When the draw came out a few days ago, Roger Federer looked like he had a tough draw, relatively speaking. Murray landed on his half of the draw. His first round opponent is the talented Benoit Paire of France. Nikolay Davydenko, who gave Roget a scare in 2010, at the Australian Open and who recently
Let's rewind the clock some--back to 2008. 2008 was the year of the previous Olympics, back in Beijing. Andy Roddick decided not to play the Olympics that year, hoping that he could do well in the US Open series with a depleted field due to the Olympics. Heading into Los Angeles, he reached the finals
Lots of play today at the Shanghai Masters. It's the second round and the top seeds were mostly in action today. It's not unusual for players that do well in a previous tournament to fade in the next one. Raonic and Nishikori were finalists in the Japan Open last week. Nishikori lost to Querrey in
Paolo Lorenzi is no young'un on the tour. The Italian is about to turn 31 which means he's around the same age as Roger Federer. He's generally not done well enough to get out of qualifiers, but 2012 has been good to him. His rank has given him enough to get into the main draw.
There were, of course, other men's events being played. Andy Murray, who won gold in men's singles, came back shortly after his performance to team up with Laura Robson in the mixed doubles final. Their opponents were the Belarussian duo of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka. In a way, Mirnyi and Azarenka, as the number
Tournament organizers must have crossed their fingers for a Djokovic-Nadal final. When Nadal fell to countryman, FernandoVerdasco, organizers must have hoped that the Federer-Djokovic semi would have to do. Only Djokovic didn't accommodate. Like Nadal, Djokovic had complained about the surface. And like Nadal, who lost to a countryman, Djokovic also lost to a countryman
Apparently, the late Vitas Gerulaitis once said "No one beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row" when he claimed a victory over Jimmy Connors. In those days, it was hard to find head-to-head stats, so Vitas may have been guessing how many times Connors had beaten him. In any case, good friend, Bjorn Borg
It's often been said that Bernard Tomic plays like no one else. If comparisons are made to active players, it's often to Andy Murray who often uses change of pace, but even he plays a bit differently to Tomic, or to Alexandr Dolgopolov. Well, wouldn't you know it, the draw happened to put Tomic and
John Isner knows how to fight. There are clearly limitations to his game. He doesn't cover ground very well. He looks tired when matches run long. But he relies on his serve to bail him out of danger spots. Nalbandian took the first set 64, then there was a big exchange of breaks in the
It may be the start of the new year, but tennis has made a roaring start with three tournaments just concluding, plus an exhibition in the Hopman Cup. The tournament with the most star power is in Doha, Qatar, which featured Federer, Nadal, Monfils, and Tsonga, Brisbane was the only men's tournament in Australia. The
