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,
When Pete Sampras was working through the juniors, he switched to a one-handed backhand. This lead to a lot of losses, but he stayed positive, and obviously, his pro career speaks volume about that change. However, as a junior, he lost frequently to Michael Chang. Somehow, Chang had this psychological edge over Sampras and it
Roger Federer struggled with his contemporaries before he became the dominant player that broke Sampras's record. Nalbandian, Hewitt, and Safin. Since then, Safin retired while Nalbandian and Hewitt struggle to stay relevant. Federer rarely has trouble playing players his age or older. And there are players in that age range that are pretty good, whether
For some reason, Andreev gives Federer trouble. Apparently, Andreev trains a fair bit with David Ferrer, and his team has said that Andreev's game is huge in practice. He almost never misses, and he has a huge forehand. But there's practice and there's real matches. Federer didn't look bad, by any means. He's playing his
The match had been nip and tuck the whole way. Raonic had a chance to win the first set, but played a sloppy point, and let Roddick take the first tiebreak. Then, Roddick took an early break in the second set, and it seemed Raonic's spirits was dashed. But, no, he broke back, and eventually
Oh, I had to do it. This is what happens when you have a name that ends in a word in the dictionary. Milos Raonic was, once again, in the semifinals of a tournament. He already had two solid wins. He beat Verdasco for the second time in consecutive tournaments in the opening round at
Perhaps Verdasco could have been forgiven for a loss to upstart Milos Raonic who made a splash with a fourth round appearance in the Australian Open as a qualifier. He had never played him before, and lost playing great service games, but was unable to win the tiebreaks, despite a 6-2 lead in the first
This one ended with a fan screaming during the serve causing Verdasco to miss the return. Even so, Raonic raised his hands in victory. Few people knew who Raonic was until the Aussie Open when he qualified then took an improbably trip to the fourth round only to lose to veteran, David Ferrer. It was
Robin Soderling, ranked number 4 in the world, reached that rank by playing consistently well in Slams and Masters 1000 events. He hasn't, however, won that many tournaments. Last year, he won Rotterdam (over Youzhny) and he won Paris. That was it. This year, barely a month into the new year, Soderling has won two
This is a bit of a surprise. del Potro already in the semifinals! Although Lleyton Hewitt is not quite the number 1 player he was a decade ago, he is still a guy that fights. But the one part of del Potro's game that contributed to his rise to the top 5 is also the
