Federer and Nadal are long time friends
Browsing: Rafael Nadal
The Swiss, returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee, last won a major at Wimbledon in 2012
The 35-year-old Williams, who is attempting to win an Open era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, beat world number 61 Lucie Safarova 6-3 6-4
The Spaniard, who ended last season early because of a wrist injury, will now play Milos Raonic in the semi-final of the Abu Dhabi exhibition event
The 14-time Grand Slam champion said on Monday on his Facebook page he will compete in the six-player, $250 000 Mubadala World Tennis Championship
After two days of training in Rio alongside compatriot David Ferrer, Nadal told Spanish radio station Cadena Cope on Wednesday: “It’s evident that the condition of my wrist is not ideal and if it wasn’t the Olympics, I would not take this risk
Nadal’s uncle and trainer Toni revealed last week that he was optimistic of his nephew’s chances but after arriving in Brazil on Sunday, Nadal revealed that he is still deciding whether to compete in the tournament
The 30-year-old was forced to withdraw from the French Open in round three last month because of a wrist injury and subsequently pulled out of Wimbledon warm-up tournament Queen’s.
The Spaniard stated that if he continued to play, he was in danger of breaking his wrist, and now he has confirmed that he will not be fit enough to compete in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament either
The Spaniard breezed into round three of the competition with a straight-sets win over Facundo Bagnis on Thursday – his landmark 200th Grand Slam win
The record nine-time champion at Roland Garros ended up beating Facundo Bagnis 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 to become the eighth man in history to win 200 matches at major tournaments
The second set was not as simple, with games going by the way of serve until Sousa broke to go 5-4 up and eventually drew level on sets
Monfils then served looking to avoid a bagel, only to be broken for a third time by Nadal as he produced a powerful forehand winner on Championship point
The “King of Clay” had to live up to that reputation as Wawrinka pushed him close in the second set, but – having recovered from a defeat the last time they met on dirt courts – Nadal looks well-placed to also get revenge on Murray, who won the pair’s previous meeting on clay in Madrid last year
The fifth seeded Spaniard took command after a fiercely contested first set and sealed a confidence boosting 7-5 6-3 win over Thiem
The names of all players penalised for violating the tennis anti-doping program are announced publicly as required by the rules of the program and the world anti-doping code, the spokesman added
The Spaniard defeated Grigor Dimitrov in three sets on Wednesday to book his place in the quarter-finals where he will face either Marin Cilic or Teymuraz Gabashvili
“I hope to be ready for it. I have been playing well the last couple of weeks. I think I’m in better shape than a few months ago,” the 29-year old Spaniard said
Having fallen to 10th in the world rankings at the start of the week, the 29-year-old was pleased to prove some of his doubters wrong by winning in Germany and he believes he is now on the right path towards success as he continues his preparations for SW19
But the top seed gallantly played on and even snatched the third set as Wawrinka – contesting his first-ever major final – struggled to cope with the bizarre situation