Serbia Open 2011 - Nole remains unbeaten in 2011, eases into quarter-finals

Serbia Open top seed, Novak Djokovic, improved to a perfect 25-0 this season with a second-round victory on a rainy Wednesday evening in a packed center court stadium.

The world no.2 ousted Romanian qualifier Adrian Ungur 6-2, 6-3 in 68 minutes, in his first clay-court match in 2011.

The scenario was almost the same in both sets.

Novak made a break in the second game and held for 3-0. The Romanian broke back in the fifth game, but Nole broke his opponent’s serve once again for 4-2.

The 23-year-old Belgrade native put the pressure on Ungur in the eighth game of the first set and won it 6-2, and in the second he served it out 6-3.

"It's tough to play on clay after almost a year," said Novak. "It will take a bit to get used to it."

Djokovic's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be Slovenian Blaz Kavcic.

"He beat me while we were 14-year-olds, and it's time for a revenge," Nole said smiling.

Novak has won every tournament he’s entered in 2011: the Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. He increased his overall winning streak to 27 wins in a row, dating back to last December’s Davis Cup final when Serbia lifted the trophy for the first time in it's history.

Estoril Open 2011 - Verdasco Lives To Fight Another Day

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco lived to fight another day, but the second seed made life difficult for himself in his opening match at the Estoril Open.

The World No. 15 led Portuguese favourite Frederico Gil 6-1, 5-1 before last year's runner-up made a comeback.

Verdasco was two points from victory at 5-2, 30/30 and squandered one match points on the Gil serve at 5-3, 30/40. Gil broke Verdasco to love for 5-5 and won his fifth straight game for 6-5 to leave the 27-year-old Madrid resident sweating.

Verdasco took control of the tie-break to wrap up a 6-1, 7-6(5) win in one hour and 44 minutes and his 10th win of the season.

Verdasco will next meet seventh-seeded South African Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Big-serving Anderson won 70 per cent of service points and hit four aces to beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 6-2 in 85 minutes.

The match went with serve until the 10th game, when Anderson converted his third break point opportunity to clinch the 42-minute first set.

Anderson, again, had the advantage of serving first in the second set and broke Hanescu twice in the sixth and eighth games.

In February, Anderson captured his first ATP World Tour title at Johannesburg (d. Devvarman). The World No. 34 has a 17-9 match record on the year.

Estoril Open - Barrois Keeps Her Nerve To Reach Final

German Kristina Barrois advanced to her second WTA final on Friday at the Estoril Open.

The 29-year-old German defeated Johanna Larsson of Sweden 7-6(2), 6-4 in one hour and 50 minutes.

Larsson squandered control of the first set, leading 2-0 and 4-2 only to see Barrois win 12 of 15 points for three straight games. Although Larsson broke Barrois to 30 at 5-4, her higher-ranked opponent seized control of the tie-break.

Service breaks were exchanged at the start of the second set, but Barrois won four of the next five games for a 5-2 lead. World No. 71 Barrois missed out on two match point opportunities on the Larsson serve at 2-5, 15/40 and was then broken to 30.

Larsson, serving at 4-5, took a 40/0 lead, but was pinned back. Both players were afflicted by nerves at this point. One further match point opportunity went begging, but Barrois finally sealed victory with a smash.

Barrois will play her first WTA final since May 2010 at Strasbourg (l. to Sharapova). She has a 13-10 match record on the season.

Larsson was appearing in her third WTA semi-final (or better), including 2010 Portoroz (l. to Chakvetadze in the final) and the Acapulco semi-finals (l. to Parra Santonja).

The 22 year old is protected to climb into the Top 70 of the WTA Rankings on Monday.

Estoril Open 2011 - Simon To Face Raonic After Straight Sets Wins

Fourth seed Gilles Simon cruised past Carlos Berlocq of Argentina at the Estoril Open on Thursday for a place in his fifth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year.

World No. 22 Simon, who started the year at No. 41 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, recorded a 6-2, 6-1 win in 84 minutes.

Berlocq was broken to 30 in sixth game of the 43-minute first set and went onto save three set points at 2-5.

Simon raced into a 5-0 lead in the second set, including a 16-point fifth game when he saved three break points. The Frenchman converted four of 10 break point opportunities in total for his third straight win over Berlocq. He has an 18-10 match record on the season.

Simon, who won his eighth ATP World Tour title at Sydney (d. Troicki) in January, goes onto meet Canadian Milos Raonic for the first time.

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Fifth seed Raonic won 70 per cent of service points and his six aces to beat Portuguese wildcard Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-3 in 72 minutes.

Raonic moved into a 4-1 lead, breaking 22-year-old Sousa to 30 in the third game and to 15 in the fifth game. He clinched the 32-minute first-set with a third service break to 15.

This year's San Jose titlist (d. Verdasco) and Memphis runner-up (l. to Roddick), won five straight games to open up a 3-0 lead in the second set before Sousa regained his composure. Raonic was broken to 30 in the seventh game, but it was too little too late from Sousa, the World No. 254.

World No. 27 Raonic, the second-youngest player in the Top 100 at 20 years, 3 months (after No. 69 Grigor Dimitrov), improved to a 22-7 season record.

Unbeaten Novak Djokovic beats Rafa Nadal in Miami final

By Piers Newbery BBC Sport

Novak Djokovic extended his unbeaten start to 2011 with a magnificent victory over world number one Rafael Nadal in the Sony Ericsson Open final. The Serbian, 23, came through 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to clinch his seventh Masters Series win, his fourth title of the year and take his 2011 record to 24-0. It is the best start to a year in men's tennis since Ivan Lendl began with 25 consecutive victories in 1986. An impressed Nadal said afterwards: "I think he'll be number one." The Spaniard continued: "He won two tournaments in a row right now, very big tournaments and one Grand Slam. "The normal thing is he will be number one in the next month, month and a half, two months. I don't know. It depends on my results on clay. "For sure, he will be there, no? I'm going to fight for me. If I am solid, if I play a very good clay-court season, we will see what's going on after." Djokovic said: "I know I've had the best start of the season, no question about it. It's the best four months in my life. "But it's only the start of the season. I think it's a bit early to talk about getting that top spot in the rankings. Rafa is definitely the best player in the world now. "If I want to have that shot at the number one ranking, I need to play consistently well throughout the whole year. "We all know that clay court is his favourite surface and obviously somewhere where he plays his best. "But this is going to give a lot of confidence boost for the upcoming clay-court season." Djokovic is more than 1,000 ranking points clear of third-ranked Roger Federer but still a further 3,000 points behind Nadal. However, the Spaniard has a huge number of ranking points to defend, having won all the major clay tournaments last year. Whether Djokovic is ready to surpass Nadal on clay remains open to question but after defeating his closest rival in back-to-back Masters Series finals over the last fortnight, there is no doubt he is the man to beat right now. Nadal had won the opening set of their Indian Wells final two weeks ago before Djokovic came storming back and Sunday's match in Miami followed a similar pattern. A blustery wind hampered both men in the opening stages, with Nadal coping marginally better and grabbing the first break in game three before seeing off three break points in the following game. When Djokovic slapped a forehand into the tramlines to fall a double break down the set was as good as done but from 5-1 down he began to find his range. His more aggressive style had Nadal on the run and although the Spaniard did seal the set, Djokovic reeled off six of seven games to move 3-0 clear in the second and serve out to force a decider. After two sets of uneven play, the final set showcased the very best of the world's top two players, with each man appearing to grab the momentum only for his opponent to wrestle it back. Nadal's backhand was unusually proving his more potent wing, while a couple of sublime lobs and numerous confident sorties to the net demonstrated how Djokovic's game has come on. Neither man could force a break point in a pulsating set and the resultant tie-break opened in equally dramatic fashion with five consecutive points against serve. Continue reading the main story How many other people could recover from losing five games in a row to the world number one in a best-of-three set match? Jonathan Overend's blog It was a double fault from Nadal that proved crucial as he fell 3-2 down before Djokovic finally held a service point and, after the Spaniard saved two match points on serve, the world number two sealed victory after three hours and 21 minutes with a big serve followed up by a crunching forehand into the corner. "It was such a close match," said Djokovic. "To win against the number one player of the world in a tie-break in the third set, it's just incredible. "This is one of the best matches I've played in a while. I was able to find my rhythm at the end of the first set, and then throughout the whole second and third set I played quite well, especially on my service games." Djokovic last suffered a singles defeat against Roger Federer in the ATP World Tour semi-finals in London last November and has now won 26 matches in a row, including 24 this year.