It's hard to recall the last time a player ranked as high as del Potro (a top 5 player) that was sideline for most of a year. del Potro played 3 tournaments in all of 2010. He reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, then lost in two first round tournaments in the Asian swing
Up until now, Murray hadn't faced a really tough opponent. He played 32nd seed, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and pummeled him. Garcia-Lopez seemed confused and unable to pressure Murray. However, Melzer was seen as a crafty lefty with more power than Garcia-Lopez. Melzer had had an indifferent career for nearly a decade, his rankings mired in the
The quickest way to rise through the rankings? Big serve. Just ask Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Andy Roddick. If you can hold the vast majority of the time, that's just one thing less to worry about. Few people are like David Ferrer or Rafa, who rely on speed and the power of
It was good while it lasted. As many expected, del Potro wasn't ready to win a Slam. At least, not this soon. He cleared the first hurdle, which was winning a match. In the two tournaments he played last in 2010, del Potro lost in the first round. Once to Olivier Rochus and once to
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
Currently, Soderling has 5580 points to Andy Murray's 5760 which means Soderling is 180 points behind Murray. With Soderling's win at Brisbane, he will replace a quarterfinal result in Marseille worth 45 points with a 250 point win or a net of 205 points, and just move ahead of Andy Murray. This means, with both
Last year, Soderling went to Chennai and promptly lost in the opening round to Robby Ginepri. He went to the Australian Open and promptly lost the opening round to Marcel Granollers. Fortunately, this blip in his record didn't affect the rest of his year as he flitted with becoming number 4 in the world. This
The circumstances were quite different last year. Davydenko was coming off a win at the ATP World Tour Finals. Nadal had not won a title in about half a year, but was playing good aggressive tennis to start the year. Federer was playing, well, he has lost the US Open to del Potro and lost
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
Once upon a time, there was a split between pro and amateur tennis. Amateur tennis was more of the Olympian ideal. No money except for basic expenses (food, travel, etc). Of course, the lack of money meant that most good amateurs had to become pros to make money, and the poorer you were, the sooner
