While the top 3 were making the semifinals of Madrid last week, the conspicuous missing fourth is Andy Murray. To be sure, Murray's weakest surface is clay. Murray's flatter style often leads to more errors. His opponent's high kicking spin can give him trouble. Still, he reached the semis of Monte Carlo after a slumping
At the end of 2010, the pundits were proclaiming that we were back at the same old, same old. Federer had beaten Nadal in the finals.  Everyone figure Roger was back. 2011 was going to be the Roger and Rafa show...again. This was a far cry from what the experts said after Wimbledon. Roger was
It's nearly the semifinals everyone had hoped for. The top three players were there. Federer, who nearly got booted playing Feliciano Lopez, escaped then had a good win over Xavier Malisse and Robin Soderling, was meeting Rafael Nadal who hasn't had too much difficulty on the clay since Monte Carlo when Andy Murray put a
No one seems to believe it, but Federer's having a pretty good year. Oh, he hasn't solved Nadal. Djokovic appears to have passed him by. But Federer has lost to only 3 people this year. They are, yes, Nadal and Djokovic, and an old childhood buddy, Jurgen Melzer. Say what you will, Federer hasn't had
Lopez seems like a poor man's Verdasco. He's a lefty, but hits his a one-hander to Verdasco's two-hander. He has a big forehand, but probably not bigger than Verdasco. He relies on the slice. He might have a bigger serve than Verdasco, but not by much. In any case, he had never beaten Roger Federer,
It's hard to fathom 7 times in a row. With his tight victory over fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal just won Monte Carlo seven times in a row. There are "couldas and wouldas". Had Federer won Wimbledon 2008 then captured it in 2009, he would have 7 Wimbledons in a row. He's had 5
The match almost didn't start at all. An announcement was made at the start that Murray wasn't ready to play right away due to a possible injury and it would start 15 minutes late, if at all. But Murray did show up, and the question became, what's his health like. Murray immediately opened with a
It was said, when you had a player that scored as much as Michael Jordan, that he would get his. You just hoped to contain everyone else. When Nadal is on clay, he generally gets his. You have to be playing some amazing dirt ball, and then, you have to hope he's injured. If you
For all the talk of Novak Djokovic's amazing 2011 run, still undefeated with 3 wins over Federer and 2 wins over Nadal, the missing man has been Andy Murray. When Andy Murray put in a less than stellar effort in the finals of Melbourne, it was thought that he choked another final. While that may
Kohlschreiber has a lot going for him. He hits hard off the ground. Last year, he waxes Andy Murray. But this year, he drew Roger Federer. Murray didn't grow up on clay. Federer did. Murray was in the doldrums wah-ing his way to a lopsided loss that eventually energized him to play better. Federer has
