Tennis special edition; some exciting tournaments remaining in 2010
A majority of tennis fans think that the professional sports season ends after the year’s final Grand Slam, the United States Open in New York and then resumes next year in January at the opening major event, the Australian Open
in Melbourne.
However, only the diehard followers are aware of the fact that the game of tennis actually has no off season.
In fact, this is the time of the year when the men and women’s tours travel to Asia for competitions in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and China. In spite of the fact that these events hardly get any media coverage particularly
in the United States of America, the stats and match results leave a strong impact on the year end rankings.
This week for instance, in China, there is a possibility of a Federer Nadal clash at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. The draw also features other top ranked players including Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Gael Monfils, Robin Soderling,
Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick, who pulled out of the event last night as a result of his thigh injury.
As a result of his withdrawal in China on Wednesday, Andy’s hopes of ending in the top ten rankings on the ninth season in a row are now in serious doubts. The American injured his thigh last week at the Japan Open which further
aggravated when the right hander Roddick fell down while changing directions in his clash on Wednesday. Roddick however has not lost hope and is expecting to return in two weeks and take part in the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour event in London, which
is going to start next month.
“The past couple of days in practice, I feel like I have been kind of moving like an elephant, kind of slow, just trying to protect it. I strained it a little bit worse, and it was to the point where moving at all felt like I was
getting stabbed in the leg,” said the American on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer did well to start off his tournament’s campaign with an impressive win over John Isner from the United States of America in two sets. The final match score was 6-3, 6-4. The Swiss
sealed a win after hitting a between the legs shot on Wednesday.
“I am smashing that shot so well now, it is almost the most consistent shot in tennis these days,'' Roger cracked a joke after his victory in Shanghai.
Rafael, who captured the Japan Open trophy, last week, won his opening round match against Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. The final match score was 6-4, 6-4.
Andy Murray knocked down Bai Yan, a wild card entrant from China on Wednesday whereas Novak Djokovic got the better of Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-3, just two days after grabbing the 2010 China Open title in Beijing.
After the Shanghai Rolex in China, a couple of important tournaments are yet to come and entertain the tennis fans in 2010 including the Stockholm Open 2010, Kremlin Cup which is going to be held in Russia, St. Petersburg Open,
Bank Austria Tennis Trophy which will take place in Vienna, Open Sud de France, Valencia Open 500, Swiss Indoors Basel, BNP Paribas Masters, Barclays ATP World Tour Finals as well as the Davis Cup final in December.
The women’s tour on the other hand, which is currently highlighting the Osaka and Linz event includes WTA Moscow, WTA Luxembourg, WTA Championships as well as Tournament of Champions as the concluding event of the season to be
played in November.
Currently in Osaka, the Australian tennis sensation Samantha Stosur has reached the quarter final round of the HP Open event where as in Linz the tournament is still going through its open round stages and is expected to gain more
coverage in the next couple of days.
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