Federer, Henin win top ITF award

[capodetutticapi]

LONDON (AP) - Roger Federer and Justine Henin are the ITF World Champions for 2007.

Federer became only the second man to win the International Tennis Federation's award in four straight years Monday, joining Pete Sampras."Every year brings new challenges, and I am proud that I have been able to raise the level of my game when needed," said Federer, who won three Grand Slam titles this year and reached the final at the French Open.

Henin, who received the award for the second straight year and third time in her career, won two majors and the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships.

"This has definitely been the best season of my career," said Henin, who was 63-4 with 10 titles in 2007 after skipping the Australian Open for personal reasons related to splitting up with her husband. "It has been a very challenging year overall, but I have stayed positive and proved that nothing is impossible if you work hard."

The ITF is awarded based on performances at both professional tournaments and the Davis Cup or Fed Cup.

Bob and Mike Bryan won the doubles award for the men, and Cara Black and Liezel Huber were the women's champions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

[capodetutticapi]

de man is unstoppable.he still need to win de french though.

[pass(10trini)]

He is not unstoppable, he is just smarter.  The man just has a level head on the Tennis Court.

[TriniCana]

hear nuh, boss ya see dey Sampras and Federer match recently ?
give jack he jacket but Sampras is still dey bess....could you imagine if he didn't retire what level of matches there would have been today ?
instead of Federer and Nadel in all the finals matches, it would have been ah even greater semi final rounds between both of them and Sampras.

[capodetutticapi]

yes sampras was good but federer better,they did play b4 sampras retired and federer cut he tail.

[pass(10trini)]

Yes cana you are right, they would have made a nice match in their prime. Bosso that topic is highly controversial in the Tennis World. I give Federer the edge only because he is the better returner of the serve. The biggest and best of serves he dismantles and make them look so ordinary that I would say he possibly could make Sampras' own look easily breakable. But this is only an assumption. We will never really know as they met at really a bad time. Sampras had already closed that chapter and was seeing his career setting in the horizon, Federer was a young gunner still hungry for success.

Federer is the full allround player with any arsenal of shots waiting to be delivered at the given moment. But is considered mentally weak when truely challenged or has his back against the wall(at times). And this is only because he has not seen the level of competition that would really push him to his limits. He is so gifted so much more than anyone to play the game that he has another 2 or 3 rungs where he can be pushed to delivere greater and more amazing feats. To Tennis' disadvantage we have no one other than Nadal(only on clay) who is capable of mostly giving him the needed, consistent push that will bring to another realization of his abilities. And when he is pushed or loses its the next opponent/s that feel the brunt of it because he goes on an all out assault on them to redeem the upper hand on the game. To put simply Federer is the most gifted Tennis player the sport has seen an he has become like its messiah. 

Sampras the player with the big serve tight game that could suddenly one day look scrappy and anyone could deliver a convincing bashing on him, was considered one of the most mentally strong tatician to ever play the game. To put it simply Sampras was a true competitor.   

[daryn]

yes sampras was good but federer better,they did play b4 sampras retired and federer cut he tail.

I think she referring to the 3 match series they played in late 2007, for charity.  Federer won the first two easily and then Sampras won the last one.

[pass(10trini)]

I was just answering the two posters in one shot Daryn. Thanks for clarifying though.