First it was Rafael Nadal. Then came Roger Federer’s turn.
The two players that have dominated tennis for the last three years were both upset over three days at the Rome Masters.
Federer lost his sixth match of the year on Friday, falling to 27th-ranked Radek Stepanek 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) in the quarter-finals.
The top-ranked Federer lost only nine matches last year. He piled up a string of defeats at the beginning of this year when he was diagnosed with glandular fever.
Nadal, the three-time defending champion in Rome, lost in the second round to Juan Carlos Ferrero.
In the semi-finals, Stepanek will face Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic. He advanced when Nicolas Almagro retired with an apparent wrist problem while the Serb led 6-1, 1-0.
In the other half of the draw, sixth-seeded Andy Roddick eliminated No. 14 Tommy Robredo 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) to match his best performance in Rome.
Roddick’s semi-final opponent will be Stanislas Wawrinka, who rallied past eighth-seeded James Blake 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-1.
Roddick improved to 8-0 in his career against Robredo, rushing the net on both his first and second serves against the Spaniard.
In the third-set tiebreaker, Roddick overwhelmed Robredo with two aces and converted his first match point after following his second serve to net.
Federer surrendered a 5-2 lead in the second-set tiebreaker, and wasted a set point at 6-5 on Stepanek’s serve by hitting into the net.
“Usually when I have a lead I don’t let it go, so it’s quite disappointing,” Federer said. “I played so poorly on the big points.”
Federer won his first title of the year at the Estoril Open last month, the longest he’s waited in nine years.
“He definitely doesn’t have the results he was used to in previous years,” Stepanek said. “But the other players are getting better. I came to the match with the belief that I can win.”
The Rome Masters is an important clay-court tuneup for the French Open, which begins on May 25. Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam Federer has never won. He has also never won a title in Rome.
Federer had won four of his previous five meetings with Stepanek, but the pair are now tied 2-2 on clay.
“He’s difficult to play,” Federer said. “He’s always changing his game up a lot. But I’ve played him in the past, so it wasn’t a surprise. I just wish I played better.”
Stepanek converted his second match point with a first serve that Federer couldn’t return.
In the first set tiebreaker, Stepanek took control with a volley to go up 6-4, then served an ace on his first set point.
After his illness, Federer snapped back by winning Estoril and reaching the final of the Monte Carlo Masters in his last outing, losing to Nadal.
Federer pronounced himself fully fit at the beginning of this tournament, and his problem on Friday didn’t appear to be a physical one.
At one point in the first set, Federer won four straight service games without losing a point. Still, Stepanek kept up the pressure by serve-and-volleying and winning 25 of 41 points at the net.
“It was very important, because if you let him play his game, he can move the ball all around the court,” Stepanek said of his aggressive tactics. “I wanted to keep the pressure on.”
Stepanek served eight aces to Federer’s seven.
The Czech player celebrated his victory by performing a caterpillar-like movement with his belly face-down on the clay.
“That was the way I celebrated the first tournament victory of my career,” he said. “Everyone was asking me when I would do it again, but I was waiting for the right occasion, and today was special.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but