2008

Nadal is out, Simon is in

Nadal withdraws from the 2008 Masters Cup in Shanghai due to a knee injury he incurred during his battle with Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters event the week before. He will still end the year holding on to his coveted world number one ranking. This does, however, open the door for Federer to pursue yet another astonishing record. If Federer wins this year's Shanghai tournament, he will join Pete Sampras and Evan Lendl as the only men to win the Masters Cup Championship five times... read more »

Rafa goes down in front of home crowd

France's Gilles Simon (the same kid that took out Federer in a U.S. Open Series tournament leading up to the Olympics) drops a bomb on Nadal in front of a shocked Madrid crowd in a thrilling 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 tiebreaker triumph. Simon had an unbelievable break point record, saving a whopping 17 break points to cement his first victory against the world number one in a three and a half hour bout.. read more »

Federer wins gold with compatriot Wawrinka

Doubles gold, that is. But still a gold medal. In fact, watching this match made me realize what a potent doubles team the two top 10 Swiss make. They took out the #1 doubles team in the world, the Bryan Brothers, in the semifinal, and go on to defeat Sweden's Simon Aspelin (doubles specialist) and Thomas Johansson in the gold medal match... read more »

At the heels of becoming No. 1, Nadal takes gold

As if it weren't enough for Federer that he's losing his number one ranking on Monday (8/18/08), a ranking he held for a stunning 237 consecutive weeks, he now has Rafa taking another long sought after dream of his from right under his nose - Olympic gold. He blew through five opponents before taking down Fernando Gonzales in a three-set blowout in the final (the final is played best of five)... read more »

A tight three set match with a controversial ending

Blake falls to Fernando Gonzales in the three set semifinal epic in Bejing. The only problem is that the ending is more sour than it is sweet, for the reason that at a pivotal moment in the match, a ball clips Gonzo's racket and flies out, but the ref misses it, and Fernando won't fess up to it. Blake can't believe it, and proceeds to lose control of the match...

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