Apparently, Djokovic wasn't feeling so good and wasn't sure he wanted to play Belgrade, but given that it's his home tournament, he felt obligated. The least likely Serbian to win today was therefore, Filip Krajikovic, 18 years old, reaching the semifinals. Good news for Americans. John Isner beat Richard Gasquet in 3 sets earlier. His
Federer appears to schedule a tournament like Estoril so he can build confidence playing decidedly weaker players. It may be the only tournament of the year Federer enters with a draw this weak. Federer played Doha, which is an ATP 250 event, but it typically draws stellar fields, such as Nadal and Davydenko, and, in
It still helps to have a big serve, even on clay. John Isner had a relatively routine win, 6-2, 6-4. Ouanna had a chance to break back at 4-2 down, but was unable to break. Isner had a chance for a double break, but didn't convert. Ouanna had a hard time returning serve which makes
Bjorn Phau is a rather ideal opponent for a struggling Federer. Federer lost to Ernests Gulbis and should have had a week to train. His level of play should look better than Gulbis, but it looks about the same. The scores tell you that Federer won 6-3, 6-4 which seems like a comfortable win. But
Juan Martin del Potro is expected to get wrist surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He had played only one official tournament all year long (the Australian Open) and has yet to play since then. He had hoped to avoid surgery, but has determined it is needed. The expected recovery time is somewhere between 3 and
The clay court season starts with Monte Carlo and culminates at Madrid. Technically, there's one more clay tournament (in Nice, France) prior to the French, but the likelihood is no top seeds will play that tournament. There are three Masters 1000 (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid) with Monte Carlo considered an optional tournament (the other
Rain was the only thing stopping Nadal from yet another Masters 1000 title. There was a rain delay at 4-all and then once again 2-1 in the second set. They came back shortly after 8 PM. Ferrer won one more game, while Nadal won the rest, taking the second set, 6-2. At 23 years of
Most had predicted that Nadal would win over his countryman Ferrer. The only hope was that Nadal's somewhat indifferent play would continue to the finals giving Ferrer a chance to use his steadiness to steal the match. Turns out, not so much. Ferrer kept even throughout the first set, but eventually Nadal was able to
Last year, it was not too hard to talk about the clay season. The clay season referring to the tournaments between Monte Carlo and the last tournament prior to the French Open. Think of this as a prelude to some grand symphony. The clay season used to have less significance because the top players didn't
There's only been a handful of players that have pulled off the Nadal-Federer double, that is, to beat both at the same tournament. They include David Nalbandian, Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Martin del Potro, and Novak Djokovic. The two play such disparate styles that beating both is a task. And yet, the most shocking person that
