HBO recently aired McEnroe/Borg: Fire and Ice. I started paying attention to tennis in my early teens at a pivotal time in tennis. The year was 1982. Borg had basically retired. McEnroe was the number one player. Two players were on the rise: Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander. One veteran continued to battle for Slams:
With only two weeks between the French Open and Wimbledon, there isn't a lot of time to follow any trends. Most top pros only play one week and rest/prepare the other week. Tomas Berdych, who did so well at the French and Wimbledon, didn't even bother playing during these two weeks. Some years, the results
The last time Andy Murray and Andy Roddick met was two years ago at the Wimbledon semifinals when Roddick had the last big hurrah of his career: making the finals of Wimbledon and nearly beating Roger Federer. Murray had his best chance to get to the finals, but two tiebreaks that went Roddick's way lead
What do the four semifinalists at Queen's Club, now dubbed The Aegon Championships (and they have 2-3 other similarly named tournaments have in common). The red, white, and blue! Oh, so you thought Americans were the only country to have red, white, and blue in their flag? Obviously not. The British also have the same
Although Andy Murray says his ankle is the best it's felt in a while, he must surely like the fact that Cilic had to withdraw due to his own injuries. This puts Murray in the semifinals where his opponent is likely to be Andy Roddick. Roddick skipped the French due to injury, but has used
The gap between the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon is a slender two weeks. John McEnroe said surely Rafa would not choose to play Queen's two days later where he had committed to play doubles with his sometimes doubles partner, Marc Lopez. But, indeed, Rafa did go. Novak Djokovic, however,
Even if Roger Federer thinks otherwise, Federer's game is currently behind Djokovic and Nadal. With Djokovic's loss, the big question is whether his mental toughness that kept him on this streak will last the rest of the year. Historically, the answer is yes. When McEnroe lost to Lendl in the 1984 French Open, he continued
Before we reflect on what kind of accomplishment Rafael Nadal made with his record equaling sixth win, we should take time to think about the era of Borg. Borg played in the cusp of two eras, the transition that lead to twenty years of revolution in tennis. Perhaps the biggest revolution was the one in
It's been more than two years since Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been in the finals of a Slam. This used to be more routine because Federer kept making it to final after final. That streak was stopped last year at the French Open when Federer lost to Soderling in the quarterfinals. Federer also
So the last person to beat Novak Djokovic just became the last person to beat Novak Djokovic. In a surprising turn of events, Federer took the first set, 7-6 and the second set, 6-3. He had numerous break opportunities numbering over 20, but only converted a handful. Djokovic then cleaned up his game and took
