John Isner. Gael Monfils. The average tennis fan has probably heard of one, but not the other, and possibly neither. Monfils, the talented and athletic Frenchman, would seem like the shoo-in favorite to beat John Isner. Yet, if you looked at their head-to-head, it's Isner who leads 2-1, and all 3 meetings have been closer.Â
Perhaps it's because he lacks the youthful appearance of Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Or the moody dysfunction of Marat Safin. Or that he's never reached the finals of any Slam. Nikolay Davydenko doesn't get much respect. Like Kafelnikov, he's a player that doesn't mind playing a few more tournaments to make up for the lack of big
Novak Djokovic, sporting his new Sergio Tacchini clothing (once worn by John McEnroe), had a weird match against Marco Chiudinelli, the 3rd best Swiss player and a friend and comtemporary of Roger Federer. Djokovic looked pretty lackluster, missing easy shots and seemingly distracted losing the first set. Fortunately, Djokovic woke up taking the next two
This is not a great period in American tennis. We're not in the heyday where players like Sampras and Agassi were vying for number 1, or McEnroe and Connors were the bad boys of tennis. Andy Roddick has to wonder how he lived through this era. Perhaps had he played 10 years ago, he'd be
Day 3 saw most of the seeds progressing fairly easily. Rafael Nadal took on Lukas Lacko and found himself a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 winner. Given his struggles in the first round, Nadal found himself striking the ball better. Darren Cahill commented that Nadal had played around with a different forehand and serve motion in London
Everyone knew that Igor Andreev was a tough opponent. Two years ago, the wily Russian with the big forehand and the big serve gave players like Rafael Nadal trouble. In his 2008 US Open run, Roger Federer needed five sets to beat Andreev. Since then, Andreev's rank has dropped some, though he remains in the
On paper, this didn't look to be much of a match. Roger, being Roger, had proclaimed how well his training had been, how well he'd been hitting. And Igor Andreev? The last time we heard of him? It was the 2008 US Open where he took Roger Federer to five sets with big serves and
With so many matches, I can only see a handful of them, especially with the time-zone differences. The first match I watched was Andy Roddick playing Thiemo de Bakker. After a while, it seemed clear that de Bakker played a nervous first set. He didn't hit the ball cleanly, nor that smart. Hitting ill-advised drop
Day 1 at the Australian saw the top seeds play according to form. Andy Murray had an easy opening round beating South African, Kevin Anderson, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Anderson won a tournament back in 2008 and played college tennis for University of Illinois. The tall South African, however, had few answers for Murray's versatile game.
John Isner is a shy guy. He wears his cap, and his head often tilts down, as if he's embarrassed by the attention he gets. At 6'9" (and some claim he's taller than that), Isner is hard to miss. There are few tennis players that he can look eye-to-eye without having to stare down. Perhaps
