It just goes to show you how dominant the top 8 players are in the world. Basically, it's Djokovic and Nadal at the top (despite rankings) and Federer and Murray behind them (despite Murray's breakthrough). Tsonga, Berdych, and del Potro show they are tough to beat by anyone not ranked in the top 5. The
Ernests Gulbis entered this match with a 13 match win streak over two tournaments including qualies in both rounds. He felt confident he could play with Rafa despite Rafa being able to claim 2 titles and 1 final on the "golden swing". That was clay, however, and this is hard courts. Here, Rafa is more
Novak Djokovic isn't the only one on a streak. A player that once trained at the same academy as the number 1 player is also on a streak, namely, Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis is certainly a mercurial player. Think Safin, Ivanisevic, or perhaps McEnroe from days of old. His career looks like the recovery parts of
Before we get to Federer, let's hit some of the upsets of the day. The biggest upset of the day was David Ferrer losing to Kevin Anderson, 36 64 63. Ferrer had chances to break in the second set, but didn't while Anderson did break. The match was a combination of Anderson being aggressive off
There is a Greek myth story of Tantalus who was punished. There was a lake that would recede every time he would get too close. There were branches of fruit that would lift higher each time he tried to reach for it. From the character Tantalus comes the word tantalize. This is the promise of
I guess it's safe to say that Nadal is back, at least on clay. Nadal has been called the king of clay with good reason. He's lost only 20 matches on clay in his entire career, and in the past few years, with the odd exception of his recent loss to Horatio Zeballos, he's never
There are three tournaments being played now. Two are ATP 500 events and one is an ATP 250. The ATP 500 events are Dubai and Acapulco. Four of the top 5 players in the world are playing in those tournaments. Djokovic and Federer played in Dubai. Nadal and Ferrer are playing in Acapulco. This leaves
Maybe no one's paying attention, but Novak's doing it again. In 2011, he started off on a streak that started to take off once Djokovic won Indian Wells having won the Australian Open and Dubai prior to that. Indeed, Djokovic's win streak extends to last year's year-end championship in London where he won all three
The semifinals had to be all the tournament organizers could hope for. Federer, Djokovic, Berdych, and del Potro all made the semis as if they had a plane to catch. They won efficiently. That left the semis. On one half, there was 3-time champ, Novak Djokovic facing Juan Martin del Potro. On the other, there
Fans love the best of the best. They want to see Federer. They want to see Nadal. They want to see Djokovic. They want to see them face each other. But the tour is more than the top few players, and sometimes, in the smallest of matches, there are stories behind the match. John Isner
