Even as Federer passes 30, he still has more records to achieve and more to preserve. First, with a victory, he exceeded the number of wins Lendl had at year-end championships. Second, he's had never lost to Ferrer, and had not been broken by Ferrer since 2010. This is impressive given that Ferrer is one
The year-end championship has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Initially, it was a round-robin event, but back in 1981, there was some gamesmanship by Ivan Lendl. Bjorn Borg had won enough in his group to qualify for the semifinals, so he took some strategic losses. This left the unheralded Gene Mayer
Surely, David Ferrer had to wonder if this day would ever come. At 30 years of age, Ferrer has been toiling on the tour for some time. Ferrer's career started its upward trend back in 2010 when he won two titles but reached three additional finals. Ferrer has been an incredibly solid top 5 player
This was the first real match that I've seen Janowicz play. My first mental note was: this guy hits a lot of drop shots for a big guy. Janowicz stands at 6'8" in the rare air of Isner, Karlovic, and Anderson. I amended that note: this guy hits a lot of drop shots for anyone.
Ah, puns. When the ATP Tour decided that pros needed more rest in the off season, they removed the week between Paris (Indoors) and London (World Tour Finals). Surely, organizers had to realize that such a move would create a bit of havoc with the schedule--and it has. Djokovic lost in his opening round. Murray
Novak Djokovic opened up his second round (he had a first round) ready for Halloween. He dressed up in a Darth Vader mask, perhaps aware that Disney had spent billions acquiring the Star Wars franchise, or maybe it was just coincidence. He stepped on court knowing that he would end the year at number 1
Let's rewind the clock some--back to 2008. 2008 was the year of the previous Olympics, back in Beijing. Andy Roddick decided not to play the Olympics that year, hoping that he could do well in the US Open series with a depleted field due to the Olympics. Heading into Los Angeles, he reached the finals
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
No one had expected the US to make it this far. In the opening round, the US was pitted against Switzerland, on clay, with Roger Federer playing, but Isner pulled a big upset, and the US got past them. Then, the US plays against France, at France, on clay, even though the French might actually
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, not only was there rain, there was wind. The wind was so severe that it altered how both semis were played. In the first semi, Murray dealt with the wind better. In second, it was David Ferrer. Ferrer ended up 2 breaks and 5-2, ready to serve for
