When the world's best play one another, you hope, nay, you expect to see great matches. The ATP World Tour Finals gather the best 8 players in the world where the winner must play up to 5 different top 8 players to win. There were opportunities for greatness to happen. Roger Federer played Andy Murray
Last year, Rafael Nadal had a "beautiful disaster" losing all three of his round robin matches with nary a set. This year, he was able to turn it around. He came into today's match with a 2-0 lead and playing Tomas Berdych, the man who he beat to win this year's Wimbledon. Berdych's style seems
With Federer's sweep of Group B beating Robin Soderling in straight sets, Roger Federer made Andy Murray's life much easier. A victory by Andy Murray would guarantee a semifinal berth. Murray didn't even need to win. Since both Soderling and Ferrer lost their two matches in straight sets, he would finish ahead of both by
The NFL is the professional American football league. Each year, every team plays 16 games against 16 opponents. The goal? Make the post-season. The rules for getting in are a little complex. Each team belongs to a division which is 4 teams. There are 8 such divisions, so a total of 32 teams. Half the
Although Federer has lacked the dominance that marked his game during the mid-to-late 2000s, people forget that he still has gaudy records against even very highly ranked players. In Group B alone, Federer had a 14-1 record over Soderling, the vast majority of these matches played since 2008. He had a 10-0 record over David
Let's start with the top seed and work our way down. Rafael Nadal Rafa's level generally never drops too low. Everyone points to how he never gives up, and while that's certainly one factor in his incredible ability to win, everyone says that about Lleyton Hewitt, and he's struggling to get in the top 20.Â
Generally speaking, when Nadal takes some time off, he's serious about winning a tournament. Until 2010, these were the list of big achievements (in single events), he had yet to achieve: win the US Open (he hadn't even made the finals) and win the year-end championship (he had never been to the finals there). Having
Of the top 6 seeds, the 6th seed, Tomas Berdych looked most vulnerable. Since losing in the finals of Wimbledon, he has had a subpar year. He lost to Llodra in the opening round of the US Open (a bit of an unlucky draw as Llodra just barely missed getting seeded), in the quarters in
David Foster Wallace was considered one of the best and brightest American writers. He was the son of academics. His father, a professor of philosophy who graduated from Cornell University (and Ithaca, home of the Big Red was DFW's birthplace). His mother, an English professor. He'd study both in college having an affinity for the
When Soderling and Ferrer met for the second of their three round robin matches, the two must have gotten tired of seeing each other yet again. This was their sixth match of the year. They met at Wimbledon where Soderling won in 5 sets fourth round. They went the distance in Bastad on clay which
