Tennis Frontier

Tag: madrid

  • Dimitrov shocks Djokovic in Madrid

    Dimitrov shocks Djokovic in Madrid

    Twenty-one-year-old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov defeated World Number 1 Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, prevailing 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 in a shock upset.

    A tight first set saw the young Bulgarian save a set point at 5-4, with Djokovic sportingly challenging a poor line call on behalf of his opponent. Dimitrov held serve before going on to clinch the tiebreaker, where he had to save further set points coming from 4-6 down to win the breaker 8-6.

    The second set was equally hard fought, with both players exchanging breaks before the Serb #1 won a closely contested tiebreak (10-8).

    Heading into the third set decider, the momentum was with Djokovic, but only very briefly. Roared on by the Spanish crowd, Dimitrov made his big statement, breaking Djokovic early, and hanging on to take the set 6-3, claiming his biggest career scalp to date.

    Dimitrov, an accomplished junior who won both the US Open and Wimbledon junior titles in 2008, has long been considered a future star of the sport. Recently, he laid down a marker of intent by pushing Rafael Nadal all the way in a tough match in Monte Carlo.

    Today he went one better, in what will be seen as a significant breakthrough.

    Click here to discuss this and more with fellow tennis fans on our discussion board.

  • Mutua Madrid Open Draw 2013 (WTA)

    Mutua Madrid Open Draw 2013 (WTA)

    The draw for the ATP Mutua Madrid Open:

    S. Williams – Qualifier
    L. Dominguez Lino – S. Halep
    K. Mladenovic – S. Soler-Espinosa
    K. Zakopalova – M. Kirilenko
    C. Wozniacki – Y. Shvedova
    M. Barthel – K. Flipkens
    V. Williams – A. Medina Garrigues
    T. Paszek – N. Li

    V. Azarenka – A. Pavlyuchenkova
    L. Safarova – E. Makarova
    Qualifier – F. Schiavone
    E. Vesnina – M. Bartoli
    R. Vinci – V. Lepchenko
    J. Goerges – B. Jovanovski
    A. Morita – S. Cirstea
    U. Radwanska – S. Errani

    A. Kerber – S. Hsieh
    A. Cornet – K. Bertens
    J. Zheng – S. Kuznetsova
    Qualifier – N. Petrova
    A. Ivanovic – Qualifier
    J. Jankovic – Qualifier
    M. Rybarikova – L. Robson
    T. Pironkova – A. Radwanska

    P. Kvitova – Y. Wickmayer
    S. Stephens – D. Hantuchova
    F. Pennetta – K. Kanepi
    C. Suarez Navarro – S. Stosur
    D. Cibulkova – Qualifier
    S. Lisicki – S. Arvidsson
    Qualifier- S. Peng
    Qualifier – M. Sharapova

    Discuss this and more with fellow tennis fans in our community forums.

  • Mutua Madrid Open Draw 2013 (ATP)

    Mutua Madrid Open Draw 2013 (ATP)

    The draw for the ATP Mutua Madrid Open:

    Djokovic – BYE
    Dimitrov – Marti
    Qualifier – Klizan
    Copil – Wawrinka
    Raonic – Davydenko
    Goffin – Verdasco
    Qualifier – Dolgopolov
    Tsonga – BYE

    Murray – BYE
    Bellucci – Mayer
    Chardy – Zeballos
    Benneteau – Simon
    Tipsarevic – Monaco
    Anderson – Qualifier
    Janowicz – Querrey
    Berdych – BYE

    Nadal – BYE
    Qualifier – Paire
    Fognini – Youzhny
    Qualifier – Almagro
    Haas – Seppi
    Baghdatis – Robredo
    Qualifier – Istomin
    Ferrer – BYE

    Gasquet – BYE
    Lopez – Gimeno-Traver
    Isner – Qualifier
    Andujar – Cilic
    Nishikori – Melzer
    Troicki – Granollers
    Tomic – Stepanek
    Federer – BYE

    Discuss this and more with fellow tennis fans in our community forums.

  • Murray: Fuentes Doping Ruling “The Biggest cover up in sporting history”

    Murray: Fuentes Doping Ruling “The Biggest cover up in sporting history”

    Britain’s Andy Murray has labelled the court ruling by Madrid judge Julia Santamaria, “Beyond a joke” following the trial of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. Fuentes was in the dock after a seven year sports doping investigation known as “Operation Puerto”.

    The Spanish sports medicine doctor was handed a suspended one-year jail term and banned from practising sports medicine for four years. The offences relate blood doping athletes for performance enhancement. Doping in sports was not a crime in Spain at the time of the investigation, so Fuentes was arrested and charged for offences relating to public health.

    He will not spend any time behind bars as Spanish law dictates that if the guilty party has no previous convictions then any sentence of less than two years will be commuted. The court also sentenced former cycling team official Ignacio Labarta to four months in jail, and acquitted three others, including Fuentes’s sister Yolanda.

    A controversial element of the case revolved around an initial ruling that Fuentes did not need to name any of his clients outside of the sport of cycling, despite having confirmed that athletes from football, boxing, track and field and tennis were also members of his clientele.  Judge Santamaria resisted pressure throughout the trial to provide the names of non-cycling athletes implicated in the scandal.

    Despite repeated requests from WADA (the world anti-doping body) for access to the blood bags, Santamaria ordered that the bags and any other evidence including all computers used in the investigation be destroyed.

    Murray used Twitter to express his astonishment at the ruling – “The Biggest cover up in sporting history?”, clearly bemused  that all the evidence must be destroyed without further investigation. “Why would the court order blood bags to be destroyed?”

    Andy Parkinson, chief executive of UK Anti-Doping also slammed the decision by the spanish judge: ‘We are disappointed. Dr Fuentes has admitted to having been involved in multiple prohibited doping activities, and linked with multiple unnamed athletes.
    ‘It therefore cannot be right that these names will remain unknown and no immediate action can be taken.’

    It would seem for now that the guilty will escape and the innocent will be tarred with suspicion.

    Click here to discuss this and more with fellow tennis fans on our discussion boards.