Are we surprised anymore? Djokovic seems like he's taking the route of fellow Serbians, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Both Ivanovic and Jankovic were number 1 briefly. Djokovic has never reached number 1, but he recently became number 2 at the Australian Open. Djokovic was close enough to Rafael Nadal in rankings that when Rafa
For a set, Novak Djokovic was cruising against Philipp Kohlschreiber, up 6-3, with Kohlschreiber making errors. But then, his game left him. He couldn't get his serves in. He was spraying shot. And suddenly he lost the second set, 6-2, and then was down 3-0 in the third with a point to be down two
Today was the first day that the seeds played. There were few upsets on the day, but the most notable one was Marin Cilic losing tamely to Garcia-Lopez, 7-6(1), 6-0. Yes, he was bageled in the second set. Gilles Simon was the other seed that feel, losing to qualifier Brian Dabul of Argentina. Simon had
On paper, the US had a slim shot at winning this tie, played in Belgrade on an indoor clay court. Clay has always been the weakest surface. Looking back at recent history, perhaps Andre Agassi was the best American clay courter? Or perhaps Jim Courier? Both would say hard courts suited their power games better.
Juan Carlos Ferrero is a contemporary of Roger Federer. He won his only Slam in 2002 at the French Open, and his best years were from 2000 to 2003, especially at the French where he reached the semis twice, the finals, then won the French. In 2003, Ferrero reached the finals of the US Open
If this were a political thing, perhaps there would be more antagonism between Novak Djokovic, a Serb, and Ivan Ljubicic, a Croatian. But each player has their own drama, independent of which country they play for. In particular, Novak Djokovic, who came from nowhere in 2007 to be a solid number 3, and entered Dubai
Hardcourt tournaments are so prevalent that there are three distinct hardcourt "seasons". The first starts at the beginning of the year and lasts until just before the start of the clay season. It culminates in Indian Wells and Miami. The second starts two weeks after Wimbledon and is the US Open series. The third pretty
Ah, the rankings. How did Rafael Nadal go from number 4 to number 3 without playing? Last we say, Nadal was retiring from his quarterfinal encounter with Andy Murray at the Australian Open. As the defending champion, Nadal lost a ton of points when his results from last year fell off. For those who don't
With Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, last year's finalists, not playing, there were hopes that the top two seeds might meet each other once again, namely, Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic. So tournament organizers probably cringed a bit when neither made the final. If there's a player that Davydenko doesn't like playing, it must be
Here's a trivia question. Who is the number 2 player in the world? Unless you're an avid tennis fan, you probably wouldn't have picked Novak Djokovic. Unless you're an avid fan, you'll scratch your head wondering how Djokovic became number 2. It goes something like this. What's the last tournament Nadal won? You have to
