Sam Querrey was wondering what was going on. He was down a break in the first, and almost down a double break to his good buddy and doubles partner, John Isner. He hadn't so much whiffed a break point on Isner's serve. Then, Querrey was a break down in the second set to his doubles
Novak Djokovic's allergies (really--allergies?) has been a bonus for a number of players, most notably, Filip Krajinovic, also a Serb, who reached his first ATP semi against Sam Querrey. Because of Djokovic's retirement in the quarterfinals, and because Isner upset Wawrinka, the stage was set for something rather unusual. An All-American final on clay. Krajinovic,
The match should have been played earlier, but due to the weather, it was delayed til past 5 PM, the rain creating heavy conditions. Roger Federer was looking to right the ship. He had not played well since Australia. A loss to Marcos Baghdatis at Indian Wells. A loss to Tomas Berdych at Miami. Then,
Federer appears to schedule a tournament like Estoril so he can build confidence playing decidedly weaker players. It may be the only tournament of the year Federer enters with a draw this weak. Federer played Doha, which is an ATP 250 event, but it typically draws stellar fields, such as Nadal and Davydenko, and, in
It still helps to have a big serve, even on clay. John Isner had a relatively routine win, 6-2, 6-4. Ouanna had a chance to break back at 4-2 down, but was unable to break. Isner had a chance for a double break, but didn't convert. Ouanna had a hard time returning serve which makes
The clay court season starts with Monte Carlo and culminates at Madrid. Technically, there's one more clay tournament (in Nice, France) prior to the French, but the likelihood is no top seeds will play that tournament. There are three Masters 1000 (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid) with Monte Carlo considered an optional tournament (the other
It's been a while since Italians had a top male player. Back in the golden age of pro tennis, in the mid 1970s, the Foro Italico, site of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, once called the Italian Open, was a raucous arena filled with rowdy Italians. Whistles could sometimes lead to throwing of coins. Such was
Perhaps the most anticipated of the first round match, if you can call a first round "anticipated", was a first round match between Ernests Gulbis and Marcos Baghdatis. For most players, even players that play in the main draw of a Masters 1000 event, winning a title, possibly 2 in a year, is considered a
Miami marks the end of the first part of a 3 part hard court season. The second part occurs just after Wimbledon and is the US Open Series, and the third part is after the US Open which is a combination of hard courts and indoor tournaments (I wish it were all indoors, but apparently,
The seeds, they keep a falling. It was already something of a miracle that Djokovic got this far. After watching his game spiral out of control in the second set in the previous around against Philipp Kohlschreiber, Djokovic had to scrap to fight off match points, get a break of serve back and eventually win
