The Whole Delivery

Rafael Nadal has reached another final here at Roland Garros, defeating good friend Andy Murray once more in a straight sets win that was far from routine. The 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 win by Nadal at least secures him his #1 ranking for a few more hours, with Novak Djokovic taking over the top spot from him with a victory over Roger Federer in the succeeding semifinal. To the Scotsman's credit, he validated that despite not having a Grand Slam title unlike his Big 4 colleagues, he can still provide a fiercely competitive match where nothing short of best will beat him. But Nadal was just that today, with clutch serving, wicked forehands, and displaying temerity with some serve and volley play even. The clay court master has relocated the confidence he was in dire search for before his quarterfinal matchup with Robin Soderling. And only a perfect 3 sets will be enough to deny him a record tying 6th title with Bjorn Borg here in Paris. Pre match analysis: From tennis.com Tacti...

It has been the number one Swiss that has dispatched of Andy Murray in our modern day Grand Slam times. Today, it was the number two who accomplished that feat. Stanislas Wawrinka has produced the result of the tournament, knocking out Andy Murray in a shocking 4-set win in the third round of the US Open. The 6-7 (3), 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 result is of course a massive win for the 25th seed and utter dejection for the Scot and his many supporters. Murray was in for a long day from the get go, as Wawrinka brought his A game today on his serve, forehand, and outstanding feel. Nevertheless though, after surviving the first set with an authoritative win in the tiebreak, Murray seem to be able to overcome today's hurdle towards his 1st Grand Slam by serving for the second set at 5-3. But that is where the match turned on its head, as Wawrinka stayed the course and broke back. From then on, Murray lost his edge with a troubling amalgamation of poor shot selection and the usual high tensio...

Andy Murray has defended his title at the Rogers Cup, becoming the first player since Andre Agassi to win Montreal and Toronto back to back, in a satisfying 7-5, 7-5 win over Big 4 nemesis Roger Federer. It was an aggressive Murray just like his previous two matches against David Nalbandian and Rafael Nadal. That along with his usual defensive skills and, most importantly, staying the course mentally when Federer got back into the match, gave the Scot a massive win to propel his confidence into believing that he can finally go all the way at a Grand Slam. Despite the loss, Federer's week in Toronto did see an important gain for him, as he returns to the #2 spot in the rankings heading into Cincinnati.

Last year, Roger Federer was on the end crying in despair for whole world to see. Today, he was the reason why Andy Murray shed tears of pain. Just like his 360 degree reversal between Wimbledon 2008 and 2009, Federer turned around his 12 month disheartening misfortunate in Melbourne into satisfying redemption by defeating Murray 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11) to capture his 4th Australian Open and record 16th Grand Slam title. And in the process, he passed the bug of sullen anguish toward the Scot, denied a second time by the legendary Swiss at ending Grand Slam anguish for himself and for Great Britain. "I can cry as well as Roger, shame I can't play as well as Roger" uttered the dejected Scot in full lachrymose mode in the post-match speeches. And that inability to play as well as Roger was thanks to a serve that was lacking and an inability to be effectively aggressive when he had to be nothing short of that. Murray waited too late to crush his backhand and forehand, ...

Marin Cilic has outplayed and out thought the world number two. Murray is in serious trouble here. His backhand return today has been awful. Watch live video from vstreams.net Live on Justin.tv 4:45 PM Well, the upset of the tournament has taken place on the men's side, more than Andy Roddick get upended by giant John Isner. Marin Cilic has played the match of his young career, as the 20 year old Croatian pulled off a comprehensive beatdown of possible tournament winner Andy Murray, in the stunning scoreline of 7-5, 6-2, 6-2. Murray had nothing today after letting Cilic off the hook at 4-5 in the opening set, and it was all down hill for there. Murray never had his backhand, didn't have have any power or precision on his forehand, and was just completely outsmarted and outhit today by Cilic. Maybe his left bothered him and he wouldn't let on in his press conference. But whatever the excuse, it was a dismal display today from Murray, one that will linger with him for the res...

Great match, Murray just broke back to get on serve in the third. Watch here:http://www.justin.tv/dinkdankdo#shareform Now, it's 5-all And now NBC is still.............tape delayed. 12:37 PM Roddick holds at 30, now 6-5, looks like we may go to a tiebreak. Fitting. 12:41 PM And yes, it's a tiebreak fitting. 12:44 PM Great tiebreak so far. 3-2 Roddick 12: 45 The backhand error down the line gives Roddick a mini break lead again, 4-2. Now 5-all, and now, 6-5 Murray, Set point. Two straight aces from him. Now six all. Roddick with the volley to save set point. 7-6 Roddick with massive ace. Now seven all, with a clutch forehand winner by Murray. Great return form Roddick, set point up 8-7 on serve. Murray hits it in the net, and Roddick wins the third set, 9-7 in the tiebreak. Give it to Darren Cahill, he said this match was going to go five, and it did.

Screw NBC. Watch it live here. And I think Murray in straights. It's a terrible matchup for Roddick, but he will try his hardest.

Federer is up one set on Haas right as I type this. It won't be serious updating as it was yesterday unless something major goes down. And I think Roddick won't win a set today against Murray. And I still believe Murray will win this title. And......I still believe NBC hates the tennis fans of the world at the end of the day. Heck, even the NY Times agrees with me ....even though they don't say the "hate" word of course. Update : And by the way, Venus and Serena are delivering a major beatdown to the number one Cara Black and Liezel Huber. THE NUMBER ONE DOUBLES TEAM IN THE WORLD ladies and gentlemen. Oh ho hum. 9: 40 AM Two sets to love to the Swiss. Haas has played so well, but once again, Federer is taking his heart out again. 10:11 AM And there it is, he closest it out in style with a Samprasian smash. 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-3.......Roger Federer defeats Tommy Haas to advance to his stunning 7th consecutive Wimbledon final. Great stuff indeed, and of course, he'l...

Photo from Matthew Stockman of Getty Images (It was completely ugly today for Sharapova The yups were once again prevalent for Maria Sharapova today. A comeback and another dramatic three set win, however, was not. The three time Grand Slam champion crashed out in stunning form to Slovakian riser Dominika Cibulkova by the convincing score line of 6-0, 6-2. In fact, if it wasn't for the American Russian's grit and determination to not give up, the match could have easily ended up 6-0, 6-0, as Cibulkova was one point away from doing just so. Instead, Sharapova fought off four match points and had the crowd behind her to try to possibly make a historic comeback (a far cry from last year where the crowd was excoriating her with boos in her dramatic defeat to Dinara Safina in the 4th round). But Cibulkova displayed terrific grit and stayed the course, scoring the biggest win of her career in advancing to her first Grand Slam semifinal. And that opponent facing her in that semifinal ...

Photo from Hassan Ammar Critics of Andy Murray are finding it very difficult to label concern and questions on him these days. The world number four continued his assault towards the elite of the tennis game, scoring another win over Roger Federer to advance to the Qatar Final final against the other "Andy" on tour, Andy Roddick. Murray's 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-2 victory over the 13 time Grand Slam champion is his fourth straight win against Federer (or third if you don't want to include his exhibition win over Federer in Abu Dhabi last week). And the win moved him into the bookmakers favorite to win the Australian Open. For the casual fan who doesn't know that much about the sport, that would be Murray's first Grand Slam title if he were to win in Melbourne. (And hopefully in the next few days, The Deft Volleys , a webblog dedicated to just the sports of tennis and soccer, will be released, where you can find more stories like this on that website.)

Photo by Imaginechina via AP Images After losing to Andy Murray in his first match, Andy Roddick had to defeat nemesis (though not for this year however) Roger Federer in order to stay alive at the ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai. Instead, he had to pull out : Andy Roddick has withdrawn from the Masters Cup after spraining his right ankle during practice—an injury that he said did not appear to be serious. Roddick made the announcement Wednesday, hours before he was to play Roger Federer in a Red Group match. He was replaced in the tournament by 26th-ranked Radek Stepanek, the first alternate here. It's funny how Stepanek, the 26th ranked player in the world, is the alternate. But that is what happens when David Nalbandian never wants to show up and be the actual alternate like he would have been this year, as well as last year. And speaking of Murray, he's through to the semifinals with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win over Giles Simon , who beat Federer in their opening match. Murra...

(Photo from BBC.com)Andy Murray celebrates another massive Master Series title. First ever sports thread dedicated to tennis, so let's get right to it. Rafael Nadal will be number one at year's end thanks to Andy Murray knocking off Roger Federer at the Madrid Masters semifinals, the victory before the Brit won his second Masters-Series title of the year by handling the game Frenchman Giles Simon in the final in straights. While in Zurich, Venus Williams won that tournament's last ever title. The 5 time Wimbledon champion starved off a terrific performance from Ana Ivanovic in the semifinal (who finally played well for a change), and defeated Flavia Pennetta of Italy in straights. In one game, Venus hits four aces in a row, the first time she has ever done that, and she obviously was thrilled with that display of sheer brilliance. Here is the video: And here's the trophy celebration: Holla at ya tomorrow, peace.