The match continued much where it had left off. Isner, who said he was delirious when he came off the court, and wondered a day after why he wanted the match to end despite Mahut looking the fresher of the two, was back to serving well. His first few serves went awry, and it seemed,
Now that most players have played two rounds (Isner being an exception), we can see how the players are faring. We'll look at each section. The winner of each section is in the quarterfinals (there are 8 such sections). Section 1 The big story in this section is Roger Federer's struggles in the first two
Most tennis experts felt Nadal would get a challenge from Robin. Only, they figured it would be Robin Soderling, not Robin Haase. Haase was considered a potential up-and-comer, perhaps not at the level of Ernests Gulbis. Haase had defeated a few top players including Andy Murray at Rotterdam in 2008, Ivan Ljubicic, Tomas Berdych, and
It was surprising the players held up this well. Today's players have so much support with them, that they recover much better than they would have 30-40 years ago where a player might be lucky if they had a coach. Few would have any idea how to recover in such a situation. But today, both
It was said that President Richard Nixon was talking to an Olympian who had won a silver medal and consoling him on not winning the gold. The Olympian didn't bother to tell the President that he was very happy with the silver medal. Nixon embodied the win at all cost mentality that sometimes pervades sports.
The day began with many Americans looking somewhere besides the lawns of Wimbledon. Down in South Africa, the US team, in Group C, was fighting for its World Cup lives. The math worked liked this. If the US beat Algeria, then the US would be one of two teams into the main draw. However, as
It was five hours ago that I was reporting on the Roddick-Llodra match. At the time, the Isner-Mahut match was called due to darkness at 2 sets each. Most people felt the set would be over an hour later. Not. Even. Close. More than 6 hours later, with over 100 games played, a decision was
There's been a complaint that no one serves and volleys any more. The days of Patrick Rafter and Pete Sampras are gone, and no one seems ready to claim the mantle, so sure they are that today's players pass better than ever, and the percentages that used to favor the serve and volleyer has yielded
Early in the French Open, where daylight often lasts close to 10 PM, there was a significant controversy in the match between Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini (that's Fognini in the photo). Originally, the referee had left it up to the players to play, and both seemed to agree. Then, Fognini's coach instructed him not
Given Day 1's scares, most people probably felt that Day 2 would return more to form with seeded players taking care of business, and basically that's how the day has started. Rafael Nadal played Kei Nishikori in the first round. Nishikori is only 20 years old having trained at Bollettieri's. Nishikori had a wrist injury
