3/26賽事一些外電 - 網球 Tennis

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/sports/tennis/roddick-stuns-federer.html

Roddick Stuns Federer at Sony Ericsson Open

By BEN ROTHENBERG

Published: March 27, 2012

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — After an easy first-round win at the Sony Ericsson Open
on Saturday, Andy Roddick said, “I feel like something good is coming.” It
did not take long for his premonition to be proved right.

After the last serve bounded harmlessly off Federer’s racket, Roddick put
his arms in the air, clenched the handle of his racket and looked up. He
pointed to the sky, acknowledging his Miami-based agent, Ken Meyerson, who
died of a heart attack in October.

“My agent was from here and his wife was here,” Roddick said. “I felt like
I was a crazy person, because I think I was having full dialogues with him
the last 30 minutes of the match.”

Roddick, ranked 31st in the world, had beaten Federer only twice in 23
previous meetings, including losses in four Grand Slam finals.

The win may signal a reversal of fortunes for Roddick. He was forced to
retire with a hamstring injury in the second round of the Australian Open,
and then was reinjured in his next match in San Jose.

“I didn’t know if I meant this week,” Roddick said with a laugh when
predicting his change in fortunes. “But I have been feeling better and I
have been feeling healthy.”

Roddick’s unlikely victory ended a 16-match win streak for Federer that
included titles in Rotterdam, Dubai and Indian Wells. It was also Federer’s
first loss to a player ranked outside the top 20 since June 2010.

“You know, he’s still very good,” Federer said. “I’m happy to see him
play really well.”

While Federer’s streak ended, the hottest player in the women’s game fought
successfully to keep hers alive. Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka trailed No. 16
seed Dominika Cibulkova, 1-6, 0-4, before rallying for a gritty 1-6, 7-6 (7),
6-4 victory, improving her 2012 record to 26-0.

Cibulkova ripped through the normally impenetrable ground game of Azarenka.

“It kind of felt like she closed her eyes and just went for everything,”
Azarenka said. “And me, I couldn’t just really open my eyes.”

Azarenka finished off Cibulkova in 2 hours 47 minutes after a forehand
passing shot whizzed past Azarenka and then the baseline.

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/7740885/tennis-victoria-azarenka-avoids
-major-upset-sony-ericsson-open

5 Things: Vika avoids major upset

Updated: March 26, 2012, 10:15 PM ET

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- For 25 consecutive matches, Victoria had always spelled
victory.

And then on Monday, a feisty 5-foot-3 Slovakian grenade named Dominika
Cibulkova threatened to blow up the best start to a women's season in 15
years. She sprinted out to a 6-1, 4-1 lead on No. 1-ranked Victoria Azarenka
and seemed poised to spring the upset of the year.

When Azarenka came back to win the second set, you got the idea it might be
over quickly. But Cibulkova, playing with great gusto, stayed in the match,
slashing those low, fiery groundstrokes to the end, some 2 hours, 49 minutes
after it began.

Azarenka prevailed 1-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in a dramatic fourth-round match at the
Sony Ericsson Open that featured a zany 15 breaks of serve in 32 games. The
numbers were cartoonish all around; Cibulkova was credited with 45 winners --
and 71 unforced errors. Azarenka had a slightly better ratio, with 15 winners
and 47 unforced errors.

And so, the streak stands at 26.

The 22-year-old Belarusian is still working on the best women's leap out of
the box since Martina Hingis went 37-0, all the way to the French Open final
in 1997. Comparisons to Novak Djokovic's searing 41-0 start last year can now
officially resume.

"Definitely wasn't thinking about the streak, that's for sure," Azarenka
said. "I have to give all the credit to her, you know, because she played
some splendid tennis, just amazing. She was hitting every possible line there
was.

"So it kind of felt like she closed her eyes and just went for everything.
And me, I couldn't just really open my eyes. I was like blinded a little bit."

She added that a pep talk from her coach, Sam Sumyk, shook her out of the
funk.

Cibulkova, the No. 16 seed here, is not exactly an anonymous dangerous
floater. She previously reached the quarterfinals of two majors -- most
recently, Wimbledon a year ago -- and her past four matches with Azarenka all
went the three-set distance. And yet, she was an unimpressive 4-8 coming into
the tournament and has won only one title in her six years as a professional.

Azarenka came into Miami looking nearly unstoppable. She throttled the No.
2-ranked Maria Sharapova in the recent Indian Wells final, just as she did in
Melbourne. She was 9-0 against players ranked in the top 10.

It's ironic that the streak (is it time to start using upper case?) nearly
ended here, since this is the tournament where she always has seemed most
comfortable. Her 2009 win (beating Serena Williams in the final) was the
biggest of her career. She won the Sony Ericsson title again last year, to
start building the foundation for a fantastic 2012.

Last year, after Roger Federer ended Djokovic's brilliant run in the
semifinals at Roland Garros, Djokovic quickly regrouped. He won Wimbledon and
the U.S. Open to take three of the four majors. Azarenka's game and the
confidence it carries -- you could see the belief in the final set -- will
make her one of the favorites in the three remaining Grand Slams, if not the
favorite.

Azarenka thinks calling it confidence is too easy.

"I feel like it's just invisible thing that everybody keeps calling [it]
something magical. You know, that 'Oh, my God, he or she plays with
confidence and it brings her wins.'

"It's absolutely not true, because behind that there is a lot of hard work.
There's daily working on your nerves, and I'm sure everybody when they go out
there, doesn't matter how confident you are or not confident, everybody
experiences those nerves, those adrenaline coming."

Here are four other things we learned Monday at the Sony Ericsson Open:

1. Novak Djokovic means the world to Serbia: Clearly, the reverse is also
true for Djokovic, as seen in a lovely "60 Minutes" segment.

Monday, after beating countryman and good friend Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4 in a
third-round match, he talked about it.

"I feel a need to represent my country and to allow people to see in public
my story," Djokovic said. "The tennis players, how we grew up, especially the
generation that had to go through wars and difficult times where you didn't
have much support, didn't have a professional facilities that could
accommodate you and allow you to develop yourself into a professional tennis
player.

"Because not many countries in the world have been through what we did, what
we have been through. We know how it feels to, you know, lose the close ones,
lose your own people in the war, touch the bottomness as a country in every
aspect of the life, and then stand up and be stronger, you know, be reborn
out of it."

As CBS correspondent Bob Simon poignantly summed it up, the war helped make
Djokvoic a Grand Slam champion.

When Djokovic lost to American John Isner in the semifinals of the recent
Indian Wells event, some wondered if he was off his game. Based on the early
returns here, he appears on course for a semifinal berth opposite Andy
Roddick, who upset Roger Federer on Monday.

2. Mardy Fish is a heat-of-the-day kind of guy: Fish, who grew up playing in
the scorching heat of Florida, enjoys breaking a sweat. Unlike Serena
Williams, he is a morning person and -- at the age of 30 -- usually finds
himself in bed by 9 p.m.

His match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa was first on the grandstand
court and Fish looked sharp, winning 6-4, 6-3.

"Everybody likes to know exactly when they play," he said afterward. "I wake
up early, always, so I like when the matches start at 11."

The start time was welcome but, for the second match in a row, the venue was
not. Fish complained after his second-round match that his top-10 ranking
merited a match on the stadium court because "I worked very hard to put
myself where I am."

Instead, it was fellow Americans John Isner and Andy Roddick who got the VIP
invite. With Isner already out of the tournament and Roddick defeating No.
3-ranked Roger Federer on Monday night, tournament organizers may have no
choice to put Fish's fourth-round match against Nicolas Almagro on the big
stage.

3. Sometimes it feels like Argentina down here: There were times Monday, when
Juan Martin del Potro must have felt like he was playing Davis Cup at home.

The Sony Ericsson crowd, which features significant numbers from South
America, was raucous during his 6-3, 7-6 (3) third-round victory over Marin
Cilic. Del Potro, who understands the local dynamic, played to the crowd,
especially in the second-set tiebreaker.

4. The Williams sisters are flying under the local radar: Maria Sharapova, a
6-4, 7-6 (3) winner over Ekaterina Makarova, was asked afterward about the
presence of Venus and Serena Williams.

"They've obviously achieved so much in tennis around the world and
contribute so much to the sport," Sharapova said. "To have these two great
athletes playing in your sport, it's really good to see."

If Sharapova can get by Li Na in the quarterfinals, she could meet Serena in
the semifinals. Has she been watching the Williams sisters matches?

"I haven't actually," Sharapova said. "I don't get the Tennis Channel in my
hotel. Sometimes that's a good thing."

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