Serena Williams Accuses Opponent Of Cheating
You’ve got to love it when players get fired up over little things and accuse opponents of cheating. That is exactly what happened in the match between Serena WIlliams and her opponent from Spain, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
With the score locked at 2-2 in the first set, Sanchez rushed the net and Williams rifled a backhand straight at the body of her opponent.
Running on pure instinct, Sanchex threw up her racket and managed to hit a clean winner.
Or did she?
Williams claimed that the ball hit her forearm first, and as such she should not have been awarded the point.
Then in the press conference after the game, Williams spoke heatedly about whether she thought the ball had hit her opponent’s forearm first.
“I didn’t ‘think’ the ball touched her — the ball did touch her, 100 percent, on her arm.” Williams said “The rules of tennis is when the ball hits your body, then it’s out of play. You lose a point automatically,”
When asked about the incident, Sanchez denied it had hit her on the arm, even though replays seemed to support Williams’ case.
Jankovic Watches Only Men’s Tennis
In a surprise admission, world number five Jelena Jankovic has admitted that she only watches men play tennis on TV, believing that there is a huge gulf between the two games and that she can learn more this way.
She often goes into matches unaware of who her opponent is as she focuses so little on the female players on tour.
And it turns out s more »
Written by:Djokovic Out
The world No. 4 Novak Djokovic was one of the first major casualties in the early rounds of the French Open. Today he was beaten Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-4 6-4 6-4. It sounded like a lot of it was in his mind; after the defeat Djokovic himself admitted that he couldn’t get into a rhythm or get his body moving well.
This is a major disappointment; it seemed as though the Serb would go far in the French Open. I had him lined up as a strong competitor for Nadal’s crown. Then again, I like many others thought he could retain his Australian Open title at the beginning of the year.
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Nadal stands up to “Harassing” WADA
Rafael Nadal is one of the many tennis players who are vocal outside of the court. Nadal has even set up the Fundación Rafa Nadal, in his home town of Manacor, Majorca; a non-profit organisation which promotes tennis and uses it as a form of integration for those who need it most.
But beyond his charitable work, Nadal is vocal for the needs and worries of professional tennis players today. Since the beginning of the year, Rafa has continually called upon the International Tennis Federation to defend players’ rights against the World Anti-Doping Agency’s out of competition drug testing rules.
And what are these rules?
Well, they’re quite frankly ridiculous. Apparently professional sportsmen and women aren’t allowed to have the same human rights as everyone else.
WADA insist that every professional tennis player must tell WADA where they are at least one hour between 6am and 11pm each day for a three month period, so that they can be tested for drugs. When I first heard this, I honestly thought it was a joke. But it’s not just tennis players. Footballers, athletes, rugby players are all subject to this ludicrous set of rules designed to keep sport free of dopers.
For starters, surely this isn’t the only way? I don’t pretend to be the leading figurehead for combating doping in sport, but anyone with common sense can f more »
Written by:Hewitt No Match For Nadal
In an ominous sign for his opponents Rafael Nadal dropped just 5 games in his match against former world number 1, Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt got off to an extremely slow start in the first set, struggling with an ineffectual first serve and a high unforced error count. In just 30 minutes the first set was gone and what was already a monumental task became next to impossible for the South Australian.
Hewitt managed to lift in the second set, but his opponent did the same and moved 2-0 up, before powering home 6-1 in the third to advance to the next round.
Venus Williams Loses Third Round Match
The Roland Garros curse continued for Venus William as the third seed was bundled out of the tournament by the 29th seed, Hungarian Agnes Szavay.
In a rare occurence for Williams, she dropped the first set without managing to get a score on the board, and while her second set effort was better, it was still not enough on the day and the final score of 6-0 6-4 was a fair indication of the match.
Andy Murray Advances Thanks To A Tipsarevic Retirement
In his third round match Andy Murray was faced with Janko Tipsarevic, the Serbian player best known for his epic five set match against Roger Federer at the 2008 Australian Open.
One of the more quirky players on tour, Tipsarevic has a reading list with a heavy focus on such subject matters as psychology and philosphy, and credits this material with his mental abilities on more »
Written by:Day Five: News So Far
Day 5, and the sun is shining again at Rolland Garros. It looks a little cloudy but certainly better than the buckets of rain day 3 endured. It may already be day five but we’re only at round two, and the days are pretty packed.
As I write this, Roger Federer is working Acasuso hard on the clay. Acasuso of Argentina – who I have to admit looks alarmingly like Ben Afflek – appears to be wilting under the heat and pressure. Federer keeps the forehands simple but well placed, and Acasuso struggles to get behind them. The score currently stands at 2-1 to Federer. Federer is looking relaxed and graceful as ever out there, and although Acasuso is beginning to get some life back into him, it’s a sure bet that the world No. 2 will walk away with this one.
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