The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Nadal starts favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Nadal starts favourite

ROME: Rafael Nadal will be aiming for his fourth successive title when the Rome Masters starts on Monday. Nadal will face a field which includes the top nine players in the ATP rankings.

Nadal has never lost in Rome, winning the tournament the previous three times he has entered. The Spaniard opens against either Juan Carlos Ferrero or Nicolas Kiefer.

The only player missing among the top 10 is Tomas Berdych, who is ranked 10th and has been out since injuring his ankle in Davis Cup play for the Czech Republic last month.

Rome is the fourth Masters tournament of the year, and the second on clay after Monte Carlo.

Nadal beat top-ranked Roger Federer in the Monaco final for his first title of the season, improving his career clay-court record over Federer to 7-1.

In 2006, Federer lost the Rome final to Nadal in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Last year, Federer was upset by Italian wild card Filippo Volandri in the third round.

Federer began working with clay-court guru Jose Higueras at the Estoril Open last month and won that event for his first title of 2008.

Tough draw

Federer has a tough draw in Rome. After a first-round bye, he could open against Argentine clay-court specialist Guillermo Canas, then face Ferrer in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Djokovic beat Federer en route to his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, but the Serb retired when Federer was ahead 6-3, 3-2 in Monte Carlo.

The top three Americans are also entered: No. 6 Andy Roddick, No. 8 James Blake and No. 38 Mardy Fish.

Roddick and Fish are playing their first clay-court tournaments in Europe this season, while Blake is coming off a second-round loss to unheralded Denis Gremelmayr of Germany in Barcelona.

If Fish wins his first-round match with Michael Llodra of France, he will meet Roddick.

Two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin was given a wild card entry, as was Mario Ancic of Croatia.

A new stadium is being built at the Foro Italico, but it won’t be ready until 2009.

For this year, organisers have added temporary stands to increase the capacity at the secondary Nicola Pietrangeli stadium to 9,500. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport