Doha These four players have nearly met before. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Gael Monfils were all at the Abu Dhabi exhibition last week. However, Djokovic beat Monfils and Ferrer beat Tsonga, so the two Frenchman never played Federer or Nadal. This time, Federer will face his nemesis in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat
After struggling initially with Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round, Rafael Nadal found things considerably easier with Denis Gremelmayr in the second round. Gremelmayr had to hit winners from all over the place just to hold what few serves he had, but he couldn't do it enough to bother Nadal as Nadal tightened up his
The five weeks between London and the start of the year go by quick, don't they? They coincide with holidays and other sporting events. Most players trained about 3 weeks. The news was that Nadal, due to an injury, had to rest and didn't get a full workout. Of course, he's still very good and
It's always struck me as peculiar how that period just after the year-end championship seems to lead to quicker healing than any other time of the year. Djokovic took 5 weeks off, but still looked flat, bothered by shoulder issues and lost in the semis of Basel, retired in Paris, and didn't get past the
The tennis season is among the longest in all of sports lasting from January to late November. To be sure, unlike organized sports in the US which commits to a solid schedule, tennis players are free to schedule, within some constraints, when they want to play. No top pro, for instance, plays four weeks in
Heading into 2011, the thought was "Rafa and Roger are back". Roger had just beaten Rafa in the finals at London and "experts" were ready to pronounce Federer fit to win Slams once again. Murray and Djokovic were expected to be the bridesmaids once again, their game not ready to topple the very best. Only,
Much like Roger Federer, who has often bowed out from playing Davis Cup because of the additional demands it places on his schedule, Rafael Nadal informed the media that he would not play Davis Cup in 2012. 2012 is an Olympic year and Nadal wants to focus on defending the Olympic gold that he won
The last time these Argentina and Spain faced each other was in the finals of 2008 in Argentina. The Argentinians had to be feeling good. They played on a hardcourt instead of clay because they had no idea whether Nadal would play or not. Then Nadal didn't play, so Argentina was hoping to pull a
Who knew? Roger Federer was right, after all. Before the tournament, he said that any of the top eight players had a chance to win the title. No one took this seriously. After all, only the top four players had won every Masters 1000 title. Fish was perhaps injured. Ferrer had lost all 3 round
It was unclear, heading into London how Nadal was going to fare. Much like last year, Nadal had a somewhat indifferent fall losing to Murray in the final of Tokyo and to Mayer in Shanghai. Nadal opted, for the second year in a row, to not play Paris and prep for the year-end championship by
