Roger Federer has a sense of history, doesn't he? He chose to play Stockholm, a tournament he hasn't played since 2000, because he knew it would be a relatively easy draw. He could always point to Peter Lundgren, one of his earliest coaches, who was from Sweden as one reason he played the tournament. Winning
Let's start in Basel. Roger Federer is a five-time finalist at Basel. He reached the finals back in 2000 and 2001 before he became the Roger Federer. He also won the title three times in a row starting in 2006. However, last year, in 2009, Djokovic decided to play on Roger's home tournament. In a
The semifinals are set for Basel and Valencia. Basel is Federer's home tournament, no doubt one reason it is an ATP 500 event. Fortunately for tournament organizers, Federer is still in the tournament. The semifinals include Roger Federer playing Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic playing Victor Troicki. Let's took at the top of the draw.
Although the year is not yet over, I'm ready to pick my best match of the year. I always hate when tennis pundits pick their best match of the year. Invariably, they pick a Slam, because they figure if it's some obscure event in Doha, none of the tennis public will know what they are
The big news is that Andy Murray, defending champ of Valencia, lost in 3 sets to Juan Monaco. Murray has lost to Monaco before, but on clay. He did mention that, due to his brother's wedding (last week), he wasn't as prepared as he had hoped to be. He is now pinning his hopes on
With the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals and the Davis Cup finals up ahead, the end of the men's tennis season is wrapping up very soon. This week, a pair of ATP 500 events are being played: Valencia (in Spain) and Basel (in Switzerland). Last year, Djokovic went on Federer's home tournament
The post-US Open tour, for those of you that are paying attention, can be split into two parts: the Asian swing, that heads to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, exotic locales for the adventuresome tourists, to the more traditional Beijing and Tokyo, before heading to Shanghai. After Shanghai, the tour moves back to Europe and into
Davis Cup captains have, at least for countries that produce good players, generally gone to good players that have expressed interest. Back in the day, Arthur Ashe succeeded Tony Trabert as captain. The mild-mannered Ashe had to deal with the fiery McEnroe. As temperamental as Johnny Mac was, he was also intensely devoted to Davis
The last time Roger Federer played Stockholm, almost ten years to the day, he was looking forward. Never one to be overly modest, Federer knew he was talented, but could he win a Slam? Could he win Wimbledon? A few years later, he would embark on a journey to become the most prolific Slam winner,
Roger Federer rarely plays ATP 250 events. Most of the times, he does it because it's a tuneup for a major. He might play, Doha, for instance, just before the Australian Open. He might play Estoril, a few weeks before the French Open. He might play Halle, just before Wimbledon. Roger Federer is the top
