Ernests Gulbis entered this match with a 13 match win streak over two tournaments including qualies in both rounds. He felt confident he could play with Rafa despite Rafa being able to claim 2 titles and 1 final on the "golden swing". That was clay, however, and this is hard courts. Here, Rafa is more
Before we get to Federer, let's hit some of the upsets of the day. The biggest upset of the day was David Ferrer losing to Kevin Anderson, 36 64 63. Ferrer had chances to break in the second set, but didn't while Anderson did break. The match was a combination of Anderson being aggressive off
While all attention was paid to Vina del Mar, and Nadal's shock upset, there were two other tournament finals being played, mostly without much fanfare. In Zagreb, Marin Cilic returned to his winning ways defeating Jurgen Melzer 63 61. Both men had tougher semifinals than finals. In Lyon, Richard Gasquet beat Benoit Paire in an
The scores look nearly the same. Federer beat Tomic in the third round, 64 76 61. He beat Raonic today 64 76 62. And yet, the impression from watching both matches was completely different. Despite the thumping that Tomic eventually took in the third set, he was able to make Federer work hard. Tomic brought
Many local fans looked at the potential third round match between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic with delight. Much like last year, Tomic started the pre Australian Open warm up strongly. Last year, Tomic used his slow slices and unorthodox hitting to get himself past a powerful, but erratic Fernando Verdasco. Then, he met Roger
Lots of play today at the Shanghai Masters. It's the second round and the top seeds were mostly in action today. It's not unusual for players that do well in a previous tournament to fade in the next one. Raonic and Nishikori were finalists in the Japan Open last week. Nishikori lost to Querrey in
The French may not do well on their home Slam, but they love the hard courts. In the finals of Bangkok, Gilles Simon took on Richard Gasquet. In Kuala Lumpur, Julien Benneteau took on Juan Monaco. Three of the four finalists were French. Let's start with Bangkok. Gilles Simon has been a more successful finalist
Andy Roddick might love nothing more than to have a Jimmy Connors-like run through the US Open. One might never see a 39 year old make a deep run in a Slam again, though as recently as 2005, Andre Agassi, in his mid 30s, made a run to the finals. Roddick just turned 30 years
It's hard to win a Masters 1000 title. The last time Richard Gasquet reached the finals of a Masters 1000 was at Toronto back in 2006 where he lost to Roger Federer in the finals. That was six years ago. It's true. Gasquet was a can't miss prospect from France who had as much attention
A year ago, Novak Djokovic was in a different place. When Montreal rolled around, he still only had one loss to his name, that to Roger Federer in the semis of the French Open. Nonetheless, he won Wimbledon for the first time, indeed, reached the finals for the first time. Like many top players, he
