If I were asked to rank how the players played in their quarterfinal matches, hmm, I think I would go in this order. 1. Roger Federer In his win over Juan Martin del Potro, Federer moved as well as I've seen in a while, and was pulling out magic tricks. It's hard to evaluate this
A week and a half ago, the draw didn't look so friendly to Andy Murray. He was expected to play a series of Frenchman for four rounds. He played Roger-Vasselin in the second round and Michael Llodra in the third round. The expected player was Gael Monfils in the fourth round, but due to an
Prior to this match, I predicted if there was going to be an upset, it would be Nishikori over Tsonga. That's because two of the other matches seemed pretty lopsided (Murray over Kukushkin and Djokovic over Hewitt). Indeed, even Ferrer over Gasquet should be a sure thing based on their past head-to-head, but Gasquet is
We're getting to the business end of the Australian Open fortnight with the top half playing their fourth round matches today. Let's take a look at these matches. Tsonga vs. Nishikori On paper, this match should be Tsonga's. He's had pretty straight-forward matches while Nishikori has struggled with slow starts. Alas, this is nothing new
And that's why no one plays serve and volley anymore. Michael Llodra is perhaps the last of a dying breed. The serve-and-volleyer. It isn't a coincidence that Llodra is just north of 30 years old. I know, I know, veterans will tell you that everyone's forgotten how to volley. You have to be around 30
Of the top four seeds, Andy Murray clearly had the toughest first round. Djokovic played a guy ranked just outside the top 100. Federer and Nadal played qualifiers. Murray played one of the "new four", that is, one of Harrison, Raonic, Dimitrov, and Tomic. In particular, Andy Murray was to play Ryan Harrison. Harrison joined
Here's a little discussion concerning off-court talk. First, there was the remarkable comeback by Bernard Tomic over Verdasco.  Aussie commentator Darren Cahill felt like Verdasco's fitness would be too much especially as he went up two sets to none. Cahill was very impressed by Tomic's ability to hang in which Tomic attributes to playing possum.Â
Let's take a look at how the top four are faring then quickly talk about the other players that might make noise realizing, of course, that someone might play better than expected (or worse). Novak Djokovic This is difficult. Djokovic did not play that well after the US Open. Most of Djokovic's losses came after
After some complaints that Federer and Nadal had been on opposite halves of the draws in Slams (all four Slams last year and often 3 of 4 Slams in previous years) despite the changing seedings of Federer and Nadal, this year, the Australian Open put Federer and Nadal in the same half. Let's work section
At the end of November during the conclusion of the year-end championship at London, Roger Federer hoisted the trophy once again. This meant a lot to Roger. He had not won a Slam all year. He was defending a large number of points from his successful foray at the end of the previous year. Andy
