Tennis is a year-round sport. The men used to play right into December. One of the worst decisions ever made was to put the Australian Open in December, often starting right around Christmas. As if it wasn't hard enough to convince pros to make the long trip to Australia, try making that trip during the
What do Roger Federer, Jurgen Melzer, Gael Monfils, and Nicolas Mahut have in common? It's a toughie. Three of the four players listed have reached the semifinals of a Slam, and of course, in Roger Federer's case, he's won 17 Slams. Mahut, however, seems to be the odd man out. The answer? All four have
In all the years that Rafael Nadal has played the French Open, he's only been pushed to 5 sets once. It happened in an opening r0und match against John Isner back in 2011. Roger Federer? He's been pushed to 5 sets numerous times. During the 2009 campaign, the only year Federer ever won the French
The Spanish have a tradition where a child adopts both his father's last name and his mother's. Not everyone follow the tradition as evidenced by Ferrer, Nadal, Lopez. But there is Garcia-Lopez, Gimeno-Traver, Bautista-Agut. With so many Spaniards playing tennis, only rivaled by their Pyrenees neighbors, the French, it's not surprising you've never heard of
There's no particular reason why Murray or Simon can't be better on clay. Simon, at the very least, has won tournaments on clay, despite a style that is relatively flat. One reason Simon has won titles on the red dirt--he plays the smaller events. Murray's clay season is 4 titles long. Once Wimbledon is over,
For decades, Canadian tennis was a bit of a joke. While their neighbors to the south racked up Davis Cup titles, the land where hockey is king was left to mediocrity. But the US isn't the only country that's benefited from immigration. With names like Raonic, Pospisil, and Dancevic, the Canadian team reads like a
Maybe it was the comparatively cool weather. Maybe it was the low bounce of the night air. Maybe it was just one of those days. Novak Djokovic, as top champions often do, said he played poorly in his loss to the best old man in the game today, Tommy Haas, a sprightly 34 on the
Bernard Tomic almost didn't get out of the first round, facing one of last year's new upstart, Martin Klizan, but he managed a third set win. He had a comfortable win against Somdev Devvarman in the second round. But his big challenge was the top-ranked Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Last year, Tomic showed a great deal
The scores look nearly the same. Federer beat Tomic in the third round, 64 76 61. He beat Raonic today 64 76 62. And yet, the impression from watching both matches was completely different. Despite the thumping that Tomic eventually took in the third set, he was able to make Federer work hard. Tomic brought
Many local fans looked at the potential third round match between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic with delight. Much like last year, Tomic started the pre Australian Open warm up strongly. Last year, Tomic used his slow slices and unorthodox hitting to get himself past a powerful, but erratic Fernando Verdasco. Then, he met Roger
