Lopez seems like a poor man's Verdasco. He's a lefty, but hits his a one-hander to Verdasco's two-hander. He has a big forehand, but probably not bigger than Verdasco. He relies on the slice. He might have a bigger serve than Verdasco, but not by much. In any case, he had never beaten Roger Federer,
It was said, when you had a player that scored as much as Michael Jordan, that he would get his. You just hoped to contain everyone else. When Nadal is on clay, he generally gets his. You have to be playing some amazing dirt ball, and then, you have to hope he's injured. If you
Gilles Simon was expected to give Murray a tough test. He is very steady player, The French do, as a group, tend to perform better on faster surfaces. However, given they are the home of clay tennis, they do know how to play on the stuff. Gilles Simon was at his best in late 2008
The spectacle that was the Battle of the Sexes between past-his-prime Bobby Riggs against top player, Billie Jean King, put tennis through the stratosphere in the US. It was like the Harding-thugs attacking Nancy Kerrigan just before the Winter Olympics leading to huge ratings in figure skating. Ironically, this coincided with the time that tennis
Kohlschreiber has a lot going for him. He hits hard off the ground. Last year, he waxes Andy Murray. But this year, he drew Roger Federer. Murray didn't grow up on clay. Federer did. Murray was in the doldrums wah-ing his way to a lopsided loss that eventually energized him to play better. Federer has
My thinking was, despite Djokovic's win-streak, Nadal gave him all he could handle in Indian Wells. If Nadal's serve hadn't given out on him, Djokovic's streak might already have ended. To counter Djokovic, Nadal went for big serves and big groundies in the first set and it worked. Djokovic struggled to keep up. But, by
Roger Federer hates reporters at moments like this. Are you slipping? Will you ever win another major again? Can you beat Nadal and Djokovic again? Federer always gives the same answers. He's feeling good. He expects to play 5 more years. Stop asking him these questions. Fans of Roger Federer are so used to seeing
It was close for a game. Federer played aggressive and held his own serve. But as Nadal is wont to do, he made it tough for Federer to make a dent on his serve. Federer would lose his next serve as he tried to be aggressive but kept making too many errors. Federer seemed frustrated
Berdych served as spoiler at Wimbledon when he beat Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He was hoping to do it again against Nadal. Initially, it didn't seem like it would go that direction with Nadal dominating the first set with a 6-2 win. Nadal's focus dropped some as Berdych also played more aggressive tennis and
The weather was windy and Simon wasn't sure he wanted to be on the court. Simon had given Federer all he could handle in a five set match in Australia, but today, he went down two breaks and said he couldn't play. Apparently Fed's previous match against Rochus started very late, but that was 2
