Most of the times, Davis Cup captains don't have much work to do. Most of the work is convincing the top players to play, and then you play them. Rarely does a team have options that it might ponder. For example, if Switzerland could ever convince Roger Federer to play for Davis Cup again, he'd
The last two years, Roger Federer didn't have a spectacular post US Open. One year, he didn't make the semis, and this past year, Davydenko upset him in the semifinals. Roger Federer, however, knows better than anyone, the value of the ATP World Tour Finals. Even if a sizable tennis audience ignores tennis after the
Last year, Rafael Nadal had a "beautiful disaster" losing all three of his round robin matches with nary a set. This year, he was able to turn it around. He came into today's match with a 2-0 lead and playing Tomas Berdych, the man who he beat to win this year's Wimbledon. Berdych's style seems
Let's start with the top seed and work our way down. Rafael Nadal Rafa's level generally never drops too low. Everyone points to how he never gives up, and while that's certainly one factor in his incredible ability to win, everyone says that about Lleyton Hewitt, and he's struggling to get in the top 20.
Generally speaking, when Nadal takes some time off, he's serious about winning a tournament. Until 2010, these were the list of big achievements (in single events), he had yet to achieve: win the US Open (he hadn't even made the finals) and win the year-end championship (he had never been to the finals there). Having
Today, Group A played. Djokovic came into finals playing good tennis. Meanwhile, Tomas Berdych playing the inconsistent tennis that marked his recent years of play. Much was hoped for when he reached the semis of the French and the finals of Wimbledon, but instead, Berdych backpedalled and went back to losing to whomever, showing the
Today, most of the top 16 seeds played, and 12 of the top 13 seeds advanced. The toughest match for a seed that won was probably Andy Murray's win over David Nalbandian. The two last met at Toronto when Nalbandian was particularly hot. Since then, Nalbandian has not played as well. Even so, Murray dropped
Roger Federer has a sense of history, doesn't he? He chose to play Stockholm, a tournament he hasn't played since 2000, because he knew it would be a relatively easy draw. He could always point to Peter Lundgren, one of his earliest coaches, who was from Sweden as one reason he played the tournament. Winning
Let's start in Basel. Roger Federer is a five-time finalist at Basel. He reached the finals back in 2000 and 2001 before he became the Roger Federer. He also won the title three times in a row starting in 2006. However, last year, in 2009, Djokovic decided to play on Roger's home tournament. In a
The semifinals are set for Basel and Valencia. Basel is Federer's home tournament, no doubt one reason it is an ATP 500 event. Fortunately for tournament organizers, Federer is still in the tournament. The semifinals include Roger Federer playing Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic playing Victor Troicki. Let's took at the top of the draw.
