My Sports India: Match Previews, TV Channel timings, and important sports news stories

The Italian Open Tennis Tournament (Rome Masters series), held every year in May at the Foro Italico tennis park, on the banks of the Tevere river, close to the Olympic Stadium. Surface: red clay. Singles final will be best of five sets. The 2007 Italian Open tournament was won by Spaniard Rafael Nadal beating Roger Federer in a gruelling match that lasted over 5 hours! The Women’s final saw Jelena Jankovic beat Svetlana Kuznesova.

Rafael Nadal inches closer to winning the record fourth consecutive Rome Masters title when he drew an easier path to the final than world number one Roger Federer. If results go to seedings, Spain’s world number two Nadal will meet eighth seed James Blake in the quarter-finals and then face number four Nikolay Davydenko in the semis.

Federer, in contrast, is lined up to face world number five David Ferrer in the last eight and a possible semi-final showdown against Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic or Argentina’s David Nalbandian. Nadal’s side of the draw also features Britain’s Andy Murray and France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who stunned the Spaniard in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

Unfortunately, Zee sports will only be showing the semi finals and the finals Live. The rest of the games may or may not be telecasted at a later date. Although, the finals are what is interesting, isn’t it!

The semi-finals will be aired Live on Zee Sports, India, with the first match at 5:00 p.m. and the second semi-final at 7:00 p.m. IST on 10th May, 2008. 

The Finals of the Italian Open will be aired Live at 7:30 p.m. on 11th May (Sunday).