Gilles Simon was expected to give Murray a tough test. He is very steady player, The French do, as a group, tend to perform better on faster surfaces. However, given they are the home of clay tennis, they do know how to play on the stuff. Gilles Simon was at his best in late 2008
For all the talk of Novak Djokovic's amazing 2011 run, still undefeated with 3 wins over Federer and 2 wins over Nadal, the missing man has been Andy Murray. When Andy Murray put in a less than stellar effort in the finals of Melbourne, it was thought that he choked another final. While that may
The spectacle that was the Battle of the Sexes between past-his-prime Bobby Riggs against top player, Billie Jean King, put tennis through the stratosphere in the US. It was like the Harding-thugs attacking Nancy Kerrigan just before the Winter Olympics leading to huge ratings in figure skating. Ironically, this coincided with the time that tennis
Kohlschreiber has a lot going for him. He hits hard off the ground. Last year, he waxes Andy Murray. But this year, he drew Roger Federer. Murray didn't grow up on clay. Federer did. Murray was in the doldrums wah-ing his way to a lopsided loss that eventually energized him to play better. Federer has
The first two Masters 1000 events of the year are held in the US, first in Indian Wells, then in Miami. Both are week and a half events. After that, every Masters 1000 event is played in a one week tournament. We move to the clay of Europe and the opening tournament is Monte Carlo,
George Orwell wrote a book called 1984 where he looked at the future, envisioned big brother. It was a parable about what had happened during WW2. He picked 1984 by transposing the digits, 1948. But 1984 came and went, and one significance of that year was what a fabulous year it was for John McEnroe.
My thinking was, despite Djokovic's win-streak, Nadal gave him all he could handle in Indian Wells. If Nadal's serve hadn't given out on him, Djokovic's streak might already have ended. To counter Djokovic, Nadal went for big serves and big groundies in the first set and it worked. Djokovic struggled to keep up. But, by
The count is 24 and running. Novak Djokovic is still on his winning streak although the world number 1 gave him all he could handle. This was exactly the kind of match that Djokovic would have had issues with even a year ago. The warm Miami weather. The slow conditions. The humidity. Everything seemed to
Roger Federer hates reporters at moments like this. Are you slipping? Will you ever win another major again? Can you beat Nadal and Djokovic again? Federer always gives the same answers. He's feeling good. He expects to play 5 more years. Stop asking him these questions. Fans of Roger Federer are so used to seeing
It was close for a game. Federer played aggressive and held his own serve. But as Nadal is wont to do, he made it tough for Federer to make a dent on his serve. Federer would lose his next serve as he tried to be aggressive but kept making too many errors. Federer seemed frustrated
