One of the biggest questions about Tomas Berdych is, well, the prounuciation of his last name (though his first name is also a challenge for non-Czechs). It's mostly pronounced Burr-Ditch. Some umpires have said Burr-Dish. There's also, Burr-Dick. Recently, Martina said the correct way to pronounce it was the third way. After checking out a
Many top players have a last hurrah. Kim Clijsters said at the start of the year that she planned to retire at the US Open, so people knew, ahead of time, that this was it for her. No one expected she would lose in the second round to Laura Robson, but so it goes. The
"C'mon, Almagro!" "I'm not well!" Some time between the end of the first set and the start of the second, Nicolas Almagro called for a trainer. His shoulder, which had been giving him problems, perhaps due to the sheer amount of tennis he plays had flared up. Suddenly, it was Federer vs. Malisse, part 2.
Competed over 9 days, the Olympic tennis has half as many participants, but runs in half the time. A full 128 field takes two weeks to complete, another 5 days more. This compressed schedule means three rounds on played on consecutive days, and for half the players, four rounds are played on consecutive days. Every
More European clay results. In Hamburg, top seeded Nicolas Almagro beat Philipp Kohlschreiber, 75 75. Juan Monaco over Jeremy Chardy, 63 75. Marin Cilic over Albert Ramos, 64 76. Wildcard Tommy Haas over Florian Mayer, 61 64. In Gstaad, Switzerland, top seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat Jan Henrych, 61 61. Paul-Henri Mathieu over Ernests Gulbis, 46
You have to give credit to Lleyton Hewitt. For some reason, Federer's generation produced players whose bodies have broken down, most notably, Tommy Haas, but yes, Lleyton Hewitt. Many of his generation's stars play infrequently now or are retired: Hewitt, Haas, Ferrero, Nalbandian. Some of his generation continue to plod along working in the top
Newport is the only remaining ATP grass court event that's held in the United States. Once upon a time, the tour primarily consisted of grass, but grass is expensive to maintain, and unlike clay, it needs to be grown and maintained. Unlike golf, this grass is on a small area, so scuffs can be problematic.
Today, 3 of the 4 quarterfinalists were Spaniards. On the one hand, there was Rafael Nadal against Nicolas Almagro. Almagro's a hard hitter, but Rafa's battled with hard hitters and does a great job moving his opponents around. Add to that, he's never beaten Rafa. Rafa's played and beaten many a hard hitter including Berdych,
Tennis has had its share of fairy tales, players that come out of nowhere to win a title. Usually, these players are young, like Mats Wilander who claimed his first title at Roland Garros when he was 17, or Boris Becker claiming his second title at Wimbledon in 1985 after capturing his first at Queen's
Of the top four, Nadal has looked the most solid. In three matches, he has not dropped a set, and most of the wins have been comfortable. Dolgopolov was expected to be a tough guy to play. With his change of pace and big forehand, Dolgopolov troubles many opponents. But he produced too many errors
