It's the last Slam of the year. Let's quickly go over today's matches. Let's start with the seeds. Davydenko (6) beat Michael Russell 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. This is a solid win. Davydenko seems like he's regaining form. At least, he's beating players he should beat. Robin Soderling (5) beat unheralded Haider-Mauer, but it took 5
Where was this guy? For a few years, Nalbandian had been somewhat irrelevant. Sure, he was like Hewitt or Safin, the guys that came on tour when Federer did and gave Fed his share of trouble. Unlike Hewitt or Safin, who each won a pair of Slams, Nalbandian's best efforts came in 2002 when he
Perhaps Nike is pushing the pink. Nadal came out with a bright magenta-pink outfit that tries to show off his chest. Nadal also came out rusty making all sorts of unforced errors against Stanislas Wawrinka. This kept Wawrinka fairly even in the match. Wawrinka even had chances to take the first set. However, Wawrinka was
One reason Roger Federer has had the longevity he's had is due to good scheduling. There have been those that have suggested a "streamlined" calendar would make it more interesting for the fans, thus, the idea would be to have 8 months of tennis, with 2 months devoted to the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon,
In 1991, the US reached the finals of Davis Cup, and they met France in the finals. At that time, Yannick Noah was captain of the Davis Cup team. The captain is almost always a former player, and Noah was more of a player-captain, but he chose not to play in the finals instead playing
These two nations separated by the Pyrenees are probably responsible for more top tennis players than any other two countries in the world. It speaks to the two respective countries' talent development that produces players like Tsonga, Monfils, Simon, Mathieu, Benneteau, Llodra, etc. for France and Nadal, Verdasco, Ferrer, Ferrero, Lopez, etc. for Spain. Although
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
For a while, Gael Monfils was cruising to an easy win over his Italian opponent. Up 6-2, 6-4 and a break in the third, Monfils began fooling around a bit and eventually lost the third set 7-5. Monfils was also up two breaks in the fourth set, but again lost this set, 6-4. At 4-all,
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
It's fair to say that the Federer playing in Madrid is not the same Federer playing the last few months. But it's fair to say that this Ernests Gulbis was not the same that played Roger Federer a mere two weeks ago. Ah, the journey of Ernests Gulbis. Two years ago, many touted this man
