It may be the start of the new year, but tennis has made a roaring start with three tournaments just concluding, plus an exhibition in the Hopman Cup. The tournament with the most star power is in Doha, Qatar, which featured Federer, Nadal, Monfils, and Tsonga, Brisbane was the only men's tournament in Australia. The
Andy Murray started Brisbane off slowly, dropping his initial sets in the first two rounds, but when it came to potentially tough opponents, he's cranked up his play. In the previous round, he beat up on Marcos Baghdatis with a straight set win including two breaks in each set. This time around, Murray was up
Andy Murray must be thinking--finally. Murray had played two three setters in a row and claimed maybe he was too relaxed coming out of the gates leading to rusty play in opening sets against Kukushkin and Muller. Against Marcos Baghdatis, who Murray had a losing record against, Murray steamrolled to a 62 62 win getting
Doha These four players have nearly met before. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Gael Monfils were all at the Abu Dhabi exhibition last week. However, Djokovic beat Monfils and Ferrer beat Tsonga, so the two Frenchman never played Federer or Nadal. This time, Federer will face his nemesis in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat
After struggling initially with Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round, Rafael Nadal found things considerably easier with Denis Gremelmayr in the second round. Gremelmayr had to hit winners from all over the place just to hold what few serves he had, but he couldn't do it enough to bother Nadal as Nadal tightened up his
The five weeks between London and the start of the year go by quick, don't they? They coincide with holidays and other sporting events. Most players trained about 3 weeks. The news was that Nadal, due to an injury, had to rest and didn't get a full workout. Of course, he's still very good and
At the end of 2007, Andy Murray teamed up with Miles Maclagan as his new coach. Maclagan didn't have the playing pedigree that some of Murray's previous coaches had but he had one huge plus. He wasn't Brad Gilbert. Everyone knows that Gilbert famously coached Andre Agassi. Up to that point, Agassi often used his
It's always struck me as peculiar how that period just after the year-end championship seems to lead to quicker healing than any other time of the year. Djokovic took 5 weeks off, but still looked flat, bothered by shoulder issues and lost in the semis of Basel, retired in Paris, and didn't get past the
The tennis season is among the longest in all of sports lasting from January to late November. To be sure, unlike organized sports in the US which commits to a solid schedule, tennis players are free to schedule, within some constraints, when they want to play. No top pro, for instance, plays four weeks in
Heading into 2011, the thought was "Rafa and Roger are back". Roger had just beaten Rafa in the finals at London and "experts" were ready to pronounce Federer fit to win Slams once again. Murray and Djokovic were expected to be the bridesmaids once again, their game not ready to topple the very best. Only,
