It's a useful lesson to look at tennis history, at least, the last 40-50 years, to see how tennis has changed, because it's easy to fall into the trap of describing today's tennis by remembering tennis from 10 years ago. Many men, for example, can't stand women's tennis (just like many men can't stand women's
Andy Murray's game has never been well suited to clay. The closest the game has to a finesse player, Murray generally doesn't like going on the offensive. Those who watched clay matches from the 1980s will naturally assume the game is still slow play from the baseline, but it is really about finding good opportunities
Ernests Gulbis. Loves. Drop shots. I mean, the man really loves them. In the 1980s, when clay court tennis meant interminably long rallies, the drop shot seemed a rarity. Few people could hit it well and some chose to almost never hit it. For every horribly awkward Lendl drop shot, there was a Mats Wilander
That's more like it. Federer had been struggling with his game, including a loss to Albert Montanes in Estoril last week. Although there was a tiebreak in the 2nd set, Federer will look to several positives. First, his serve percentage was way up, almost near 70%. More importantly, Benjamin Becker never had a break point
John Isner may be feeling down. He was close to winning his first title on clay. He had match points (well, one). He lost to his good buddy, Sam Querrey, in three sets, instead. And yet, when the rankings were updated on Monday, it was Querrey whose ranking had jumped up. Isner is ranked 19th,
I want to begin by saying that the Madrid Open has, by far, the worst tennis website in the world. From the annoying Flash intro which loads slowly and plays music, to its practically unusable webpage (www.madrid-open.com) where you can't find anything of any value. The menu choices light up, but don't have submenus. This
Madrid is the last of 3 Masters 1000 clay events. There's Monte Carlo, which is optional (you aren't fined for not showing up--it doesn't count as a 0). There is Rome (required). There is Madrid. For those of you who have not followed tennis in about a year, Hamburg used to be Madrid and Madrid
Sam Querrey was wondering what was going on. He was down a break in the first, and almost down a double break to his good buddy and doubles partner, John Isner. He hadn't so much whiffed a break point on Isner's serve. Then, Querrey was a break down in the second set to his doubles
Novak Djokovic's allergies (really--allergies?) has been a bonus for a number of players, most notably, Filip Krajinovic, also a Serb, who reached his first ATP semi against Sam Querrey. Because of Djokovic's retirement in the quarterfinals, and because Isner upset Wawrinka, the stage was set for something rather unusual. An All-American final on clay. Krajinovic,
The match should have been played earlier, but due to the weather, it was delayed til past 5 PM, the rain creating heavy conditions. Roger Federer was looking to right the ship. He had not played well since Australia. A loss to Marcos Baghdatis at Indian Wells. A loss to Tomas Berdych at Miami. Then,
