My thinking was, despite Djokovic's win-streak, Nadal gave him all he could handle in Indian Wells. If Nadal's serve hadn't given out on him, Djokovic's streak might already have ended. To counter Djokovic, Nadal went for big serves and big groundies in the first set and it worked. Djokovic struggled to keep up. But, by
The count is 24 and running. Novak Djokovic is still on his winning streak although the world number 1 gave him all he could handle. This was exactly the kind of match that Djokovic would have had issues with even a year ago. The warm Miami weather. The slow conditions. The humidity. Everything seemed to
There were some records that were going to be broken at some point. On the one hand, Rafa had done very well at Indian Wells in odd years, winning in 2009 and 2007. He had also been 5-0 over Djokovic in finals, a fact that apparently he didn't know this head-to-head result when it was
Federer seemed like he had an answer to his most pressing problem: Novak Djokovic. Down a set, unable to play consistent enough to rattle Djokovic, Federer needed a new idea. Commentators made an analogy between this match and last night's match between Wozniacki and Sharapova between a steady player and a hard hitter. Wozniacki made
del Potro's return back to tour has been nothing short of incredible. But, despite a title win at Delray Beach, del Potro had not beaten a top ten player. He has played two in 2011. He lost to Andy Roddick in Memphis in the semis, and lost to Fernando Verdasco in San Jose. Few expected
If you have to pick one day to visit Indian Wells to watch the men's matches, today is the day. All of the men play today with the culmination of Rafael Nadal playing upstart Somdev Devvarman and Roger Federer playing upstart Ryan Harrison. For those of you who say Ivo Karlovic is all serve, understand
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
Although most people know what a great singles player Rafa Nadal is, few realize that he occasionally plays doubles, and has won doubles titles before, typically with Marc Lopez, who looks like a young Tim Allen. At Indian Wells, 4 of the top 5 players are playing doubles. Federer is teaming up with Stan Wawrinka,
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
Novak Djokovic would point to the Davis Cup final against France as the source of his new-found confidence. Admittedly, Serbia really depended on Victor Troicki to pull in last-minute heroics to take the fifth match. Even so, Djokovic felt great about bringing Serbia its first Davis Cup. With this victory, Djokovic also found his serve.
