Oveditio: Tennis

Showing posts with label Tennis. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Mahesh Bhupathi Indian Professional Tennis Player

Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974 in Madras) is an Indian professional tennis player widely regarded as among the best doubles players in the world with 11 Grand Slam titles to his credit. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2006, he joined the elite group of eight tennis players who have achieved a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.

Mahesh Bhupathi is best known as one of the top doubles players in the '90s and '00s. In 1999, Bhupathi won three doubles titles with Leander Paes, including Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He and Leander became the first doubles team to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams, the first time such a feat has been achieved in the open era and the first time since 1952. On 26 April of that year, they became the world no. 1 doubles team. Bhupathi also won the US Open mixed doubles with Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

In 2006, Bhupathi teamed with Martina Hingis in the Australian Open mixed doubles competition. Entering the tournament unseeded and as wildcards, the first-time pair defeated four seeded opponents along the way, while only dropping a single set throughout. Bhupathi and Hingis defeated the sixth-seeded team of Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, to capture the championship. It was the sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam for Bhupathi, and a first for Hingis. By winning the Australian Open, Bhupathi completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.

In 2007, Bhupathi and Czech Radek Štěpánek reached the 2007 Australian Open men's doubles event's quarterfinals. He teamed with Štěpánek at the 2007 French Open to make the doubles semifinals, defeating two-year defending champions Jonas Björkman and Max Mirnyi in the quarterfinals. The team lost to the eventual champions Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor. After Wimbledon, Bhupathi teamed with Pavel Vízner to win the 2007 Canada Masters, defeating the top-ranked doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan en route.

After this victory, he won a tournament in New Haven with Nenad Zimonjić. At the 2007 US Open, he and Zimonjić paired in doubles. After the US Open, the team that beat Bhupathi and Štěpánek in the French Open semifinals, Knowles and Nestor, split up. Bhupathi became Knowles' partner, while Zimonjić became Nestor's, but back surgery mean he was out until the end of the year.

In 2009, Bhupathi and doubles partner Sania Mirza won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, beating Nathalie Dechy (France) and Andy Ram (Israel), 6–3, 6–1, in the final. The ace Indian pair thus made up for the disappointment of the previous year's final when they were beaten by Tiantian Sun and Nenad Zimonjić. With this win, Bhupathi's count in mixed doubles Grand Slam titles increased to seven.

Bhupathi broke up his partnership with Knowles and began playing once again with Max Mirnyi, with whom he played to win the 2002 US Open. In 2011, Bhupathi reunited with former playing partner Leander Paes for the 2011 Australian Open. The team of Bhupathi and Paes reached the final, but lost, 3–6, 4–6, to the Bryan brothers.

Mahesh Bhupathi

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Aisam-ul-Haq Pakistani Professional Tennis Player

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (born March 17, 1980, in Lahore, Pakistan) is a professional tennis player from Pakistan. He is currently Pakistan's top player. A top 10 doubles player, his highest Singles Race ranking is 103rd and is the former Asian No. 3.

He is the only Pakistani tennis player to reach the final of a Grand Slam, which he did in 2010 competing in both mixed doubles (partnering with Květa Peschke) and men's doubles (partnering with Rohan Bopanna) at the US Open. Qureshi teamed with Israeli player Amir Hadad during Wimbledon and the US Open tournaments in 2002.

The duo won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award for playing together despite pressure from their communities. As Pakistani No. 1, Qureshi has traditionally led Pakistan's Davis Cup campaigns. After shocking New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I second round play-off in 2004 to survive relegation, he took them to the World Group Play-Offs for the first time in 2005, before they were beaten by Chile.

He has won the most Davis Cup matches for Pakistan, being the most successful singles and doubles player ever. He is also half of the most successful doubles pairing for Pakistan (with Aqeel Khan) in the country's sporting history. Qureshi is now a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.

Aisam and his partner Rohan Bopanna have created a campaign, Stop War Start Tennis, with their goal to play a match on the border joining India and Pakistan. Bopanna and Qureshi compiled a consistent season, reaching the semifinals or better at seven tournaments in total, including at the US Open, where they were runners-up a year earlier. They also reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, losing to the Bryans.

The greatest achievement of the Indo-Pak express in 2011 was winning the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. They defeated the pair of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut in the final, 6-2, 6-4. They reached the finals by defeating the third seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor, 6-3, 7-6, in the semifinals and the second seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic, 3-6, 6-4, 10-6, in the quarterfinals.

They became the seventh doubles team to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on 6 November. In their first round-robin match, they lost to Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor by 7-6, 4-6, 11-9. In their second round-robin match they were defeated by Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic by 7-6, 6-3.

In their third match, the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski by 6-2, 6-1. Aisam and Rohan lost all the three of their matches in the 2011 ATP World Tour and did not qualify for semi-final.

Aisam ul Haq

Friday, January 20, 2012

Andre Agassi American Professional Tennis Player

Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game.

Described by the BBC upon his retirement as "perhaps the biggest worldwide star in the sport's history", Agassi's performances, along with his unorthodox apparel and attitude, have seen him cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game, and credited for helping revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s.

Agassi is an eight-time Grand Slam singles champion who competed in 15 Grand Slam finals, and an Olympic gold medalist. A multi-surface specialist, he is the first of two male players in history to have achieved a singles Career Golden Slam, and one of four male players to have achieved a singles Career Grand Slam in the Open Era (one of seven in history).

He was the first male player to win all four Grand Slams on three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass), and is the last American male to win the French Open (1999) and the Australian Open (2003). Agassi also won 17 ATP Masters Series titles, won the 1990 ATP Tour World Championships and was part of a winning Davis Cup team in 1990 and 1992.

He is the only male singles player in history to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympic gold medal and the ATP Tour World Championships: a distinction dubbed as a "Career Super Slam" by Sports Illustrated. After suffering from sciatica caused by two bulging discs in his back, a spondylolisthesis (vertebral displacement) and a bone spur that interfered with the nerve, Agassi retired from professional tennis on September 3, 2006, after losing in the third round of the US Open.

He is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada. In 2001, the Foundation opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a K-12 public charter school for at-risk children.

At the 1999 French Open Agassi and Steffi Graf were the surprise champions, since he had not won a Grand Slam title since 1995 and she had not won one since 1996. At the winners' ball they met each other for the second time, and shortly after started dating. Graf retired after they both reached the Wimbledon final in July. They were married on October 22, 2001, and four days later their son, Jaden Gil, was born. Long-time trainer Gil Reyes has been called one of Agassi's closest friends; some have described him as being a "father figure" to Agassi.

In December 2008 Agassi's childhood friend and former business manager, Perry Rogers, sued Graf for $50,000 in management fees he claimed that she owed him. In 2007 Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Jeff Gordon, Mia Hamm, Tony Hawk, Andrea Jaeger, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, Alonzo Mourning and Cal Ripken, Jr. founded the charity Athletes for Hope,[72] which helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes and aims to inspire all people to volunteer and support their communities.