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
Often the opening tournaments of the new year tell you more about the players ranked outside the top 5 than they do the top 5. After all, it's not only the best of the best that use the off-season (which lasts maybe two months for lower-ranked players) to ramp up their game. So here are
`Yes, Virginia, there is tennis after the US Open. Historically, this tennis has two parts: the Asian swing, which is primarily held outdoors, and the European swing, which is primarily held indoors. This year, the tour has decided to mix it up, holding two events in Europe earlier than it usually does. Normally, St. Petersburg
Many top players have a last hurrah. Kim Clijsters said at the start of the year that she planned to retire at the US Open, so people knew, ahead of time, that this was it for her. No one expected she would lose in the second round to Laura Robson, but so it goes. The
What a difference a year makes. Last year, Donald Young was on something of a roll. He reached the semis of Washington DC. He reached the fourth round of the US Open. His ranking was high enough that he could skip Challenger events. However, rather than continue on that win streak, Young's career went into
On the heels of the news that Rafael Nadal will not play the US Open, the top seeds were on court at Cincinnati after receiving byes in the opening rounds. Last year, unknown Alex Bogomolov beat Andy Murray during one of his slumps. That victory was still enough to boost the former and now Russian's
When Roger Federer was slated to play Julien Benneteau in the third round of Wimbledon, few expected that the journeyman Frenchman would push the Swiss maestro to the brink coming within 2 points of the upset. After all, Federer rarely loses to players his age. So when Benneteau was slated to meet Federer after his
When Andy Murray lost to Nicolas Mahut, many felt Murray was still struggling with his game. Unlike Nadal, fresh off a French Open win, Murray wasn't given the benefit of the doubt that his loss was to keep him fresh for Wimbledon. Unlike Andy Roddick, who also had an early loss, then begged for a
With a bug going around at Indian Wells, players are trying to stay healthy. Federer apparently has some combination of a cold and flu, but it didn't affect the results against rising talent, Denis Kudla, who he beat 64 61. Kudla is a contemporary of Jack Sock (the two played as juniors). This was his
Some players show remarkable dedication to their racquets, especially old school players. Pete Sampras stuck with the same racquet, the Wilson Pro Staff 85, his entire career. Stefan Edberg played with this racquet as well. Boris Becker played with a single racquet his entire career. When the racquet was to be discontinued, he acquired all
