Roger Federer is back to being the top performer in the tennis world after recently suffering a victory drought. In Tuesday’s match against his main rival Guillermo Canas, he scored an easy 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the second leg of the Rome Masters. Earlier on, a relieved Federer revealed that he was glad to be back on track, and that the past two months was tough on him and his game play.

On related news, another tennis favorite Andy Roddick managed to subdue his arch nemesis Mardy Fish with the score 6-1, 6-4 in the All-American matchup. To note, this was his second match on a clay court, after beating Jurgen Meizer last February during the Davis Cup matches.

The world number one men’s tennis player, Roger Federer, is not having a good 2008 season and looks to be a slightly worried man. The Swiss tennis sensation has recently admitted that he has asked Spanish coach Jose Higueras to help him for the clay court tournament in Estoril. The Roland Garros clay court of France is the only Grand Slam tournament that Federer has not won so far in his career and he is determined to set things right this time and is hiring the experience of the former clay court specialist in a bid to adapt to clay court conditions.

Federer has said that he wanted to see if his teaming up with new coach Higueras, who has received rare reviews for his coaching, can prove to be fruitful and is hiring a coach since he split with Tony Roche, the Australian coach, in May last season. Higueras has been instrumental in making Michael Chang and Jim Courier champions at Roland Garros while he was coaching them.

The Spanish legend tennis player Bjorn Borg has tipped fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal to replace Roger Federer as the world’s number one men’s tennis player in the near future. According to Borg, Nadal is putting maximum effort to develop his game and will soon become a complete player. Borg said that Nadal has no problems with his physical aspect of the game and has also received good reviews from various quarters on how he maintains his physical strength.

Borg said that even though he is physically strong Nadal should not overload his body by playing too much and will need to take care of his body in order to climb to the top of the rankings. Borg is of the opinion that if Federer concentrates on his tennis and does not suffer injuries then he could be one of the greatest tennis players of all times. Federer will have to have the hunger power in him to break more and more records and win many tournaments, which is not an easy job.

Roger Federer, the world number one men’s tennis player, has been shown the exit door from the Pacific Life Open in Indiana Wells by a lesser ranked player named Mardy Fish. Federer succumbed very meekly to a 6-3, 6-2 defeat in the semi finals of the first ATP Master Series tournament of the season. Federer is yet to win a championship in the year 2008.

Fish opened the semi finals in an unbelievable fashion breaking Federer’s first service game and quickly went on to gain a 3-0 lead. Fish said that it wasn’t Federer’s day and felt that the way he approached the game might have also been the reason for Federer’s debacle. He said that he planned to put extreme pressure on Federer right from the word go and was successful in his plans and was very much pleased with the end result. Federer admitted that he could not find an answer to Fish’s game plan. Fish will now face Australian Open Champion Djokovic in the finals.

Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis sensation and the world number one player, who has been in the news recently with many journalists targeting him for his two consecutive losses, has silenced his critics with a three set victory over tennis legend and former world number one Pete Sampras in an exhibition match played at the Madison Square garden at new York last Monday. Federer said that he was motivated to practice more and was determined to establish his place at the top of the game after his twin consecutive looses this season. He says that he loves to be fighting with opponents on center courts around the world and enjoys the pressures, fans and center courts matches the most.

Federer, who has played the fourth exhibition match with Pete Sampras in the last 5 months, beat the former world number one player in three grueling sets 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 that took 2 hours and 14 minutes. Federer felt great to have played against Pete at the Madison Square garden and says that it is always a privilege to play against his idol and a great player. He was pushed to the brink in this exhibition match, but came up trumps when it mattered and even Sampras acknowledges that Federer is still the man to beat. Sampras says that there will be more tournaments to come in which one will see Federer holding the winning trophy.

Third seed Novak Djokovic ended the hopes of home favourite Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open on Monday.The Serbian recovered from a nervy start to clinch victory in two hours, 26 minutes and set up a last-eight clash with fifth seed David Ferrer of Spain.Lleyton was very tired from the Baghdatis match a couple of nights ago.The Australian 19th seed’s previous match had ended at 4.33am on Sunday morning but he showed no signs of fatigue as he broke to lead 4-2 in the first set, only for Djokovic to hit back and win it.Hewitt, in his 12th Australian Open, gave himself hope when he broke early in the second set but Djokovic struck back to win it and he stormed into a 5-2 lead in the third.

Steve Bierley has selected most successful tennis personalities of 2007. Let’s see who is in the list.

1)      Roger Federer – with his three slam titles and first ever victory over Nadal.

2)      Fabrice Santoro from France – who showed excellent tennis and proved that modern tennis needs not be all biff and bash.

3)      Serena and Venus Williams – with their capable winning slam titles.

4)      Andy Roddick – who led the US to their first Davis Cup victory since 1995.

5)      Marion Bartoli – French Wimbledon finalist.

6)      Richard Gasquet – who reached his first slam semi-final at Wimbledon

Roger Federer, tennis world No. 1, is going to send a global televised message in order to raise awareness of mother-to-child HIV transmission to mark World AIDS Day on December 1. The famous tennis player, who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, will star in the thirty-second video message, that will be recorded in separate English, German, and French versions. The video will be distributed to broadcasters around the world. Roger Federer confessed his willingness to play his part and use his sporting profile to help foster motivation and hope amongst the children, who were affected by the deadly disease