If you were a fair-weather tennis fan the last two years, someone who just watched the semis and finals of the Slams and maybe not even the Aussie Open, you might have thought of Soderling as a one-hit wonder. Oh sure, he upset Nadal and reached the final, but what has he done since? Clearly,
Technically, Davis Cup play doesn't start for the French for a little over two weeks. Next week, the tour takes a one week break, then only the top 8 will play in the year-end ATP World Tour Finals. The week after that, the Davis Cup finals between France and Serbia takes place. Even so, it
In the last few years, Spain has won the battle of the Pyrenees. Indeed, the French style of play seems so antithetical to play on clay that it's amazing that any Frenchman has contended for clay's greatest title. Monfils has reached the semifinals before. And yet, as athletically gifted as he is, he plays like
The post-US Open tour, for those of you that are paying attention, can be split into two parts: the Asian swing, that heads to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, exotic locales for the adventuresome tourists, to the more traditional Beijing and Tokyo, before heading to Shanghai. After Shanghai, the tour moves back to Europe and into
Nadal, it seems, doesn't like it when he plays poorly. If he plays a match, and it's as close as his near-loss to Victor Troicki, he gets upset, and sometimes, the next opponent pays the price. That opponent was Gael Monfils. Sporting mini-dreads, Monfils had few answers for Nadal in the first set as Nadal
The US Open seems to be Novak Djokovic's best tournament. He's reached the semis for the third time in a row, and for the fourth time, he'll face Roger Federer. Novak struggled a bit with Gael Monfils in one set, but then he buckled down in the second set while Monfils gave in. The third
In the 2 hours I was out of my place, Djokovic made short work of Mardy Fish. Many had hoped, with his weight loss, that he would be able to give Djokovic a challenge. Fish had been having a career half year. However, Djokovic is often underrated as a talent. If he had been in
Once you get to Labor Day, you move from the obligatory early round matches to the business end of a Slam. Those that want to seriously make a run need to get to Labor Day, when the fourth round begins. Let's begin with a quick recap of what happened so far. Among those coming in
As the first week of the Open begins to wind up, we're getting to the serious part of the tournament. Roger Federer has still not dropped a set. He beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. He faced only 4 break points, and didn't get broken. Federer was also efficient breaking winning 4 of 6 break
It is a bit weird. The Spanish game seems better suited to clay than other surfaces. Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Juan Carlos Ferrero. Sure, many of these players can play other surfaces, but clay seems to be very Spanish. This is backed up by recent Spanish winners of the French Open. Aside from
