The slippery slides of Roger Federer and Nikolay Davydenko couldn’t be helped by the good luck, in Chinese culture, brought by wearing red. Both are playing in their first round-robin matches at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai this week.
Andy Roddick (in Lacoste) beat Kolya (in white/red Airness) in a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 match. The American (is that ok with you, Shain?) had a second-set blip that left him throwing down his racquet, but found his mojo in time to make a run of five straight games in the third set to go up 5-1.
Meanwhile, R-Fed suffered his first back-to-back loss since Hamburg/Roland Garros in 2003. This year, he lost in the third round of the Paris Masters Series to David Nalbandian, and in this first round-robin match in Shanghai against Fernando Gonzalez, who notched his first win against Federer in 11 tries. The scoreline: 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5.
(photos by Getty Images)
Tags: tennis masters cup
tennis served fresh 
November 12, 2007 at 11:48 am |
Dopers and frauds.
TV tennis is a pharma joke!
Just like football.
November 12, 2007 at 3:05 pm |
Federer faltering this late in the season could be both good news or bad news for Pete Sampras when they face off at the end of the month. TTC will be showing the matches live, and delayed in prime time, as well as streaming video on their website for people with no channel subscription. http://www.thetennischannel.com/federer_sampras/
November 12, 2007 at 3:45 pm |
“R-Fed suffered his first back-to-back loss since Hamburg/Roland Garros in 2003.”
I’m confused — didn’t he lose consecutive matches just this year? To Canas at Indian Wells and then Miami?
November 12, 2007 at 4:16 pm |
this blog is really good
keep up the good work
rc
trading tennis blog
November 12, 2007 at 4:17 pm |
Not quite. Two consecutive losses came from Canas, but it went like this:
Indian Wells:
R64 Federer loses to Canas 5-7 2-6
Miami:
R128 Bye
R64 Querrey, Sam 6-4 6-3
R32 Almagro, Nicolas 7-5 6-3
R16 Canas, Guillermo 6-7(2) 6-2 6-7(5)
November 12, 2007 at 4:39 pm |
Thanks, Erwin! I had it in my mind that both those losses were in the first rounds — what a long, strange season it’s been. 🙂
November 12, 2007 at 6:51 pm |
Tennis demands heavy doping.
Pharma freak show—just like the NFL or TDF.
November 13, 2007 at 11:52 am |
I’m wondering but that 2008 is going to be a tough, tough year for one Roger Federer. The mutiny seems to be mounting up. We shall see.
November 13, 2007 at 12:28 pm |
It looks to me like all the men seem to be wearing shorter shorts than the rest of the year. Or are my eyes deceiving me? And Nole’s shorts looked less baggy as he served to Gasquet.
Even Rafa’s capris seem to have given way alittle, perhaps as a concession to the knee tape.
If anyone else would have noticed this change, it would surely be you. Can you confirm or deny?