What is perhaps even more impressive, is the fact that this tournament was played on clay, which is the same surface where the French Open will be contested in less than two weeks. According to the UPI, Federer had some trouble in the final against Tomas Berdych, where he dropped the fist set 3-6, but rebounded to win the second and third sets 7-5, 7-5. Federer did not have to go through the top two seeds on the way to his win in Madrid, as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both lost by an upset. However, Federer did beat the man who ousted the number one ranked player in the world, Novak Djokovic, in the semi-finals.

Novak Djokovic was certainly not in top form last week and has not been playing well in tuneup tournaments leading up to the French Open, which is in less than two weeks. Djokovic lost to Janko Tipsarevic in the quarterfinals in Madrid. The second seeded Rafael Nadal could not put up the same effort as the week before, when he had captured the Estoril Open crown. Spaniard Rafael Nadal was ousted in quarterfinal action by fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco.

Federer accomplished another impressive feat this week by passing Rafael Nadal and moving into second place on the ATP rankings. Federer has positioned himself as perhaps a co-favorite with Rafael Nadal for this year’s French Open crown. However, one cannot count out the number one player in the world, Novak Djokovic. As for Federer, his strategy seems to be paying off by taking some time off in April and playing only two tuneup tournaments before the French Open. The big three of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal have another week to duke it out before the big prize at Rolland Garros. The three superstars are in action this week in Rome, in a final tuneup before the French Open.

On the WTA Tour, there was a surprising winner last week, as American Serena Williams won the women’s singles crown in Madrid. According to inquisitr.com, Serena Williams easily defeated the number one ranked woman in the world, Victoria Azarenka, 6-1, 6-3. Serena has been playing well as of late and will definitely be a force to reckon with at the upcoming French Open.

According to ESPN New York, the ring is made of white gold and was designed by Tiffany & Co. The ring had design input from general manager Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin. Team captains Eli Manning, Justin Tuck and Zak DeOssie took the input from other members of the team and helped with the process.

The ring is made of diamonds and 37 blue sapphires. The words “finish” and “All In” are engraved on the inside. The Giants used these words as inspiration during the 2011 season and on their way to defeating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. The final score of that game 21-17 is also engraved on the ring along with the four years they won the Super Bowl. Those years were 1986, 1990, 2007 and 2011.

The Giants will have their rings presented to them on Wednesday night in Manhattan at Tiffany & Co. According to Newsday Coughlin hopes the players who are not on the Giants anymore show up to receive their rings mainly Brandon Jacobs, Aaron Ross and Kareem McKenzie.

Congratulations to the New York Giants on receiving their rings and all of their fans on the accomplishment.

One major decision Bird made was removing the interim tag from current Pacers coach Frank Vogel. Vogel led the Pacers to the third seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers beat the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs and now are in a one to one game tie with the Miami Heat in the second round.

According to USA Today, the Pacers finished the season 42-24. That was good enough for the fifth best record in the NBA.

Bird made a splash in free agency by bringing in forward David West. West averaged 16 points per game and 10 rebounds, as both were second best for the Pacers. He also acquired strong bench talent in trades that sent Leandro Barbosa and Lou Amundson to Indiana.

The draft has been kind to Bird and the Pacers as well. The Pacers drafted Tyler Hansbrough, Paul George and Roy Hibbert and those three became vital players for the Pacers this season.

According to the Associated Press, Bird received 12 first-places votes totaling 88 points. R.C. Buford of the San Antonio Spurs finished in second and Neil Olshey of the Los Angeles Clippers finished third.

According to the Associated Press, the last time the Mets hosted an All-Star game was in 1964. That was the year Shea Stadium opened. The New York Yankees hosted the game back in 2008, as it was the final season played in the old Yankee Stadium.

The decision to have the game at Citi Field was made about four years ago, but Major League Baseball and the city had to make sure everything was in order and agreements with the city were made. The All-Star FanFest was one of those events that had to be agreed upon. According to the New York Times, the Mets financial troubles were not part of the process that delayed the announcement.

This year the game will be held at Kaufman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. The 2014 All-Star Game is expected to be held at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.

The New York City area has much to look forward to. WWE Wrestlemania 29 will be held at MetLife Stadium on April 7, 2013 and the 2014 SuperBowl will also be held there. The trio of events will excite many New York sports fans.

The Associated Press reports that the team announced that they were letting Hatcher go on Tuesday night, just 90 minutes after they secured a 4-0 win against the Oakland Athletics. The Angles had 12 hits in the game, with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout each getting three.

However, that victory was more of an anomaly, notes MLB.com. They have been shut out eight times this season, more than any other team. Before Tuesday’s game, they averaged just 3.61 runs a game, good enough for 27th place in the MLB. These weak offensive numbers come as a surprise, since the Angels were supposed to have gotten better offensively during the off-season by signing Pujols and seeing Kendrys Morales get healthy. Pujols has been especially disappointing though, hitting just one home run so far and batting .212.

“This is unfortunately a situation where a message needs to be sent, and a philosophy needs to be instilled,” general manager Jerry Dipoto told MLB.com. “Right now, we’re struggling to do that, and we just felt like the voice needed to change.”

Hatcher has been with the Angels since 2000 and was the hitting coach for the 2002 team that won the World Series. The 15-year veteran player also helped the team break several offensive franchise records in 2009. Triple-A Salt Lake coach Jim Eppard has been picked as his replacement.

After Tuesday’s win, the Angels are still just 16-21 and are already seven games behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West.

Derek Jeter singled to center in the third inning. According to the New York Times, it was his 3,143rd hit of his career, passing Robin Yount for 15th place on the career hits list.

While the Yankees won the game, there was cause for concern as three Yankees were injured in this game. Starting pitcher Ivan Nova was hit by a ball in his ankle and left the game. According to MLB.com, the X-Rays were negative and revealed it was a sprain and a bruise.

Clay Rapada came into the game to relieve Nova and he had to leave the game with a viral infection. Raul Ibanez got hit with a pitch in his elbow and left the game.

David Phelps got his first win. throwing one inning of scoreless relief. The rest of the Yankees bullpen performed well. Boone Logan and Corey Wade both earned their third hold of the season and Rafael Soriano closed the game in the ninth inning.

David Robertson has been battling rib cage soreness and was unavailable. He was sent for an MRI on Tuesday morning.

In the final game of this two game series, CC Sabathia takes on Wei-Yin Chen at Camden Yards.

Welker broke the news on his Twitter account, saying “I signed my tender today. I love the game and I love my teammates! Hopefully doing the right thing gets the right results.”

It’s about time.

Did Welker clearly outperform the 5 year, $18.1 million contract he signed in 2007? Absolutely. Does Welker deserve a long-term contract and a paycheck comparable with the other top receivers in this league? Sure. But the Patriots wide receiver understands the situation. He knows what team he is dealing with. The Patriots just simply don’t throw out cash. They abide by their mantra “No one player is bigger than the team.”

It happened when Richard Seymour demanded more money before entering the final year of his contract following a career-best 8 sacks in the 2008 season. He was traded to Oakland four days before the start of the 2009 season.

It happened when Randy Moss, who had a stellar stint with the Patriots marked by a NFL record 23 touchdowns in 2007, opened up his mouth after a Patriots Week 1 victory over the Bengals in 2010. Three weeks later, he was shipped out of town to the Vikings.

The list goes on and on. Former Pro Bowlers including Albert Haynesworth, Brandon Merriweather, and Asante Samuel all were either cut or traded when the Patriots deemed they were no longer a good fit for the team or when they chose, or rather dared , to demand more money. Quite simply, the Patriots just aren’t going to put up with that.

Wes Welker’s stance had softened Monday, saying, “There are 9.5 million reasons why I wouldn’t miss any regular-season games,” on the Mut and Merloni program.

Yes, Welker was never going to miss any regualar season games. And yes, Welker was more than likely to show up for training camp. But he understood he was treading dangerous waters because the Patriots, as always, hold all the leverage. He was as perfect a fit for the Patriots offense as much as how the Patriots system was perfect for him.

Having signed the fully guaranteed $9.5 million tender, Welker will now join a loaded Patriots receiving corps which includes Brandon Lloyd, Jabar Gaffney, and Deion Branch to go along with the dynamic two Patriot tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

Welker and the Patriots can still work out a long-term deal before the July 16 deadline. Whether or not the long-term deal does get done, Welker has 9.5 million reasons to be fortunate about today.

The Thunder shook off any perception of rust in a 119-90 beat down over the Lakers Monday night to take Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Forget rust; they were clearly well-rested and ready to play right out of the gate.

“Obviously, they’re more well-rested than we are, but I don’t think it made that much of a difference for us,” Kobe Bryant said.

This series isn’t bound to be close. In fact, it’d almost be a shock if the Thunder take more than five games to close the deal. This is an older, slower Lakers team that just can’t keep up with the young, athletic Thunder.

Kobe admitted such. “They’re just younger and faster. And tonight, what you saw is them executing extremely well.”

But it didn’t stop there. One reporter even ventured to ask Bryant “Can you guard them?”

“Excuse me?” Bryant certainly was not expecting that.

Again, “Can you guard them?”

“No,” Bryant fired back before abruptly leaving the press conference.

In fairness though, this was a legitimate question. Can the Lakers really guard the Thunder? Can the Lakers keep up with them the entire series? The Lakers were outscored 20-0 in transition and were burned in fast break situations. James Harden and Russell Westbrook were the main culprits and they had their way with the Lakers, shredding the defense and taking the ball right to the rim time and time again.

Sure, this was only one game in the series. And sure, the Thunder probably aren’t going to shoot 53% from the field every game as they did Monday night.

“It’s one game,” said Scott Brooks, head coach of the Thunder. “It’s the first team to four wins that wins this series. Come Wednesday night, regardless of if you won by one or 20, it doesn’t have no impact on Wednesday night.”

One game or not, the Thunder clearly have the edge. They’re 3-1 against the Lakers this year including last night’s game with the only blemish coming when World Peace knocked out Harden in the teams’ final regular season meeting.

They know how close they were to upsetting the Lakers back in the first round of the 2010 playoffs, pushing the heavily-favored Lakers to six games. Now with the addition of Kendrick Perkins to provide a defensive presence and the emergence of Serge Ibaka on the defensive front coupled with experience, the Thunder are clearly the better team.

They are simply having their way at the moment. After two close games against the Dallas Mavericks to begin the playoffs, the Thunder rolled past the Mavs en route to a clean sweep. And if they can continue to play at the level they’ve shown during these playoffs, they can start bringing out the brooms to dust off the Lakers.

-In the first match of the night WWE Champion CM Punk and United States Champion Santino Marella teamed up to defeat Daniel Bryan and Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes.

-Beth Phoenix defeated Alicia Fox. According to WWE.com, Phoenix will take on the new Divas Champion Layla at Over the Limit for the championship

- Kane beat the Big Show with a chokeslam. After the match general manager John Laurinatis fired the Big Show after not accepting his apology for mocking his voice last week.

- Brodus Clay teamed up with the Tag Team Champions, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth in a six-man tag team match earning the victory over The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger.

- Chris Jericho defeated Randy Orton by disqualification after Sheamus interfered. At Over the Limit Sheamus will defend his World Heavyweight Championship in a fatal-four-way match against Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton.

- The WWE Board of Directors revealed that if John Laurinaitis loses his match with John Cena on Sunday he will be fired.

According to Bleacher Report, Zack Ryder will face Kane in the YouTube pre-show match for the Pay-Per-View.

Over the Limit is this Sunday live from North Carolina at 8 pm.

According to the Associated Press, Harper is the youngest player to hit a homerun at 19 years, 211 days old.

The Padres would take over the lead in the fifth, making the score 5-4 in their favor but the Nationals scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on a two RBI double by Ian Desmond. The Nationals would add two insurance runs in the eighth inning. Chad Tracy hit a pinch hit solo homerun and Xavier Nady went yard as well.

Ross Detwiler started for the Nationals and had a rough game. According to MLB.com, he went five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits.

Things got interesting in the ninth inning. Henry Rodriguez was summoned out of the bullpen to close the game for the third consecutive night. The Padres loaded the bases on three walks with one out. Manager Davey Johnson took Rodriguez out and brought in Sean Burnett.

Burnett induced a 1-2-3 double play on six pitches to end the game and secure the win for the Nationals who improve to 22-13 on the season.