Well, you have to realize that the Isner-Mahut match was something of a perfect storm. A big server facing a guy (Mahut) that couldn't see his serve, first or second. Isner was able to hold serve mostly because nearly every big serve wasn't coming back. That lead to many games with easy enough holds. Similarly,
Roger Federer is rarely pushed to 5 sets in a first round match in a major. Indeed, he's rarely pushed to a fourth set in a first round match. You can thank seeding for that. The top 32 seeds usually consist of the top 40 players in the world minus a few who don't make
Secretly, Wimbledon must have been happy with this match. Due to Federer's five-setter, Djokovic's matches got a late start. This meant Wimbledon got a chance to roll the roof over the five setter that Novak Djokovic found himself in, and on the longest day of the year, have the longest day at Wimbledon, courtesy of
Wimbledon is such a different surface that it can be difficult to predict upsets. The top seeds tend to move on, but the lower seeds, who knows? Let's look at some results that concluded. Nikolay Davydenko had to withdraw from Indian Wells after the first round due to a fractured wrist. What was originally predicted
Once, the Australians dominated amateur tennis, in the days before Open tennis, and even in the early years of Open tennis. Then, 3 of the 4 Slams were played on grass, the lone exception being the French, always played on the terre battue. If you were an exceptional grass court player, you could dominate most
During his interviews, Djokovic would say that he played 3 good sets and not to worry about the silly set that he dropped. Throughout the tournament, Djokovic had a pretty easy draw. Expected to play Ferrer or possibly Roddick, Djokovic must have thought he had a free ride to the semifinals. Playing the Austrian veteran,
Fans have been anticipating a Federer-Nadal final ever since the French Open started. After all, Nadal had pulled off the "triple" by winning Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid, the first time any player had won three Masters 1000 events on clay. And Federer, who keeps reaching Slam finals. The last time Federer failed to reach
Going into the French Open, you'd give it a toss-up as to who was playing better after Rafael Nadal: David Ferrer or Fernando Verdasco. I mean, sure you could point to Roger Federer, but he only had one good tournament, and two "bad" ones (Estoril and Rome). You wouldn't have expected David Ferrer to struggle
With all the rain that affected play on Wednesday and Thursday, matches were backlogged. Matches that were supposed to be played Thursday were pushed into today. In an effort to catch up, matches that were originally planned for today, i.e. 3rd round matches, were played today. All top 5 seeds play Friday which include Federer,
With two days of play complete, let's look at how the top seeds are faring. Roger Federer Roger Federer had a bit of a tight first set, but then relaxed, and had a very easy first round match. He's playing like he did in Madrid, and that was just too much for Luczak. I think
