Djokovic had played somewhat shaky tennis in his first two rounds, beating Davydenko when Davydenko had 2 breaks, then a third before giving up the first set then disappearing in the second. Against Cilic, Djokovic again struggled a bit with trying to take control of the match, but did good enough to win. But it
If you were to take a bet as to who would make it deeper, Roger Federer or Stanislas Wawrinka, surely you would have said Roger Federer. Of course, Roger Federer had to play Tsonga, a former top tenner, where Wawrinka played Kevin Anderson who is hoping to be in the top ten. Roger Federer was
Sometimes you need a perfect storm to beat Rafael Nadal. Nadal had taken a few weeks off after Wimbledon, skipping the Davis Cup tie against the US to rest, recover, and figure out what he might do against the new number one, Novak Djokovic. Nadal often comes back a little rusty when he takes a
Ah, Ernests, Ernests, Ernests. You've been a fan favorite for years now. Everyone sees you're clearly talented. A year ago, you looked like you were going to break through. You won Delray Beach over Ivo Karlovic. You upset Roger Federer. You took a set off Rafa Nadal. Everyone thought, finally--finally, you were going to be
Last year, Fish followed up a Newport win with an Atlanta win and this began his steady progress to eventually reach the top ten for the first time in his career. This year, John Isner, who was the Atlanta finalist last year, hoped to do the same. While Fish was playing Davis Cup this year,
Unless you happen to live in the West Coast of the US, you are likely in the middle of an American heat wave (apologies to non-Americans reading this). Temperatures are topping 100 (high 30s in C) in many locations. And in the middle of this heat wave, Atlanta is running a tournament. This is the
David Ferrer isn't number 6 in the world for nothing. He can play clay. He can play hard courts. One might argue his hard court results are better than his clay results. Mardy Fish was hoping to beat Ferrer as he did earlier in the year in Miami which he did relatively easily. It would
Andy Roddick had skipped some Davis Cup last year. Perhaps there was some antagonism with Patrick McEnroe that wasn't made public. In any case, Jim Courier was made captain, and Roddick came back to the fold. With Roddick and Fish both being in the top ten and both willing to play Davis Cup, it was
Perhaps it was the fact that Lopez had never beaten Murray. Maybe it was that 5-setter against Lukasz Kubot that wore Lopez down. Maybe Murray had more tools or was more up to play a player the caliber of Lopez, but he's had the easiest semi of any of the "big 4". Murray won over
