Perhaps the most peculiar match of Day 4 was the one between Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini. That the match needed to go to an extra day to get finished was a "shame on Gael" situation. Gael Monfils was winning comfortably, up 2 sets to none. His athleticism should have been enough to win. Fognini
If you watch enough tennis, you see beyond the names most people know, beyond Federer, Nadal, beyond Tsonga, Roddick, beyond Querrey, and start to see names like Andreas Seppi, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Thomaz Bellucci. You'll see names like Victor Hanescu and Janko Tipsarevic. These are the guys whose ranks typically float in the 30s or 40s,
When the draw for the French Open came out, this was seen as easily the most difficult of the first round matches. Although Gasquet was ranked in the high 60s when the draw was made, a ranking that dropped into the low 40s by Monday when his win in Nice counted to his results, he
I'll do one preview now and maybe a modified preview once the draw is out. This preview is primarily based on how players are playing now. Let's start with the top contenders for the French Open. Favorites Rafael Nadal You have to give Rafa the nod heading into the French. Although there were some issues
Andy Roddick's path to winning a Masters 1000 has been a long. He recently reached the finals of Indian Wells, but lost to Ivan Ljubicic. Roddick won Cincinnati in 2006. All his Masters 1000 titles have been in North America. He beat Tomas Berdych without dropping serve, winning 7-5, 6-4, breaking Berdych once in each
Prior to Indian Wells, if you were to ask who the favorites to win Indian Wells and Miami, few would have said Andy Roddick. Of course, fewer still would have said Ivan Ljubicic who won Indian Wells. Most were predicting Roger Federer, with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, nearly as often, and perhaps Rafael Nadal
I won't do point by point blogging, because that is completely distracting when it comes to actually watching the match. I'll do it game-by-game. Surprisingly this is the early match, rather than Soderling-Berdych. On the other hand, it is a Friday, so you can imagine someone skipping work to watch this, and still having Friday
The last two semifinalists were decided today. Robin Soderling again makes it to the semifinals as he did back in Indian Wells. He played a familiar opponent, Mikhail Youzhny, who he beat back in Rotterdam. Youzhny was unable to complete that match, but he did complete this one, losing 6-1, 6-4. Tomas Berdych had to
Unlike the surprise loss by Federer yesterday, both Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal won quarterfinal matches. Roddick has never played Nicolas Almagro, but apparently found easy work, winning 6-3, 6-3. Nadal appeared to have a tougher challenge in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga had a chance to break early, but wasn't able to do it while Nadal
Fernando Gonzalez had chosen not to go to Indian Wells so he could head to Chile to assist with relief efforts. He returns to Miami, but had to face hard hitting Soderling. Soderling took the first set, 6-0, but Gonzalez worked hard to take the second set in a tiebreak. Gonzalez was testy, complaining that
