Future Tennis Stars

In what should come as no surprise, Rafael Nadal has been suffering from a foot injury since 2005. Nadal’s coach and uncle, Tony Nadal, said the problem is serious but would not comment on whether the injury is career threatening.

“I prefer not to answer. It’s very serious. I don’t know [if it’s career-threatening]. I’ll let the doctor reply to that. He has to take a lot of precautions when he plays.”

The secret to Nadal’s success is that he is so quick and his game is almost violently physical. For the last few years, Nadal has been strong in the first half of the season then his results take a noticeable hit in the second half.

Nadal won the French Open for the third time this year, along with 5 other titles. His last big result was pushing Federer to 5 sets in the Wimbledon final.

The question then begs, if Rafael Nadal’s career is cut short due to injury, who then would be able to compete with Roger Federer?

The season is barely over and thoughts are already on 2008. David Nalbandian confirmed his place in the Kooyong Classic and joins a stellar field which also includes Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas and Ivan Ljubicic.

Kooyong has long been a favourite warmup for the Australian Open. The 8 man tournament is an exhibition and does not count in any ATP statistics or records.

Last year, Andy Roddick beat Roger Federer in the final earlier this year. However, Federer slammed Roddick in the Australian Open.

The first match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras wasn’t close. The second match lived up to the hype.

Federer battled Sampras and won again, this time in a 90 minute, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5) thriller. Sampras had his rocket serve and laser like forehands down the line on full display on Thursday preventing another Federer steamroll.

“I was impressed with Pete tonight,” Federer told reporters. “He played some unbelievable shots, but then again he is capable of doing that. He had an incredible serve which was so difficult to read tonight.”

The last of the three matches between the two will take place on Saturday in Macau.

Two days ago, David Ferrer beat Rafael Nadal. Today, he gave Nadal a gift. Nadal beat third ranked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 to keep Djokovic winless in round robin play in his first trip to the Masters Cup. Still, Nadal needed a Ferrer win to keep Richard Gasquet from having a chance to move into the semifinals. Ferrer did just that and beat Gasquet 6-1, 6-1 in a rout.

Andy Roddick already made the semifinals and will face Roger Federer on Friday. If Federer wins, he will be the last semifinalist no matter if Davydenko wins as Federer has an edge in sets won.

The good news for Ana Ivanovic? She did better today than the last time she faced Justine Henin in a 6-1, 6-2 loss in the French Open finals. The bad news? She still lost.

Justine Henin beat Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 to move into Sunday’s final against Maria Sharapova. Sharapova routed Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 6-2 in the first semifinal. Henin and Sharapova have not played since the semifinals of last year’s season ending Championships where Henin won 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

A win on Sunday would give Henin her 25th win in a row, matching a run made by Steffi Graf in 1989. Henin could also win her 10th title of the year. No player has won 10 or more titles in a year since Martina Hingis did it in 1997.

We thought Jelena had a chance, Chakvetadze didn’t. Jelena Jankovic’s last hopes of taking a big title home this year have been dashed by Anna Chakvetadze. Anna took the first set 6-4 then got blanked 6-0 in the second before closing Jankovic out in the third 6-3. Jelena certainly had her chances but served poorly especially in the big moments.

Chakvetadze finishes with a 2-1 win/loss record while Jankovic fell to 0-2. Jelena’s last chance to get a win will be against Marion Bartoli on Friday.

Jelena Jankovic needs a win to stay alive and to put Anna Chakvetadze on the hot seat. It isn’t looking promising.

Jankovic dropped the first set 6-4, serving at 67% but winning only 18% of her second serve points. Each player has 1 double fault but Jankovic was broken twice.

It isn’t all bad news, as Chakvetadze opened the second set with 2 double faults and Jankovic broke to take the lead and held to go up 2-0.

In a result that should surprise no one, Justine Henin beat Marion Bartoli 6-0, 6-0 to be a perfect 3-0 in round robin play on Thursday. The loss for Bartoli effectively ends her stay in Madrid.

Up shortly, Jelena Jankovic will play Anna Chakvetadze. If Jankovic wins, she will be level at 1 win and 1 loss and will still need to beat Bartoli to reach the semifinals. If Chakvetadze wins, she will be at 2-1 and it will be over for both Jankovic and Bartoli who would both be 0-2.

Maria Sharapova beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday and with the win, both her and Ana Ivanovic reached the semifinals. Both Sharapova and Ivanovic have 2-0 win/loss records while Kuznetsova and Daniela Hantuchova are 0-2. Sharapova and Ivanovic will still play each other while Kuznetsova will play Hantuchova.

The season isn’t over yet but Jelena Jankovic was given the ACES award for 2007. The ACES award goes to “the player who consistently goes above and beyond to promote women’s tennis in the media, the community and beyond.”

“I am honoured and delighted to receive this award,” Jankovic said. “Tennis has been the joy of my life and I am very happy to be able to give back to the sport and help it grow. I am looking forward to participating in the ACES program again next year and hope to be able to make a larger difference on and off the court.”

The WTA Tour keeps points for this award and Jankovic accumulated 660 points. Ana Ivanovic was second with 425, Justine Henin had 395 and Tatiana Golovin was fifth with 335.