Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Canada’s Vasek Pospisil during their Davis Cup semi-final tennis match in Belgrade September 13, 2013.
REUTERS
BELGRADE: Serbia and Canada were level at 1-1 in their Davis Cup semi-final on Friday after Milos Raonic beat Janko Tipsarevic to redress the balance following Novak Djokovic’s straight-sets win over Vasek Pospisil.

Thriving in a partisan atmosphere similar to the one that carried Serbia to a 3-2 victory over France in the 2010 final, Djokovic crushed Pospisil 6-2 6-0 6-4 before the towering Raonic hit 34 aces to outgun Tipsarevic 5-7 6-3 3-6 6-3 10-8.

“It’s always great to win a Davis Cup match especially in front of a home crowd because you represent your country and I can say that it’s been a fantastic performance for me given that I only got here 48 hours ago,” Djokovic told a news conference.

“There is a possibility I might play in the doubles tomorrow but team captain Bogdan Obradovic will have the final say. Either way this win will have boosted my confidence and the overall team spirit.”

The 22-year-old Raonic appeared set for a quick stroll after blasting 11 winners to race into a 3-0 lead in the opening set but then started to misfire as the home favourite regained his composure.

Roared on by 10,000 passionate fans, Tipsarevic rallied to take the set and although his opponent recovered to claim the second, the Serb wore down his opponent in the third with a barrage of stinging baseline shots on the indoor red clay.

The heavily-tattooed Tipsarevic had the crowd on its feet with a delightful drop volley in the closing stages of the third set and sealed it with a rare ace as an ancient Serb battlesong blared out between games to create an electrifying atmosphere.

Tipsarevic, 29, lost his grip on the match in the fourth set when he directed an easy smash at Raonic who broke serve and then held his own, unleashing three aces in a row to level.

With the pair trading shots like a pair of heavyweight boxers, games went with serve in the fifth set until Montenegrin-born Raonic, who saved a match point in the 10th game, produced a series of aces and service winners.

ONE-WAY TRAFFIC

Earlier, Djokovic looked a little weary in the opening three games after a long-haul flight from New York following his U.S. Open final defeat by Rafael Nadal but it was one-way traffic once he found his feet against Pospisil.

Having trailed 2-1, a fired-up world number one claimed 13 games in a row.

Djokovic won an impressive 12 out of 14 points at the net and celebrated many of his winners with a clenched fist while letting out a trademark primal scream or two.

A small but vociferous band of visiting fans, waving large Canadian flags, cheered every winning shot Pospisil mustered but Djokovic wrapped up victory when his opponent slammed a forehand into the net.

Asked what kind of challenge he expected against Raonic in Sunday’s opening reverse singles, Djokovic said: “A tough one because he has the potential to storm into the top five (of the world rankings) very soon.

“He has a big serve and one of the strongest pair of calf muscles I have ever seen.”

The winners will play holders Czech Republic or Argentina in the November 15-17 final.

LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron says Andy Murray deserves a knighthood after becoming the first Briton to win the Wimbledon men’s singles since 1936.

Murray won the title with a 6-4 7-5 6-4 triumph against world number one Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

“I can’t think of anyone who deserves one more,” said Mr Cameron, who watched the match from the Royal Box.

But Murray said: “It’s a nice thing to have or be offered but I don’t know if it merits that.”

ROME (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal made short work of his great rival Roger Federer to win the Italian Open, his sixth trophy of the year, 6-1 6-3 on Sunday.

The crowd sitting in the sunshine at Rome’s Foro Italico watched Nadal race to victory in 69 minutes on the red clay.
The Spaniard, back in his best form after last year’s long injury layoff, spent less time on court than Serena Williams who won her fourth consecutive tour title when she thrashed former world number one Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to take the women’s title earlier on Sunday.
Nadal, seeded fifth, dominated the first set, winning 20 of 25 points at one stage, as the Swiss second seed produced a string of unforced errors.
Federer raised his game in the second set, breaking a nine-game losing streak to go 1-3, but Nadal was in no mood to slow down. Despite being broken as he served for the match at 5-1, Nadal went on to complete his 36th win in 38 matches this year.
“It’s a very important day, a very happy day for me after a difficult year last year,” Nadal, speaking in Italian, told the crowd after the trophy presentation.
“It is really emotional for me to win a tournament with such a long history as Rome. See you next year.”
Nadal, 11 times a grand-slam winner, was sidelined for seven months with a knee problem and said he was delighted to be back in form.
“I am just enjoying the moment and valuing it more than ever because I know where we were just a few months ago,” he said. “Being here a few months later with all I have achieved is really more than a dream.”
American Williams, who has not lost a match since Azarenka defeated her in the Doha final in February, completely overpowered the Belarussian in the women’s final.
The top-seeded Williams, 31, hit nine aces and 41 winners in the two sets, taking 93 minutes for victory.
Her win, 11 years after she won her only previous Rome title, follows successes in Miami, Charleston and Madrid and will give her confidence for the French Open which starts next weekend.
“It wasn’t easy, nothing is ever easy,” Williams said. “Last year I was feeling excellent on clay but didn’t do that great at Roland Garros; this year I’m cautious and I want to work hard and stay focused and win every point I play, and not slack at all.”
Williams admitted that she would, however, allow herself one deviation from her usually strict training diet – an Italian ice cream. “This is what I was waiting for,” she said. “I’ll have pistachio – it’s the only one I get.”

ROME (Reuters) – Roger Federer will meet great rival Rafa Nadal in the Italian Open final after the Swiss held off a spirited challenge by unseeded Frenchman Benoit Paire on Saturday.

The 7-6 6-4 scoreline suggested a routine victory for the world number three, but the 24-year-old Paire was a break up in the first set and held three mini breaks in the tiebreak before being let down by poor shot selection.
The second set was more straightforward for Federer, into the Rome final for the third time and first since 2006, as he wrapped up victory in just under 90 minutes.
Nadal had earlier beat Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-2 6-4 with a dominant performance that he described as emotional after a long injury absence which saw him return to court in February after seven months off with a knee problem.
The Spaniard has won six titles since returning, while Federer is yet to register a title in 2013.
“For me it’s already a good tournament. He (Nadal) is the favourite but he’s near the end of a long claycourt season, it may be my chance,” Federer told reporters.
Nadal, the sport’s dominant claycourt player was at his aggressive best in dismantling the heavy hitting Berdych, breaking in the first and fifth games of a one-sided first set before clinching a decisive advantage in the ninth game of the second.
Nadal wrapped it up when his opponent sent a backhand return long and then said he could not have hoped to be playing better after his lengthy layoff.
“I am feeling better physically,” the 11-times grand slam winner said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster Teledeporte.
“These are emotional moments for me as I think I have managed to turn around a situation in which after many months of doubts I am able to play at a level that I would not have dreamed of four months ago.”
WINNING STREAK
Serena Williams crushed Romanian qualifier Simona Halep 6-3 6-0 to book her place in the women’s final and extend her winning streak to 23 matches.
World number one Williams, who is chasing a fourth consecutive tour title, will face Victoria Azarenka in Sunday’s final after the third seed beat last year’s French Open finalist Sara Errani 6-0 7-5.
Williams’s unbeaten run has included title successes in Miami, Charleston and Madrid and she is chasing a first Rome title since 2002, the year she won her only French Open.
“I love the clay. I haven’t had many wins at Roland Garros but I do love it,” Williams told reporters.
“I was unhappy with some things today. I want to do well here as well as (in Paris).”
Williams’ opponent was playing her first top-level semi-final and was bidding to become the first qualifier to reach the final in Rome.
Halep scored an early break of serve for a 2-1 lead in the first set but then wilted, winning just one more game as 15-times grand slam singles champion Williams steamrollered her way into the final. (Writing by Toby Davis in London; additional reporting by Iain Rogers; Editing by John Mehaffey and Alison Wildey)

British world number three Andy Murray cruised to a straightforward victory over Bernard Tomic at the Sony Open but the Williams sisters had contrasting fortunes in Miami on Saturday.

Top ranked Serena overcame a slow start to turn away Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-3 6-3 in third round play, but Venus was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a back injury.
Murray, meanwhile, needed only 56 minutes to defeat sluggish Australian Tomic 6-3 6-1 in his second round match.
“I don’t know if he was tired or struggling with the humidity, but he was playing pretty low percentage tennis,” Murray told reporters. “With the conditions like they were today, that played into my hands.”
The 2009 Miami champion won 80 percent of his first service points and broke Tomic twice in each set to improve to 2-0 all-time against the Australian.
Murray, runner-up to world number one Novak Djokovic last year, will face Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. Dimitrov was leading 6-4 1-1 when Italy’s Simone Bolelli was forced to retire.
Serena Williams, seeking a record sixth Miami title, fell 3-0 behind in the first set against her Japanese opponent but capitalised on four of her six break points to win.
The loss left Morita 0-19 against top 10 players, while Serena reamined on course to break a tie with Steffi Graf for the most singles titles in the tournament.
Venus Williams, however, pulled out of the tournament with a lower back injury before her match with fellow American Sloane Stephens.
“This is just the kind of tournament you want to play well at,” Venus said. “But I have faced disappointments in my life and my career. It’s not the first and probably not the last.”
Spanish wildcard Garbine Muguruza Blanco delivered the day’s biggest stunner, eliminating ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-2 6-4 in 81 minutes.
Fifth seed Li Na of China, playing her first tournament since injuring her ankle in the Australian Open final, dismissed American Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-4.
Polish defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska collected a 7-6 2-6 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova to advance to the fourth round.
In other men’s second round play, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet both won.
Tsonga defeated Serb Viktor Troicki 7-6 6-3, Gasquet turned back Belgium’s Olivier Rochus 7-5 6-2 and American Sam Querrey beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 4-6 6-3 6-3.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 7-6 in the first round of the Dubai tennis championships on Monday while U.S. teenager Sloane Stephens was eliminated in three sets to cap a miserable debut trip to the Gulf.
Ivanovic’s career has dipped since she won the French title in 2008, sinking from number one in the world rankings to 13th, and she was far from flawless on the floodlit Dubai court.
The Serb slipped from 4-0 up in the second set to 6-6 as her first serve percentage plunged, before winning the subsequent tiebreak 7-5.
She was still too strong for 21-year-old Pavlyuchenkova, breaking in the first game and remaining largely in control thereafter, with her Russian opponent’s forehand too often found wanting to really put her higher-ranked adversary in trouble.
“I really want to, you know, break into the top 10 again,” Ivanovic said. “I feel I have the game, but I just haven’t been consistent enough, especially against the top players.”
Ivanovic broke for a second time to go 4-1 up in the first set, a fierce cross-court return earning a break point she converted after Pavlyuchenkova thumped a forehand into the net.
Yet Ivanovic immediately lost her own serve to love as the world number 29 closed to 4-3 but the 25-year-old roused herself again, dropping only two points in the next two games as Pavlyuchenkova double-faulted to gift her the first set.
The Serb blamed her second set slump on a troubled shoulder.
“I have been struggling for weeks now,” Ivanovic said. “I was kind of afraid to hit the ball because it was getting a bit sore, but I was just so happy to win in two (sets) so I can regenerate more and try to be ready for the next one.”
STEPHENS STRUGGLES AGAIN
Stephens, who suffered a second-round exit in last week’s Qatar Open, was beaten 5-7 6-3 6-2 by Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and the world number 16 said she had found it tough going in her first trip to the Gulf.
“It’s two tournaments in a place I have never been before, a very different situation for me,” Stephens said. “Some days you’re going to be on court and it’s not just going to turn out the way you want. Today I didn’t play my best tennis, and last week I didn’t play my best tennis.”
The 19-year-old, who defeated newly installed world number one Serena Williams on the way to reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January, started confidently in front of a sparse Dubai crowd.
She broke in the first set to take a 5-4 lead, but then showed her inexperience, serving a double-fault on set point to allow Cirstea to make it 5-5. The world’s top-ranked teenager immediately broke again as she went on to claim the first set.
Stephens then took a 3-1 second-set lead, winning nine points in a row, but Cirstea fought back by taking five straight games to square the match.
Cirstea won the last set in 33 minutes as the young American’s serve collapsed, losing five of six service games.
Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva came out on top in an all-teenage battle, defeating Britain’s Laura Robson 6-4 2-6 7-6.
Putintseva, 18, fought back after dropping her serve to win the first set, before the British number two squared the match following another wayward backhand from the stocky Kazakh.
The final set lasted as long as the first two combined.
Putintseva bludgeoned her way to a double break and a 5-2 lead to allow her to serve for the match.
Robson, despondent, slumped in her chair, but her body language proved misleading as the 19-year-old reeled off the next two games to love, before breaking again to go 6-5 ahead.
Still, her Kazakh rival was uncowed, holding to love as the world number 101 eventually prevailed in the tie-break.
“It just wasn’t my day – I either went for too much or too little,” a downbeat Robson told reporters afterwards, revealing she had been suffering from a chest infection all year.
Top seeds Williams and Victoria Azarenka, the world number one and two, are not due on court until Wednesday. Azarenka beat the 15-times Grand Slam winner in Sunday’s Qatar Open final.
(Editing by John Mehaffey)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — It was back in 2011 that Li Na remembers first feeling the benefits of being a big tennis star. She had just won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open and was headed back home when she saw her face on TV at the airport. Then she got upgraded to business class.

”They came up to me and said, ‘We know you. You just won the tournament.’ So (they) moved me to business class,” she said. ”I was (thinking), ‘Oh, this is not so bad.”’
Back in those days, Li also remembers feeling a lot more nervous about her big matches. Before her big win at Roland Garros, she was the Australian Open runner-up, becoming the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final.
On Saturday, the 30-year-old Li returns to the Australian Open final, taking on defending champion and No. 1-ranked Victoria Azarenka.
Now seeded-sixth, Li says she’s more accustomed to the fame that comes with being one of China’s biggest sports stars. She feels more grounded for this final and less anxious.
”Last time was more exciting, (more) nervous because it was my first time to be in a final,” Li said Friday. ”But I think this time (I’m) more calmed down, more cool.”
Both women say their goal is to keep cool and not let their emotions get the best of them on the big day.
In that respect, Li enters the final with an advantage.
She is emotionally and physically fresher than Azarenka, who said she needed to recover from her stressful semifinal.
Azarenka advanced in straight sets over American teenager Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-4 in their Thursday semifinal. But needed six match points in a victory that ended with the top-ranked player defending herself against accusations of gamesmanship by leaving the court for a medical timeout.
Serving for the match at 5-3, the 23-year-old Azarenka wasted five match points, lost her serve – then asked for a timeout. She sat with a trainer and left the court during a nine-minute medical break. She returned to close out the match by breaking Stephens’ serve.
But she raised suspicion during an interview on center court immediately after the match.
”Well, I almost did the choke of the year,” a relieved Azarenka told the crowd. ”I just felt a little bit overwhelmed. I realized I’m one step away from the final and nerves got into me for sure.”
Azarenka, who has a history of on-court tantrums, didn’t help herself in a television interview after the match.
”I couldn’t breathe. I had chest pains,” she said, when asked why she left the court. ”It was like I was getting a heart attack.”
After surviving her semifinal, Azarenka had a post-match news conference where she said she was dealing with a rib injury that made it hard to breathe. She said her earlier comments were a misunderstanding and denied that she took a medical timeout to compose herself.
Australian Open officials said the tournament doctor reported that Azarenka had left knee and rib injuries.
”Right now, I just need to calm down with the whole situation (and) make sure that my body’s right,” Azarenka said.
Li had a much more routine victory in the semifinals.
She needed just 93 minutes in Thursday’s other semifinal to power past No. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2. She then charmed an adoring crowd by cracking jokes during an on-court interview. She kidded about her husband’s snoring, her attempts to lose weight and the tough training by her new coach Carlos Rodriguez – before turning to the stands to thank him.
”You don’t need to push me anymore. I will push myself,” she told Rodriguez, the former coach for seven-time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin.
”I don’t know what happened today,” Li said later. ”I just came to the court feeling like, ‘OK, just do it!”
Li is in top physical form and is making a comeback to the championship weekend at a Grand Slam. After becoming the first Chinese tennis player to win at a major in 2011, she hit a slump. But she has seen rapid results in the six months since she hired Rodriguez, who seems to have a knack for guiding players past their nerves.
Li charged into the semifinals at the Australian Open without dropping a set. After beating No. 4-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals she secured herself a return to the top five in the rankings.
If the reaction at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday was any indication, the crowd favorite for the final will be Li – who won over a lot of fans in her match and perhaps even more as a result of Azarenka’s situation.
Australian crowds love their defending champions, but dislike any whiff of bad sportsmanship. Accusations against Azarenka immediately surged through social media platforms.
By reaching the final, Azarenka retains her No. 1 ranking, but has said that’s not her focus.
”I’m really hungry to defend my title,” she said. ”That is my first goal … to win the tournament.”
If she masters her jitters and comes into the final focused, Li will have a tough fight.
Azarenka leads 5-4 in career matches, including the last four times they’ve played. However, Li has a better record at Grand Slams, having beaten Azarenka at the 2011 Australian Open before reaching the final that year. Li also beat the Belarusian later that year at the French Open before winning the title.
”What should I worry about?” Li said when asked if she was nervous for the match. ”I was working so hard in winter training. I think now everything is coming back to me.”
On the day of the final, here’s her plan: ”I come to the court, take my racket and enjoy the tennis.”