ATP Bangkok, ATP Kuala Lumpar and WTA Tokyo

So far we have only had one match at WTA Tokyo


ATP Bangkok

Nieminen beat Troicki 7-6(4), 6-2. Nieminen beats the seventh seed at Bangkok to advance to the Quarter Finals, in a convincing straight sets win and will face third seed Melzer in the next round.

Becker beat Verdasco 6-4, 6-4. The second seed at Bangkok was shocked today by Becker, who eased past Verdasco to the Quarter Finals. This loss may be very important to Verdasco as he bids to play in the ATP world tour Finals, where only the top 8 players in the world play and he is number 8 at the moment. Becker will play Brands for a place in the Semi-Finals.

Nadal beat Bemelmans 6-1, 6-4. The world number one beat the qualifier, Bemelmans, convincingly to advance to the Quarter Finals.

Kukushkin beat Rochus 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Kukuahkin works hard to advance to the Quarters to face Nadal.

ATP Kuala Lumpar


Ferrer beat Bhambri 6-2, 6-2. The fifth seed at Malaysia eases through to the Quarter Finals as he also looks for a place at the ATP tour Finals, although he is currently world number 11.

Soderling beat Roger-Vasselin 6-0, 6-1. The top seed destroys Roger-Vasselin, after dropping just one game.

Golubev beat Anderson 6-4, 7-6(4). Golubev takes a while to overcome Anderson, but eventually wins in straight sets to go through to face Soderling in the Quarter Finals.

Berdych beat Istomin 6-4, 6-3. Berdych storms through to the Quarter Finals where he will face Ferrer. He is also looking to gain a place to the ATP world tour finals, however, is in a better position than Ferrer, as he is world number 7.

WTA Tokyo


Azarenka beat Vandeweghe 6-2, 6-1. Azarenka eases past Vandweghe to reach the Semi-Finals, being the lowest ranked seed of the semi-finalists ranking 8th seed at Tokyo.

Wozniaki beat Radwanska 5-0 ret. Wozniaki moves to the Semi-Finals to face Azarenka, after Radwanska retired with a foot injury.

Dementieva beat Zvonereva 7-5, 6-2. Dementieva beats the second seed in straight sets, to advance to the Semi-Finals.

Schiavone beat Kanepi 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. A long three set match ends with Schiavone being the victor, who will go onto face Dementieva in the Semi-Finals.

More news coming tomorrow, I will try to make improvements to the blog in the weekend, such as adding more player profiles and improving the content.

News at ATP Bangkok, ATP Kuala Lumpar and WTA Tokyo

Yesterday we saw Del Potro beaten by Rocchus on his first match after returning from an injury, sustained in January. Many believed that he could go on to meet Nadal later in the tournament but he does not seem to have regained his form.

At Tokyo, the champion, Sharapova is out in the first round, after losing 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to Kimiko Date of Japan, a day before Date's 40th birthday. On other news Kim Clisters has pulled out of the China Open next month after having an operation on her foot to remove moles.

EDIT

Today's scores were:

ATP Bangkok


Becker beat Zverev 6-1, 6-4. Benjamin Becker eased past the first round, after overcoming his compatriot Zverev.

Gulbis beat Schuttler 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Gulbis had to work hard to make it into the Quarter Finals, after going through two tie breaks.

Brands beat De Bakker 7-6(2), 1-6, 7-6(7). De Bakker fought hard, however lost, against Brands, after an epic tie break in the last set, finishing 9-7, and having a match point saved by Brands.

Melzer beat Sela 6-3, 6-4. Melzer beat Sela in a convincing fashion.

Garcia-Lopez beat Serra 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5. One more epic match which went all the way, but in the end the higher ranked player won.


ATP Kuala Lumpur


Istomin beat Ilhan 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Another 3 set match, where we Istomin coming back from a set down to advance to the 2nd round.

Ferrer beat Tomic 6-3, 6-4. The high seed player, Ferrer, eased past Tomic.

Roger Vasselin beat Cermak 6-0, 6-4. Roger Vasselin eased through into the 2nd round, with the first bagel of the day in ATP tournaments.

Baghdatis beat Giraldo 7-5, 7-5. The Cypriot seeded 6 at Malaysia was slightly tested but eventually beat Giraldo in 2 sets.

Youzhny beat Dolgopolov 6-1, 5-7, 7-5. After starting well the newly crowned, world number 9 and semi finalist at the US open, was pulled into 3 sets.

Raonic beat Stakhovsky 6-7(8), 7-6(9), 6-3. The seventh seed was beaten by Raonic in 3 sets, after taking the first set.

Andreev beat Davydenko 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3. The biggest shock of the men's tour today was defending champion, Davydenko being beaten in three sets.

WTA Tokyo


Wozniaki beat Pavlychenkova 6-1, 6-2. The world number 2 eased through the world number 20 in just two sets to advance into the Quarter Finals.

Radwanska beat Petkovic 6-3, 6-3. The world number 9 advances into the Quarter Finals to play Wozniaki.

Vandweghe beat Gorges 6-3, 6-0. She is the only Quarter finalist to be outside of the top 32 but she did have an easy opponent to reach to this stage.

Azarenka beat Bartoli 6-2, ret. Azarenka advances to the Quarter Finals to face Vandweghe, after Bartoli retired.

Schiavone beat Date Krumm 6-3, 6-3. Schiavone puts a halt to Date Krumm's dream run at her home country of beating Sharapova and making it into the third round. However, Schiavone will be going into the Quarter Finals.


Kanepi beat Jankovic 6-4, 6-4. The world number 6 and former number one was beaten by the world number 25, who will be going on to face Sciavone in the Quarter Finals.

Dementiava beat Pennetta 6-4, 6-2. The world number 10 keeps the trend of straight set wins to beat the world number 22, in order to reach the Quarter Finals.

Zvonareva beat Vinci 6-4, 6-0. Zvonareva rounds up the Quarter Finalists and will be facing Dementiava.

That's it for today, please comment your views to improve the format of the page.

I will be posting tomorrow as well.

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic

Factfile

Novak Djokovic was born on the 22nd of May 1987 in Zvecan, Serbia. He has taken one grand slam, the Australian Open, in the semi-finals of this tournament he beat Federer and stopped his record of 10 consecutive finals in grand slams. In grand slams he has a record of 85-23:18-5 in the Australian Open, 21-6 in the French Open, 20-6 in Wimbledon and 26-6 in the US Open. He has also lost 2 grand slam finals, in the US Open, one against Federer and the other against Nadal. He took the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics and is the youngest player to have reached the semi-finals of all grand slams.

Here is a table of all of his grand slams, includes when he went out, then a table of the grand slams he has won with the player he beat and the scoreline and finally a table with the grand slam finals he has lost with the player he lost to and the scoreline.

Djokovic Grand Slams

year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Australian Open	1R	1R	4R	W	QF	QF
French Open	2R	QF	SF	SF	3R	QF
Wimbledon	3R	4R	SF	2R	QF	SF
US Open	3R	3R	F	SF	SF	F

Djokovic Grand Slam finals wins

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2008	Jo-Wilfred Tsonga	Australian Open	4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(2)

Djokovic Grand Slam finals losses

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2007	Roger Federer	US Open	7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-4
2010	Rafael Nadal	US Open	6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2

Roger Federer

Federer

Federer is not my favourite player but I accept his greatness and achievements.

Factfile

Federer was born on the 8th August 1981 in Basel, Switzerland. Federer has broken many records and has been at the top of his game for years. These records include the most men grand slams won being 16, the most consecutive grand slam finals of 10 and the most consecutive weeks as number 1 of 237 weeks and is one week away from breaking Pete Sampras' record of 286 weeks as world number one. He is one of the seven people to have completed a career grand slam. His record in grand slams is 208-30:54-7 in the Australian Open, 43-11 in the French Open, 55-6 in Wimbledon and 56-6 in the US Open. He has made it into 21 grand slam finals and made it to the 23 consecutive semi finals of grand Slams, between 2004 French Open and 2010 French Open. On top of his 16 grand slam titles he has 47 other titles to his name. In doubles he is much less successful but has still won 8 titles including a 2008 Olympic gold with compatriot, Stanislas Wawrinka. He has taken six wimbledon titles, a second best, as well as five consecutive wimbledon titles, a joint record in open era with Bjorn Borg. He also holds the open era record for consecutive US Open titles of 5. He holds the record for the most years in a row to have won back to back grand slam titles, doing so 4 times. By taking the 2010 Australian Open he became the only man to have won three different grand slams, four or more times.

Here is a table of all of his grand slams, includes when he went out, then a table of the grand slams he has won with the player he beat and the scoreline and finally a table with the grand slam finals he has lost with the player he lost to and the scoreline.

Federer Grand Slam titles

year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Australian Open	Q	3R	3R	4R	4R	W	SF	W	W	SF	F	W
French Open	1R	4R	QF	1R	1R	3R	SF	F	F	F	W	QF
Wimbledon	1R	1R	QF	1R	W	W	W	W	W	F	W	QF
US Open	Q	3R	4R	4R	4R	W	W	W	W	W	F	SF

Federer Grand Slam finals wins

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2003	Mark Philippoussis	Wimbledon	7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(3)
2004	Marat Safin	Australian Open	7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2
2004	Andy Roddick	Wimbledon	4-6, 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-4
2004	Lleyton Hewitt	US Open	6-0, 7-6(3), 6-0
2005	Andy Roddick	Wimbledon	6-2, 7-6(2), 6-4
2005	Andre Agassi	US Open	6-3, 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-1
2006	Marcos Baghdatis	Australian Open	5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2
2006	Rafael Nadal	Wimbledon	6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3
2006	Andy Roddick	US Open	6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
2007	Fernando Gonzalez	Australian Open	7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4
2007	Rafael Nadal	Wimbledon	7-6(7), 4-6, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2
2007	Novak Djokovic	US Open	7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-4
2008	Andy Murray	US Open	6-2, 7-5, 6-2
2009	Robin Soderling	French Open	6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4
2009	Andy Roddick	Wimbledon	5-7, 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 3-6, 16-14
2010	Andy Murray	Australian Open	6-3, 6-4, 7-6(11)

Federer Grand Slam finals losses

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2006	Rafael Nadal	French Open	1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4)
2007	Rafael Nadal	French Open	6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
2008	Rafael Nadal	French Open	6-1, 6-3, 6-0
2008	Rafael Nadal	Wimbledon	6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7
2009	Rafael Nadal	Australian Open	7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2
2009	Juan Martin Del Potro	US Open	3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2

ATP Rankings

This is the first of a weekly update of ATP rankings. I will have posts and pages on the top players.


ATP Rankings

1. Rafael Nadal          12,025 
2. Novak Djokovic      7145
3. Roger Federer          6735
4. Andy Murray           5035
5. Robin Soderling       4910
6. Nikolay Davydenko 4150
7. Thomas Berdych      3760
8. Fernando Verdasco  3330
9. Mikhail Youzhny     3295
10. Andy Roddick          3180

Andy Murray

Murray

Factfile


Murray was born on the 15th May 1987 in Glassgow, Scotland. His top rank is world number 2 which is the highest rank for a British since Fred Perry. He has been in 3 grand slam finals in an attempt to break Britain's drought for grand slam titles of 75 years, but he has been stopped twice by Federer and once by Djokovic, all three times on hard court which is Murray's preferred surface. His record in grand slams is 63-21:18-6 in the Australian Open, 9-4 in the French Open, 19-5 in Wimbledon and 17-6 in the US Open.

Here is a table of all of his grand slams, includes when he went out and then a table with the grand slam finals he has lost with the player he lost to and the scoreline.

Murray Grand Slam tournaments

year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Australian Open	A	1R	4R	1R	4R	F	F
French Open	A	1R	A	3R	QF	4R
Wimbledon	3R	4R	A	QF	SF	SF
US Open	2R	4R	3R	F	4R	3R

Murray Grand Slam finals losses

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2008	Roger Federer	US Open	6-2, 7-5, 6-2
2010	Roger Federer	Australian Open	6-3, 6-4, 7-6(11)
2011	Novak Djokovic	Australian Open	6-4, 6-2, 6-3

Rafael Nadal

Nadal

Nadal is my favourite player and I have always admired him for his stamina and determination. 


Also have a look at his advent calendar post

Fact file

Nadal was born on the 4th of June in Majorca, Spain. Nadal is known for his incredible stamina and quick ground strokes, being the first to break 200 km/ph with a ground stroke. Nadal was ranked world number 2 behind Federer for 160 consecutive weeks until finally taking number one spot for 46 weeks before Federer took Number 1 again after Nadal missed a few months of the 2009 season because of tenditis in his knees. He regained his number 1 position after winning the 2010 Roland Garos and holds the position to this day. He became the first man to win titles on hard, clay and grass courts in 2009. He has won 9 grand slam titles and an olympic gold medal. In grand slams he has a record of 124-18: 29-6 in the Australian Open, 38-1 in the French Open, 29-4 in Wimbledon and 28-7 in the US Open. 


He is nicknamed the 'king of clay' because of his large success on clay. Like Federer he has broken numerous records. These are a 31 win streak in the French Open, 4 consecutive French Open victories, 81 consecutive matches won in clay, to have won the Olympic gold, Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year, 7th player to take a career grand slam, 2nd player to win the career golden grand slam, holds 18 ATP 1000 masters titles, a record, he is the first player to win 3 ATP masters titles in a row, also he is the first to take the clay slam, which means winning all three ATP 1000 masters and Roland Garos on clay in one season,  he is the only player to have won Roland Garos twice without dropping a set, he is also the only player to win a title 6 consecutive times at the Monte Carlos masters, he is the only player to win at least one ATP 1000 masters title every year for 6 years, he has also been in the last 21 quarter finals of ATP 1000 masters events, he has also won at least 3 ATP masters 1000 titles in the last 4 years and finally he is the first player in history to have won 400 singles matches in less than 500 matches. He has been Number one for 83 weeks, the eighth most in open era. 

Here is a table of all of his grand slams, includes when he went out, then a table of the grand slams he has won with the player he beat and the scoreline and finally a table with the grand slam finals he has lost with the player he lost to and the scoreline.

Nadal Grand Slam titles

year	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Australian Open	A	3R	4R	A	QF	SF	W	QF	QF
French Open	A	A	W	W	W	W	4R	W	W
Wimbledon	3R	A	2R	F	F	W	A	W	F
US Open	2R	2R	3R	QF	4R	SF	SF	W

Nadal Grand Slam finals wins

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2005	Mariano Puerta	French Open	6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
2006	Roger Federer	French Open	1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4)
2007	Roger Federer	French Open	6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
2008	Roger Federer	French Open	6-1, 6-3, 6-0
2008	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7
2009	Roger Federer	Australian Open	7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2
2010	Robin Soderling	French Open	6-4, 6-2, 6-4
2010	Tomas Berdych	Wimbledon	6-3, 7-5, 6-4
2010	Novak Djokovic	US Open	6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
2011	Roger Federer	French Open	7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1

Nadal Grand Slam finals losses

year	opponent	Grand Slam	score
2006	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3
2007	Roger Federer	Wimbledon	7-6(7), 4-6, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2
2011	Novak Djokovic	Wimbledon	6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3