Troicki, Tipsarevic, Blake and Gonzalez team with football stars, Ferdinand and Vidic – Tennis News
Tennis stars namely Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic, James Blake and Fernando Gonzalez displayed their exceptional skills after pairing up with Manchester United defenders, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at Washington D.C. on
Friday. They showed their skills on the outdoor hard courts where the Legg Masson Tennis Classic would take place in few days.
Manchester United, who are the current English Premier League Champions and who made a record nineteenth title win, are currently on a friendly tour at Washington. They are to play Barcelona again on Saturday. They last met the
Catalan giants at the UEFA Champions League final but suffered a brutal defeat. Troicki will most probably be at the Stadium to watch his favourite club in action.
All stars gathered at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, a U.S. National Park in Washington D.C. Legg Mason Tennis Classic 2011 will be held in these hard courts in few days. It is an ATP World Tour 500
series event held on the hard courts and is one of the US Open series of hard court events which leads to the US Open, last of the four Grand Slams, in September. The Serbs are seeded players in this event, Troicki is the third seed and Tipsarevic is the sixth
and both received a bye into the second round.
Vidic and Gonzalez – who was celebrating his 31st birthday; challenged Ferdinand and Blake for a duel. Both teams displayed brilliant skills and played good tennis. Even the defenders played the game exceptionally well.
Ferdinand said latter to his tweeps, “Just with the birthday boy Gonzalez!! 31 yrs old today so I got him a cheeky present....an ACE!!!”
Regardless of the high spirits of Ferdinand and Blake, the Serb – Chillan tandem of Vidic and Gonzalez triumph after capitalising on the several unforced errors Blake committed.
A former England captain, Ferdinand blamed the local star, Blake for his loss and tweeted, “My partner let me down man....saying that though but I ACED Gonzalez....yes you read that right, I ACED a top 10 calibre player! POW!!!”
Ranked 15th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Troicki is getting warm up for the upcoming Grand Slam event. He reached his first final in this event three years ago. His compatriot, Tipsarevic on
the other hand is enjoying his career best rank of number 23 and is making his third appearance here. The 90th ranked Blake is in awesome form at the ATP Challenger Tour events as he clinched titles at Sarasota and Winnetka. The Chilean had good
run of form in the start of the season as he made semi-final berths at Santiago and Acapulco led his country to win against Israel in the Davis Cup.
A day before this amazing tennis experience, Ferdinand and Vidic along with their remaining team toured the White House. Their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson expressed his feelings, "It was fantastic, we all enjoyed it. It was fascinating.
I'd been before but it still excites. It's such a historic and incredible place. We all enjoyed it - it was good."
The Manchester United key defenders are to play a major role against Spanish best team, Barcelona on Saturday and are all geared up.
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