Roger Federer

The declining career of Roger Federer appears to be a figment of the imagination of the media, especially in the wake of his straight-set victory in the final of Sunday's BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Federer handled the big serve of American John Isner with ease and won, 7-6 (7), 6-3. It was Isner's first Masters Series final; it was Federer's 19th Masters title. At 30, Federer has not won a Grand Slam event -- he holds the record with 16, generally granting him the claim as the best player of all time -- since the 2010 Australian Open.

Roger Federer rallied to beat Tomas Berdych , 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, and win the Madrid Open for a third time on Sunday. Earlier, Serena Williams overpowered top-ranked Victoria Azarenka , 6-1, 6-3, to win the women's final. While Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had blamed the new blue-clay court for their early exits, Federer's biggest obstacle was to overcome an opponent who had beaten him in three of their previous five meetings. "It is amazing to win here again," said Federer, who will overtake Nadal as the second-ranked player behind Djokovic.

Top-seeded Roger Federer reached the ABN Amro World Tennis final at Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nikolay Davydenko on Saturday. Federer, playing in Rotterdam for the first time since capturing the 2005 title, will play for the championship Sunday against Juan Martin del Potro . The third-seeded Argentine downed second-seeded Tomas Berdych , 6-3, 6-1, in the other semifinal. Defending champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated countryman Albert Ramos , 6-4, 7-6 (4)

Roger Federer will play for his third Madrid Open title with a chance to take over the No. 2 spot in the world rankings after cruising past Janko Tipsarevic , 6-2, 6-3, in the tournament semifinals on Saturday. The Swiss star and former No. 1 advanced to a matchup in the final against Tomas Berdych , who edged Juan Martin del Potro , 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6), in the other semifinal. A victory will push Federer ahead of Spain's Rafael Nadal in the rankings. On the women's side, Serena Williams will meet top-ranked Victoria Azarenka in the final after they won their semifinal matchups in straight sets.

Roger Federer will play for his third Madrid Open title with a chance to take over the No. 2 spot in the world rankings after cruising past Janko Tipsarevic , 6-2, 6-3, in the tournament semifinals on Saturday. The Swiss star and former No. 1 advanced to a matchup in the final against Tomas Berdych , who edged Juan Martin del Potro , 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6), in the other semifinal. A victory will push Federer ahead of Spain's Rafael Nadal in the rankings. On the women's side, Serena Williams will meet top-ranked Victoria Azarenka in the final after they won their semifinal matchups in straight sets.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic posted straight-set wins Friday to set up a semifinal meeting in the Rome Masters, and three-time champion Rafael Nadal advanced in the other half of the draw. Nadal cruised past eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco, 6-3, 6-3, improving to 8-0 against his fellow Spaniard. He will play 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, who struggled past Argentine qualifier Juan Monaco, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Federer overcame net-charging Mischa Zverev, 7-6 (3), 6-2.

On the verge of victory, Roger Federer stopped playing when he thought a pivotal point had ended at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday at Key Biscayne, Fla. He mistook a fan's shout for a linesman's call, which cost him the game. Play continued for another 25 minutes before Federer finally closed out his opening match by beating 19-year-old American Ryan Harrison , 6-2, 7-6 (3). "I'd like to make it a bit more difficult for my opponent," Federer said. "I was just completely confused about the whole situation.

Roger Federer does this. He hits a crosscourt forehand that seems headed for out of bounds until it touches the sideline. The shot comes all of a sudden just when the opponent, say, Marcos Baghdatis on a Tuesday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, thinks he might have a chance to trouble the world's top-ranked player before a tournament gets to its biggest moments. Federer usually doesn't do this though. He doesn't usually win a set then throw in huge handfuls of enforced errors.

TODAY'S FEATURED MATCH MEN'S FINAL (World rankings in parentheses.) Andy Roddick (6) vs. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland The renovated Roddick, who played arguably the match of his life against Andy Murray in a road game of a semifinal, runs up against a player who has won a record-tying 14 Grand Slam titles, including five Wimbledon titles, and appeared in the last six Grand Slam finals.

TODAY'S MEN'S FINAL Roger Federer, Switzerland (2), vs. Robin Soderling, Sweden (25) Federer defeated Michael Chang, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5), in an obscure first-round match at the Australian Open on Jan. 18, 2000, for his first Grand Slam match win, at age 18 and with a ranking of No. 62. Federer defeated Mark Philippousis, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (3), in a Wimbledon final on July 6, 2003, for his first Grand Slam title.

John Isner is suddenly leaving a large footprint on the men's professional tennis circuit. The 26-year-old late bloomer has reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 in the world this year (he's No. 11 this week). He briefly became the top-rated American in the world, defeated No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells and No. 3 Roger Federer in Davis Cup play, and has led the underdog U.S. to stunning upsets of Switzerland and France on red clay in away Davis Cup matches. He has also become an Olympic contender and maybe even a power broker.

The declining career of Roger Federer appears to be a figment of the imagination of the media, especially in the wake of his straight-set victory in the final of Sunday's BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Federer handled the big serve of American John Isner with ease and won, 7-6 (7), 6-3. It was Isner's first Masters Series final; it was Federer's 19th Masters title. At 30, Federer has not won a Grand Slam event -- he holds the record with 16, generally granting him the claim as the best player of all time -- since the 2010 Australian Open.

BNP Paribas Open TODAY'S FEATURED MATCHES Stadium Court 1 Starting at 11 a.m. (Seedings in parentheses) Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond vs. Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova Not before 1 p.m. Juan Martin Del Potro (9) vs. Roger Federer (3) Not before 3 p.m. David Nalbandian vs. Rafael Nadal (2) Not before 6 p.m. Victoria Azarenka (1) vs. Angelique Kerber (18) Not before 8 p.m. Ana Ivanovic (15)

The tennis triumvirate that has made the men's game flourish for some time continued doing the same Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Not often do Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, play separate matches in the same session in tournaments. Seedings and built-in rest days take care of that. But they did so Wednesday, making a day-session ticket priceless. And the expected — these days almost presumed — took place.

Stadium Court 1 Starting at 11 a.m. (Seedings in parentheses) Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Pablo Andujar. Not Before 1:30 p.m. Victoria Azarenka (1) vs. Agnieszka Radwanska; Rafael Nadal (2) vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov (21); Roger Federer (3) or Milos Raonic (27) vs. Tomaz Bellucci. Not Before 7 p.m. Angelique Kerber (18) vs. Li Na (8). Not Before 8:30 p.m. Denis Istomin vs Juan Martin Del Potro (9).

They served a couple of nice appetizers to tennis fans Tuesday. A little caviar and Rafa, a little bruschetta and Roger. Yummy. The main course, porterhouse certainly, is quite likely to come to this BNP Paribas Open in Saturday's semifinals. If it happens, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden will be packed and poised to eat it up. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, together again. Of course, their victories Tuesday merely got each man to the Round of 16. Plenty of tennis to play. Many bumps and turns remain possible.

Andy Murray defeated James Blake, 6-2, 6-2, Thursday to set up a semifinal meeting with Roger Federer at the inaugural Capitala World Tennis Championship at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In the other first-round match, Nikolay Davydenko ousted Andy Roddick, 6-4, 6-4, and will face Rafael Nadal in today's other semifinal.

Roger Federer was pumping his fists after hitting winning volleys in the first set of his quarterfinal match against Robin Soderling Tuesday at the French Open. Federer was dancing on the tips of his toes, slip-sliding through the red clay so smoothly his socks weren't even getting dirty. FOR THE RECORD: French Open: In some editions of Wednesday's Sports section, an article on Roger Federer's loss at the French Open included a quote from him and said that he spoke by phone from Paris.