The experts used to talk about a big 3, and then a big 4, then maybe a big 5. Those would be Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Juan Martin del Potro. But before there was a big 5, the big 3 used to be Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Nikolay Davydenko.
Doha had, for the most part, its dream semifinals. On the one side was Rafa Nadal playing 5th seed, Viktor Troicki. This was an easy match for Rafa, winning comfortably, 6-1, 6-3. The other side pitted the number 1 and 3 seed, Roger Federer against Nikolay Davydenko. At one point, Federer simply owned Davydenko. He
Andre Agassi once said that before him, there were players that could hit hard, and players that could hit on the rise, but none that could do both. Clearly, his short-term memory forgot about Jimmy Connors, but we forgive you, Andre. It was, however, Jimmy Connors' rival, Bjorn Bjorg, then the father of modern power
If you were to look at the post-US Open record, you'd point to 2 maybe 3 players that looked like they were doing pretty well, at least, enough to contend for the year-end title. You'd pick Djokovic, because he won Basel and Paris. You'd look at Murray, since he won Valencia. And you'd look at
If you were to ask a tennis aficionado who would be in the semifinals, few would tell you: Federer, Davydenko, Soderling, del Potro. Perhaps you might guess Federer and del Potro, but to think the very hot Novak Djokovic and the nearly hot Andy Murray would not be contending would be a surprise. Indeed, both
Group B was full of surprises. Robin Soderling was the 9th ranked player in points for the ATP World Tour Finals and only made it in because Andy Roddick was still injured and not ready to play. He made the most of his opportunity by winning over Nadal and Djokovic in straight sets. The straight
At this point, Rafael Nadal's record is 0-2. You would think, with such a deficit, that he was "eliminated" from semifinal consideration. But it's not that simple. He is eliminated, yes, but there is a scenario where this would not be as obvious. Let's imagine the following scenario. Nadal beats Djokovic in straight sets. Soderling
In tennis, a lucky loser is a player who loses in qualifying, but still makes the main draw because a player in the main draw has pulled out prior to the start of the tournament. Usually, the lucky loser is the highest ranked player that lost in the last round of qualifying. Robin Soderling doesn't
Last night, Nikolay Davydenko faced Novak Djokovic once again. The last time these two met, they played three sets in Shanghai in the semifinals with Davydenko taking control of the tiebreak and the winning the tournament over Rafael Nadal. The two met again, and they went three sets once more except this time, Novak Djokovic
Each day, two matches are being played among the world's best male singles players. This is the ATP World Tour Finals, formerly, the Masters Cup, formerly the Masters. On Day 1, Roger Federer showed that he could still hit a ball, and took Verdasco down in three sets, including a lopsided 6-1 third set. The
