Well, you knew Federer had the edge after the first game. Murray came into the match hoping to keep up a streak that has meant a winning record over Federer in the past few years. With a new coach, Ivan Lendl, Murray had elevated his game. He beat Novak Djokovic who, frankly, was not looking
While the big event is in Dubai, with three of the top four players in the field, there are, as always, other tournaments being played. There have been a series of American tournaments played: at San Jose, then Memphis, and now in Delray Beach. There's also been tournaments in the rest of the Americas on
This time, del Potro kept the match close. In Rotterdam, Federer got out to a fast lead then had to hold in the second set to beat the resurgent Argentine. In the semis, del Potro kept toe-to-toe with Federer. Fed was actually doing a much better job of holding his serve, nary seeing a break
The two kept even early on at 2-all. But that was as far as it would go, as Murray went on fire the rest of the set. Neither Murray nor Djokovic had played exceptionally well to get to this point. Murray, in particular, had seemed a bit nervous in an effort to close his match
The fourth seed at Dubai is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and newly ranked number 5, ahead of David Ferrer. With his upsets over Federer in 2011, everyone said Tsonga was going to be in the top 4, and of course, replace Andy Murray, since the top 3 seemed pretty solid. This, despite the fact that Juan Martin
One wonders whether Djokovic will have a 2012 like he did in 2011. It almost didn't seem that way after an indifferent match against Russian, Sergiy Stakhovsky, who took a minibreak lead twice in the first set tiebreak, but gave up minibreaks as well to lose the first set. Stakhovsky went up an early break
Dubai, an ATP 500 event, has become the single toughest tournament played this year since the Australian Open. This year, in the top ten, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray are among the top seeds in this event. This marks Djokovic's return back to tour, as well as Andy Murray. Federer, interestingly enough, decided
2010 was a good year for Jurgen Melzer. A contemporary of Roger Federer, Melzer had stuck in the top 40 for many years, but when it came to Slams, Melzer just didn't do well. Melzer played his first Slam in 2000, but until 2010, Melzer had never even made it to the fourth round of
One reason Nicolas Almagro has been in the top ten is the number of titles he's won. The ATP clay circuit can be broken into three parts. There is the South/Central American swing that is played starting a week or so after the conclusion of the Australian Open and runs until Indian Wells. Then, there
Roger Federer hasn't played Rotterdam in years. It's not entirely clear why he chose to play this year so soon after the Davis Cup tie, but perhaps getting some ATP points is something he has planned. He has won the title, way back in 2005 and that was the last time Federer played the tournament.
