When Nadal started his ascendancy to the top of tennis, he provided a foil to Roger Federer's tennis. Roger Federer was offense to Nadal's defense. Nadal didn't play pure defense, but if you tried to hit him off the court, he'd come up with an amazing shot to defend. Like a cornered animal, Nadal was
I'll spend time in this article talking about the tactics used in this match as well as observations. Much like the US Open, which was played in windy conditions, Andy Murray decided to play a lot of balls up the middle slightly to the Djokovic backhand. At the US Open, he did this for several
Given how well both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray return, this match started off with no breaks of serve in the first two sets. Djokovic had chances early on with break points on Murray's serve, but Murray withstood the challenge and held serve. In the first set, Djokovic seemed to do better on serve, but
This isn't the final most people had hoped for, but it was the one that many people expected. The question, for most, was whether Roger Federer would be in the finals with Novak Djokovic, or would it be Andy Murray. Now that Murray is the one to face Novak Djokovic, we can ask: can he
Last year, at this time, the Bryan brothers had reached the finals and faced a new team: Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, but both were wily doubles veterans, esp. Paes. Men's doubles (and women's) is mostly like mating penguins in Antarctica. They're faithful during the season they must mate, but the next season, it might
It's been the monkey on Murray's back. He can beat Federer, just not at the Slams. Three times they've met in the Slams. Three times Murray has been runner-up to Roger Federer. Murray lost to him in the US Open final in 2008, then in the Australian Open final in 2010, and finally, in the
Most people figured Novak Djokovic was the man to beat heading into the Australian Open. While Djokovic struggled some during the summer, especially with losses at Wimbledon to Federer in the semis, and to Murray and del Potro in the semis and bronze medal round at the Olympics. But, he regained his form heading into
Let's start with the earlier of the two quarterfinals played Wednesday in Melbourne. Andy Murray's camp has complained that Roger Federer has had all the night matches. This is of concern because the Australian Open plays its semis and finals at night. Court conditions generally slow down when it gets cooler. All of Murray's matches
When you see Almagro in person, you wonder why he hasn't won more. He has a huge serve, that is often competing with Isner and Querrey and Raonic for most aces in a year. He has a big forehand. His backhand, these days, may be the hardest struck one-handed backhand on tour, better than Wawrinka,
Now that week 1 is over, this is a good time to review the top players plus a few more things. Novak Djokovic Through the first three rounds, Djokovic has looked the most solid. His strokes always looks pristine. Admittedly, he played a resurgent Paul-Henri Mathieu who, nonetheless, hasn't worked his ranking up to its
