By The Huffington Post News Editors
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Lured by the anticipation of another duel between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, fans packed the main stadium at the BNP Paribas Open on a sultry evening in the desert.
After all, it was the first time in ATP Tour history that two players with 28 Grand Slam titles between them were meeting up.
By Associated Press Rafael Nadal has defeated error-prone Roger Federer 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open in the earliest meeting between the two rivals since they first played each other in 2004. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
Novak Djokovic returned to his dominant best, becoming the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian titles when he beat Andy Murray 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday night.
Nine other men had won back-to-back titles in Australia since 1968, but none were able to claim three in a row.
“I love this court,” Djokovic said. “It’s definitely my favorite Grand Slam. It’s an incredible feeling winning this trophy once more.”
He has won four of his six majors titles at at Melbourne Park, where he is now unbeaten in 21 matches.
Born a week apart in May 1987 and friends since their junior playing days, the two played like they knew each other’s game very well in a rematch of last year’s U.S. Open final won by Murray. There were no service breaks until the eighth game of the third set, when Djokovic finally broke through and then held at love to lead by two sets to one.
Djokovic earned two more service breaks in the fourth set, including one to take a 4-1 lead when Murray double-faulted on break point.
The 25-year-old Serb didn’t rip his shirt off this time, as he did to celebrate his epic 5-hour, 53-minute win over Rafael Nadal in last year’s final. He just did a little dance, looked up to the sky and then applauded the crowd after the 3-hour, 40-minute match.
Murray’s win over Djokovic in the U.S. Open final last year ended a 76-year drought for British men at the majors, but he still is yet to make a breakthrough in Australia after losing a third final here in the last four years.
Djokovic’s win went against the odds of recent finals at Melbourne Park. In four of the past five years, the player who won his semifinal second has won the tournament. But this year, Djokovic played his semifinal on Thursday — an easy three-set, 89-minute minute win over No. 4-seeded David Ferrer. Murray needed five energy sapping sets to beat 17-time major winner Roger Federer on Friday night.
The win consolidated Djokovic’s position as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, while Federer and Murray will be second and third when the ATP rankings are released Monday.
Their last two matches in Grand Slams — Murray’s five-set win at last year’s U.S. Open and Djokovic’s victory here last year in five in the semifinals — had a total of 35 service breaks.
It was a vastly different, more tactical battle on Sunday, with the first two tight sets decided in tiebreakers.
Murray, who called for a trainer to retape blisters on his right foot at the end of the second set, was visibly annoyed by noise from the crowd during his service games in the third set, stopping his service motion twice until the crowd quieted down. After dropping the third set, he complained about the noise to chair umpire John Blom.
Djokovic also appeared frustrated at times, kicking the ball football-style back over the net after he hit a forehand long during a lengthy point, and muttering to himself while sitting down in his chair during changeovers. But both players were guilty of making unforced errors, often ending long rallies with shots into the net or long.
Murray’s fans came dressed for the occasion, with some wearing “Braveheart”-style wigs, Scottish flags painted on their faces and tartan caps. One group of men wore white T-shirts with black letters that spelled out A-N-D-Y; they serenaded Murray at the start of the first two sets.
There were a number of Serbian shirts, caps and flags in the stadium, as well as fans calling “Ajde!” or “Come on!” in Serbian to support Djokovic. Retired NBA basketball star Vlade Divac was sitting in Djokovic’s box.
Djokovic looked agitated after failing to convert the break points in the first set, frequently looking up to his box and yelling at the members of his team and himself.
Although Djokovic went into the match with a 10-7 lead in head-to-heads, Murray had beaten Djokovic five out of eight times in tiebreakers, and that improved to six of nine after four unforced errors by Djokovic to end the first set.
Djokovic pegged back that edge in the second set, when Murray also didn’t help his cause by double-faulting to give Djokovic a 3-2 lead, and the Serbian player didn’t trail again in the tiebreaker. He leveled the match after nearly 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Andre Agassi was among those in the capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena — the four-time Australian champion’s first trip Down Under in nearly 10 years — and he later presented the trophy to Djokovic.
Victoria Azarenka, who won Saturday’s women’s singles final over Li Na, was in the crowd with her boyfriend rapper Redfoo. Actor Kevin Spacey, who met in the dressing room with both players ahead of the match and later tweeted a photo of himself with them, also was in attendance for the third straight night.
In the earlier mixed doubles final Sunday, wild-card entrants Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden of Australia beat the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 6-3, 7-5.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
No shirt ripping or bare-chested flexing this time.
Novak Djokovic completed his work before midnight, defeating Andy Murray in four sets for his third consecutive Australian Open title and fourth overall.
It was also the second time in three years Djokovic had beaten his longtime friend in this final. So the celebration was muted: a small victory shuffle, raised arms, a kiss for the trophy. No grand histrionics, although that’s not to say the moment was lost on him.
“Winning it three in a row, it’s incredible,” Djokovic said after his 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 victory Sunday night. “It’s very thrilling. I’m full of joy right now. It’s going to give me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season, that’s for sure.”
Nine other men had won consecutive Australian titles in the Open era, but none three straight years. One of them was Andre Agassi, who presented Djokovic with the trophy.
A year ago, Djokovic began his season with an epic 5-hour, 53-minute five-set win over Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, the longest Grand Slam final. He tore off his shirt to celebrate, the TV replays repeated constantly at this tournament.
He mimicked that celebration after coming back to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in five hours in a surprisingly tough fourth-round victory this time.
Since then, he’s looked every bit the No. 1 player. He said he played “perfectly” in his 89-minute win over fourth-seeded David Ferrer in the semifinals Thursday night. Murray struggled to beat 17-time major winner Roger Federer in five sets in the semifinals Friday night, and still had the bad blisters on his feet to show for it in the final.
In a final that had the makings of a classic when two of the best returners in tennis were unable to get a break of serve in the first two sets that lasted 2:13, the difference may have hinged on something as light as a feather.
Preparing for a second serve at 2-2 in the second set tiebreaker, Murray was rocking back about to toss the ball when he stopped, paused and then walked onto the court and tried to grab a small white feather that was floating in his view. He went back to the baseline, bounced the ball another eight times and served too long.
After being called for a double-fault, Murray knocked the ball away in anger and flung his arm down. He didn’t get close for the rest of the tiebreaker and was the first to drop serve in the match — in the eighth game of the third set. Djokovic broke him twice in the fourth set, which by then had turned into an easy march to victory.
“It was strange,” said Djokovic, adding that it swung the momentum his way. “It obviously did. … He made a crucial double-fault.”
Murray didn’t blame his loss on the one distraction.
“I mean, I could have served. It just caught my eye before I served. I thought it was a good idea to move it,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t because I obviously double-faulted.
“You know, at this level it can come down to just a few points here or there. My biggest chance was at the beginning of the second set — didn’t quite get it. When Novak had his chance at the end of the third, he got his.”
Djokovic had five break-point chances in the opening set, including four after having Murray at 0-40 in the seventh game, but wasn’t able to convert any of them.
Then he surrendered the tiebreaker with six unforced errors. Murray appeared to be the stronger of the two at the time. He’d beaten Djokovic in their last Grand Slam encounter, the U.S. Open final, and had the Serb so off balance at times in the first set that he slipped to the court and took skin off his knee.
Murray held serve to open the second set and had three break points at 0-40 in the second game, but Djokovic dug himself out of trouble and held.
“After that I felt just mentally a little bit lighter and more confident on the court than I’ve done in the first hour or so,” Djokovic said. “I was serving better against him today in the first two sets than I’ve done in any of the match in the last two years.”
Djokovic said he loves playing at Rod Laver Arena, where he won his first major title in 2008. He now has six Grand Slam titles altogether. Federer has won four of his 17 majors at Melbourne Park, and Agassi is the only other player to have won that many in Australia since 1968.
Djokovic was just finding his way at the top level when Agassi retired in 2006, but he had watched enough of the eight-time major winner to appreciate his impact.
“He’s I think one of the players that changed the game — not just the game itself, but also the way the people see it,” Djokovic said. “So it was obviously a big pleasure and honor for me to receive the trophy from him.”
Agassi was among the VIPs in the crowd, along with actor Kevin Spacey and Victoria Azarenka, who won the women’s final in three sets against Li Na the previous night.
Murray broke the 76-year drought for British men at the majors when he won the U.S. Open last year and said he’ll leave Melbourne slightly more upbeat than he has after defeats here in previous years.
“The last few months have been the best tennis of my life. I mean, I made Wimbledon final, won the Olympics, won the U.S. Open. You know, I was close here as well,” he said. “No one’s ever won a slam (immediately) after winning their first one. It’s not the easiest thing to do. And I got extremely close.
“So, you know, I have to try and look at the positives of the last few months, and I think I’m going the right direction.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Associated Press Andy Murray has beaten Roger Federer for the first time in a Grand Slam event to advance to the Australian Open final against top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
Serena Williams’ dominating run at the majors ended in a painful loss to American teenager Sloane Stephens.
After the biggest victory of her life, the 19-year-old Stephens is headed to the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Williams hurt her back in the eighth game of the second set, slowing down her serve, restricting her movement and causing her obvious pain.
Stephens kept her composure, blocking out the injury issue on the opposite side of the net, and rallied for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory on Wednesday — by far the most significant in her seven Grand Slams.
The gravity of it didn’t hit Stephens until she was warming down, and even then the victory had an unreal feeling.
“I was stretching, and I was like, ‘I’m in the semis of a Grand Slam.’ I was like, ‘Whoa. It wasn’t as hard as I thought.’ But it’s pretty cool,” she said. “To be in the semis of a Grand Slam is definitely I say a good accomplishment. A lot of hard work.”
It was Williams’ first loss since Aug. 17, ending a run of 20 consecutive wins.
The 15-time major winner hadn’t lost a match at a Grand Slam tournament since the French Open, where her first-round exit sparked her resurgence in the second half of 2012 that included titles at Wimbledon, the London Olympics, the U.S. Open and the WTA Championship.
After winning her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, Stephens next plays defending champion Victoria Azarenka.
In the men’s draw, U.S. Open champion Andy Murray moved into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over unseeded Jeremy Chardy of France.
The No. 29-seeded Stephens had been given barely a chance of beating Williams, who lost only four matches in 2012 and was in contention to regain the No. 1 ranking at the age of 31.
Williams’ latest winning streak included a straight-sets win over Stephens at the Brisbane International earlier this month.
And Stephens wasn’t even sure that she could beat Williams, until she woke up Wednesday.
“When I got up, I was like, ‘Look, Dude, like, you can do this.’ Like, ‘Go out and play and do your best,” she said.
It wasn’t until after losing the first set and being broken in the first game of the second that she really convinced herself she could.
“I was like, ‘Hmm, this is not the way you want it to happen. But you just fight and just get every ball back, run every ball down, and just get a lot of balls in play, I think you’ll be OK.’
“From then on I got aggressive, started coming to the net more, and just got a lot more comfortable.”
She started hitting winners, cutting down on the errors, and pushing the injured Williams around the court.
Williams walked around the net to congratulate Stephens, who then clapped her hand on her racket and waved to the crowd, a look of disbelief on her face.
She then went to her tennis bag, pulled out her phone and started checking for any text messages from her mother.
“I was hoping she had texted me right away. I thought maybe she was texting me during the match,” Stephens said. “I’m sure my grandparents are like freaking out.”
Stephens has said she had a photo of Williams up in her room when she was a child, and had long admired the Williams sisters.
“This is so crazy. Oh my goodness,” Stephens said, wiping away tears in her post-match TV interview. “I think I’ll put a poster of myself (up) now.”
For her part, Williams said the bad back was just another problem to contend with at a Grand Slam event that had been “absolutely” her worst for injuries. It started when she injured her ankle in the first round.
“I’m almost relieved that it’s over because there’s only so much I felt I could do,” she said. “It’s been a little difficult. I’ve been thrown a lot of (curve) balls these two weeks.”
Williams was up a set and a break before Stephens settled in. In the eighth game of the second set, Williams was chasing a drop shot to the net when she appeared to hurt her back. She needed a medical timeout after the set, and then slowly started to regain the speed in her serve.
She said her back “just locked up” on her.
“I couldn’t really rotate after that,” she said. “It was a little painful, but it’s OK.”
There were times when she barely concealed the pain, and had to bend over or stretch out her back. Yet the thought of retiring from the match only crossed her mind “for a nanosecond.”
It didn’t mean she wasn’t frustrated. Williams smashed her racket into the court in the third set, breaking the frame and then flinging it toward the chairs on the side of the court. She looked to the sky occasionally and yelled at herself.
The racket abuse cost her $1,500 in fines.
Azarenka, with her most famous fan sitting in the crowd wearing a shirt reminding her to keep calm, overcame some early jitters to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1 in the earlier quarterfinal at Rod Laver Arena.
After dropping serve in a long fourth game that went to deuce 10 times, Azarenka recovered to dominate the rest of the match against Kuznetsova, a two-time major winner who was floating dangerously in the draw with a No. 75 ranking as she recovers from a knee injury.
Azarenka’s American rapper friend, Redfoo, returned from a concert in Malaysia to attend Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
Wearing a red sleeveless T-shirt that read “Keep Calm and Bring Out the Bottles,” the name of his next single, Redfoo stood, clapped and yelled “Come on, Vika!” during the tight first set.
Asked if it helped to have her No. 1 fan wearing a keep calm logo, Azarenka said “I was looking more at the part that says ‘Bring out the bottles.'”
Of her game, she added, “I’m just glad I could produce my good tennis when it was needed.”
Williams’ loss was a boost for Azarenka, who lost all five head-to-heads against the American in 2012 and is 1-11 in their career meetings.
In the men’s quarterfinals, 17-time major winner Roger Federer was playing No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a night match for a spot in the semifinals against Murray.
The 25-year-old Murray had his service broken for only the second time while serving for the match. But he broke back immediately to clinch the quarterfinal victory.
“I’ll watch a little bit but I won’t watch the whole match,” Murray said of the night quarterfinal, adding that he hoped “Roger and Jo play 4 to 5 hours if possible!”
Defending champion Novak Djokovic plays No. 4-seeded David Ferrer in the other semifinal.
On the other half of the women’s draw, Maria Sharapova has conceded only nine games in five matches — a record in Australia — en route to a semifinal against 2011 French Open champion Li Na.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News