With the ATP World Tour Finals concluded, it's a good time to look back at the year in tennis. Yes, yes, there's still a Davis Cup final to be played, but we know enough to start looking back. Where we thought we were heading in 2012 At the end of every year, fans prognosticate about
These days, when Federer plays Djokovic, there's a period of time where Djokovic's game seems to go off the boil and Federer is able to play his game and win a set, but it always feels like the reason Federer wins the set is that Djokovic's game is slightly off, not because Federer is really
Most players find the time after the US Open difficult. They've given their best up to the US Open, but lag afterwards. There are some exceptions. Roger Federer generally plays decently well after the US Open, though he does schedule a fair bit of rest before Shanghai. The other big exception is Novak Djokovic. Nearly
There were records, of sorts, to be broken. This year, Nadal still has an outside shot of winning six Masters 1000 titles if he can win Paris. This would break the record that he and Djokovic share of five Masters 1000 titles. However, it's surprisingly rare to win 4 ATP 500 events. Indeed, with del
Although Grigor Dimitrov has been called "Baby Fed" for some years, and was considered a promising junior having won two junior Slam titles (Wimbledon and US Open) back in 2008, his pro career has only really taken off since 2012. Up until then, he was struggling, like many pros, to play up to his moniker.
My discussion about Nadal will be mercilessly short, much like Nadal's match was over Tommy Robredo. Fans love trends--almost too much so. When Robredo beat Roger Federer (or more properly, when Federer beat himself), some fans felt Nadal was ripe for the picking, ready for defeat. After all, if Federer could go down, why can't
One stat that came up frequently prior to this match was the 10-0 record Federer had over Tommy Robredo. However, eight of those victories came in 2007 earlier. Since then, the two have only met twice, once in 2009 and once in 2011. Most of that has to do with issues that have afflicted many
Ah, Wimbledon Wednesday, the day all the men play their quarterfinal matches. Unlike previous years, the quarterfinal matches were more of a surprise. No Nadal, no Federer, and no Tsonga will do that to a tournament. The matches are played two at a time. Two played on Centre Court, and two played on Number 1
The conditions were damp and overcast. Perhaps the kind of conditions Djokovic wishes his semifinals were played under. But perhaps nature favors the champion. Most proclaimed the semifinals between Nadal and Djokovic as the de-facto finals as neither Tsonga nor Ferrer were expected to pose the kind of challenge that Nadal and Djokovic would to
When the draw came out, nearly two weeks ago, everyone wondered which half Rafa would fall in. As the number 3 seed, Rafa had the chance to be in Djokovic (the top seed) half or in the Federer (number 2 seed) half. When he was in the Djokovic half, many felt that this was a
