Once called the Italian Open, Rome now has a rather ponderous name: Internationalzi BNL d'Italia, which makes sense except BNL. Once, it was a challenge to get top players to play the clay circuit. Players like Connors and McEnroe often skipped right to the French, unwilling to take their lumps playing grueling points that weren't
For those of you who doubted Nadal was back, he's back with a vengeance. Verdasco started off nervous, then had few answers for Nadal. Everytime he'd come back and tie things up, Nadal would win another point, get another break. Nadal wins over Verdasco, 6-0, 6-1. The question is how his form will hold up
I was perusing a website that was making predictions about the Monte Carlo semifinals which pitted Novak Djokovic against Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal against David Ferrer. The thinking went something like this. Given that Nadal had easily mowed through his first two rounds, dropping one game each, and given that he dropped 6 games
Rafael Nadal showed that he's still master of clay dispatching fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer, 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals of Monte Carlo. He will face fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco in the finals. Verdasco had a surprisingly easy match over number 1 seed and number 2 ranked player, Novak Djokovic, winning 6-2, 6-2 showing Djokovic has
Although the event is held in mostly French-speaking Monte Carlo, the tournament has taken on a Spanish flair. Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero met in the quarterfinals. Nadal finally got something more than a token challenge against Ferrero, but still won rather handily, 6-4, 6-2. David Ferrer edged Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 7-6(1). The
Today marks 3rd round action in Monte Carlo and the Spaniards are having a great day. Rafael Nadal, despite his prowess on clay, has apparently never double-bageled an opponent. He came close to doing this in his route over German, Michael Berrer, up 6-0, 4-0 in less than an hour. Berrer managed to win a
Last year, Andy Murray might have felt he was making progress on clay. Always his weakest surface since turning pro, Murray's problems were compounded this year by his loss in the finals of the Australian Open. While his straight set drubbing by Federer was not entirely unexpected, what was unexpected was how the loss affected
Today was a mix of first and second round action. In first round action, Victor Hanescu must be tired of seeing Stanislas Wawrinka. The two met in Casablanca last week with Wawrinka winning the title. Then, they meet in the first round of Monte Carlo. Wawrinka wins 6-2, 6-4 again. Horacio Zeballos was also deep
Monte Carlo is the first Masters 1000 tournament on clay. Several players are either injured or have elected not to play. Specifically Roger Federer (skipping), Juan Martin del Potro (injured), Nikolay Davydenko (injured), Andy Roddick (skipping). Indeed, no Americans appear to be in the draw. All the seeds moved on. Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded 9th,
Andy Roddick's path to winning a Masters 1000 has been a long. He recently reached the finals of Indian Wells, but lost to Ivan Ljubicic. Roddick won Cincinnati in 2006. All his Masters 1000 titles have been in North America. He beat Tomas Berdych without dropping serve, winning 7-5, 6-4, breaking Berdych once in each
