For a while on Sunday, it looked like Romanian Victor Hanescu looked a party-spoiler for Roger Federer. The 28-year old Swiss star was awarded the ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite Player of the Year Award after his second round match in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Federer also received the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for 2009.
Australian Open and Brisbane finalist Justine Henin could not overcome dangerous Argentine Gisela Dulko who won a see-saw 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 match. The 31st seed was very much in form, while Henin showed a bit of rust from an extended layoff. The serve was the key in this one as Dulko lost all three of her service games in set two only to come up with a key reversal in set three and upset her idol. Henin had won their only previous meeting.
The men swing into action today at the 2010 Paribas BNP Open. All the biggest stars will be there, vying for their share of the more than $3.6 million purse. Indian Wells drew more than 330,000 last year and indications are that this year the turnstiles will keep moving. Why not? This is the crème de la crème of men’s tennis in a great venue with good weather.
In Melbourne, one of the most dominant signs read Just In Time, a tribute to Justine Henin’s return to the tour.
They may call it the tennis tournament in the desert, but Indian Wells is a special event featuring the biggest galleries outside of the four major tournaments. With $4.5 million in prize money and loads of live television coverage, players can gain prestige, riches and exposure at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open from March 10th – 21st. What more could an aspiring tour player want?
After this week’s opening round play in the Davis Cup, 96 of the world’s premier singles players and 32 stellar doubles teams will head to the desert, where only the strong survive. An impressive field, only equaled by Grand Slam events, is expected for the year’s first of nine World Tour ATP tournaments.
What a mess! The fans at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship are witnessing the unpredictable nature of men’s tennis. On Wednesday, a trio of stunning upsets continued to highlight the need for top players to stay in top form. When the game’s elite fail to get in playing shape and stay there, they are very [...]
Marin Cilic may be seeded sixth and ranked sixth internationally, but he is the player, no other tour player wants to play right now. In his first round match at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Tournament, the surging Croatian showed why. Cilic, who has won two AP tour events this year and who sports a spectacular [...]
Last year’s champion and this year’s top seed Novak Djokovic fought off first round opponent Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-4 in the opening match of the $1.6 million 2010 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship on Monday. The Spaniard offered stern resistance before succumbing to the hard-serving Serb and world number 2. Trailing 0-5 in the second set [...]
Sixth seed John Isner reached the final of the ATP 500 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. The twenty five year old continued his great form in this year where he has now built up a record of 12 wins to one loss including a title at Adelaide in January. His only loss had come against Andy [...]
