Another day until the big French Open semis. Let's make some predictions. Nadal vs. Djokovic Because it is the French Open, and there is a viable French player still alive in the semis, Nadal will face Djokovic in the first semifinal of the day, even though most tennis fans realize this is the de facto
Outside the other members of the big 4, if there are two players Federer would prefer not to see in a draw, it's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych. Both have big serves. Both hit hard off the ground. Both have given Federer troubles in Slams. Remember when Federer has that semifinal streak? Federer had reached
In all the years that Rafael Nadal has played the French Open, he's only been pushed to 5 sets once. It happened in an opening r0und match against John Isner back in 2011. Roger Federer? He's been pushed to 5 sets numerous times. During the 2009 campaign, the only year Federer ever won the French
The Spanish have a tradition where a child adopts both his father's last name and his mother's. Not everyone follow the tradition as evidenced by Ferrer, Nadal, Lopez. But there is Garcia-Lopez, Gimeno-Traver, Bautista-Agut. With so many Spaniards playing tennis, only rivaled by their Pyrenees neighbors, the French, it's not surprising you've never heard of
With Andy Murray withdrawing days before the start of the French Open, Roger Federer suddenly moved to the second seed, and that meant he didn't have to see Novak Djokovic until the finals. As the third seed, he could have met both Djokovic and Nadal to win an elusive French. But with Nadal as the
Yes, yes, Rafa made the semis, but technically, he's the number 5 player in the world. And what a match. Despite the best start of his career, Rafa would tell you that he's not playing his best tennis, and he started off poorly against David Ferrer who was only too happy to take advantage. Most
Poor Stan Wawrinka. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Stan Wawrinka played two epic matches this year and came up second. In what most experts considered the best match of the Australian Open, Stan Wawrinka pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets. He came out of the gates fast, but then had to hold on for
This was a tale of three sets. Once upon a time, Murray was a talented player, but one that lacked the stamina to win 5-setters. He started to change this in late 2007, when he hired Miles Maclagan, but more importantly, Jez Green, Andy Ireland, and the rest of his team that would get his
The Cinderella story would have had aging Tommy Haas, frequently injured, getting some of his just due by beating world number 4, David Ferrer. Avid tennis fans will tell you that David Ferrer squeezes every bit of talent out of his diminutive body. Fans respect David Ferrer, but when push comes to shove, fans seem
Before we get to Federer, let's hit some of the upsets of the day. The biggest upset of the day was David Ferrer losing to Kevin Anderson, 36 64 63. Ferrer had chances to break in the second set, but didn't while Anderson did break. The match was a combination of Anderson being aggressive off
