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- Canadian Player Niemeyer Retires
- Quote For The Day
- Final Draw
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AP
Canada's Frederic Niemeyer serves to Roger Federer, from Switzerland, during the second round of play at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, in Montreal.
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MONTREAL -- Frederic Niemeyer officially retired from professional tennis during a news conference Thursday, but he won't be leaving tennis altogether.
Niemeyer instead will join Tennis Canada as a personal coach for promising 18-year-old Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont. Niemeyer will train Raonic in Montreal and also will travel with the teenager 18 weeks a year on the pro tour.
Raonic made his ATP Tour debut at this year's Rogers Cup in Montreal, winning his first two matches against No. 77 Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia and No. 113 Michael Llorda of France to advance through the qualifying. He then delighted an overflow crowd at the BN grandstand court, taking 11th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez to the limit before losing 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Montreal Gazette
Luis Horna of Peru also hung up his raquet in recent days.
Getty
Lima, Nov. 13 (ANDINA) - Luis Horna, one of the greatest players in Peru's tennis history if not the best, announced in tears his retirement from professional tennis at age 29.
The 2008 Roland Garros doubles champion announced he will retire from professional tennis after the "Challenger of Lima", starting this upcoming weekend.
"I've decided to retire from professional tennis after the Challenger of Lima," were the first words Horna said at a press conference he called to announce his future at professional tennis and Davis Cup.
"Lucho" was away from courts during several months this season due to a series of injuries. Recently he had suggested the possibility to going on some more years, but he seemed to need some break.
"I don't say no to Davis Cup. I could be in the future in the team," said Horna, when asked about it, although he didn't specify if his comeback would be as a player or as collaborator in the national team, whose main goal for next year is to get back to Group 1 of the American Zone.
He added that the best moment in his career was when he represented Peru at the Davis Cup. "It was when we took Peru to the World Group," he added.
Horna said that this victory was even more important than when he won the Roland Garros doubles title.
Horna will become a tennis trivia answer. He is the last player to beat Raja in the opening round of a Slam at Roland Garros 2003.
"[Andy] Murray can still [trouble me with counter-punching] to some degree, but when I play too good or too offensive I can take it away from him now. And I’m too physical, whereas in the beginning I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t get around backhands and stuff. Now I can mix up my game too well for him to get under my skin. When we both play well it’s a close match, but I always feel it’s the attacker who holds the key to success, so it’s up to me whether I win or lose, not up to him. That’s why I don’t mind the match-up, to be honest."--Roger Federer
Getty
The draws for the World Tour Finals were completed early today.
Singles
Group A
Roger Federer (SUI)
Andy Murray (GBR)
Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
Group B
Rafael Nadal (ESP)
Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
Robin Soderling (SWE)
Group A is more injured than Group B so the top two seeds should get through without much fuss. The Russian could play spoiler in Group B.
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Doubles
Group A
Daniel Nestor - Nenad Zimonjic
Mahesh Bhupathi - Mark Knowles
Frantisek Cermak - Michal Mertinak
Mariusz Fyrstenberg - Marcin Matkowski
Group B
Bob Bryan - Mike Bryan
Lukas Dlouhy - Leander Paes
Lukasz Kubot - Oliver Marach
Max Mirnyi - Andy Ram
Getty
Andy Roddick of the United States fields questions from the media at a press conference after retiring from his match against Stanilas Wawrinka of Switzerland during the 2009 Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 at Qi Zhong Tennis Centre on October 13, 2009 in Shanghai, China.
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Neil Harman of the Times Online has reported that Roddick has withdrawn from the World Tour Finals with a knee injury.
Andy Roddick, who departed from London in July on a wave of appreciation for the way he handled defeat in one of the most memorable Wimbledon finals in the event's history, has lost his battle to be fit to perform in the first staging of the Barclays ATP World Tour finals in the capital.
The American world No.6 has withdrawn from the eight-man extravaganza - which starts on Sunday at the 02 Arena in south-east London - having been unable to overcome the knee injury that forced him to pull up lame against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in his opening round of the Shanghai Masters last month. It had been feared for some days that the 27-year-old would not have enough time to recover sufficiently to give his all and he had to bow to the inevitable today.
Swede
Robin Söderling will replace him and France's
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be first alternate.
This could be fun.
Suspended Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse are launching appeals with European authorities challenging the legality of the whereabouts rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Victory at the European Commission in Brussels and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights could force WADA to change its rules on when and where athletes can be tested out of competition.
“The indispensable fight against doping is not the issue here. The problem is the lack of proportionality of certain measures,” their lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont told The Associated Press on Sunday.
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