In his third round match, Murray struggled a great deal in the heat and humidity. This allowed Feliciano Lopez to take big swipes at the ball and hit a larger share of winners. Murray had to resort to hitting shots up the middle of the court and to Lopez's backhand so he could stay in
One of the biggest questions about Tomas Berdych is, well, the prounuciation of his last name (though his first name is also a challenge for non-Czechs). It's mostly pronounced Burr-Ditch. Some umpires have said Burr-Dish. There's also, Burr-Dick. Recently, Martina said the correct way to pronounce it was the third way. After checking out a
Isner is getting used to marathon matches, but these days, he's as apt to lose them. Indeed, since winning the marathon match in 2010, Isner has lost 5 five-setters, and won only one. Certainly, this match, which didn't get started until 11, will have been his latest, ending at 2:30 AM, tied for the latest
Andy Roddick might love nothing more than to have a Jimmy Connors-like run through the US Open. One might never see a 39 year old make a deep run in a Slam again, though as recently as 2005, Andre Agassi, in his mid 30s, made a run to the finals. Roddick just turned 30 years
This was a strange match, and Murray explained some of the reason he looked so lethargic in his win over Feliciano Lopez. Great Britain isn't known for its sunny, hot weather, so players like Murray generally heads to some place warmer--for Murray, it's Miami, so he can acclimate his body to the heat and humidity.Â
Many top players have a last hurrah. Kim Clijsters said at the start of the year that she planned to retire at the US Open, so people knew, ahead of time, that this was it for her. No one expected she would lose in the second round to Laura Robson, but so it goes. The
When commentators talk about Bernard Tomic, Florian Mayer, Alexandr Dolgopolov, they talk about their quirky playing styles that makes it difficult for opponents to handle. Â In this lineage, however, Andy Murray predates them all (though Fabrice Santoro predates Murray). Â When I first began watching Murray, I'd wonder "How did this guy win?". He seemed to
If you hadn't watched Murray's first round match, a 62 64 61 straight set match over Alex Bogomolov, you would have thought he had a comfortable win, without too much stress, but it was anything but. Bogomolov was able to break Murray 4 times, quite impressive, given the lop-sided score in the Russian's favor, but
Paolo Lorenzi is no young'un on the tour. The Italian is about to turn 31 which means he's around the same age as Roger Federer. He's generally not done well enough to get out of qualifiers, but 2012 has been good to him. His rank has given him enough to get into the main draw.
What a difference a year makes. Last year, Donald Young was on something of a roll. He reached the semis of Washington DC. He reached the fourth round of the US Open. His ranking was high enough that he could skip Challenger events. However, rather than continue on that win streak, Young's career went into
