What? Not a provocative enough title? Most people were surprised when Nadal came back on tour in South America. Of course, Nadal is king of clay, but they thought, even with a weakened field, that he would struggle some. After all, Juan Martin del Potro took off a comparable amount of time (roughly February of
Before the semifinals started, some were asked who had the better chance for the upset: Richard Gasquet or Stan Wawrinka. Almost unanimously, it was Stan Wawrinka. Of the two, Wawrinka actually had tour wins over Djokovic, admittedly, only two, and admittedly, only early in their career. Gasquet, by contrast, was 0-10 against Nadal dating back
Before we get to the Murray match, let's talk Djokovic. Right now, based on current play, Djokovic and Nadal are the class of the field. Sure, Nadal dropped a set against Kohlschreiber, but at least Kohlschreiber was attempting to dictate play. Even with the German staying close in the first set, Rafa still had a
The weather got muggy on Sunday, and with it, Murray still looked sluggish against his second Mayer in a row. In the second round, he faced Leonardo Mayer, an Argentine with a big serve and big forehand. Florian Mayer is a German, who plays two hands on the volley, and likes to crowd the baseline,
Prior to teaming up with Lendl, Murray would play matches like this. More than any player in the "big 4", he would often let his opponents push him around, while he would retrieve and retrieve, hope to elicit some errors and hit a few winners. Since he's worked with Lendl, Murray has played more aggressively,
Was away at the US Open, so have barely had a chance to report about it. Let's quickly get to the top pros. Rafael Nadal Rafa played on the last match in the day session on Arthur Ashe. His opponent was Ryan Harrison. Harrison's a hard worker with a huge serve, but he has liabilities
Let's summarize Montreal so far. First news, Federer chose to skip this event. He had added Hamburg and Gstaad to his schedule partly to compensate for losing early at Wimbledon, and partly to give himself time to get accustomed to his new, larger racquet. Andy Murray lost early. In a way, no surprise. In 2009
There are different ways to win a match. Some fans like offense. Back when Steffi Graf was dominant, she sometimes had to play Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. Graf brought a new level of power to the women's game. She was fast, had a big serve for the day, and the biggest forehand in the women's game (at
1936. To give a sense of perspective, World War 2 had not started in 1936. Nor had, of course, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Shock and Awe. It's certainly possible that Andy Murray's grandparents weren't alive when the last British male to win Wimbledon won Wimbledon. That man, as Andy Murray is constantly reminded,
The big question entering this match was "How is del Potro's knee?". Twice, in two consecutive matches, del Potro hyper-extended his knee. Twice, he came storming back. Against Zemlja, he won 3 games in a row to close out the third set and a match. Against Ferrer, he dominated the match start to end, despite
