The International BNL D`Italia tournament began on Sunday, 8th of May and will end on May 15th, 2011.This event is part of the ATP Masters 1000 and it features the best players at the Foro Italico in Rome. The director of this clay surface tournament is Sergio Palmieri.This tournament offers a great atmosphere, followed by delicious food, celebrity musical performances and high fashion. Just for the record, here is a “short” list of former men`s Rome tennis champions:
2009 Rafael Nadal
2008 Novak Djokovic
2007 Rafael Nadal
2006 Rafael Nadal
2005 Rafael Nadal
2004 Carlos Moya
2003 Felix Mantilla
2002 Andre Agassi
2001 Juan Carlos Ferrero
2000 Magnus Norman
1999 Gustavo Kuerten
1998 Marcelo Rios
1997 Alex Corretja
1996 Thomas Muster
1995 Thomas Muster
1994 Pete Sampras
1993 Jim Courier
1992 Jim Courier
1991 Emilio Sanchez
1990 Thomas Muster
1989 Alberto Mancini
1988 Ivan Lendl
1987 Mats Wilander
1986 Ivan Lendl
1985 Yannick Noah
1984 Andres Gomez
1983 Jimmy Arias
1982 Andres Gomez
1981 Jose-Luis Clerc
1980 Guillermo Vilas
1979 Vitas Gerulaitis
1978 Bjorn Borg
1977 Vitas Gerulaitis
1976 Adriano Panatta
1975 Raul Ramirez
1974 Bjorn Borg
1973 Ilie Nastase
1972 Manuel Orantes
1971 Rod Laver
1970 Ilie Nastase
1969 John Newcombe
1968 Tom Okker
Well, we wish everybody good luck and you guys, enjoy the tennis week in Rome;)

Djokovic-Nadal MAdrid 2011

Maybe he is ranked as second seed, but today, Novak Djokovic maintained to dethrone the king of clay Rafael Nadal. After 10 tries on clay, he finally won Nadal and managed to keep his great start of this season, making this his 32nd consecutive win. Djokovic defeated Nadal with a result of 7-5 in the first set and 6-4 in the second. The first set upset the audience, with 4-0 for Djokovic, but then Nadal won 2 breaks and made a result of 5:5. The set ended with result 7:5. In the second set, both players were great with balanced game, but then again Djokovic managed to win the second set with 6:4. After 73 minutes, Djokovic became champion at the Madrid Masters 2011, beside the support that the audience was giving to Nadal. Bottom line, Nadal`s performance yesterday was just fine, but on the other side, Djokovic was superb, balancing his confidence with amazing game.

Nadal-Federer

Magical game at the magic box. Today we were privileged to witness the Madrid semi-final game featuring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, our all time favorite match. Although the last time they played, Federer was not showing his best, today he was pulling off his good old game, but it seemed, his time already passed. The reason may be some small injury after the long match with Lopez. We hope it is not something serious, and we will see him again next week in Rome. Nadal on the other side (literally) seemed very confident at his game.At the beginning of the match, he showed a little distraction, because of the terrible news about the death of the famous Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros. The first set went fine for Federer, 7:5, although it seemed that Nadal was gonna win that one. When that king of thing happens, by default, Federer loses the second set (6:1). Nadal took control over the game and won four break points. The third set, with many variations and unpredicted moments, and many opportunities for both players, ended with result 6:3 for Nadal. The match lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes. This story was meant to be written with more enthusiasm, because personally, I wanted Federer do be back in the final one more time. However, we are wishing Nadal all the best in the final with Djokovic or Belluci. Here is the statement that Nadal made after the match:
“It’s always a special feeling to play against Roger. It probably wasn’t one of our best matches because we both made mistakes. I’m really happy for the victory but it’s a terrible day for Spain, and for the world, because we lost one of the greats in sport.” And on the final? “I would prefer to play against Bellucci, that’s the truth”. Vamos Rafa!