Federer's late arrival lights up Monte Carlo

Paul Newman
Friday 10 April 2009 00:00 BST
Comments
(GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A budding young Monegasque hoping for a wild card into next week's Monte Carlo Masters was probably cursing his luck, but the organisers were delighted to announce yesterday that the final spot in the 56-man field had gone to a more familiar figure. Roger Federer had planned to miss the traditional opening to the European clay-court season but will now be heading for the Côte d'Azur, where he has lost to Rafael Nadal in the final for the last three years in succession.

Federer has been playing a limited schedule this year, competing in just four tournaments so far, and had planned only two clay-court appearances, at the Masters events in Rome and Madrid, before next month's French Open, but clearly believes he needs more matches on the surface.

Nadal, who confirmed yesterday that he will be defending his Queen's Club title at the Aegon Championships in June, heads field that also includes Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.

The women's game will crown a new world No 1 later this month, as Dinara Safina will overtake Serena Williams when the rankings are updated the week after next.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in