Last week, three ATP 250 events were being played. Given the proximity to the year-end finals in London, some top-ranked players opted to play. Let's start in Moscow. Andreas Seppi faced Thomaz Bellucci in the finals. Bellucci twice had chances to serve out the match in the second set, but ultimately lost in a tiebreak,
After this match, you have to say Djokovic and Murray are the two best returners in the sport. In the first set alone, of 5 games Djokovic won, 3 were breaks of serve and two were holds. Murray won 4 breaks of serve and held 3 times. Both served under 60% first serve and were
In many ways, this final has similarities to the US Open final minus the wind. Novak Djokovic strolled to the finals without struggling too badly. Given his form heading into the finals, he was favored over Murray who had yet to win his first Slam and had struggled in several of his matches--matches that went
Shanghai is one of Murray's favorite tournaments. He won the event in 2010 and again last year in 2011. He's rarely dropped sets in this tournament (one prior to this against Stan Wawrinka last year, but this year, Radek Stepanek took a set off Murray, and had him on the ropes. Stepanek is a clever
One motivation for Federer to play Shanghai, regardless of whether he ends up at number 1 at the end of the year, was to extend his streak of weeks at number 1. Currently, Federer leads Djokovic by 835 points. If Djokovic wins Shanghai, an event he skipped last year, he would pick up 1000 points.
Lots of play today at the Shanghai Masters. It's the second round and the top seeds were mostly in action today. It's not unusual for players that do well in a previous tournament to fade in the next one. Raonic and Nishikori were finalists in the Japan Open last week. Nishikori lost to Querrey in
2012 hasn't been the same kind of year that 2011 was to Novak Djokovic. Djokovic hasn't won as many tournaments. He hasn't won as many Slams. But one plus out of this is his health. Historically, Djokovic plays pretty well after the US Open. Last year, however, the toll of winning so much, many of
Ever since Murray and Djokovic rose to the top sometime between 2007 and 2008, tennis pundits have wondered who the next generation would bring. When Raonic made a breakthrough at the Australian Open in 2011 reaching the fourth round, then won his first event in San Jose and reached the finals of Memphis, his name
The Australian Open used to be the one tournament where you'd have surprise finalists. Maybe the Christmas holidays lead many a pro to complacency. Throughout the early 2000s, you had finalists like Schuttler, Clement, and Fernando Gonzalez. These are all solid players, but compared to other Slams, they are not the best of the best.
Everyone's said that Milos Raonic is perhaps the best of the new bunch, and in this match, he began to show some of the reason people believe this. Raonic has a huge serve, but much like most men his size, he's opted to play big man tennis. Tall players like Querrey, Isner, and Anderson have
