It's just about halfway through the French Open. The men have completed the third round matches. The fourth round begins on Sunday. Let's see how all the seeds are doing. Rafael Nadal Rafa started off the tournament in a new situation: a five setter at Paris. He played nervous in the two tiebreaks he lost,
Before I talk about today's early results, I want to talk about yesterday's results. Tennis really needs a better way to report its scores. Scores are fine, but they really don't tell you the story. I'll give you three examples from yesterday, two from women's matches. Maria Sharapova is down 6-3, 4-1 down, double-break. It
It's rare for this to happen. Roger Federer was scheduled to meet the winner of two wildcards. Normally, wildcards are ranked too low to get into the main draw. If this were Wimbledon, the wildcards could easily be ranked 300 or worse since UK has a dearth of quality players. However, France has a plethora
Perhaps one player Roger Federer didn't want to see in the first round was Feliciano Lopez. Lopez pushed Federer to 3 tiebreaks in Madrid to win. Federer did have a break opportunity to take it in straight sets. Despite this, I figured Federer would feel more confident playing Lopez and not be as vulnerable to
In 2001, there was little indication that the era of serve and volley tennis was living on borrowed time in its spiritual heartland of Wimbledon. Players at every stage of their career, and of every stature, were following their serves into the net with great effect. The mighty Sampras and the ever-hopeful Henman, the giant veteran Ivanisevic and the rising star Federer, all used the same basic game plan. Whether following booming 130mph serves, or more modest deliveries, there could be little doubt which style was ascendant on the skiddy, low-bouncing grass, with Andre Agassi the only baseliner in the semi-finals.
Perhaps no one knows what Gasquet's life is like as much as, oh, maybe Venus Williams. Touted as the new superstar of the projects, Venus was expected to do well even at the ripe young age of 12. France, similarly, thought Richard Gasquet would be the new French superstar. Until, that is, the fateful day
Sometimes tennis fans forget there are over 1000, nearly 2000 tennis pros. For many, if there's 2 digits in your rank, then you're not worth paying attention to. Many players with 3 digits to their names are living the dream, playing the pro tour, knowing full well they can't be a Slam winner. They hope
Right now, Nadal is number 1 with 12470 points. Djokovic is number 2 at 10665 points. 1805 points separate the two. There is a slim chance Djokovic could become number 1 at the end of Rome. A Masters 1000 event awards 1000 points to the winner. Normally, a player doesn't get the full 1000 points
It's nearly the semifinals everyone had hoped for. The top three players were there. Federer, who nearly got booted playing Feliciano Lopez, escaped then had a good win over Xavier Malisse and Robin Soderling, was meeting Rafael Nadal who hasn't had too much difficulty on the clay since Monte Carlo when Andy Murray put a
No one seems to believe it, but Federer's having a pretty good year. Oh, he hasn't solved Nadal. Djokovic appears to have passed him by. But Federer has lost to only 3 people this year. They are, yes, Nadal and Djokovic, and an old childhood buddy, Jurgen Melzer. Say what you will, Federer hasn't had
