When you play aggressive, like Tsonga or Federer, your success depends on how often you can get your aggressive shots in vs. how often you miss. Nadal gets to as many balls as anyone in the game, and it allows him not to be terribly aggressive if he doesn't want to and let the errors
When you're called "Baby Fed", that puts a lot of pressure on you as a player. Not everyone that's been given such a nickname does well. There was a guy named Harold Miner who was called "Baby Jordan", and nothing much came of him. There is a French player, Josselin Ouanna, who vaguely looks like
Andy Murray has always said clay is his weakest surface. He plays on the surface anywhere from 3-4 tournaments a year, and he didn't grow up on the surface. Prior to his work with Lendl, the clay didn't support his flatter, less aggressive style. Although Murray has been classified as a counterpuncher, he doesn't spin
Ernests Gulbis entered this match with a 13 match win streak over two tournaments including qualies in both rounds. He felt confident he could play with Rafa despite Rafa being able to claim 2 titles and 1 final on the "golden swing". That was clay, however, and this is hard courts. Here, Rafa is more
Fans love the best of the best. They want to see Federer. They want to see Nadal. They want to see Djokovic. They want to see them face each other. But the tour is more than the top few players, and sometimes, in the smallest of matches, there are stories behind the match. John Isner
The semifinals on Saturday were mostly meh. Berdych crushed Tursunov in one semi. Anytime he went for a big shot, Tursunov made an error or couldn't reach the shot. Gilles Simon didn't fare much better against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga making more errors than usual. Neither loser won more than 4 games. The final, by contrast, was
Bernard Tomic almost didn't get out of the first round, facing one of last year's new upstart, Martin Klizan, but he managed a third set win. He had a comfortable win against Somdev Devvarman in the second round. But his big challenge was the top-ranked Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Last year, Tomic showed a great deal
Tennis pundits, who make their living writing about tennis, then probably watch more football than tennis, often fret that the best players don't play Davis Cup. They claim the reason is the scheduling which usually starts a week after a Slam (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the US Open, and the year-end championship). Most players that
Let's start with the earlier of the two quarterfinals played Wednesday in Melbourne. Andy Murray's camp has complained that Roger Federer has had all the night matches. This is of concern because the Australian Open plays its semis and finals at night. Court conditions generally slow down when it gets cooler. All of Murray's matches
The scores look nearly the same. Federer beat Tomic in the third round, 64 76 61. He beat Raonic today 64 76 62. And yet, the impression from watching both matches was completely different. Despite the thumping that Tomic eventually took in the third set, he was able to make Federer work hard. Tomic brought
