i think rafa's tired after the 4 hour grueling match with djoker... anyway well done to roger for winning another masters title...

hopefully rafa can rest fully and prepare for roland garros .... i think he is still the hot favourite to win in paris

I think Nadal said that there is some problem with his knees. Would it affect his French Open's preparation? =)

Make no mistake, even after Federer won today, Nadal is still the hot hot hot hot favourite for Roland Garros.. look at his year so far.. so dominant on clay until today... and its just a loss because of the long long Djokovic match (actually not that long because both guys took like 1 minute after each point to get ready.... with Nadal digging his ass and Djokovic bounced the ball thousand times before tossing to serve)

Great day for Federer. Saw some change in tactic there with more use of drop shot and his down the line forehand to Nadal's backhand.

Anyway guys, Starsports is showing the Celebration of Centre Court, emm, a celebration for the new Wimbledon centre court roof.

Agassi, Henman, Clijsters and Graff are playing now.

This post has been edited by Bepeon: May 18 2009, 12:26 AM

interesting..somehow i think that federer should grateful that murray is now the no 3 player in the world at least until after roland garros..imagine that if the seeded player playing well during french open definitely its going to be Nadal vs djokovic and federer vs ? in the semi final, djokovic definitely going to kill nadal energy when they encounter and could benifit mr fedex..

bepeon, can you kindly enlighten me when the replay for the federer vs nadal match will be shown on astro.

I was kinda pissed there was no live screening ( huge fed fan here, heh), yeah GTH ASTRO, and i really wanna see the whole match. Thanks alot

Bepeon, do u know if there'll be a replay on the wimbledon match? i'd like to see agassi n graf play...

anything that benefits Fedex is good

THink tonight have to go home and watch the nadal federer match. Didn't catch it yesterday. Wanna see how Federer pwn Nadal....

herm...
not too agree with that...
coz if all seeded players are advancing to the semi-finals...
which mean Federer has to play Murray...
which I don't see any advantage for Federer...since Federer has been finding it difficult to beat Murray...

Federer vs Nadal replay would be at 9.50PM in Supersport tonight. =) Enjoy. Yeah, Nadal was tired, but credits to Federer for playing the right tactic.

Madrid Masters final will be shown tonight at 9.50 p.m. on Astro SuperSport

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Added on May 18, 2009, 5:48 pmHere's the prediction by Peter Bodo which came out right:

Monday, May 4, 2009 |

Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com

It used to be that Roger Federer thrived in the thin atmosphere up at the peak of the game, but the beleaguered former No. 1 -- and candidate for Greatest of All Time accolades -- now has a lot of trouble breathing up near the top. So he's gone back to his native Switzerland to work on his lungs and game prior to the Madrid Masters 1000.

"I'd like to go back to Switzerland. I've been on the road again for a few weeks here," Federer said after he lost his semifinal match with Novak Djokovic in Rome late last week. "I'd like to go to Switzerland and make sure I get early enough to Madrid and get used to the altitude. Just make sure I'm in good shape over there [in Spain]."

It's funny, but you don't hear guys who are winning big tournaments talk that way, especially when those tournaments are right in their proverbial backyards. If the clay-court season suddenly seems like such a grind for a European player, I'd hate to think what he'll be feeling during the U.S. summer hard-court season.

There's another possible explanation for Federer's homesickness -- the last tournament he won was the Swiss Indoors, in his hometown of Basel. That was about seven months ago. If you had predicted at the time that Roger would head into May of 2009 without having won another title, you would have been skewered on a thousand fondue spears.

It has been rough sledding for Federer lately, but he's also facing a significant opportunity. The next major event is the Madrid Masters Series 1000, the newest of the game's showcase "dual" events featuring men's and women's fields and a draw of 96, just like the established hard-court dual events, Miami and Indian Wells.

Madrid is a brand-new event, so it's hard to say what role it will play in the annual calendar. It's still not certain whether Rafael Nadal will play Madrid -- he's been very coy about the issue, mainly because he has some concerns about the high altitude, and how the changes it demands will affect a player for the next and most important tournament of the spring, Roland Garros.

So here's an ideal scenario for Federer: He trains in Switzerland -- at a high altitude -- and, with the previous week off, enters Madrid with fresh legs and a clear mind. Meanwhile, Nadal caves in to the guilt and pressure and decides not to pull out of Madrid.

Taking advantage of the thin air in Spain, Federer rediscovers the form that has abandoned him. Nadal, grumpy and having second thoughts about capitulating, struggles. But he makes it through to the final, where Federer is waiting. Federer, finding the thin air conducive to aggressive play, upsets Nadal.

Thus, Federer goes into the French Open with replenished confidence and hope, while Nadal -- the four-time defending champ -- begins to feel the pressure of shooting for a historic fifth straight title.

That's the dream scenario for all those Federer fans who are living on bottled oxygen.

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Added on May 18, 2009, 5:57 pmGoing into the Roland Garros from Madrid Masters, it's going to be a whole different senario for the players.

Roger finally got his confidence boost.

Djokovic believes that his chance to beat Rafa is near.

Rafa is more relaxed and hungrier as Roger had ended Rafa's winning streak last night.

So the French Open next week is going to be interesting and competitive.

This post has been edited by hcfoo: May 18 2009, 05:57 PM

Wow, Peter Bodo's prediction was spot on.

im could be wrong, but i dont think murray has the game to play on clay yet, every time he play on clay, he struggle a lot seem like he has to put a lot of effort compare with the other top players just to stay in the match..i think he could just reach quarterfinal not more than that..let say if he surprise all of us reaching semifinal, federer wont having any problem beating him..but i do think 1 player that stand between nadal and his goal for 4 grand slams target this season is andy murray..

just for your info, only the 1 and 2 seeds are placed top and bottom. the 3 and 4 seeds will drawn into either top or bottom. So it is not necessary that the 1 seed will play the 3 seed. Comprendo?

By the way Sharapova is back on court now ready to play her first rd match in Warsaw. Tune in to Eurosport.

yeah finally rafa got beaten by fedex...

I watched the delayed match on Astro, Rafa looks so.... pissed in a way during the trophy presentation.

But Fed's forehand was absolutely marvelous, almost as good as it was a few a years ago. Oh and of course, those drop shots of his... totally, amazing. Ball bounces on the same spot and not higher than 2 feet! Nuts!

I will be hoping that Federer will win his First french open. He should be able to do it. He should be playing more ugly and fight it out to the end as commented by the commentators during the madrid open finals.

Haha, it wouldn't be Federer if he plays ugly tennis.... His brand of tennis is smooth and silky, which explains why his matches are generally shorter than Nadal's match... but yeah, the key is that he needs to stay strong throughout the match against Nadal in French Open....

He still needs to improve on his serves consistency though. Although he got alot of aces from the match with Nadal and especially with Roddick, his consistentncy in serving is really.... poor.

Finally, French open will get its own channel on Astro. I don't understand why they televised live match between Juventus and xxx during Madrid Masters. Even the football stadium had a lot of empty seats, which suggest the game is not so important for a live broadcast. *sigh*

Maybe the Italian football spectators were at home watching Nadal vs Federer