Tennis Paris-Bercy .

Injuries down Federer and Nadal in Paris

Saturday 1 November 2008

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Spain’s Rafael Nadal grimaces during a break of his ATP Paris Indoor Masters tounament quarter-final tennis match against Russian Nikolay Davydenko at the Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy in Paris. Nadal retired from the match because of a knee injury after dropping the first set 1-6 to Davydenko.

The Paris Masters was blown wide open on Friday when both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer pulled out of their quarter-finals with injuries.

Second seeded Federer was the first to go, announcing that he would not be able to take his place on the centre court as planned this evening against James Blake.
Top seed Nadal did see some action shortly afterwards but promptly withdrew with an injury to his right knee after dropping the first set 1-6 to Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko.
It was a double body blow for the prestigious tournament, which has been hit by a rash of injury withdrawals in recent years.
In the day’s opening quarter-final, Andy Murray’s hopes of making tennis history by winning three consecutive Masters Series titles were wrecked by an outstanding David Nalbandian.
The defending champion from Argentina won their quarter-final tie 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 producing the best tennis of the week as his love affair with Paris in the autumn continued.
The shocks of the day, however, concerned Federer and Nadal who had been seeded to face off in Sunday’s final in what would have been their first meeting on court since their epic Wimbledon clash in July.