Much like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal won a match that wasn't nearly as clean as it could be, but it's certainly an advantage in the US Open to play someone ranked a bit lower. Golubev is a big hitter, evidenced by nearly 60 unforced errors to Nadal's paltry 16 errors. Golubev broke Nadal's serve six
It can be a little deceptive to use a player's form heading into the US Open as a prediction of how the US Open will turn out. Let's take a look at last year's US Open and how various players did leading up to that point. Recall Roger Federer reached the finals of Toronto and
It may have been prophetic. Novak Djokovic was playing a match against Tomas Berdych. Berdych has secured a break in the middle of the first set on the heels of an amazing point. Although Berdych held to lead 5-3, it would be the last game he would win. Four games later, Novak Djokovic claimed the
And then there was four. At the beginning of the tournament, there was some hope that the top four seeds might make it to the semifinals. Such occurrences are rare enough. There were question marks hanging over the heads of 3 of the top 4 players who lost early in Montreal. With the loss of
Infuriating. David Ferrer is number 6 in the world and the best short man in the game. He plays a form of Nadal-lite. He lacks Nadal's heavy strokes or his raw athleticism, but when he plays well, he can pressure you and beat players much bigger than him. And yet Gilles Simon is one infuriating
Few expected Djokovic to lose to Ryan Harrison. Djokovic possesses the better backhand. He's steadier. He can handle Harrison's power. But, you never know. Sometimes you come out and aren't ready to play from point one. Harrison came out more eager, challenged a first serve by Djokovic early, and got a break through a combination
Ivan Ljubicic must know how Mardy Fish feels. Three times Ljubicic reached a Masters finals, and three times he came up second. To be fair, Ljubicic played opponents like Federer and Nadal. Then, in 2010, Ljubicic had the tournament of his life in Indian Wells. He beat Nadal. He beat Djokovic. And in the finals,
Wimbledon is a good time to take the temperature of tennis. It's about halfway through the tennis season, but because tennis is played mostly in the northern hemisphere and played mostly outdoors, it must usually be played in summertime or certainly late spring lest we subject our pros to cold and we prefer to subject
Djokovic had played somewhat shaky tennis in his first two rounds, beating Davydenko when Davydenko had 2 breaks, then a third before giving up the first set then disappearing in the second. Against Cilic, Djokovic again struggled a bit with trying to take control of the match, but did good enough to win. But it
