djokovic's pic by Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images)

Jelena Jankovic has too much time to spend in Rome

Jelena Jankovic took time out while competing at the Italian Open to do some shopping at the GF Ferre boutique and visit the Piazza di Spagna or better known as the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Her mom Snezana accompanied her during the photo shoot.

Coming back to the court, Jankovic was leading 6-1, 1-0 when Kateryna Bondarenko called for the trainer and withdrew because of flu yesterday.

They were on court for only 35 minutes.

“I would have loved to finish the match, because I was playing pretty well in that first set,” Jankovic said.

“I felt the ball really well and I had good timing.”

Jankovic will play Svetlana Kuznetsova next, who ousted crowd favourite Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

(Images by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Serena Williams gets a big boo hoo, Dinara Safina gets down and dirty

While world no.2 Serena Williams was stunned by Patty Schnyder in the second round of the WTA Rome claycourt International, Dinara Safina got down and dirty to prove she deserves to be the no.1 player in the world.

Safina defeated Virginie Razzano 7-6, 6-1, but was really unhappy with tournament organisers for making her play in what she felt were dangerous conditions.

"I was just so angry because you can get injured," said Safina, who fell over twice during the match.

"I mean, it's not funny. They tell us go and play because they think the court is fine but they are not playing on that court."

"Thank God I didn't break anything but if I broke something, I mean, so many players get injured."

"Then what should I say to the tournament? I (should) say thanks for pushing us to play?"

"I mean, they would say: Oh, we are sorry. But it's my career, it's three months off court (if you're injured)."

"So they have to have a little bit of respect for us as players."

I bet Safina feels a whole lot better today.

(Images via Sky Sports)

Sometimes you shouldn't be over confident...

This is really funny!

On Monday, Serena Williams insisted that she's no. 1 in the world even though the women’s tennis rankings indicate otherwise.

“We all know who the real No. 1 is,” Serena said.

“Quite frankly, I’m the best in the world.”

Dinara Safina, who has never won a Grand Slam title, overtook Williams in the rankings two weeks ago.

Just one day after that statement, Patty Schnyder proved Serena wrong by defeating her in the world no.2 Rome opener!

Serena lost 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

I think Serena must have forgotten that she's playing on clay at the Foro Italico.

(Images via Yahoo Sports)

Rome-ancing the clay court season

If Rafael Nadal wins his fifth consecutive French Open later this month, probably 2009 will be the best clay court season he ever had.

Fresh from winning his fourth Rome Masters title on Sunday, beating reigning champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 in the final, Nadal looks confident for Madrid Masters and the French Open.

Now Nadal owns 15th Masters Series title and only Andre Agassi has won more with a whopping 17 titles!

"I would love to have more than 17."

"Right now I have 15, I'm very happy for that (but) I'm going to try my best in the next tournaments," said Nadal.

In the men's doubles final, Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor continued their European clay court domination by defeating defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(5), 6-3.

While in Stuttgart, Germany, Svetlana Kuznetsova stunned world no.1 Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Sunday.

American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Russian Nadia Petrova won the doubles title with a 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.

(Images Ryan Pierse/Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Not that I don't prefer women's tennis of late...

Too bogged down with work recently, I didn't have much time left to spend on women's tennis for the past weeks, missing the Fed Cup and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

At Stuttgart, looks like the new world no.1 Dinara Safina will play against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final match tomorrow, after defeated Flavia Pennetta 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Earlier, Kuznetsova easily overcame compatriot Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic are already in Rome for a promotional event at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Someone in tennis forum suggested that Vika was flipping off Ana.

Okay, they are friends again :P

(Images via Quotidiano.net)

Rome Masters: Man of the moment

Rafael Nadal arrived in Rome fresh from winning his fifth straight Barcelona Open title.

There closeup photos were taken at the press conference during day one of the Foro Italico Tennis Masters.

Everyone will be asking the same question, will he dominate here too?


(Images by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Remembering Federico Luzzi...

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray led an all-star cast of ATP World Tour players who played exhibition matches at the Rome Masters on last weekend to raise funds for FedeLux.

Fedelux is a leukemia foundation established in the memory of former player Federico Luzzi, who died of the disease last year aged 28 last year.

Tommy Robredo, Marat Safin, Potito Starace, Andreas Seppi, Simone Bolelli and Filippo Volandri also took part in the exhibition, which was attended by Luzzi’s parents Maurizio and Paola.

Most of the players wore shirts with an image of Luzzi.

Federer said, “It was a nice match for me to play, knowing that Federico is up above watching us, having his parents here.”

Djokovic said, “We played in his honour and for the foundation that his family has created to fight against leukemia. It was very emotional for all of us who knew him. He was a very positive guy and I always remember him with a smile on his face.”

(Via ATP, Images via Forty Deuce)

What the f@#% is going on at the semifinals?!

Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka just got free tickets to enter the final at Rome Open.

What the heck is going on? There are two injuries in the semifinals where Radek Stepanek had to stop playing due to wrist injury and overheating while Andy Roddick had to pull out due to a back problem. And the day before, during one of the quarterfinal, Nicolas Almagro had to retire while playing against Djokovic due to wrist injury.

Stepanek complaining wrist injury and overheating.

Roddick experiencing back injury.

Perhaps it's a bad timing for the Italian Masters. These players are having physical injuries and there's nothing can be done to avoid it. These retirements are definitely not the same as Djokovic's pull from Monte Carlo recently. Hopefully Djokovic-virus won't spread and spoil the world of men's tennis.

(Images from (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Is tennis a boring sports or it's just Roger Federer?

Miroslava 'Mirka' Vavrinec, girlfiend of Roger Federer looks rather bored while watching him play against Ivo Karlovic of Croatia during the third round match at the Rome Master Series.

(Images by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

It's not the end of clay court dominance for Nadal

Sometimes you just can't have it all.

Rafael Nadal who has just won the Monte Carlo Open and at Barcelona last Sunday, didn't have a chance defend his three straight wins at the Rome Masters after stumbled at the first hurdle when the Spaniard lost 7-5, 6-1 to compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero yesterday.

I wasn't really disappointed as Nadal has been playing non-stop for the past 2 weeks and defended 2 titles. This is the only second time in his last 104 games that Nadal has lost on clay. Ferrero now meets Andy Murray's conqueror, Stanislas Wawrinka, in the third round.

Ferrero who has never beaten Nadal on clay consistently put Nadal under pressure in the first set and then went on to win over his compatriot in eight encounters and his first on clay.

(Images from AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

76th consecutive win on clay for Nadal

Just spent 3 hours 36 minutes watching Nadal vs Davydenko in their semifinal match at the Rome Open. It's not my favourite match especially seeing Nadal making so many repeated errors. I must say that Davydenko could be the biggest threat to Nadal especially in the upcoming French Open.

Nadal won the first set 7-6 showing that he has an extra edge especially when playing tie breaker. Then when it comes to the second set, Davydenko had a sweet revenge by winning 7-6. By the time when they were playing the third set, Nadal got back his touch and won 6-4.

So Nadal will play Fernando Gonzalez in the final tomorrow (watch the delay telecast (not again!) on Star Sports Astro Channel 82 @ 2 a.m.). The last time they met, Gonzalez beat Nadal but that wasn't on clay. I believe Nadal will have his 77 winning streak on clay and his 3rd consecutive Rome Open championship. He is unbeatable. Vamos Rafa!