In a post-match interview, John McEnroe asked if Rafa had played his best match of the year to beat Robin Soderling. Rafa said, no, it wasn't his best match. He thought he played better in Monte Carlo. Of course, announcers like McEnroe want answers that the best players play their best in the biggest spotlight.Â
They say Robin's most improved shot is his mind. But really, the all time champ is Rafa. Robin Soderling came out with a strategy to just pummel Rafa into the ground. It's a strategy that Almagro has used. It's a strategy Verdasco has used. But Rafa plays such amazing defense. With any other pro, this
Lleyton Hewitt was once asked who his tennis idol was. Rather than point to one of the numerous Aussies, many of whom had probably stopped playing by the time he was born, or even to players like Pat Cash, his role model was the Swede, Mats Wilander. Perhaps it made more sense, especially since Hewitt
For a while, the match was pretty much going the way everyone expected. Nadal won the first two sets 6-2, 6-3 as Melzer found out that Nadal hits harder than Djokovic, and the shots he was making against the Serb were suddenly missing. Nadal also got up a break in the third set, and it
You'd like a semifinal to be about great tennis, each player summoning reserves they never knew they had, making incredible shots. But tennis is such a solitary sport, and with such isolation, you have to deal with confidence. A 5 set match gives you time to work out some of those issues, and so there
This is why it's difficult to predict who will do well at a Slam. The semifinalists are: Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych, Rafael Nadal, and Jurgen Melzer. Raise your hand if you have more than 2 of 4 correct. Based on past history, you would surely have put Roger Federer instead of Robin Soderling. Berdych would
During his interviews, Djokovic would say that he played 3 good sets and not to worry about the silly set that he dropped. Throughout the tournament, Djokovic had a pretty easy draw. Expected to play Ferrer or possibly Roddick, Djokovic must have thought he had a free ride to the semifinals. Playing the Austrian veteran,
Not nearly the huge upset that knocked Nadal out of the French last year, this was still an amazing performance by Robin Soderling to prevent Roger from getting to his 24th consecutive semifinal at a Slam. It didn't end the way it started. Roger was comfortably holding serve, then managed a break, and won the
Fans have been anticipating a Federer-Nadal final ever since the French Open started. After all, Nadal had pulled off the "triple" by winning Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid, the first time any player had won three Masters 1000 events on clay. And Federer, who keeps reaching Slam finals. The last time Federer failed to reach
I was at the Essential Tennis Clinic, Day 2, in Baltimore (it's really closer to Towson, but good enough), so most of what I'm going to cover is just reaction from hearing the scores. The only matches (or parts of) was the Sharapova-Henin third set. Since there weren't that many matches, let's go over each
