Paul Henri-Mathieu managed to overcome seeded Czech Jiri Novak. The number 7 seed was bundled out by the Frenchman 7-6 6-1. Juan Ignacio Chela continued his miserable form. The number 9 seeded Croat was knocked out of the tournament by Juan Antonio Marin 6-1 6-2. Joachim Johansson overcame last weeks nightmare with a solid win over Alex Calatrava today. The Swede, seeded number three had a tussle in the first set which led to a tie break. Johansson took th match and then easily won the second 6-3.

The second seeded Gaston Gaudio also made an appearance by defeating Jan Hernych 6-7 7-5 6-0 to go into the second round with a match against Micheal Tabara.

In Munich Paradorn Srichaphan overcame Peter Wessels in his match to win 6-3 6-4 and go on to face Juan Monaco, who defeated Lars Burgsmuller 7-5 6-3. Ricardo Mello managed a shock win over eighth seeded Rainer Schuettler 6-4 6-2 whilst Igor Andreev defeated Jiri Vanek 6-1 6-2. Tommy Haas, Wayne Arthurs, Andrei Pavel, Sjeng Schalken, Raemon Sluiter and Nikolay Davydenko all made it through also.

Her first opponent was Alyona Bondarenko, and in a dissapointing match she lost 2-6 6-3 2-6 to the Ukrainian.

Other first round results in th WTA Estoril Open saw the number one seed Flavia Pennetta defeat Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-3 7-6. Virginie Ruano Pascual was taken to three sets by Lucie Safarova before eventually overcoming the Czech 7-5 6-7 6-0. Dally Randriantefy took an easy 6-2 6-2 win over Nueza Silva whilst Nicole Pratt defeated Antonella Serra-Zanetti 2-6 6-1 6-1.

The Warsaw event also eventually got underway after a rain delay. The impressive Serb Ana Ivanovic (pictured right) took a two set demoltion over Martina Sucha 6-0 6-0 to go into the second round and face the number three seed Vera Zvonareva.

Nathalie Dechy also took victory over Magdelena Maleeva 6-4 6-4. The Belgian girls are doing it again with Justine Henin-Hardenne winning 6-2 6-2 over Denisa Chladkova whilst Kim Clijsters overcame a stubborn Tatiana Perebiynis 7-5 6-7 6-1.

Daniela Hantuchova & Maria Kirilenko returned to action and won both games. Hantuchova beat Karolina Koshinska 6-4 7-5 whilst Kirilenko defeated Iveta Benesova 6-1 6-2. 

Roddick, the number one seeded American, found the tournament easier than most. He took the Semi Final against Austrian Number 7 seed Jurgen Meltzer out in consecutive sets 6-4 6-2 before prevailing in the final.

This event was also a good event for Sebastien Grosjean. He has struggled to find form this season but the number six seed managed to defeat the second seeded Agassi and overcome the Ecudorian Nicolas Lapentti 6-1 7-6 before finally being stopped in the final.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, who made it to through the Quarter Finals after victory over 2003 Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio in three sets 6-4 4-6 6-3 has now added number 7 seed Nikolay Davydenko to his victim list. The former world number one has found the form that made him so deadly and has disposed of the Russian in two sets. The first set being a tight affair with Ferrero narrowly coming through a tie breaker to take the first set 7-6. From this Davydenko didnt have a chance and Ferrero blitzed the seventh seed much to the Catalan fans watching to take the last set 6-1 and make it too the final

Rafael Nadal also made his way into the Semi Finals after victory over Argentine Agustin Calleri. The 18-Year old Nadal took the first set with a comfortable 6-2 win and was in total control to finish the match with a 3-0 lead before Calleri decided to retire due to a back injury. The Monte Carlo Master's Champion then played Radek Stepanek, who was defeated in a two set match 7-5 6-2. Despite holding stiff competiton in the first, the Czech soon rolled over for the Spanish wonderkid to give the dream final for the Barcelona faithfuls.

In the final Rafael Nadal was very impressive and blitzed the former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero in the first set 6-1. The second set was far tighter with Ferrero coming back in the tie breaker to take the second 7-6 and set up a mouth watering last set. This though was far less tight and Nadal claimed back to back titles with a third set win 6-3.

Andy Roddick has gone into the Semi Finals of the Houston Open after a impressive 6-4 6-1 defeat of Luis Horna whilst fellow American Andre Agassi was beaten by Sebastien Grosjean and James Blake fell victim to Nicolas Lapentti whilst Jurgen Meltzer makes up the four after beating the current champion Tommy Haas.

Roddick, now firm favourite to take the crown, hit four straight aces to finish his opponent Horna to set up his Semi Final clash with Jurgen Meltzer. Many expected Andre Agassi, the fan favourite, to set up a Semi Final date with either Lapentti or Blake. Many of the fans hoping it would be an all American spectacle,  but the inconsistent frenchman Grosjean found form and took a three setter 4-6 6-1 6-2 to set up a Semi Final match against Lapentti.

The Ecuadorian qualifier also managed to upset highly fancied James Blake 6-4 1-6 7-6 in a nail biting finish. Roddick and Agassi were both asked about their matches and their opponents after the match. Roddick was very pleased with his match, especially the serve

"That's probably the best match I've served this year, so far," said Roddick, who broke Horna in the 10th game to take the opening set before running away with the second.

"I was hitting my spots," he added.

"I was getting good action and was able to hit all my serves today. I felt good about it, was in control of it and I set the tone."

Andre Agassi also commented on his tough tournament and his poor serving that allowed Grosjean back into the match after a good start from the 34-Year old.

"It was a good first set then he picked up his level and changed his strategy a little and started hitting it pretty high and pretty deep and I couldn't step up on it," Agassi said.

"I made some bad decisions followed by some bad swings and the second set got away and I never got it back together after that."

The clay-court king Coria was in control and was serving for the match at 5-4 before allowing Calleri, successor over Gael Monfils and Juan Ignacio Chela earlier in the tournament, broke the Argentine compatriot before taking the last set in a tie breaker. His returns forced Coria to make two backhand misses to give the win to Calleri.

Calleri will now go into the Quarter Finals ready to play either hot favourite Rafael Nadal or tenth seeded Dominik Hrbaty. Marat Safin also had terrible trouble in his first game against Jose Acasuso, eventually being beaten 6-4 6-4 by the Argentine.

The Australian Open Champion, who has yet to find form since, found it hard against the higly focused Acasuso. In a tight first set Acasuso managed to take it 6-4 before making a crucial breakthrough in the fifth game of the second set when he earned a net point and made it three break points in a row.

Safin became increasingly frustrated with his game and struggled to cope with the heavy groundstrokes that he was facing. Acasuso managed to set up three  break points after he caught Safin off guard and hit a delicate drop shot which after the Russian netted a backhand return to seal the win.

Acasuso goes into the third round with a match-up against Stanislas Wawrinka after the Swiss Qualifier shocked Thai Paradorn Srichaphan 1-6 6-3 7-6

The Spaniard, who became the youngest player to ever lift a Masters title last week, managed to win the first set against the hapless Muller in 15 minutes.

The Luxembourg player was unable to cope with Nadal's two handed drives and only had a small rally in the second set before falling to the impressive youngster

Nadal now has a third round clash with Dominik Hrbaty, who defeated Potito Starace 6-3 6-2. Nadal's hopes of another tournament win were boosted when defending champion Tommy Robredo was defeated by Alberto Martin 6-1 6-4. Fourth seeded Guillermo Coria, who made it to last weeks final, nearly fell early today before regaining composure.

The fourth seeded Argentine fought off strong serving Peter Wessels 6-2 6-7 6-4 and joins Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round after the former world number one finished off Feliciano Lopez in an impressive 6-4 6-4 win. Coria goes on to face Agustin Calleri, who beat fellow Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela in hard fought match 6-3 6-7 7-6

Top seeds Marat Safin and Gaston Gaudio will play later on Wednesday.

Paradorn Srichaphan also made it to the second round. The Thai managed to a comfortable 6-2 6-1 win over Kenneth Carlsen.  The tenth seeded Dominik Hrbaty progressed with a easy 6-1 6-1 win over Frenchman Jerome Haenhal whilst their were shocks for Valencia champion Igor Andreev and Albert Costa.

Juan Monaco managed to overpower the Czech international 6-3 2-6 6-3 and goes on to face Max Miryni, who managed a win over Albert Costa 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 7-6 (7-2).

On Tuesday Juan Carlos Ferrero had to battle hard to win against Albert Montanes, who was just two points away from snatching a shock win. The former world number one managed to take a 6-3 3-6 7-5 win despite being 5-4 down in the last, Montanes crumbled and Ferrero made two breaks to seal victory.

Carlos Moya also did himself no favours with a slow start against Jarko Neimenen. The Spanish Number One took two hours and twenty one minutes to win against the Finn, eventually taking the tie 7-5 5-7 6-2 to face the winner of Max Miryni and Juan Monaco.

The Youngster is now second behind Roger Federer in the ATP Points Race and this win has seen him capture three clay-court finals so far this season and is expected to be the biggest rival to Roger Federer in the French Open next month. Nadal who is also expected to be playing in Barcelona, Rome and Hamburg before the Roland Garros event said:

``If I play like this, I can have some good results, but I am not the favorite,'' Nadal said. ``My objective is to improve my serve, my volley and my slice. ... If I improve these shots I can win some more matches.''

The result did help Guillermo Coria jump up the ranks also.He is now up from 27th to 8th place, with David Ferrer also making it to tenth position. In the womens event Justine Henin-Hardenne took a massive boost before the Roland Garros with a title after her return from injury. She ousted Russian Elena Dementieva 7-5 6-4 in the final to lift the Family Circle Cup in a two set match that lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes.

This win boosts Henin-Hardenne ranking to 31 from 43 and also is her 20th title.

“I could never imagine that I would play at this level for my first tournament on clay and then win this tournament,” said a beaming Henin-Hardenne.

“I had a pretty tough draw and, especially when you’re unseeded, it’s not easy.”

Davenport was looking to put daylight between her and Maria Sharapova, the current world number 2, but was in a tough encounter from the start against a rejuvenated Henin-Hardenne, who was leading 3-6 6-3 1-0 before the hip injury was too much for the American.

In the Windy conditions the Belgian broke early to take a 3-1 lead before Davenport held for 3-2 and took the next four games and recieved treatment in between. Davenport looked more laboured as the match wore on and it allowed Justine to take full advantage. She took the second set and broke in the first game of the third which prompted Davenport to quit.

Henin-Hardenne will play Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin in the Semi Final after she overcame seventh seeded Nadia Petrova 7-6 6-3 and added another seed to her hitlist after defeating Venus Williams earlier in the tournament. 

"This is the level where I want to be playing and where I want to be winning against these players," Golovin said.

"I want to be in the semis and the finals of these kind of big tournaments, and even bigger ones, like the (grand) slams."

Elena Dementieva, the number two seed also carried on her good form despite making 17 double faults to defeat Katarina Srebotnik 6-3 5-7 6-4. The match also saw 20 breaks of serve. It didnt look promising for the Russian who was 4-1 down in the third but Srebotnik self destructed and Dementieva reeled off an amazing comeback saying it was the fans that helped her win.

"At 4-1 down in the third set I was really ready, for the first time in my life, to give up and I could do it only because of the crowd support," Dementieva said.

The youngest player to have ever defeated a number 1 won the deciding tie break 10-8 to make it to the Semi Finals where he will play Rafael Nadal.

"It was a fantastic match, after I won it I didn't know where I was for a few minutes," said Gasquet

This is by far the youngsters biggest acheivement but it didnt start well with Federer taking the opening tie breaker 7-1. Gasquet though didnt deflate and  hit some pinpoint winners which stopped Federer in his tracks. He levelled the match before taking a 5-3 lead after a break as Federer started to sweat. The Frenchman showed flaws as well though, when he went to serve for the match  with a volley beyond the baseline. Federer also managed to hold another break point and it looked to be going to Federer's advantage. The number 1 seed managed to miss three match points of his own before Gasquet was given another shot and he took it with an unstoppable backhand.

Juan Carlos Ferrero also made it to the Semi's.Despite being nothing like he was against Marat Safin he wass still too much for Fillipo Volandri to handle, breaking his serve seven times before winning 6-2 6-3. His opponent will be the reigning champion Guillermo Coria who defeated David Ferrer3-6 6-4 6-3 in a hard tussle.

The 17-Year old pounced on a poor display from the fourth seed and it saw Golovin progress to the Quarter Finals to face Nadia Petrova of Russia. Williams had struggled earlier in the tournament against Denisa Chladkova didnt start off well, making three double faults in the first game to give an early break to the 13th seed.

The world number 25 was pegged back by Venus in the seventh game when she broke back but Golovin just applied an attack to the Americans forehand and it paid off as she broke again to lead 6-5.She then saved a break point on her own serve to take the opening set.

The second set went with serve upto the seventh game when Williams forehand failed her giving the French girl the advantage which she took and held serve to win her biggest game of her career so far.

Nadia Petrova had earlier secured her place in the Quarters with victory over Jelena Kostanic 6-2 6-3. The number 8 seed Patty Schnyder managed another smooth progress into the Quarter Finals with a 6-4 6-0 win over Klara Koukalova but the same could not be said of the 11th seeded Ai Sugiyama who was defeated 6-1 4-6 6-1 by Katarina Srebotnik.

Bigger news in the day was another poor game from Anastasia Myskina saw the 15-Year Old Czech Nicole Vaidisova defeat her 6-3 5-7 6-4. The Russian who was suffering from a cold was knocked out when Vaidisova attacked her second serve and managed to break 4-3

Nerves set in, however, and Myskina, beaten in the third round at Amelia Island last week, levelled the match. But though the Russian fought back from a break down to 4-4 in the third set, Vaidisova broke again and converted her third match point for victory.

Federer looked at ease with his game and led in the second 5-3 after an easy first set. Gonzalez broke back and with some impressive power shots he had clawed his way back into the game. He then won the set after a dominant display in the tie-breaker with Federer suprisingly hitting the balls all over the place to lose 7-3.

Gonzales maintained the pressure in the decider, the first six games going with serve, but Federer pounced on his second break point in the seventh game to lead 4-3 and settle the match.

Marat Safin suffered another dissapointing loss at the hands of Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ferrero had an easy win in what was billed as the big match of the day with a convincing 6-2 6-4 display.

Ferrero goes on to play Fillipo Volandri, who defeated Mariano Puerta 6-7 7-6 6-4 despite being 5-4 and a serve down in the second, the Casablanca winner Puerta threw his chance away. Federer goes into the Quarter Final facing teenage prodigy Richard Gasquet.

Gasquet came from behind to shock the 10th seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, much to the fans delight. The Teen won 4-6 7-5 6-2. Guillermo Coria managed to keep his revival going with another win over Alberto Martin. The argentine and reigning champion won a tie break to seal the first set 7-6 before only dropping one game in the second to run out winner 6-1.

Gaston Gaudio also progressed with a thrashing of Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-2 6-0. Gaudio will play Rafael Nadal next who swept aside the Belgian Oliver Rochus 6-1 6-2 to set up a mouth watering Quarter Final

This means Federer's hot streak is now at 23-match unbeaten run with five titles (2 Masters) under his belt in what has been a very successful first quarter for the Number 1.

Marat Safin is trying to put his recent form troubles behind him with a convincing win over Korea's  Lee Hyung- Taik 6-0 7-5 and will take on Cyril Saulnier who surprised Paradorn Srichaphan with a 6-2 6-4 win.

There was bound to be high profile casulties and Tim Henman and Carlos Moya were the players taking shock exits. Henman was defeated by Argentine Mariano Zabaleta 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 whilst the fifth seed Moya lost to another Argentine, this time in the form of Mariano Puerta 7-6, 1-6, 6-3.

The Family Circle Cup event in Charleston is also underway this week with Justine Henin-Hardenne continuing her return with a hard fought victory over Jelena Jankovic, the number 10 seed. Justine went down early 7-5 and looked to be struggling but she managed to regain some form and take the next two sets 6-4, 6-3 to set up a tie with Shaui Peng

Lindsey Davenport has taken the Amelia Open title against Italian Silvia Farina Elia 7-5 7-5 despite not playing her best Tennis.

The match was riddled with mistakes and Davenport was lucky to survive them and take the title for the third time. Lindsey had 36 unforced errors to her name and had to come back from 4-2 down in the second set to re-capture her title and make it two for the season.

"I made a lot of errors but I hung in there and was able to come out on top in the end," Davenport said.

"She is a really tricky player to play. I never seem to be able to find my rhythm against her. Today I felt like I threw in a bunch of errors but I had to (go for my shots) because I didn't want her to dictate.

"I got the job done and am really happy to have won.

It didnt start well for the favourite with Silvia Farina Elia breaking in the first service game and was playing some spectacular retrieving shots and had a break point chance to lead 6-5. Davenport though fought back and saved it with a great backhand winner before breaking the Italian to snatch the set.

Farina Elia was not downbeat and continued to annoy Davenport and took a 4-2 lead after the erratic plays from Davenport. She was serving for the set at 5-4  but Davenport managed to raise her game and break back for a 5-5 score and held for 6-5.

 Farina Elia saved one match point with a drop shot and backhand into the open court but Davenport then crunched a forehand winner on the next point to clinch victory.

 Davenport joined Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini as the only three-times winners of the title in the tournament's 26-year history.

The sixth seed, winning only his third title of his career, pocketed $56,600 for the win.

Meanwhile, Monaco was appearing in his first-ever ATP final and is still seeking his first tour title.

After winning only three of his eight ATP matches entering this event, the 21- year-old Monaco had dropped just one set in four matches in Morocco before Sunday's final.

In the Amelia Island Semi Finals it was world Number One Lindsey Davenport who previaled to the final in the battle of the seeds. She played Number 7 seed Nadia Petrova but was not threatened too much and took the Semi 6-0 6-3. Her opponent in the Final will be Silvia Farina Elia.

The Italian, who won her match against Serena Williams because of a Sprained Ankle the number two seed endured when winning a ball, beat the giant killer Virgine Razzano, who has defeated Alicia Molik & Vera Zvonareva in this tournament, with a convincing 6-1 6-3 victory that sets her up with the number one seeded American in the Final.

The Russian fought back well against the Homegrown favourite who cruised to a first set win. In a tight second set the successor of Rafeal Nadal managed to break Ferrer and then take the set 7-5 before giving Ferrer a taste of his own medicine in the last set winning 6-3.

In the Amelia Island event Serena Williams went crashing out with her sister Venus. Despite a easy stroll in the first three rounds she became injured before her quarter final tie with Italian Silvia Farina Elia.

The Australian Open Champion, who has had stomach injuries before in the WTA YEC last year and the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp earlier this year, this time pulled out due to a sprained ankle.

"Things just spiralled downward from there. Of course I wanted to finish the match, but I obviously couldn't move very well and wasn't able to do it."

It was a not easy for Serena, earlier in the day she defeated Mary Pierce in a tough match that saw her win 7-6 6-4 despite being 5-1 down in the first set tie breaker. When she returned for the night session she took the opener against the Italian. Elia held on to two set points when serving at 5-4 but was beaten when Miss Williams broke twice for a 7-5 win.

In the second she was 3-0 down early on but battled back again to lead 4-3 and it looked as if she would progress to victory before injury struck when she chased a ball when ahead 5-4 . Serena still battled on after treatment and held three match points in the tiebreak but when Farina Elia hit back to level she retired.

In the other matches Shinobu Asagoe progressed after a shock win over the out of form Russian Anastasia Myskina 7-6 7-6 but couldnt continue her run as Nadia Petrova ended her run and won 6-0 0-6 6-2 to set up a clash with Lindsey Davenport.

Virginie Razzano of France continued her giant-killing run, following up her second-round win over fourth seed Alicia Molik with two more victories over seeded players.

The world number 54 ousted 13th seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4 6-7 7-5 and then stunned sixth seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-4 6-4 to set up a semi-final against Farina Elia.

Lindsey Davenport has made it through to the Semi Finals of the Amelia Island Championship after a stunning victory over Miss Venus Williams.

The current world number 1 defeated a resurgent Venus but not before being troubled early in the match. The American, who knocked sister Serena out of Miami last week, took a positive 6-1 lead in the first set. A quick succession of winners destroyed Lindsey and the confidence of last weeks victory was flowing here

Almost like the Federer - Nadal game, although to a smaller scale, Davenport produced a dramatic comeback. Venus seemed to be struggling more, after a rain delayed match against Marta Domachowska in the same day it began to take its toll, more mistakes were being made and Davenport led 3-2 after breaking Venus in the decider after coming back to take the second set 6-3.

Venus then had a 40-0 lead over Lindsey on the eighth, which was Davenports serve, but it was not to be as the current number 1 took the match three games later to win the set 6-4 and book a semi final date with either Shinobu Asagoe or Nadia Petrova, the number seven seed.

In Valencia, the ATP event took a shocking twist when Igor Andreev sealed victory against favourite Rafael Nadal. The Home favourite, clearly fatigued from his long final with Roger Federer in the NASDAQ-100 open last week was easily defeated 7-5 6-2.

The seventh seed has booked his place in the semi final of the clay event and will face the qualifier Ivan Navarro Pastor also of Spain. The Spainiard sealed a dream Semi Final berth with a win over second seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-7 6-4 6-4

The other quarter-finals were postponed until Saturday because of rain.

Spain's Alberto Martin, who dealt a humbling 6-2 6-0 defeat to Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten in the last round, will meet fellow countryman David Ferrer and former French Open champion Albert Costa will face last year's winner Fernando Verdasco

The same cannot be said about the Australian Alicia Molik, who was dumped out of the tournament by Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-4 6-4.

Serena now goes into the third round where she will face the experienced numbr 14th sed Mary Pierce. Also in the third round are sister Venus Williams and Number 1 seed Lindsey Davenport. 

"I'll definitely have to play better in my next match," Williams said. "I played (Mary) here last year and she gave me a tough time and then went on to have a great season, and a good Olympics. I know Mary's no pushover and she always plays well against the big players."

Anastasia Myskina won her match today also. The Russian was not at all comfortable thought letting 17-year old Shahar Peer back into a dead and buried tie. The first set was almost according to plan winning 6-3 before a lapse in concentration saw a 6-3 loss before regianing compusure to take a 6-3 win in the final set.

"I played really well in the first set," said Myskina. "Then I got a little bored because everything was going so well, and I was thinking 'When is this match going to finish?' Then I was 4-0 down in five minutes and it was hard to come back."

Sixth seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia scraped past Peng Shuai of China 4-6 6-4 7-6 on her fourth match point. Another Russian, ninth seed Elena Likhovtseva, edged out Argentine Gisela Dulko in three sets.

Seventh seed Nadia Petrova of Russia hammered Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva 6-3 6-0, while eighth-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder, Serbian Jelena Jankovic, the 11th seed, and number 12 Silvia Farina Elia of Italy also advanced

This is the first time since the first NADSAQ-100 back in 1985 to have had a five set final. The day was made for tennis with the weather being perfect for the fans at courtside and they were treated to an almighty comeback that almost proves why people say Roger Federer is better than anybody else who has graced the Tennis Court.

The young spaniard Nadal, two months short of his 19th birthday, took a shocking lead and looked to have destroyed Federer. The youngster took the first and second sets 6-2, 7-6 and led in the third 4-1

The spaniard wasted no time in attacking Federer with all that he had and showed a lot of desire and agression which pressurised the Swiss Number 1. Nadal soon broke Federer in the first game and had Federer facing another two break points but they were saved. It went to the seventh game where Federer blew the first set. Serving a double fault which gave Nadal a break point and a stanglehold on the tie which he served out.

It looked promising for the youngster when he broke Federer in the first game of the second set. Federer was not out of it though and came back with some extraordinary shots down the line to level the tie and started to find form, taking a 5-3 lead in the second.

The fans and others, including myself, where shocked to see Federer start to play erratic and fail his returns and ended up losing his serve in the ninth game which gave Nadal a break point. Federer could have sealed the game with two set points on Nadal's serve, but he hit some rather rudimentary shots which hit the net .

The match went into a tie break with Nadal in really impressive form running Federer ragged and took the breaker 7-4 to lead two sets to love.It was quite easy to see that the world number one was being outplayed, which is a rarity in itself with only Safin and Kuerten really proving themselves to him.

Federer was being given a taste of his own medicine, but he didnt give up. Federer in the third lost his serve again to Nadal and it looked as if a dark cloud had descended on Federer's part of the court. Nadal then showed no mercy when he hit a corker forehand cross court winner to take a 4-1 lead. Thats when Federer found another level (not the band, but a better performance ) In the seventh the Swiss man brought it back  on serve when Nadal netted a forehand and Federer served an ace to level 4-4.

Nadal faced a break point in the ninth, but was unnerved and served an ace which frustrated the No.1 seed as it seemed a straightfoward overhead as he slammed his racquet to the floor in disgust.  The set went to a tie break with Nadal needing just two points to send Federer packing. He led 5-3 before Federer clawed back and kept himself alive, winning the breaker.

Federer had know gained the momentum he needed and gave Nadal a backlash . He broke Nadal in the fourth game before levelling the final with a forehand volley. In the fifth and final set Nadal was being overwhelmed by the occassion and tiring rapidly Federer broke in the third, fifth and seventh games to claim his crown, the final point being a netted forehand by Nadal.

As you can see the Belgian Girl previaled over the Princess of Nyagan with a thrilling final and has capped an extraordinary month back in action for Kim Clijsters.

The unseeded Belgian took a two set match against an uncomfortable Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 to become the first woman in nine years to complete the Indian Wells-Miami double. This being Kim's third event since coming back from injury she has done tremendously well.

This event will send Clijsters back into the top 20, where she deserves to be, and is a wonderful achievement considering she was ranked a pitiful 133 a few weeks ago.

The recent revival of Kim Clijsters comes after being absent from the Tour for 12 months with a wrist injury, which has ultimately cost her a top 5 place, but with this form she will be in the running soon.

The 38th in the world (at the time of the event) has won 14 in a row with 6 of them against top 10 opponents including No.1 Lindsey Davenport, No.2 Amelie Mauresmo & No.3. Maria Sharapova. The win for Kim cruelly stopped the 17-year old from Russia taking the number 2 spot but the Russian can have no complaints with her drop shots and volleys doing little to scare Clijsters and constant rest periods due to Storms only aggrevated Sharapova more.

Even this one is even harder to believe (than Indian Wells)," said Clijsters, projected to rise to No.17 on Monday's rankings. "I don't know what to say about all this. It's been an incredible four weeks. I'm just going to try to enjoy it as much as I can."