Andy Murray Tennis star

Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Andy Murray will have a scan today to determine the extent of the elbow injury that hampered him in Saturday's semi-final defeat by Rafael Nadal at the Monte Carlo Masters.

The Scot is due to play in the Barcelona Open this week, where he is the second seed behind world number one Nadal.

Murray has a bye in the first round and is therefore unlikely to be on court before Wednesday, giving him time to make a decision.

The 23-year-old will certainly hope he is fit enough to face either Juan Carlos Ferrero or Xavier Malisse in the second round after playing some of his best clay-court tennis in Monte Carlo.

Murray, who went into the tournament on a run of four successive defeats, breezed through his opening three matches before becoming the only man to take a set off Nadal as the Spaniard won his seventh title in a row in the principality.

The British number one first felt the elbow problem in his quarter-final win over Frederico Gil and he needed an injection prior to the match against Nadal.

His form in the second set in particular indicated that had done the trick but Murray began to struggle with the injury in the decider, allowing Nadal to pull away.

IPL rule book rules out Saurav Ganguly for Kochi

Saurav Ganguly

New Delhi: Former India and Kolkata Kinght Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly may have lost a realistic chance of playing in this year's Indian Premier League, according to the IPL rule book.

It was learnt on Friday that the Kochi Tuskers Kerala had made an attempt to rope in Ganguly as a replacement player for Steve Smith. Having been ignored at the IPL-4 auction in January in Bangalore, the only way Ganguly could have come into the IPL was as a replacement player.

With Smith pulling out of injury, Kochi wanted Ganguly as his replacement but the rule book states that, a player can be replaced at the same or lesser price than the player to be replaced. Smith was purchased by Kochi for $200,000 while Ganguly's base price was $400,000.

Surprisingly, Ganguly's base price, initially, was $200,000. But former Indian skipper, along with a few other players, including Rahul Dravid, had increased it to $400,000.

If he had not done that, Ganguly could easily have walked into the Kochi team and fulfilled his dream of playing in the IPL-4.

Strom is Back Tennis Princess Maria Sharapova is back in the top-10 for the first time in more than two years

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova’s driving forehand doesn’t really fill me with wonder and excitement, but I am full of admiration for her drive to succeed.

She burst onto the tennis scene as a 17-year-old in 2004, beating two-time defending champion Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final, but having reached the top of the rankings herself, her career went into decline from late 2008 after a long absence due to injury.

Monte Carlo Tennis: Aisam-Rohan pair in semis

Aisam-ul-Haq

Rohan Bopanna

Aisam-ul-Haq

Rohan Bopanna

Aisam-ul-Haq

MONACO: Pak-Indian tennis duo of Aisam-ul-Haq and Rohan Bopanna continue its successes in the ATP Masters Tennis Championship in Monte Carlo and now it has qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament here on Friday.

Aisam and Rohan outclassed the pair of 2nd seeded Daniel Nestor of Canada and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-1, 7-5 in the quarter-final to be placed in the final four.

Earlier, they defeated American Eric Butorac and his partner Roger`Julien 7-6 (7/4),6-3 in the pre-quarters finals of on Thursday.

NBA - Chicago Bulls take top seed status for play-offs

Joakim Noah

Kyle Korver scored 19 points as the Chicago Bulls closed the regular season with their ninth straight victory, beating the New Jersey Nets 97-92. The Bulls had to wait for San Antonio's result to see who would be seeded No1 for the play-offs – with the Spurs' loss to Phoenix earning them home-court advantage.

Joakim Noah finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds to help the Bulls finish 62-20, equalling their best showing since the 1997-98 championship season. They begin their play-off campaign against the Indiana Pacers.

Joakim Noah

Joakim Noah

Kyle Korver

Kyle Korver

Kyle Korver

Kyle Korver

Kyle Korver

Maria Sharapova Tennis Princess

Maria sharapova

Maria Sharapova is looking as great as ever in every major tournament she joined (although her skin is looking a tad rough). When it comes to female athletes' attractiveness and beauty I’m not sure Sharapova has too many competitors. You can judge it by looking some of her sexy pictures below.

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Maria sharapova

Nadal notches 8th win over Gasquet at Monte Carlo

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Top seed Rafael Nadal maintained his traditional momentum at the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday as the Spaniard powered into the quarter-finals 6-2, 6-4, seeing off a French challenge from Richard Gasquet.

The 13th seed from nearby Nice rallied the home crowd momentarily in the second set as sun broke through after morning cloud over the Mediterranean,

Gasquet secured a break-back for 4-4 after losing his serve to the dominating Nadal, now an untouchable 36-1 at the event he has won for the last six years. But Nadal showed why he's the king of clay as he returned the favour as Gasquet hit the net with a forehand to drop serve.

A game later, Nadal served out the victory in 93 minutes for his eighth victory without a loss against the 18th-ranked Gasquet.

Nadal next faces a seasoned opponent in Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic, who upset Czech fifth seed Thomas Berdych 6-4, 6-2.

Two more Spanish seeds had mixed results in the third round, with number four David Ferrer defeating Canadian breakthrough player Milos Raonic 6-1, 6-3 as the 34th-ranked youngster lost serve five times and committed 40 unforced errors in slower conditions imminently suitable to the grinding Ferrer game.

Serb 11th seed Viktor Troicki reached the last eight as Spain's Tommy Robredo retired to hand over a 3-6, 2-1 win.

Robredo suffered an adductor injury a month ago in California and was forced to miss the Miami Masters. He resumed training last week in Barcelona.

Three-time finalist Roger Federer was bidding for the quarter-finals as he faced 15th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic. The Swiss stands 23-4 on the season, with three of his losses coming to undefeated Novak Djokovic and the other to Nadal in Miami.

Third seed Andy Murray was hoping to continue his comeback effort after finally winning his first match since January on Wednesday as he faced french 16th seed Gilles Simon.

Monte Carlo Masters: Federer cruises into third round

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer


MONACO: The Swiss tennis maestro, Roger Federer, exhibited his class to thrash Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany by 6-2 6-1 in the second round match of the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday.

Until this match, everybody in the tennis world was talking about the latest rivalry of Serb Novak Djokovic and Spanish Rafael Nadal but Federer showed his days of glory have not passed as yet with an absolute combination of forehand and backhand.

Federer looked in a serious mood to prove a point ahead of the first claycourt Grand Slam tournament of the year, French Open, where the Swiss would look to bag his 17 Grand Slam title.

Federer, who has been seeded second in the Monte Carlo Masters, has never won a title here showed his form of 2009 when he clinched the French Open title before going on to win all the four Grand Slams.

With Novak Djokovic missing the Monte Carlo event with a knee injury, both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are looking to win the title ahead of the all-important French Open. Nadal, who has won six titles at Monte Carlo, will try to prove a point for the seventh one on Wednesday with the match against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the second round while third seed Andy Murray will take on Radek Stepanek.

Talking about Rafael Nadal, Federer said, “Nadal will be hard to beat. He is clearly the overwhelming favourite even though I haven’t seen him play yet. But I still wouldn’t be happy losing to him in the final.”

In another second round match on Tuesday, fifth seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic made the mockery of Olivier Rochus of Belgium with 6-2 6-3 victory. Berdych will now face Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga by 7-6 6-4 in the second round.

Rafael Nadal hammers Nieminen in Monte Carlo Masters

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

World number one Rafael Nadal began the defence of his Monte Carlo Masters crown with an emphatic second-round victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

The Spaniard, who received a bye in the first round, won 6-2 6-2 in just over an hour.

It was a powerful display of hitting from the 24-year-old, who cruised to the title here a year ago.

Nadal next plays Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2 6-1 on Wednesday.

He still tops the world rankings despite the fact that his last title win was the Japan Open in October.

Since then he has lost to Roger Federer in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals, and suffered consecutive defeats by world number two Novak Djokovic in the recent Masters finals at the BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open.