If I were asked to rank how the players played in their quarterfinal matches, hmm, I think I would go in this order. 1. Roger Federer In his win over Juan Martin del Potro, Federer moved as well as I've seen in a while, and was pulling out magic tricks. It's hard to evaluate this
Juan Martin del Potro had it all. He beat Nadal in three easy sets in 2009 in the US Open semifinals. Then, he took down Federer in five sets in the finals to be the only player outside of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer to win a Slam since 2005. Six years of Slams have only
There was a question whether Tomic could play Federer the way he played Dolgopolov or even Querrey and Verdasco. That is, hit off-pace shots and hope to befuddle Federer. The thought was perhaps he couldn't and would have to up the pace. Tomic felt confident he could take the match to Federer, but he still
It's often been said that Bernard Tomic plays like no one else. If comparisons are made to active players, it's often to Andy Murray who often uses change of pace, but even he plays a bit differently to Tomic, or to Alexandr Dolgopolov. Well, wouldn't you know it, the draw happened to put Tomic and
Sam Querrey spent a lot of 2011 not playing that much tennis. He had had a similar experience when he had a freak accident in Bangkok where he sat on a glass table that broke under his weight (when asked why he sat on the table, he said that he had just taken a shower
John Isner knows how to fight. There are clearly limitations to his game. He doesn't cover ground very well. He looks tired when matches run long. But he relies on his serve to bail him out of danger spots. Nalbandian took the first set 64, then there was a big exchange of breaks in the
Here's a little discussion concerning off-court talk. First, there was the remarkable comeback by Bernard Tomic over Verdasco. Aussie commentator Darren Cahill felt like Verdasco's fitness would be too much especially as he went up two sets to none. Cahill was very impressed by Tomic's ability to hang in which Tomic attributes to playing possum.
A few months ago, an academic accused the Slams of pairing Federer and Djokovic in the same half. Indeed, this happened all four Slams in 2011 and all but one Slam in 2010. It's happened way more often than statistics would tell you. At the Australian Open, Federer and Nadal finally fell in the same
Let's take a look at how the top four are faring then quickly talk about the other players that might make noise realizing, of course, that someone might play better than expected (or worse). Novak Djokovic This is difficult. Djokovic did not play that well after the US Open. Most of Djokovic's losses came after
After some complaints that Federer and Nadal had been on opposite halves of the draws in Slams (all four Slams last year and often 3 of 4 Slams in previous years) despite the changing seedings of Federer and Nadal, this year, the Australian Open put Federer and Nadal in the same half. Let's work section
