Historic Lawn Tennis Champion

Reuters

It's been 70 years but No. 1 seed and world No. 3 Andy Murray ended the drought of home grown champions from Great Britain by winning his first lawn tennis title at Queens Club in London with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over American James Blake. On Murray, the pressure from the British press and fans at Wimbledon just increased tenfold.


Reuters

Another native son made his people proud. Veteran and wild card Tommy Haas continued his fine form from Roalnd Garros and defeated world No. 4 Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. This is also Haas' first lawn tennis title and his first trophy in more than two years.

"It's such an incredibly nice feeling to hold up the trophy again and to be in Germany as well, in front of German fans is even more special," said Haas. "I've won on every surface at least once which is a great accomplishment for myself. It's a great day.

"After a few setbacks here and there, struggling a little bit, having ups and downs throughout this year even it makes everything go away in some ways when you have these kind of moments. This is what you play for."

Where will the tennis gods place him in the Wimbledon draw?


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Slovak teen Magdalena Rybarikova won her first lawn tennis title and first career title with a 6-0, 7-6(2) victory over China's Li Na in Birmingham.

"It's the best feeling in my career. It's unbelievable. It's like a dream," Rybarikova said. "I've always liked grass. I have a good serve, forehand and volley - I think it's my best surface, for sure. I won the first set easily today but I knew the second set would be tougher. I was very nervous in the tie-break."