Tennis pundits, who make their living writing about tennis, then probably watch more football than tennis, often fret that the best players don't play Davis Cup. They claim the reason is the scheduling which usually starts a week after a Slam (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the US Open, and the year-end championship). Most players that
When Nadal started his ascendancy to the top of tennis, he provided a foil to Roger Federer's tennis. Roger Federer was offense to Nadal's defense. Nadal didn't play pure defense, but if you tried to hit him off the court, he'd come up with an amazing shot to defend. Like a cornered animal, Nadal was
I'll spend time in this article talking about the tactics used in this match as well as observations. Much like the US Open, which was played in windy conditions, Andy Murray decided to play a lot of balls up the middle slightly to the Djokovic backhand. At the US Open, he did this for several
Given how well both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray return, this match started off with no breaks of serve in the first two sets. Djokovic had chances early on with break points on Murray's serve, but Murray withstood the challenge and held serve. In the first set, Djokovic seemed to do better on serve, but
This isn't the final most people had hoped for, but it was the one that many people expected. The question, for most, was whether Roger Federer would be in the finals with Novak Djokovic, or would it be Andy Murray. Now that Murray is the one to face Novak Djokovic, we can ask: can he
Most people figured Novak Djokovic was the man to beat heading into the Australian Open. While Djokovic struggled some during the summer, especially with losses at Wimbledon to Federer in the semis, and to Murray and del Potro in the semis and bronze medal round at the Olympics. But, he regained his form heading into
When you see Almagro in person, you wonder why he hasn't won more. He has a huge serve, that is often competing with Isner and Querrey and Raonic for most aces in a year. He has a big forehand. His backhand, these days, may be the hardest struck one-handed backhand on tour, better than Wawrinka,
Now that week 1 is over, this is a good time to review the top players plus a few more things. Novak Djokovic Through the first three rounds, Djokovic has looked the most solid. His strokes always looks pristine. Admittedly, he played a resurgent Paul-Henri Mathieu who, nonetheless, hasn't worked his ranking up to its
This is the kind of match that the Australian Open epic. Wawrinka has been around 20s his entire career peaking briefly in the top 10. With all players coming back from training, it's time for players in that next tier to make that push. When the draw came out, everyone looked at Murray on Federer's
They call them: the "big 4": Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. These four have dominated Slam titles for half a decade with only one interruption: the 2009 US Open won by Juan Martin del Potro. Had del Potro not been injured and required surgery in 2010, maybe there would be a
