Some early round news before we head to today's quarterfinals. Many of last week's players that did well in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok faded this week showing how hard it is for players outside the top few to maintain levels of excellence from week to week. Often, a player ranked in the teens who wins
The French may not do well on their home Slam, but they love the hard courts. In the finals of Bangkok, Gilles Simon took on Richard Gasquet. In Kuala Lumpur, Julien Benneteau took on Juan Monaco. Three of the four finalists were French. Let's start with Bangkok. Gilles Simon has been a more successful finalist
The Asian swing of ATP tour starts up with two exotic locales: Bangkok, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Let's start with Bangkok. Last year, Andy Murray decided to play Bangkok. None of the other top 4 players elected to play. He won the tournament. However, with the Olympic schedule, Murray has chosen not to defend
Rafael Nadal has not played since losing to Lukas Rosol in the second round of Wimbledon. He skipped the Olympics and the US Open. There is some chance he could play the year end championship, but Rafa stated his goals were to be healthy by the Australian Open though he's not sure whether that will
Everyone in tennis wonders: where are the next superstars. They aren't looking for those who find success at an older age. So as nice a story as David Ferrer and Mardy Fish are, players that have reached number 1 found success early on, some very early on. Let's list the top 17 players by weeks
Every year, a handful of players win their first title ever. When fans focus on players like Federer or Nadal or Djokovic, it's easy to neglect that most players rarely win a title. Players as highly ranked as Julien Benneteau, ranked 34 in the world, have never won a title despite having been on tour
`Yes, Virginia, there is tennis after the US Open. Historically, this tennis has two parts: the Asian swing, which is primarily held outdoors, and the European swing, which is primarily held indoors. This year, the tour has decided to mix it up, holding two events in Europe earlier than it usually does. Normally, St. Petersburg
Ivan Lendl had it rough. When he started, he was the new kid on the block. There was Connors. There was Borg. And although he and McEnroe were quite close in age, McEnroe matured earlier, so there was McEnroe. Lendl played well starting about 1981 when he reached the French Open final. He would make
In the US, there's this thing called the BCS. It stands for the Bowl Championship Series. It's a solution to a problem: how do colleges award a American football champion? There are so many teams that play college football, and football is such a violent sport, that there's no way for a reasonable number of
No one had expected the US to make it this far. In the opening round, the US was pitted against Switzerland, on clay, with Roger Federer playing, but Isner pulled a big upset, and the US got past them. Then, the US plays against France, at France, on clay, even though the French might actually
