Some said that Federer was still hungover from his loss to Baghdatis in Indian Wells. That loss occurred in the 3rd round. Many chalked that loss to being ill with a lung infection. Federer skipped Dubai to recover from a lung infection. Doctors told him not to play for two weeks. So there was bound
Fernando Gonzalez had chosen not to go to Indian Wells so he could head to Chile to assist with relief efforts. He returns to Miami, but had to face hard hitting Soderling. Soderling took the first set, 6-0, but Gonzalez worked hard to take the second set in a tiebreak. Gonzalez was testy, complaining that
Until the 1970s, the amount of tennis coverage in the US was quite limited. For example, the first "Breakfast at Wimbledon" was in 1979. This was the first live telecast of Wimbledon men's final. It was thought that few would wake up to watch a sporting event, so it was tape delayed. Indeed, for many
Federer's play in anything but the Slams can be an up-and-down affair. More often than not, he plays down to lesser opponents. If you merely looked at the score, 7-6, 7-6, you'd think Federer had a tough time, but he was up a break in the first and up two breaks in the second, and
Visit any tennis website or any YouTube tennis instructional video and you discover the focus is primarily on technique. It's about how you hit the ball. If you were to take a computer programming class, say, in Java, you'd be essentially taught the grammar of the language. You wouldn't really be taught how to program
If Wayne Odesnik had not been American (born in Johannesburg), I would have probably known almost nothing about him. Odesnik is a lefty who likes to play on clay courts. One of his best results in 2009 was making the final of Houston where he played Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt was on the mend trying to
Whatever mental issues Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are facing, they don't seem to affect Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal. Roddick may not be as young as Isner nor Querrey, but he still moves quite well, and he played unseeded Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-1. Fellow American, John Isner, did not fare as well. He pushed Juan
The two were considered the next wave of good players. After Nadal became the first serious challenge to Federer and after Federer's years of dominance (in the mid 2000), Novak Djokovic leaped to 3rd in the world in 2007 and mostly stayed there until 2009. Andy Murray moved from number 6 in the world in
Are we surprised anymore? Djokovic seems like he's taking the route of fellow Serbians, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Both Ivanovic and Jankovic were number 1 briefly. Djokovic has never reached number 1, but he recently became number 2 at the Australian Open. Djokovic was close enough to Rafael Nadal in rankings that when Rafa
The top seeds all get byes, so they don't play until the weekend. No huge surprises, but that's because most players playing are ranked 40 or below. Garcia-Lopez beat Clement in straight sets. German Florian Mayer beat Swiss Marco Chiudinelli in 3 sets. Michael Russell makes it past the first round again. In Indian Wells,
