Wheelchair tennis ends with Japan, Netherlands and France winners

Top seed Shingo Kunieda of Japan snatched the Men's Singles gold medal from Athens champion Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands to end the Wheelchair Tennis event on Monday. In the one-sided match, Kunieda challenged defending champion and second seed Ammerlaan, winning 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour.

Kunieda went into the Games as the first Men's player to win all four majors in the same season in 2007. Kunieda led Ammerlaan slightly in head-to-head by 12 to 11 going in to the match and today he came out on top.

"I just thought, 'Yes. I did it,'" said Kunieda after the victory. "I will drink beer [to celebrate]. I cannot usually drink alcohol, but tonight I will."

In the Women's Doubles final, Dutch second seeds Korie Homan and Sharon Walraven stole the gold medal from their compatriots Esther Vergeer and Jiske Griffioen.

Vergeer and Griffioen won the first set 6-2, but Homan and Walraven fought back in the second, taking it 7-6 (4) and winning the final set 6-4 in two-and-a-quarter hours. Vergeer and Griffioen have been beaten only once in 39 tournaments, since first pairing up in 2004.

"It's amazing," said Homan. "I had a match point yesterday and it didn't work out. Today, after the first match point, I was thinking like, 'No, not again, not again.' At the second point, I was thinking like, 'We have to just go for it,' and it worked."

Second seeds Stephane Houdet and Michael Jeremiasz of France won the gold medal for the Men's Doubles over fourth seeds Stefan Olsson and Peter Wikstrom of Sweden.

This match was held on Monday after getting rained out. Houdet and Jeremiasz had taken the first set from Olsson and Wikstrom when the match was suspended. However, the Swedes led the second set 2-1 and 30-0 by the time the match was rained out.

The French pair then pushed ahead winning 6-1, 7-6 (5), after two hours on Monday. Jeremiasz won the silver in Athens with a different partner. He was so elated to win the gold today that he ripped off his shirt, baring his chest at the end of the match.

"We decided, since the beginning, that if we are going to play, we are going to win," said Houdet. "Sometimes, we were a little bit too far back, and then they could be aggressive and win a couple of points. We just had to wheel back to the front, to go to the net, to be aggressive and I think in this game, we put the pressure on them."

(Via ITF Tennis Paralympic, Images via Yahoo! Sport)

Rafael Nadal's embarrassing moment in award ceremony

World no. 1 Rafael Nadal recently suffered an embarrassing incident in a ceremony that pays tribute to Spanish athletes who managed to win medals in the Beijing Olympic Games 2008.

Watch this video for what happened.



Apparently Nadal is trying to pick up his cellphone which fell on the floor. Somehow when he picked it up, his pants cracked!

So he couldn't applaud and he finally had to cover his butt with his jacket tied up around as a belt to hide it!

If you look closer to the pictures, Nadal is drenched in sweat! The reporters laughed and said that Nadal sweated even more than during a tennis match.

Even in an embarrassing situation like that Nadal still took photos with fans and laughed about it.

(Via La Tercera, Great Tennis Photos, Rafa fan group in Facebook)

Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuai Win Doubles in Bali

Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Peng Shuai of China came back from the brink of defeat to capture the Tier III Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic doubles title over unseeded Marta Domachowska and Nadia Petrova.

Although both have previously won two Tour doubles titles with other partners, the win is their first as a combination.

In the nail-biting final the pair even held three match points on Petrova's serve at 5-4 in the second set, only to see Hsieh and Peng draw level, seize the ensuing tie-break and then the decider for a 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 10-7 victory.

"It was a great match today," Peng said.

"It was really exciting for us and the crowd too, I think. I'm really happy to win with my partner. We have been good friends for eight years now and she's always been helping me and giving me advice, so to share this with her, it really doesn't get any better than this."

(News via Sony Ericsson WTA website, Image via ESPN)

Esther Vergeer wins gold and 349th straight match

Bronze medal winner France's Florence Gavellier, right, Netherland's gold medal winner Esther Vergeer, center, and silver medal winner Korie Homan, left, celebrate their win at the women's wheelchair tennis singles award ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Esther Vergeer won her 349th straight match Sunday, capturing the Paralympic gold medal in women's wheelchair tennis with a victory over Dutch teammate Korie Howman.


She won 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) to extend a streak that has lasted 5 1/2 years.

"I mean, I am going to lose matches one day," she said.

"But I was just really, really hoping it was not going to be today. I was just this close from losing this match, the most important match of my whole year." Vergeer won double gold medals in Sydney and Athens.

She will go for that again Monday in doubles with partner Jisek Griffioen. They face Americans Beth Arnoult and Kaitlyn Verfuerth in the final.

France's Florence Gravellier won the singles bronze, beating Griffioen 6-3, 6-4.

(Via The Associated Press)