Depending on when you asked, the "next generation" of tennis players--the ones after the highly successful group of Murray, Djokovic, Nadal, and del Potro--were going to come from Ryan Harrison, Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, and Bernard Tomic. Of the four, it turns out only Raonic has made significant leaps and is likely to be the
How do you measure the "greatest of all time"? Some would say, if you could transport all the players in time and have them compete against each other, who would win. That would favor modern players who hit harder than ever before. Heck, even a relatively unknown Gilles Simon would probably easily beat a Don
I often credit Ivan Lendl with being the father of modern tennis. He did so many things that influenced how today's game is played from his meticulous planning to his diet to having freshly strung racquets that he would change every ball change. In a day and age where men's tennis was all about who
I'm not the kind of person that likes to predict Slams. These tend to be "wish for" exercises. You never know when, say, Rafael Nadal will get injured, and then all your Slam predictions go bye-bye. Instead, I'll try to look at the form of the top few players. Novak Djokovic 2011 was a great
John McEnroe was famous for his tirades against chair umpires calling them the pits of the world. Maybe his steady drumbeat of complaints lead tennis to increased professionalism in umpiring. Back when Mac was playing, umpires were local, and so they didn't call matches all that often, which meant they weren't always that good. By
Federer is bucking the Mayan calendar (which is probably misinterpreted) and putting out his schedule for 2013. With this schedule, he's taking advantage of an interesting rule that appears to be aimed at him. this is rule 1.08 Reduction of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Commitment. It goes something like this: A player's number of
Few teams have the kind of firepower that the Spanish team has. With potential number 1 Rafael Nadal and perennial number 5, David Ferrer, Spain boasts a team that can't be matched by any other country. Even the great Roger Federer only has Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka is good, but he can be beaten by any
And this is why tennis pundits, especially American tennis pundits, should consider writing for some other sport, like curling. For years, American tennis commentators--a rather obscure lot--had been more than happy to bully the Davis Cup. Let's make it more like the World Cup, they said. We can't see top pros like Federer and Nadal
The Spanish team has been dominant taking the Davis Cup 3 of the last four years. The one time they didn't take it was 2010 when they were upset by France without Rafael Nadal. This year, with the Olympics, Nadal decided to beg out and not play Davis Cup. For that matter, David Ferrer, the
About this time of year, or sometimes just after the US Open, you get tennis pundits, in particular, American tennis pundits who have solutions to what ails tennis. Davis Cup, invariably, gets a makeover. The key criticism of Davis Cup is that it's played over four distinct times, often the week after a Slam. The
