There are some who believe that Andy Murray shouldn't have gotten credit for the US Open because it was played in windy conditions and Djokovic performed worse in the wind than Murray. But Murray's made a good point about why he's lost so many times in Slams. Consider Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer. Nadal's first title
The odds-on favorite to win London has to be Novak Djokovic. Unlike last year, where the brutal final between him and Nadal resulted in Djokovic getting hurt, and then not having much to give the rest of the year, Djokovic has been a lot fresher. Perhaps the sting of not winning any Olympic medal or
The year-end championship has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Initially, it was a round-robin event, but back in 1981, there was some gamesmanship by Ivan Lendl. Bjorn Borg had won enough in his group to qualify for the semifinals, so he took some strategic losses. This left the unheralded Gene Mayer
Male players had been clamoring for a longer off-season. The women just had their championship conclude the past week, so they are, for the most part, done (oddly enough, they run additional tournaments after the year-end championship). The ATP has to placate many tournament organizers who like hosting a world-class event. While tennis pundits (looking
Novak Djokovic opened up his second round (he had a first round) ready for Halloween. He dressed up in a Darth Vader mask, perhaps aware that Disney had spent billions acquiring the Star Wars franchise, or maybe it was just coincidence. He stepped on court knowing that he would end the year at number 1
The last few years, Novak Djokovic has challenged Federer at his home tournament in Basel. This year, he opted not to play. Let's see how this impacts Federer's chances at number 1. Currently, Federer has 12165 points to Djokovic's 11970 points for 195 point lead. However, Djokovic played last year and reached the semis. This
After this match, you have to say Djokovic and Murray are the two best returners in the sport. In the first set alone, of 5 games Djokovic won, 3 were breaks of serve and two were holds. Murray won 4 breaks of serve and held 3 times. Both served under 60% first serve and were
In many ways, this final has similarities to the US Open final minus the wind. Novak Djokovic strolled to the finals without struggling too badly. Given his form heading into the finals, he was favored over Murray who had yet to win his first Slam and had struggled in several of his matches--matches that went
Shanghai is one of Murray's favorite tournaments. He won the event in 2010 and again last year in 2011. He's rarely dropped sets in this tournament (one prior to this against Stan Wawrinka last year, but this year, Radek Stepanek took a set off Murray, and had him on the ropes. Stepanek is a clever
One motivation for Federer to play Shanghai, regardless of whether he ends up at number 1 at the end of the year, was to extend his streak of weeks at number 1. Currently, Federer leads Djokovic by 835 points. If Djokovic wins Shanghai, an event he skipped last year, he would pick up 1000 points.
