Van Nistelrooy retires from international football

Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has retired from international football, the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) said in a statement on Monday.

"After studying the schedule of Real Madrid and the Dutch team I realised ... playing for both teams would mean too tough a physical load for me and therefore I made this choice," the 32-year-old Van Nistelrooy was quoted as saying.

Murray wins first Masters Series title

Andy Murray upset Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 7-6, 7-6 to win his first Masters Series title on Sunday.

Murray could have won earlier but Djokovic survived four championship points when the Briton served leading 5-3 in the second set. He clinched it in the tiebreak on his sixth championship point.

Both times the Serb had to save break points but he began to mistime more often and from the middle of the set Murray was holding serve more easily.

In the tiebreak, Djokovic lost a point against serve immediately when he struck a backhand drive too long.

He pulled a forehand wide to go two mini-breaks down, and lost the set when he tried to break up another sequence of drives from Murray and hammered that flat and long.

Djokovic then suffered the disappointment of making a break early in the second set, only to be unable to consolidate it.

When Murray broke back for 2-2 and again for 5-3 Djokovic looked increasingly uncertain, risking his heavy attacks less often.

Murray overcame the Serb with a fluent and imaginative display of ground strokes, showing he has the ability to climb up among the world's top three, producing his second victory over Djokovic in successive weeks.

Djokovic stuns Nadal to reach final

Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal 6-1, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final of the Cincinnati Masters and bring the Spaniard's 32-match unbeaten streak to a close down.

Serb Djokovic will meet Andy Murray in the final after the 21-year-old Briton defeated enormous Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the day's other semi-final.

Nadal, who is positioned to replace Roger Federer as world number one, was a shadow of the player who romped to the Wimbledon and French Open titles this year. He conceded before the match that he was struggling.

Australian Open champion Djokovic got inedible to a thriving start and broke Nadal's opening two serves to go 5-0 up before taking the first set in less than half an hour.

Nadal made a fight of it in the second; carving out a break point at 3-2, but Djokovic saved it with a fierce forehand.

Five games later Djokovic made the crucial break after a series of brilliant baseline meetings before closing out the match.

Rafael Nadal guaranteed to be the new World Champion

Rafael Nadal guaranteed he would become the third Spanish man to top the world rankings with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti in the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters on Friday.

By beating Lapentti, Nadal will end Roger Federer's four-and-a-half-year reign as world number one on Aug. 18 at the latest, or as early as Monday if he takes the Cincinnati title.

Nadal's win also took him a step closer to a sixth successive tournament triumph, underlining his evolution into a far more adaptable player on all court surfaces rather than his favorite, clay.

After ending Federer's five-year winning run at Wimbledon last month, Nadal has maintained his superlative form on the hard courts of North America while his Swiss rival has stumbled to early defeats in the two tournaments he has played since.

Should Nadal lose Sunday's final he would top the rankings on Aug. 11 while a semi-final defeat would delay his coronation for another week.

The 32-year-old Lapentti took the contest to a tentative Nadal in the first set, often pinning the Spaniard way back behind the baseline with an aggressive brand of attacking tennis.

Nadal saved two break points in the eighth game and the reprieve appeared to invigorate him into action as he cruised through the tie break and the second set to seal victory in a one hour and 48 minutes.

The number two seed will face Novak Djokovic in Saturday's semi-final after the Serb battled past unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-4 and Nadal knows he will need to play better to advance.

Ivo Karlovic shocks Federer in Cincinnati

Roger Federer's record 4-1/2 year time in power as world number one could end this week after he was beaten 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 by Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters on Thursday.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who beat Federer in this year's French Open and Wimbledon finals, will take over from the Swiss as the world's top ranked player if he wins the tournament on Sunday.

The 2.08-metre tall Karlovic, who has hit more aces and won more service games than any other player on the ATP Tour this year, applied constant pressure.

Karlovic, who hit 22 aces and many more service winners, has also played more tie breaks than anyone else this season, the strength of his delivery frequently reducing each set to a shootout over a dozen or so points at the end.

In the opening-set tiebreak it all went with serve till 6-6 when Federer topspun a drive which was called in, only for it to be changed after Karlovic appealed to the Hawkeye replay system. Karlovic then hit a winning forehand drive on the next point.

Federer succeeded out one break of serve in the fifth game of the second set but in the deciding third-set tiebreak, Federer suffered a chronic piece of ill-fortune.

On his opening service point, a forehand drive struck the top of the net cord and leapt the full length of the court to land long. Karlovic clung to that advantage and ended the match with a service winner on the line.

This was about the worst scenario for an already under-pressure Federer, who is still trying to recover from the biggest emotional setback of his career - the loss of his Wimbledon title to Nadal three and a half weeks ago - and whose confidence is at low levels.