Although most people know what a great singles player Rafa Nadal is, few realize that he occasionally plays doubles, and has won doubles titles before, typically with Marc Lopez, who looks like a young Tim Allen. At Indian Wells, 4 of the top 5 players are playing doubles. Federer is teaming up with Stan Wawrinka,
Now there's a name we haven't heard in a while. James Blake was once a top ten player, someone who came back from scoliosis (affecting his spine) where had to wear a back brace for most of a day, then from shingles and the death of his father. His ranking has since dropped, and he
Last year, the US lost in the first round to Serbia at Serbia. Losers of the first round in Davis Cup must qualify to stay in the World group, so later in the year, US had to go down to Colombia to play on clay. Mardy Fish pulled the rare triple, winning both his singles
Everyone loves to do it, but it really doesn't make sense. Back in December, people were asked "make predictions who will win the Slams in 2011". You never know which player will come out of nowhere to make an impression. If you were to ask, at the end of 2008, who would win the Slams
Andy Murray had only played Alexandr Dolgopolov once, nearly 4 years ago, in a clay court in a Davis Cup match. Murray won this against a very young Dolgopolov. He expected a far different match from the one he had played so many years ago. Dolgopolov has a reputation for being a tricky player to
The road through up-and-comer success goes through David Ferrer and he's not letting anyone pass. In the third round, he beat Richard Berankis in a thumping. Then, he needed 4 sets to beat Milos Raonic of Canada. Raonic was able to use his power serve and groundies and good approaches to the net to take
For a guy ranked nearly 200, Bernard Tomic is fairly well-known. Still only 18, Tomic has both excited and exasperated his Aussie fanbase. For a guy as tall as Tomic (6'4", possibly taller), he has a versatile game that some compare to Andy Murray. Tomic can slice off both sides, and often does. His slices
2010 seemed like just another Rafa-Roger year, and in a way, it was. The top two players in the world have dominated proceedings for so long, one forgets that the competition was hardly at its best. Let's take a look back. Karlovic was injured for half the year. Tsonga was pretty much gone after Wimbledon.
Sometimes, during a Slam, you'll see seeds do really well on the first day, then seeds struggle on the second day. Federer and Djokovic had an easy day, so clearly Murray, Nadal, and Soderling had to show them up. And they did. Both Murray and Nadal's opponents retired. Nadal was up 6-0, 5-0 when his
Last year, at this time, Nikolay Davydenko was coming off a great end of 2009 and looking to continue his winning ways in 2010. He had been on a hot streak, winning Kuala Lumpur, winning in Shanghai over Djokovic and Nadal, and winning the year-end championship beating Nadal, Federer, and del Potro, the three Slam
