It's rare for this to happen. Roger Federer was scheduled to meet the winner of two wildcards. Normally, wildcards are ranked too low to get into the main draw. If this were Wimbledon, the wildcards could easily be ranked 300 or worse since UK has a dearth of quality players. However, France has a plethora
Let's quickly review Day 1. The French Open is the only Slam that starts on a Sunday. Presumably, they do this to get three weekends in and make a bit more money. This year, they decided not to have any "top" pros play on Day 1. They also decided to switch balls to Babolat which
Still the early rounds going on. Nadal, who rarely loses to fellow Spaniards (although he did lose to Lopez at Queen's last year and to Garcia-Lopez in Bangkok--something about that Lopez name, I guess) faced fellow lefty, Feliciano Lopez. This was a routine 6-3, 6-3 win. Federer had a tougher match, requiring a 6-4, 7-6
Robin Soderling, ranked number 4 in the world, reached that rank by playing consistently well in Slams and Masters 1000 events. He hasn't, however, won that many tournaments. Last year, he won Rotterdam (over Youzhny) and he won Paris. That was it. This year, barely a month into the new year, Soderling has won two
This is a bit of a surprise. del Potro already in the semifinals! Although Lleyton Hewitt is not quite the number 1 player he was a decade ago, he is still a guy that fights. But the one part of del Potro's game that contributed to his rise to the top 5 is also the
It's hard to recall the last time a player ranked as high as del Potro (a top 5 player) that was sideline for most of a year. del Potro played 3 tournaments in all of 2010. He reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, then lost in two first round tournaments in the Asian swing
The quickest way to rise through the rankings? Big serve. Just ask Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Andy Roddick. If you can hold the vast majority of the time, that's just one thing less to worry about. Few people are like David Ferrer or Rafa, who rely on speed and the power of
2010 seemed like just another Rafa-Roger year, and in a way, it was. The top two players in the world have dominated proceedings for so long, one forgets that the competition was hardly at its best. Let's take a look back. Karlovic was injured for half the year. Tsonga was pretty much gone after Wimbledon.
Sometimes, during a Slam, you'll see seeds do really well on the first day, then seeds struggle on the second day. Federer and Djokovic had an easy day, so clearly Murray, Nadal, and Soderling had to show them up. And they did. Both Murray and Nadal's opponents retired. Nadal was up 6-0, 5-0 when his
Once upon a time, there was a split between pro and amateur tennis. Amateur tennis was more of the Olympian ideal. No money except for basic expenses (food, travel, etc). Of course, the lack of money meant that most good amateurs had to become pros to make money, and the poorer you were, the sooner
