Roger Federer suffers straight-sets loss to fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka
Features
After losing to Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Miami Masters a fortnight ago, Roger Federer, without a title for six months, had said he could barely wait for the clay court season to begin: "Thank God the hard court season is over. I'm moving onto clay. It's a new chapter." He barely managed to get beyond the first paragraph here, losing in the third round 6-4, 7-5 against his fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka on a rain-affected fourth day of the Monte Carlo Masters that saw Andy's Murray's third round match fail to finish.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 16, 2009
Andy Murray eases into third-round of Monte Carlo Masters
Features
Andy Murray came through his opening match in this year's Monte Carlo Masters today with minimal fuss, beating the Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-2.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 14, 2009
Andy Murray unfazed in Rafael Nadal's shadow
Features
Prince Albert is a tennis fan, although until yesterday he had steadfastlyrefused to allow his Monégasque palace to be an adjunct to the annual Monte Carlo tournament, the official opening of the clay-court season. But times are perhaps a little hard, even in this billionaire's playground, and so it was that Rafael Nadal, who this week will attempt to win his fifth consecutive title here, and Andy Murray, hit a few balls on a mini-tennis court on the parade ground of the Palais Princier, with Albert in attendance. Next stop on the ATP World Tour: a pre-Queen's photo opportunity at Buck House with our head of state pressing tennis flesh? Perhaps not.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 13, 2009
Roger Federer loses cool in the heat of the big matches
Features
Roger Federer – the super-cool, fiercely focused, unbeatable-in-big-matches Roger Federer – has been behaving strangely. Like losing his cool, losing his focus, and like losing big matches as facilely as he once won them.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 12, 2009
Andy Murray seeks major feat of clay
Features
Andy Murray, buoyed by his success in becoming the first Briton to win the Sony Ericsson Open, believes he can reach the top of the world rankings and win a grand slam title as he goes into the clay court season at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters next week with the best win-loss record on this year's ATP tour.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 07, 2009
After recent riches, Murray must not let his season slide on clay
Features
How to ride out a recession? Simple. Play tennis like Andy Murray, whose brilliant victory over Novak Djokovic in the Miami Masters final on Sunday means he has already beaten the three players higher than him in the world rankings this year. In barely three months he has trousered $1,559,437 in prize money playing tennis of such quality that, even without his efforts to shed the Mr Grumpy image, top brands would be eagerly pressing for the chance to make him richer still.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 06, 2009
One smashed racket does not a surrealist make
Features
Funny old business, surrealism. Very few of us, I dare say, have subjected the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto to a close reading – it is not a page turner, quite frankly, and you might find Dan Brown more gemütlich for the beach – and yet we go around branding all sorts of things surreal purely on the basis that they confound expectations, or feature a bowler hat or a fish in some sort of unlikely circumstances.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 06, 2009
