Sometimes a good head-to-head is all you need to feel good about your chances. Hewitt lead Soderling 3-1. However, 2 of the wins were in 2004 when Soderling was starting on tour and Hewitt was still closer to the top of his game. They didn't play again until 2009 when Hewitt won in Cincy in
Before we talk about Federer, let's review the late matches yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, it began to rain and this cancelled all play except Centre Court which has, surprise, a roof! When the roof was ready to go in Wimbledon 2009, there was very little rain. Andy Murray played a 5-setter against Stan Wawrinka, and was
When Wimbledon made its draw last Friday, two names appeared near one another: John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. What were the odds of that? Roughly speaking, less than 1%, but not much less. There were accusations that Wimbledon organizers rigged this, even though the draw was conducted in public (which would require some sleight of
Before we reflect on what kind of accomplishment Rafael Nadal made with his record equaling sixth win, we should take time to think about the era of Borg. Borg played in the cusp of two eras, the transition that lead to twenty years of revolution in tennis. Perhaps the biggest revolution was the one in
It's been more than two years since Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been in the finals of a Slam. This used to be more routine because Federer kept making it to final after final. That streak was stopped last year at the French Open when Federer lost to Soderling in the quarterfinals. Federer also
So the last person to beat Novak Djokovic just became the last person to beat Novak Djokovic. In a surprising turn of events, Federer took the first set, 7-6 and the second set, 6-3. He had numerous break opportunities numbering over 20, but only converted a handful. Djokovic then cleaned up his game and took
It's probably been since 2006 French Open that the top four seeds in a men's Slam have met in the semifinals. Back then, it was Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, David Nalbandian, and Ivan Ljubicic. You might point to this year's Australian Open, but Andy Murray's rank had slipped enough and Robin Soderling had performed well
It was thought that the powerful Soderling would have a chance against Nadal. Nadal had yet to play anyone that hit as hard as Soderling. Nadal would have to up his game to face the one man that had beaten him on clay. But Nadal had done it twice before in Slams, once last year
Everyone's asking whether Roger Federer has lost it. But, to me, he's like Chris Evert when Steffi Graf rose to the top spot. Martina was number 1 or 2 and Graf was behind her. However, Evert had been champ for years and years. The women's game still resembled Evert more than it resembled Graf and
Before we talk about "the streak", let's talk about a smaller match. Fabio Fognini vs. Albert Montanes. Both made some news last year in the clay season. Fognini was in a prolonged evening match with Monfils well past ten when neither player could see well, but Monfils was hoping for a pro-Monfils support to help
