At 6-5, Nadal had just hit a winner down-the-line when he looked like he was in pain. He received medical attention and was able to complete the match with a victory. After an MRI, Nadal has said the foot is not broken as he had initially feared. He planned to practice today and be ready
Now that we're through "Manic Monday", the day where all fourth round matches are played, we're getting to the business end of this Slam. Let's look at the matchups. Nadal vs. Fish Tomas Berdych was the expected seed, but despite not having dropped a set, Berdych's place has gone down since Wimbledon. Berdych clings to
The Federer generation's first success didn't start with Federer. It started with Marat Safin. The Federer generation includes Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, and Roger Federer. Excluding Roger Federer, this group has won 6 Slams (Safin and Hewitt with 2 each, Ferrero and Roddick with 1 each). The key
The best times to catch Rafa napping in his game is early on. Roger Federer knew this when he nearly won the first set off of Rafa in the finals of the French Open. The problem? It usually takes Rafa only half a set or so before his strokes are back in groove. This happened
Nadal is the kind of player that generally doesn't play two bad matches in a row. It happened at Wimbledon last year when he was taken to five sets by unheralded Robin Haase and Philipp Petzschner. But it rarely happens on clay. Indeed, Nadal had never been taken to five sets at the French Open
Perhaps one player Roger Federer didn't want to see in the first round was Feliciano Lopez. Lopez pushed Federer to 3 tiebreaks in Madrid to win. Federer did have a break opportunity to take it in straight sets. Despite this, I figured Federer would feel more confident playing Lopez and not be as vulnerable to
It's an all-American affair just as we knew it would be. OK, so we didn't expect this final at all. Oh, the Nadal-Djokovic final? That we did expect. I'm talking doubles. The top seed were, as usual, the Bryan brothers. However, they were eliminated by another American duo: Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick. The team
Sometimes tennis fans forget there are over 1000, nearly 2000 tennis pros. For many, if there's 2 digits in your rank, then you're not worth paying attention to. Many players with 3 digits to their names are living the dream, playing the pro tour, knowing full well they can't be a Slam winner. They hope
Andy Roddick gets plenty of criticism. Americans, after all, have been spoiled by the success of Americans. In the 1970s, there was Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe. Then, it was Jimmy Connors, then John McEnroe. Just when Americans were fretting that there was no one to replace these two icons. American tennis reached its zenith
Didn't expect this. Robin Soderling didn't have a particularly good Indian Wells. He lost to Phillipp Kohlschreiber in the 3rd round. This was one indication that Soderling wasn't on top of his game and that del Potro would have a good shot of beating Soderling. Before del Potro was injured, he used to play Soderling
