It's probably been a few years since Andy Roddick had a serious shot at winning a Slam. Roddick's always done well when he starts with a new coach, and then the relationship stales. It happened with Gilbert, Connors, even briefly with Patrick McEnroe, and Larry Stefanki. A few months after working with Stefanki, Roddick made
Sometimes a good head-to-head is all you need to feel good about your chances. Hewitt lead Soderling 3-1. However, 2 of the wins were in 2004 when Soderling was starting on tour and Hewitt was still closer to the top of his game. They didn't play again until 2009 when Hewitt won in Cincy in
You would think the second ranked player in the world would get more love at Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic, however, is getting less press partly because his streak, which was the big conversation heading into the French Open, is over. With Federer's defeat of Djokovic and his proficiency on grass, Federer and Nadal are again the
The top seeds continue to roll. Nadal has played Ryan Sweeting twice this year, once at the Australian Open and once at Indian Wells, winning both handily. He lost 4 games in both. Surely, he had to feel pretty confident playing Sweeting. Although Sweeting did win a few more games, he still lost handily in
Before we talk about Federer, let's review the late matches yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, it began to rain and this cancelled all play except Centre Court which has, surprise, a roof! When the roof was ready to go in Wimbledon 2009, there was very little rain. Andy Murray played a 5-setter against Stan Wawrinka, and was
The gap between the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon is a slender two weeks. John McEnroe said surely Rafa would not choose to play Queen's two days later where he had committed to play doubles with his sometimes doubles partner, Marc Lopez. But, indeed, Rafa did go. Novak Djokovic, however,
Yesterday, Djokovic seemed a bit edgy. It was getting dark. del Potro was clocking the ball. Djokovic's timing seemed a hair off, and he was spraying balls just fractionally wide. Would the former top tenner take his biggest victory and the streak stop? Djokovic must have wondered how del Potro, a man who pretty much
As the hour headed to about 7 PM, there was a battle brewing on Court Philippe Chatrier. The ESPN announcers astutely observed that if Tsonga didn't win the match in straight sets, he would lose in 5 sets. The reason? Stamina. Tsonga, like his countryman Monfils, is susceptible to injury. When you're injured, it can
Before I talk about today's early results, I want to talk about yesterday's results. Tennis really needs a better way to report its scores. Scores are fine, but they really don't tell you the story. I'll give you three examples from yesterday, two from women's matches. Maria Sharapova is down 6-3, 4-1 down, double-break. It
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
