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miércoles, 18 de abril de 2012

Federer &Nadal





















 Roger Federer


Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player.Currently he is No.1 ranked tennis player in the world.Currently he is ranked number 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), having formerly held the number one spot for a record 237 consecutive weeks. Many tennis and other sports analysts consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.
Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981, in Binningen near Basel, Switzerland. His parents are Robert Federer, a Swiss-German and Lynette Federer, of South African nationality.Federer considers German as his main language German, but he is also fluent in the French and English languages.
Federer took an interest in sports at an early age, playing tennis and soccer at the age of 8.At the age of 12, he decided to quit other sports and focus all his efforts on tennis.At 14, he became the national junior champion in Switzerland, and was chosen to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Ecublens.He joined the International Tennis Federation junior tennis circuit in July 1996. In 1998, shortly before he turned pro Federer won the junior Wimbledon title and the Orange Bowl. He was recognized as the ITF World Junior Tennis champion of the year.
In April 1999, he debuted for the Swiss Davis Cup team against Italy and finished the year ranked World No. 66.During that time, he was the youngest player in the top 100. He also competed in his first Grand Slam tournament at the French Open and then  his first appearance at Wimbledon.In January 2000, Federer competed for the first time in the Australian Open.He also qualify for the semi-finals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Even though he failed to make an impression at Grand Slams, it was the first year he played in all four.Federer would then end the year ranked World No. 29.
Federer’s first ATP tournament victory came in February 2001.He later reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon by defeating four-time defending champion and seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras 7–6(7), 5–7, 6–4, 6–7(2), 7–5 in the fourth round.He also managed to reach the quarter-finals at the French Open.He finished the year ranked 13th.In 2002,he had early round exits at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
Roger supports various charities. He established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports.(www.rogerfedererfoundation.org)
In 2003, following a successful season on grass, Federer became the firstSwiss man to win a Grand Slam title when he became Wimbledon singles champion.. Federer challenged for the top ranking during 2003 by defeated top ranked player.He finished the year at World No. 2.In 2004 Federer won the Australian Open, the U.S. Open, the ATP Masters, and retained the Wimbledon singles title.
In 2005,Federer successfully defended his Wimbledon title, winning for the third consecutive year by defeating Roddick.Federer became the first man in the open era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years (2004 and 2005).However, He failed to defend his year end Masters Cup title.In 2006,Federer won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments for the second time and ended the year ranked World No. 1. The right-handed champion won the singles title at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open again as well as the Australian Open in 2007.  Federer has been named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award three times—in 2005, 2006, and 2007.In 2008,Federer just manged to win Us open and he finished the year at the ranked of world No.4.But he also won gold medal in 2008,Beijing Olympics.
In 2009,He won the French Open for the first time by beating Robin Söderling in the final.With this win, Federer equaled Pete Sampras’s men’s record of 14 Grand Slam titles and Ivan Lendl’s record of 19 Grand Slam finals, and also became the sixth man in history to complete a Career Grand Slam.He also won Wimbledon.With this win, he also reached his 20th Grand Slam final, surpassing the previous record of 19 set by Lendl.He also became the fourth man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.
Federer won his 16th Grand Slam at the 2010 Australian Open. This win tied him for most Australian Open victories at four with Andre Agassi.
Simply Roger Fedrrer is  the greatest tennis player of all time.But keep in mind that he is not finshed yet.



Rafael Nadal

Rafa was born on June 3, 1986 on the island of Mallorca (Spain) where – when he isn’t on tour – he still lives at home with his parents, younger sister and extended family in a large apartment building in downtown Manacor. He speaks Spanish, Catalan and Mallorquín (the local very distinctive dialect of Catalan) and though he hasn’t completely mastered English yet, his Spanglish is improving all the time. 
Unlike many other talented young players Rafa did not have to suffer the stress of leaving home at an early age in order to train at an established tennis academy. His full-time coach since the age of 11 has been his uncle Toni Nadal (a former top 30 Spanish tennis pro) with whom he lives in Manacor; he also credits his friend and mentor, former World #1 Carlos Moya, with helping his early development through many shared training sessions when he was a youngster just starting out on his career.

Rafa’s family seems to have sports in their blood. Besides Uncle Toni, his Uncle Rafael played third division football in Spain and another uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal (nicknamed "The Beast Of Barcelona") played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona and the national Spanish team, making the Spanish national squad at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups. There’s no word yet on whether Rafa’s little sister Maribel has discovered a sporting career lurking somewhere in her future but if she does, you’ll read about it here first!

Partly due to the example of his Uncle Miguel Angel, Rafa played as much football as tennis until the age of twelve and was talented enough to seriously consider a football career. As his grandfather recalls: "Rafael was a good attacking midfielder who could play the perfect pass and score goals. He could easily have chosen football but with advice from his Uncle Toni it was decided that he would go further with a racquet in his hand than a football at his feet."

Uncle Toni was certainly right about that. Rafa won his first professional ATP match at age 15 and had broken into the ATP Top 100 before his 17th birthday. He was named ATP Newcomer Of The Year in 2003 and ended the year inside the Top 50, picking up two Challenger titles along the way. But it was in 2005 that Rafa began to attract some serious media interest. Having been sidelined in 2004 with a stress fracture that kept him out of action for much of the season he burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere at the 2005 Australian Open, engaging in an attention-grabbing five set slugfest against eventual runner-up Lleyton Hewitt which made the world sit up and take notice.

Not that the notice was all good, however – his unconventional outfit of sleeveless shirt, bandana and trademark below-the-knee "piratas" provoked a firestorm of hilarity from the generally straight-laced TV commentators who ridiculed Rafa for showing up on court "wearing his sister’s pants". His reaction to being the target of so many jokes was telling: he calmly shrugged it off. "I like the piratas - they’re comfortable," he said. "I’m gonna wear them all summer long." And so he did.

By the end of 2005 no one was making fun of his pants any longer. Rafa had shown beyond any doubt that he had the skills, smarts and dogged determination of a champion, scooping up 11 ATP titles including a spectacular Grand Slam debut performance at Roland Garros, where he celebrated his 19th birthday by defeating World #1 Roger Federer in the semi’s on his way to lifting the trophy. He ended the year ranked #2. Pants, schmants! The boy can play.
As we start 2008 Rafa has been ranked number 2 for nearly three years. He's won 23 titles including Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros three years running and has got to the last two Wimbledon finals. In any other era that would have been enough to keep him firmly in the number 1 position but there's always been a certain Roger Federer in the way. 


Much has been made of Rafa’s supposed rivalry with Federer. Rafa remains, as always, gracious towards his opponent and unfazed by the media hype. "Tennis is just a game, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be friends off court," he has been heard to say (possibly while waiting at the net for Roger to give him another brotherly belly-rub). But while there’s no animosity towards his rival, Rafa’s competitive spirit is never far from the surface. "Now, he’s the best," he says of Roger. "For the future? We gonna see."

Now in October 2008 Rafa has been confirmed as the year end number one. He has had an astonishing year so far winning 8 singles titles including three Masters Series, his fourth Roland Garros, his first Wimbledon and the Olympic gold medal. People have been saying for a while that he is arguably the best clay court player ever. Four consecutive wins in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, three in Rome, his first in Hamburg and the fact that he has never been beaten in 28 matches at Roland Garros is an incredible record. But now those same people are beginning to suspect that he could even go on to become the best all court player ever.