Nabs

PMSL

TA5

'make believe friends'


hahaha, that's a good laugh, at least mine consist of real people and not screenames

DE, get a ****ing life, if you are jealous, get over it, but negativity just makes you look like a 'mcloser', what did i say to piss you off so bad.

Face81

come on now kids........... stop it!

Jellybean

Pics of player on the Burj Helipad....

http://www.dubaitennischampionships.com/

DubaiExpat

Ooooooh touchy touchy are we PMSL

Jellybean

I think it must be the McMale PMT's

Face81

interesting news:

< Tennis: Henman fumes as Ljubicic rains on his parade

DUBAI : Britain's Tim Henman fumed at the rain and the umpire after crashing out of the Dubai Open here on Friday in a dispiriting 7-5, 6-4 quarter-final defeat to in-form Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.

In a match punctuated by seven rain delays spread over six hours, third-seeded Henman lost the first set quickly after an eighty-minute delay at five-all in the first set.

He also lost his break of serve not long after a nine-minute delay at 2-0 in the second set, and lost the match very quickly after a forty minute break at 4-4.

He also twice became embroiled in grumbling at the umpire who several times looked uncertain whether or not to take them off in a stop-go drizzle.

"It was incredibly frustrating," Henman said.

"It's raining and the umpire doesn't take control. He kept telling us to play till the end of the game. But if it's raining, you come off - the score's irrelevant. It couldn't be more frustrating because I was very happy with my form up till now. You don't expect this sort of thing in the desert."

Henman also complained at a line decision in the third game of the second set, which he was convinced denied him a double break of serve.

He was advantage point up on Ljubicic's serve when he struck a return which appeared to land right on the baseline, only for it to be called out by a line judge.



The umpire over-ruled but Henman lost the replayed point, and Ljubicic got back to 1-2 instead of being 0-3 down.

"That was a terrible call," Henman said.

Ljubicic, whose 19 wins are more than any other man on the tour in 2005, always started the quicker each time they returned to the court.

The rain which dogged the tournament on Friday meant that top seed and world number one Roger Federer must play his quarter-final against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny on Saturday as will fourth seed Andre Agassi who faces another Russian Nikolay Davydenko in his last eight match.

Ljubicic's straight sets success revealed some of the tough-minded adaptability which has helped carry him into the top 20 for the first time this year.

"It was really difficult because we stopped I don't know how many times," said the eighth-seeded Croat.

"It was difficult to get a rhythm and I am really pleased just to get through this. I just tried to focus on every point, trying to serve well and put the ball in court, and Tim was making some strange mistakes."

Ljubicic's semi-final is fifth-seeded Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, who won 6-4 6-4 against Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, first round conqueror of Australian Open champion Marat Safin. - AFP >

Face81

and more recently:

< Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 27 February 2005 0433 hrs

Tennis: Majestic Federer overwhelms Agassi to reach Dubai final

DUBAI : Roger Federer overwhelmed Andre Agassi in only 52 minutes as he extended his record to 19 wins out of 20 this year and remained on course for his third title of the year at the Dubai Open.

Federer also hit something like his best form for the first time this week, winning 6-3, 6-1, a semi-final beating which had Agassi, the former winner of all four Grand Slam titles, cooing in admiration.


In Sunday's final, he will take on Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic, the man he beat to take the Rotterdam title last weekend.

"I could have made a few more second serve returns and a few less errors, but this was more about him, not me, out there tonight," said Agassi.

"When he got that second break of serve in the second set there was nothing I could do."

Federer achieved that break with a wonder shot, a winning backhand lob played in full retreat and with his back to the net, and projected over Agassi's head with an instinctive flick.

It earned the defending champion the biggest roar of the night, and although Agassi has been the most popular player in the tournament by far, the crowd had to settle for applauding the magnificence of Federer during the one-sided last few games.

After breaking serve for 5-3 in the first set and closing it out quickly, he started timing the ball much better and his level shot up frighteningly.

Balls which had previously been containable now went for winners, and the longer his lead got, the more Federer was able to take liberties with his shot selection.



"I thought I could raise my game when it was important," said Federer. "But I didn't expect anyhting like this today.

"The way I had been playing, I was really struggling with my rhythm, and I thought against Andre it would be hard. To pull of such a magnificent match was special for me."

Although nearly 35 years old, and forced by rain delays to play twice in a day, Agassi claimed there was nothing wrong with either his energy levels or his physical condition.

Earlier in the day he had disposed of Nikolay Davydenko, the sixth-seeded Russian 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) although it had been a tough second set, and the feeling was that Federer used up less of his resources in disposing of another top 20 Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3, 7-5 in his delayed quarter-final.

But Agassi said he was keen to return to Dubai, which suggested that, after achieving his first semi-final for four months, he has no intentions of retiring at the end of 2005.

"It's been an incredible week for me," he claimed.

For the second week in a row Federer will have a final against Ivan Ljubicic, who is rapidly turning into the surprise packet of the 2005 ATP Tour, and has been claiming he knows how to beat the world number one.

The big Croat had already broken into the top 20 for the first time and achieved more wins on the men's circuit than anyone else this year.

Now, with his 20th victory, a 6-4, 6-3 success over Spain's Tommy Robredo, he has reached his fourth final of the year.

"I feel like I am able to play to this level now for most of the season," said the 26-year-old Ljubicic.

"If I had played like this for just one tournament it might have felt like a miracle, but it's not.

"Everything is coming together - my game and the fact that I was married (in November). I am very calm and very good in my head as well as in my body and I have huge confidence." - AFP>

hmmmmmmmmm............. more rain anyone? LOLOLOLOL