The Asian swing of ATP tour starts up with two exotic locales: Bangkok, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Let's start with Bangkok. Last year, Andy Murray decided to play Bangkok. None of the other top 4 players elected to play. He won the tournament. However, with the Olympic schedule, Murray has chosen not to defend
There was a question whether Tomic could play Federer the way he played Dolgopolov or even Querrey and Verdasco. That is, hit off-pace shots and hope to befuddle Federer. The thought was perhaps he couldn't and would have to up the pace. Tomic felt confident he could take the match to Federer, but he still
It's often been said that Bernard Tomic plays like no one else. If comparisons are made to active players, it's often to Andy Murray who often uses change of pace, but even he plays a bit differently to Tomic, or to Alexandr Dolgopolov. Well, wouldn't you know it, the draw happened to put Tomic and
Sam Querrey spent a lot of 2011 not playing that much tennis. He had had a similar experience when he had a freak accident in Bangkok where he sat on a glass table that broke under his weight (when asked why he sat on the table, he said that he had just taken a shower
Most guys that play tennis want to hit big. Look at someone like Fernando Verdasco. He likes to hit big. He gets upset when his big shots don't land in. Indeed, most juniors have to be taught to rein in that power and play more conservative tennis rather than being told to hit big. With
These days, second round matches can be pretty interesting. Let's take a look at a few of today's more intriguing matches. Haas vs. Nadal OK, Haas shouldn't really pose any problems to Nadal. He's a veteran, but injuries have put him on the sideline for many years, so he's played rather infrequently. Although Nadal was
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.
Bernard Tomic is big news in Australia. With Lleyton Hewitt heading to 30 and unlikely to reclaim his number 1 ranking that he had nearly a decade ago, all eyes are on Tomic. Tomic is some weird amalgam, as if Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were somehow merged together. He combines the touch of McEnroe,
AAMI Classic This is an exhibition held in the few days leading up to the Australian Open. This year, eight men participated: Tsonga, Berdych, Fish, Roddick, Monfils, Raonic, Melzer, and Tomic. Tsonga said he was a bit fatigued after his travel from Doha, but finished two matches before exiting (the exhibition allows for two matches
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
