Robin Soderling has a peculiar kind of game. The rangy Swede doesn't have a lot of variety in his game. He hits some of the hardest shots in the game. He doesn't play the ball to conventional spots on the court. He's got a huge serve. He's not fast, but he's not exactly slow. If
It's almost unheard of. Nadal is almost always good to the quarterfinals of every event he plays. Hot off the heels of his win in Tokyo, Nadal faced veteran Jurgen Melzer, a lefty that Nadal last beat at Roland Garros. One could argue that Nadal's toughest match came against Melzer who pushed him to a
What a difference a few months make. Nikolay Davydenko, the defending champ at Shanghai, has been out of sorts ever since his return to tour. Last year, in 2009, Davydenko had injury issues. He returned just before the French Open, and lost to Robin Soderling. Davydenko hit his stride just after the US Open winning
The US Open seems to be Novak Djokovic's best tournament. He's reached the semis for the third time in a row, and for the fourth time, he'll face Roger Federer. Novak struggled a bit with Gael Monfils in one set, but then he buckled down in the second set while Monfils gave in. The third
Once you get to Labor Day, you move from the obligatory early round matches to the business end of a Slam. Those that want to seriously make a run need to get to Labor Day, when the fourth round begins. Let's begin with a quick recap of what happened so far. Among those coming in
As the first week of the Open begins to wind up, we're getting to the serious part of the tournament. Roger Federer has still not dropped a set. He beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. He faced only 4 break points, and didn't get broken. Federer was also efficient breaking winning 4 of 6 break
It's the last Slam of the year. Let's quickly go over today's matches. Let's start with the seeds. Davydenko (6) beat Michael Russell 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. This is a solid win. Davydenko seems like he's regaining form. At least, he's beating players he should beat. Robin Soderling (5) beat unheralded Haider-Mauer, but it took 5
For some reason, Robin Soderling's power groundstrokes seem more intimidating on clay than on hardcourts. The last time Soderling played Roddick was this year, in Indian Wells, a match Roddick won in three sets. Roddick went on to the finals where he lost to Ljubicic before winning Miami the following tournament. This match was one
Today, the top four players in the world were out on court and doing what they do best, which is win. Novak Djokovic beat fellow Serb, Victor Troicki, 6-3, 7-5. Nadal played Taylor Dent and won by a similar score of 6-2, 7-5. Andy Murray had the toughest match of the top 4. He beat
Where was this guy? For a few years, Nalbandian had been somewhat irrelevant. Sure, he was like Hewitt or Safin, the guys that came on tour when Federer did and gave Fed his share of trouble. Unlike Hewitt or Safin, who each won a pair of Slams, Nalbandian's best efforts came in 2002 when he
