Gilles Simon knows that they way he's likely to win is to grind out long points.  He's quick, he's steady, and occasionally, he can hit a hard shot. It's possible to overpower Simon, which seems to be the right way to play him, but as David Ferrer found out, power can lead to errors. It's
Verdasco must get a lot of heartache playing Nadal. He's never beaten him in 11 attempts, and for a while, he was struggling to win sets. But if Verdasco had a chance to upset Nadal, today was it. Nadal had burned his fingers at a dinner handling a hot plate. He had lost to Dodig
Mardy Fish vs. Nikolay Davydenko seemed like a good match. Davydenko had nearly taken a set off of Djokovic and his game seemed to be getting back in order. Not so much, it turns out. Davydenko is still apparently nervous about his first serve so he spins it in to keep the percentage high. Fish
Wimbledon is a good time to take the temperature of tennis. It's about halfway through the tennis season, but because tennis is played mostly in the northern hemisphere and played mostly outdoors, it must usually be played in summertime or certainly late spring lest we subject our pros to cold and we prefer to subject
Andy Murray was probably happy for the heat wave in the US. Last year, it was a bit cool, so Murray decided to take a wildcard to Los Angeles, reached the finals, but lost to Sam Querrey. Nonetheless, Murray went to defend his title at Toronto. He lost to Fish (for a third time) in
Murray is perhaps the best player to employ a "Nadal strategy" that is significantly different from the way he normally plays. Nadal is one of the most difficult players to get off his rhythm. Bernard Tomic was able to rattle Djokovic some by hitting slices, off-pace shots, and combining that with hard-struck shots. It's arguable
The new number one will play the new number two in the finals of Wimbledon, but until Monday, it will be the old number one playing the old number two. For a while, British hopes were up for the improbably. Murray was hitting hard, holding his own serve, hitting corners, and keeping even with Nadal.Â
Ah, who would have thought? Roger Federer was good enough to get to the finals of the French Open, and he was scheduled to play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who has only beaten him once, and that was due to a meltdown on Federer's part with a 5-1 lead in the third. And he had a two
Perhaps it was the fact that Lopez had never beaten Murray. Maybe it was that 5-setter against Lukasz Kubot that wore Lopez down. Maybe Murray had more tools or was more up to play a player the caliber of Lopez, but he's had the easiest semi of any of the "big 4". Murray won over
Now that we're through "Manic Monday", the day where all fourth round matches are played, we're getting to the business end of this Slam. Let's look at the matchups. Nadal vs. Fish Tomas Berdych was the expected seed, but despite not having dropped a set, Berdych's place has gone down since Wimbledon. Berdych clings to
