Seems like Steve Darcis is the new Lukas Rosol. While Rosol was tumbling out of the first round of Wimbledon, Nadal was finding himself in a heap of trouble against a little heralded Belgian player, 29 years of age, ranked 110 in the world trying to take Nadal out of Wimbledon early for the second
What do Roger Federer, Jurgen Melzer, Gael Monfils, and Nicolas Mahut have in common? It's a toughie. Three of the four players listed have reached the semifinals of a Slam, and of course, in Roger Federer's case, he's won 17 Slams. Mahut, however, seems to be the odd man out. The answer? All four have
Today was the day where the Nadal ping pong ball was going to land in the quarter of one of the top 4 seeds. As the number 5 seed, Nadal had an equal shot of playing Djokovic, Federer, Ferrer, or Murray, and wound up with third seed, Roger Federer. Let's see how everyone else did.
Even though it's about a week before Wimbledon, folks like to speculate who will win. Let's look at each of the "big four" (Djokovic, Federer, Murray, Nadal). Technically, Ferrer is number 4, and where Nadal lands will greatly impact the chances the rest have. Rafael Nadal Rafa has had the hottest season in his career,
Two of the "big four" have decided to forgo grass tennis prior to Wimbledon. In particular, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have chose not to play any tournaments heading into Wimbledon. However, the other two, Roger Federer and Andy Murray both decided to play. Roger Federer managed to get his match first because he didn't
Before we get started with how two of the top four players did today, let's review what happened this week. The grass season is among the shortest in the tennis calendar. There's the week after the French Open where Queen's Club (officially, the Aegon Championships) and Halle (officially, the Gerry Weber Open) are played. There's
The conditions were damp and overcast. Perhaps the kind of conditions Djokovic wishes his semifinals were played under. But perhaps nature favors the champion. Most proclaimed the semifinals between Nadal and Djokovic as the de-facto finals as neither Tsonga nor Ferrer were expected to pose the kind of challenge that Nadal and Djokovic would to
To me, one of the best matches played between Djokovic and Nadal was the finals of the 2012 Australian Open final. Some felt it dragged on and on, and certainly, played over 6 hours with numerous breaks between points, the match could have been played at a zippier pace. However, after the grueling 2011 US
When the draw came out, nearly two weeks ago, everyone wondered which half Rafa would fall in. As the number 3 seed, Rafa had the chance to be in Djokovic (the top seed) half or in the Federer (number 2 seed) half. When he was in the Djokovic half, many felt that this was a
There's a reason that Djokovic is number 1 in the world. There's also a reason that Rafael Nadal is the king of clay. For about a set and a half, everything seemed to be going Nadal's way. Did Djokovic tweak his ankle? Was this a forgone conclusion? Nadal took the first set 6-4 and had
