Clinton to join King for tennis at Garden

NEW YORK (AP)—Billie Jean King will be joined by Bill Clinton when women’s tennis returns to Madison Square Garden.

The former president is to participate in a ceremony honoring King during the Billie Jean King Cup on Monday night. The one-night exhibition features top-ranked Serena Williams vs. Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams vs. Jelena Jankovic in one-set semifinals. The winners will then compete in a best-of-three set final, with $1.2 million in total prize money.

The tournament is aimed at bolstering tennis among youngsters. It’s the first women’s match at the Garden since the season-ending WTA tournament in 2000.

King will join commentators John McEnroe and Mary Carillo in the booth for HBO, which will broadcast the event live.

Djokovic wins first '09 title

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Novak Djokovic won his first title of the season Saturday, beating David Ferrer of Spain 7-5, 6-3 in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The third-ranked Djokovic finished off Ferrer with an ace that was that was originally called out but challenged by the Serb.

"That was an unusual way to finish the match, and something like this has never happened to me before," Djokovic said. "But what worked for me during the match was that I mixed the pace well, which I think, David does not like at all."

Djokovic was playing in his first final this year. He won the Australian Open in 2008, and added the Masters Cup title at the end of last season. At this year's Australian Open, he retired against Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals.

The top-seeded Djokovic broke Ferrer in the sixth game of the first set, but the fourth-seeded Spaniard broke back to 4-3. The players traded breaks again, but Djokovic got the decisive break in the final game of the set.

"This was a tough match because David is a very tough opponent," Djokovic said. "He is one of the hardest working players on the tour, and he just keeps running down every ball. He makes you earn every point."

In the second set, Djokovic led 2-0 before Ferrer recovered with a break in the seventh game. But Djokovic immediately broke back to lead 5-3, and then saved a break point before winning on the challenged ace.

"Nobody is a favourite in a final," Djokovic said. "Everyone has the motivation to do well. But I was physically and emotionally really involved with this tournament and to win it is a great feeling, because Dubai has a history of having one of the strongest fields on the tour. And despite some players pulling out, it was still a tough field."

Both top-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer pulled out with injuries. Andy Murray withdrew ahead of the quarter-finals because of a viral infection.

Ferrer was also playing in his first final of the season.

"I played a very good game and I am very happy with what I did, but he was the better player in the end," Ferrer said. "However, I really enjoyed my week and am looking forward to more such consistent weeks in the future."

Djokovic into final four at Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Ticker)—Top seed Novak Djokovic is through to the semifinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships after a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Marin Cilic on Thursday.

Fifth seed Cilic, 20, has been in brilliant form this year, winning tournaments in Chennai and Zagreb and losing only one match prior to today.

But the world No. 19 struggled to find the required consistency and was broken once in each set by Djokovic, who saved all six break points he faced.

“I was willing and trying in the last three matches to find this exact rhythm, and that’s what I did today,” Djokovic said. “I think the key today was movement and focus. I was really trying to move well in the point, be patient and just wait for the chances.

“I needed to make kind of a combination of the game, an aggressive game and then a patient game at the same time, which I think I did well.”

The world No. 3, Djokovic is now the clear favorite to pick up his first title of the season after second seed Andy Murray pulled out of the tournament with a virus prior to his quarterfinal against Richard Gasquet.

The British No. 1 has only lost one match all year, picking up titles in Doha and Rotterdam, but he revealed he has been struggling with the illness since returning home from Australia last month.

“I’ll go back home to London and I’m hoping I’ll be okay in the next three or four days,” said Murray, the world No. 4. “I’ll then see what happens with it.”

Djokovic will face third seed Gilles Simon in the last four after he defeated fellow Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

It was a farewell appearance in Dubai for 36-year-old Santoro, who is retiring at the end of the season.

The man nicknamed ‘The Magician’ reached the final the first time the tournament was held in 1993 and won the title 10 years later when he rose from his sick bed to defeat Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui.

Santoro was given a model of an Arabian dhow in a special presentation held on the court after the match.

“I’m just sad because he’s going to stop at the end of the year,” Simon said of his veteran compatriot. “His last tournament (at the Paris Masters), maybe I’m going to watch every match he’s going to play because you never know what one you’re going to lose.

“But I think it’s nice for him to play the last match (in Dubai) on the centre court and to receive a prize at the end.”

In the other semifinal, Gasquet will face fourth seed David Ferrer, who was a 7-5, 6-1 winner against Russian sixth seed Igor Andreev.

Roger Federer

Roger Federer (pronounced /ˈrɒdʒə ˈfɛdərər/; born August 8, 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 2. He was the World No. 1 ranked player for a record 237 consecutive weeks, from February 2, 2004 to August 17, 2008. Federer is widely considered to be one of the greatest male singles tennis players of the open era.

Federer has won 13 Grand Slam singles titles (3 Australian Open, 5 Wimbledon, 5 US Open), currently just one shy of all-time leader Pete Sampras. He has also won 4 Tennis Masters Cup titles, and 14 ATP Masters Series titles, as well as winning Olympic gold in doubles. He holds many records in the sport, including having appeared in 10 consecutive Grand Slam men's singles finals (2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2007 US Open) and 19 consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals (2004 Wimbledon–present). He also holds the open era records for most consecutive wins on both grass courts (65) and hard courts (56). He has a storied rivalry with Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who recently succeeded him as the World No. 1 player.

As a result of Federer's successes in the sport, he has been named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for four consecutive years (2005–08).

Personal life

Federer was born in Basel, to Swiss-German Robert Federer and South African Lynette Federer (née Durand).He grew up in suburban Münchenstein, ten minutes from Basel and close to the borders of France and Germany.Federer considers Swiss German his first language. He also speaks German, French and English fluently and conducts press conferences in all four. He is Roman Catholic and met Pope Benedict XVI while playing the 2006 Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome.

In addition to tennis, he also played football as a boy and considered becoming a professional footballer before deciding to pursue a career in tennis. As a youngster, he enjoyed watching Marcelo Ríos in action.He especially liked Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Marcelo Ríos and has cited them as idols.

Federer is highly involved in various charities. He established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports to youth. He was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF from 2006. Since then, he has visited South Africa and Tamil Nadu, one of the worst tsunami-affected areas in India. He has also appeared in UNICEF public messages to raise public awareness of AIDS.

He is currently dating former WTA player Miroslava "Mirka" Vavrinec, who retired from tennis in 2002 after a foot injury. The two met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where they were both representing Switzerland.

In 2007, Federer was photographed by Annie Leibowitz as King Arthur. This was part of a series of photographs taken by her of many different celebrities for Disney's Year of a Million Dreams project.

Junior tennis

Federer started playing tennis at the age of six.He began participating in group lessons at the age of nine and began weekly private coaching when he was ten. He also played football until the age of twelve when he decided to focus solely on tennis.^[At fourteen, he became the national champion of all groups in Switzerland and was chosen to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Ecublens. He joined the ITF junior tennis circuit in July 1996. In 1998, his final year as a junior, Federer won the junior Wimbledon title and the prestigious year-ending Orange Bowl. He was recognized as the ITF World Junior Tennis champion of the year.