Today was a day of disaster which started off with a litany of injuries. Steve Darcis, who beat Rafael Nadal, had a shoulder injury and could not play his second round. Isner managed two games, but then retired in his match against Mannarino. Cilic did not play his match against Kenny de Schepper. Tsonga retired
Even though it's about a week before Wimbledon, folks like to speculate who will win. Let's look at each of the "big four" (Djokovic, Federer, Murray, Nadal). Technically, Ferrer is number 4, and where Nadal lands will greatly impact the chances the rest have. Rafael Nadal Rafa has had the hottest season in his career,
Two of the "big four" have decided to forgo grass tennis prior to Wimbledon. In particular, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have chose not to play any tournaments heading into Wimbledon. However, the other two, Roger Federer and Andy Murray both decided to play. Roger Federer managed to get his match first because he didn't
Before we get started with how two of the top four players did today, let's review what happened this week. The grass season is among the shortest in the tennis calendar. There's the week after the French Open where Queen's Club (officially, the Aegon Championships) and Halle (officially, the Gerry Weber Open) are played. There's
Outside the other members of the big 4, if there are two players Federer would prefer not to see in a draw, it's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych. Both have big serves. Both hit hard off the ground. Both have given Federer troubles in Slams. Remember when Federer has that semifinal streak? Federer had reached
In all the years that Rafael Nadal has played the French Open, he's only been pushed to 5 sets once. It happened in an opening r0und match against John Isner back in 2011. Roger Federer? He's been pushed to 5 sets numerous times. During the 2009 campaign, the only year Federer ever won the French
The Spanish have a tradition where a child adopts both his father's last name and his mother's. Not everyone follow the tradition as evidenced by Ferrer, Nadal, Lopez. But there is Garcia-Lopez, Gimeno-Traver, Bautista-Agut. With so many Spaniards playing tennis, only rivaled by their Pyrenees neighbors, the French, it's not surprising you've never heard of
With Andy Murray withdrawing days before the start of the French Open, Roger Federer suddenly moved to the second seed, and that meant he didn't have to see Novak Djokovic until the finals. As the third seed, he could have met both Djokovic and Nadal to win an elusive French. But with Nadal as the
Sometime in 2011, during Djokovic's historic win streak and his ascendancy to number 1, many tennis pundits felt Federer would never get back to number 1, would never win another Slam, or if he did, it would be a one-off. Federer was edging to 30. Federer kept saying that it was ridiculous to talk about
Federer certainly wasn't favored reaching the final. He played better in Rome than he did in Madrid, but struggled a bit against Paire in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Nadal had upped the level of aggression in his own game. While Nadal would never admit that he looks past Federer, he knows the kind of game to
