With the favorites, Nadal and Djokovic, out of the tournament (Murray opted to skip due to injury), it was up to Federer to rescue the tournament. Federer had an easy win over Tipsarevic, relying once again on some aggressive net-charging, a strategy he seemed to abandon when serve-and-volley fell out of style. While he wasn't
Tournament organizers must have crossed their fingers for a Djokovic-Nadal final. When Nadal fell to countryman, FernandoVerdasco, organizers must have hoped that the Federer-Djokovic semi would have to do. Only Djokovic didn't accommodate. Like Nadal, Djokovic had complained about the surface. And like Nadal, who lost to a countryman, Djokovic also lost to a countryman
Apparently, the late Vitas Gerulaitis once said "No one beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row" when he claimed a victory over Jimmy Connors. In those days, it was hard to find head-to-head stats, so Vitas may have been guessing how many times Connors had beaten him. In any case, good friend, Bjorn Borg
Three tournaments were played on clay this week in the lead up to Madrid, which will be played on blue clay. Madrid and Rome are two Masters 1000 events and are back-to-back events. The three events are Munich, Estoril, and Belgrade. Let's start with Belgrade. Normally, this is the Novak Djokovic tournament. He has won
Four times David Ferrer has made the Barcelona finals and four times he's met Rafael Nadal. Nadal is to Ferrer as Federer is to Roddick except occasionally you get glimpses that maybe Ferrer could break through. In all respects except possibly heart, Ferrer comes up second best against Nadal. His serve is comparable, but with
If Monte Carlo is Nadal's most successful tournament, then Barcelona has to be number 2. Nadal recently won his 8th consecutive title at Monte Carlo. He might be going for the same feat now had he not, in 2010, skipped the event, presumably to save his fragile knees. But, for whatever reason, Nadal changed his
It was close for a few games, then not so much. In their past matches, Djokovic has often stayed toe to toe with Nadal off the ground. Today, not so much. Nadal had chances in nearly every one of Djokovic's serve to break. Djokovic didn't seem able to keep up in long rallies. He went
Rafael Nadal is the acknowledged king of clay. If tennis was clay. Nadal would be the greatest of all time. He puts more spin on the ball than any other player. He's quick, tenacious, and patient: three skills that are invaluable on clay. He's lost on clay fewer than 20 times, and most of it,
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Peak Performance", Data is asked to compete against against Sirma Kolrami, an expert at the game of Strategema. When he loses, Data questions if he is flawed and this bothers him for the entire episode. Eventually, he schedules a re-match. In it, he "beats" Kolrami by playing
There was a brief period, sometime around 2003, when Andy Roddick must have felt he was escaping from Pete Sampras's long shadow, that he would be the American heir apparent, the next in a long line of American tennis players that had dominated world tennis since the early 1990s. Little would he know that this
