Rewind the clock back to 2001, in the fourth round of Wimbledon, and you may recall a match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. By today's standards, it was a strange match. Both men served and volleyed extensively. Pete did so because his body couldn't take the pounding of playing at the baseline for any
With a bug going around at Indian Wells, players are trying to stay healthy. Federer apparently has some combination of a cold and flu, but it didn't affect the results against rising talent, Denis Kudla, who he beat 64 61. Kudla is a contemporary of Jack Sock (the two played as juniors). This was his
This time, del Potro kept the match close. In Rotterdam, Federer got out to a fast lead then had to hold in the second set to beat the resurgent Argentine. In the semis, del Potro kept toe-to-toe with Federer. Fed was actually doing a much better job of holding his serve, nary seeing a break
The fourth seed at Dubai is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and newly ranked number 5, ahead of David Ferrer. With his upsets over Federer in 2011, everyone said Tsonga was going to be in the top 4, and of course, replace Andy Murray, since the top 3 seemed pretty solid. This, despite the fact that Juan Martin
One wonders whether Djokovic will have a 2012 like he did in 2011. It almost didn't seem that way after an indifferent match against Russian, Sergiy Stakhovsky, who took a minibreak lead twice in the first set tiebreak, but gave up minibreaks as well to lose the first set. Stakhovsky went up an early break
2010 was a good year for Jurgen Melzer. A contemporary of Roger Federer, Melzer had stuck in the top 40 for many years, but when it came to Slams, Melzer just didn't do well. Melzer played his first Slam in 2000, but until 2010, Melzer had never even made it to the fourth round of
Roger Federer hasn't played Rotterdam in years. It's not entirely clear why he chose to play this year so soon after the Davis Cup tie, but perhaps getting some ATP points is something he has planned. He has won the title, way back in 2005 and that was the last time Federer played the tournament.
Juan Martin del Potro had it all. He beat Nadal in three easy sets in 2009 in the US Open semifinals. Then, he took down Federer in five sets in the finals to be the only player outside of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer to win a Slam since 2005. Six years of Slams have only
There was a question whether Tomic could play Federer the way he played Dolgopolov or even Querrey and Verdasco. That is, hit off-pace shots and hope to befuddle Federer. The thought was perhaps he couldn't and would have to up the pace. Tomic felt confident he could take the match to Federer, but he still
John Isner knows how to fight. There are clearly limitations to his game. He doesn't cover ground very well. He looks tired when matches run long. But he relies on his serve to bail him out of danger spots. Nalbandian took the first set 64, then there was a big exchange of breaks in the
