Federer Prevails For Estoril Title

It took nearly 3 1/2 months, but the world #1 Roger Federer finally has a 2008 title under his beat; after capturing the Estoril Open clay event.  Roger ousted the second seed Nikolay Davydenko, 7-6, 1-2.  Davydenko was forced to retire due to a muscle strain in his left leg.  Roger can breath a major sigh of relief has he now has career ATP tourney win #54.  There's more to come on this result, in the next few days here on Tennis Talk; here's what the players had to say after the match:

Federer: “It feels great to win a title again and the circumstances were unfortunate. It would have been nice for Nikolay to finish. I think it’s the first time in my life that someone has retired against me – in 70-80 finals. It was cool in the cold conditions, but it is a great start to the clay-court season to win a title.

“It’s a good week for me to start off with. I think [Higueras] is happy for me, he didn’t confuse me and we’ll be off together to Monaco for hopefully a good week there.

“Nikolay felt something at the end of the first set, I saw Nikolay holding his leg before the changeover. I congratulated on a great run in Miami, Davis Cup and it is unfortunate to celebrate a win in this way. I’m still very proud to have won this tournament.”

Davydenko: “When I ran to the left, I felt pain. I felt the muscles in my left leg stretch at the end of the first set. I went to speak to the ATP physio at the end of the tie-break and received a quick massage, but I quickly knew I could not continue. I’m playing on Wednesday in Monaco, and I’ve been told by the physio that he expects me to be okay by then.”