ALLAN THE MAN

Rafael Nadal won the Cincinnati Masters for the first time on Sunday, his ninth title of 2013 lifting him to number two in the world and stamping him as one of US Open favorites.

He beat unseeded American John Isner 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/3) to add the Cincinnati crown to the Montreal Masters title he won a week before, his first ever back-to-back hardcourt trophies.

It was a match full of drama, especially on the third set, but eventually it was Belarussian Victoria Azarenka that prevailed at the Western & Southern Open 2013 in Cincinnati after the world number two defeated top-ranked Serena Williams 2-6, 6-2, 7-6.

 It was a match reminiscent of the US Open 2012 final between these two ladies but this time it was Williams who served for the match but was broken to force a tiebreaker in the third set.

Rafael Nadal’s resurgent 2013 campaign continued on Sunday with a 7-6(8), 7-6(3) victory over John Isner to clinch his maiden Western & Southern Open title. Nadal claimed a 26th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and 59th overall.

Nadal extended his career-best hard court winning streak to 15-0 in 2013, while joining Novak Djokovic as the only players to win five Masters 1000 crowns in a single year.

Rafael Nadal ousted Tomas Berdych in their Cincinnati semi-final, prevailing 7-5, 7-6(4). Nadal converted on his second match point to extend his winning streak on hard courts to 14-0 in 2013 and improve to 15-1 against Top 10 opponents. 

The Spaniard is into a 37th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, where he will be seeking a 26th title.

In an email statement, world number three Maria Sharapova said that she had ended the coaching partnership with tennis legend Jimmy Connors following her surprise opening round exit at the Cincinnati Open this week.

“It’s not the right fit for this time in my career,” Sharapova stated in an email sent to TENNIS.com.

World No.3 Rafael Nadal has come back to defeat Roger Federer 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in their blockbuster quarter-final duel under the lights in Cincinnati. It was their 31st encounter, one of their very best, and one that ended in dramatic fashion on Nadal's fifth match point. 

[ WATCH W&S OPEN CINCINNATI TENNIS LIVE STREAMING HERE ]

Nadal, last week’s champion in Montreal, extended his winning streak on hard courts in 2013 to 13-0 with the win. He has moved one step closer to claiming his fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown of the year, a feat he has yet to accomplish in his storied career. 

Rafael Nadal set up another meeting with great rival Roger Federer by winning his third-round match against Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Thursday.

[ WATCH W&S OPEN CINCINNATI LIVE STREAMING HERE ]

In addition to capturing his 50th match victory of the season, Nadal improved to 12-0 on hardcourts, having already won Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Montreal this year.

Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli shocked the tennis world on Wednesday by announcing her retirement from the sport at the age of 28.

After a second round loss to Romanian Simona Halep at the Western and Southern Open (W&S Open Tennis Live Streaming) , the Frenchwoman walked into the media room and said: "I just can't do it anymore".

Maria Sharapova's return to WTA tournament play after more than a month away was short-lived following an upset loss to 17th-ranked American Sloane Stephens 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round of the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday.

[ W&S OPEN CINCINNATI LIVE STREAMING]

In a match that lasted two hours and 22 minutes, Stephens overcame double faults on two match points to pick up her first victory over Sharapova in four meetings.

The 2013 Western and Southern Open is a tennis tournament to be played on outdoor hard courts. It was part of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and of the WTA Premier. 

The tournament will take place at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati, United States, from August 12 to August 19 2013. 2013 Men's Singles Draw  / 2013 Women's Singles Draw

The Rogers Cup, the sixth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 of the season gets underway in Montreal on Monday, featuring 17 of the Top 20 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Maria Sharapova believes rival Serena Williams should not comment on matters outside of tennis as she criticised the American ahead of Wimbledon.

Defending Wimbledon champion Williams was forced to apologise for what she was reported to have said about the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio. 

"I was sad to hear what she had to say about the whole case," Sharapova said.

Rafael Nadal has won at the 2013 French Open, besting David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, and secured his record eighth championship at Roland Garros. Nadal improved to an incredible 59-1 record at the French Open and reaffirmed his moniker as the "King of Clay."

With Nadal leading Ferrer by one set and having just held serve to open the second set, color guy and tennis legend John McEnroe said "This is like a heavyweight versus a welterweight." While that statement was exactly that -- color -- and a bit early at that, when it comes to Nadal on clay, he wasn't too far off.

Rafael Nadal will face compatriot David Ferrer in the final of the 2013 French Open as he bids for a record eight title at Roland Garros on Sunday.

The 27-year-old defending champion defeated Novak Djokovic in a gruelling five-set thriller on Friday to book a place in the final. On the other hand, Ferrer faced no such resistance from Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and after 41 previous attempts, finally made it to the final of a Grand Slam event.

WATCH 'FRENCH OPEN 2013 MEN's SINGLES FINAL' LIVE STREAMING BELOW:

Serena Williams won her second French Open title on Saturday, 11 years after her first triumph, defeating title-holder Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in a brief, but high-quality final.

It was the 31-year-old American's 16th Grand Slam title win, taking her to within two of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who are tied for fourth on the all-time list.

World number two Maria Sharapova confirmed on Saturday that she is dating fellow tennis star, the highly-rated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The two had been caught on camera kissing in the streets of Madrid on Wednesday, the day after Dimitrov had dumped world number one Novak Djokovic out of the Madrid Masters.

Nadal eased past Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-4 and will next face Mikhail Youzhny of Russia for a place in the quarter-finals.

One break in each set was enough for Nadal as he overcame some impressive variety and touch shown by Paire early on to break when the world number 37 was serving at 2-3 down in the opening set, before eventually sealing it 6-3.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will battle it out for Olympic gold on Saturday afternoon. 

Going into the London 2012 Olympics, Serena and Sharapova were the only players in the field who have achieved the legendary career Grand Slam (Serena achieved the feat back in 2002 with Sharapova completing the set in June). As such it seems only right that they're battling it out in the final with the winner achieving the career Golden Grand Slam.

Steffi Graf (who won all four slams and Olympic gold back in 1988) is the only other player to have managed this. 

Serena will be strong favourite to win her first singles gold medal (she's won two doubles golds with her sister Venus) given her progress through the draw so far this week. The American has yet to concede more than three games in a set and she's destroyed Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka in success. Given how good those players are (they've all reached Grand Slam finals), for Serena to beat them all dropping just 7 games across the three matches, is simply remarkable.

MADRID - Olympic champion Rafael Nadal's withdrawal from the London Games because of injury deprived the tournament of one of its biggest attractions and left Spain reeling on Thursday.

The gold medal winner in Beijing four years ago has failed to recover from a knee problem, and also misses out on the honour of carrying his nation's flag at the opening ceremony.

The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) said Feliciano Lopez would be his replacement in the singles while the country's Olympic committee (COE) said a meeting on Friday would decide on a replacement flag bearer for the July 27th parade.

"I'm not in a condition to be able to compete," Nadal, 26, said in a statement. "It's one of the saddest moments of my career."

Nadal won a record seventh French Open title in June but crashed out in the second round at Wimbledon in a massive upset against lowly ranked Czech Lukas Rosol.