Nadal to carry Spain flag at opening ceremony

Updated June 21, 2012 08:23:00

Olympic gold medallist Rafael Nadal will carry the Spain flag at the opening ceremony for the London Games.

The world number two, who recently won a record seventh French open title, has won 11 major tournaments.

Nadal was chosen ahead of sailing duo Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez, who have a gold and a silver from the Athens and Beijing Games in the 49er class event.

The 26-year-old Nadal will be attending his third Olympic Games. He competed in the doubles in Athens in 2004 and won the singles in Beijing four years ago.

World number one Novak Djokovic will carry Serbia's flag at the opening ceremony on July 27.

Reuters

Tags: tennis, olympics-summer, sport, spain

First posted June 21, 2012 08:23:00

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Nadal scampers past opening rival

Updated May 30, 2012 06:51:53

Rafael Nadal, bidding for a record seventh Roland Garros crown, sped into the second round at the French Open with a straight sets win over Italian Simone Bolelli - but stressed it was too early to think about surpassing Swedish legend Bjorn Borg.

Nadal and Borg have both lifted six titles in Paris but aged just 25, clay king Nadal, one of just seven men to lift all four majors, is odds on to shatter the record and take sole ownership of the mark.

He survived a momentary second set blip to sweep past his 111th-ranked rival 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in just under three hours and set up a meeting with Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who whipped Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-1, 6-2.

Despite the wide margin of his win Nadal, whose record in Paris is now 46-1, insisted he had had to battle some early butterflies.

"All matches are always difficult - the more so here, as you are a bit more nervous. It's not easy to get your bearings right off as the court is big and it's difficult out there," said the Mallorcan, who is looking to join Borg and Rod Laver on 11 grand slam singles titles.

"But I'm always happy to play here - it's an incredible feeling."

Also moving through among the men was British fourth seed Andy Murray, who crushed Japan's Tatsuma Ito 6-1, 7-5, 6-0.

Likewise was Murray's potential quarter-final opponent, Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer, who dismissed Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

The biggest casualty of the day was 16th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov who went down to fellow Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3 in a match resuming from the second day.

Locals Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau both advanced, as did Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic, who ousted big-serving American Sam Querrey 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

Other seeds Nicolas Almagro (12), Juan Monaco (13), Mikhail Youzhny (27) and Florian Mayer (32) also all progressed.

AFP

Tags: tennis, sport, france

First posted May 30, 2012 06:35:23

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Murray suffers another opening upset

Updated March 11, 2012 21:12:52

Andy Murray's makeover under the tutelage of new coach Ivan Lendl yielded a depressingly familiar result as he crashed out of his first match at Indian Wells for a second straight year.

Fourth-seeded Murray was overwhelmed by the unseeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, losing to the Spaniard 6-4, 6-2 in his second-round opener.

Murray was stunned in his opening match last year by unheralded American Donald Young.

The Scot was at a loss to explain the two crushingly early exits on the hardcourts in the California desert.

"I am going to have to go away and think about what happened," Murray said.

"He plays with a lot of spin. It felt like I was playing a match on clay court. I squandered so many chances."

Murray had four aces, but he made 34 unforced errors and hit just 17 winners in the one hour, 40 minute match.

Garcia-Lopez, who is ranked 92nd in the world, saved all seven of his break point chances and won 79 percent of his first serve points.

Garcia-Lopez advances to the third round where he will play American Ryan Harrison, a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over Viktor Troicki.

Earlier in the week, Murray repeatedly said he felt good about his game.

He was fresh off a strong performance in Dubai where he beat world number one Novak Djokovic in the semis before losing to Roger Federer in the final.

To make matters worse for Murray he had two routine wins over Garcia-Lopez in their previous two meetings, including a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 thrashing at the 2011 Aussie Open.

"I am not sure what happened tonight," Murray said.

"I was coming back to the locker room and you are thinking. 'Why did it happen?' Last year it was a lot easier for me to look at it and know why."

Murray was trying build on a successful 2011 season where he won five times and reached the final of the Australian Open and made the semis at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

His first major move of 2012 was hiring eight-time grand slam champion Lendl as his coach.

"I felt fresh," Murray said.

"It wasn't like I was moving badly," he said.

"There is obviously a reason behind why I didn't play well. I'll find that reason and address it."

AFP

Tags: tennis, sport, united-states, scotland, united-kingdom

First posted March 11, 2012 20:00:18

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