When Nadal raised the Wimbledon trophy for a second time, he knew that there was only one achievement he needed: win the US Open. He won the Australian Open once. He won Wimbledon twice. He's won the French 5 times. Twice, he's reached the US Open semifinals. Historically, Nadal's clay court victories has meant that
The US Open seems to be Novak Djokovic's best tournament. He's reached the semis for the third time in a row, and for the fourth time, he'll face Roger Federer. Novak struggled a bit with Gael Monfils in one set, but then he buckled down in the second set while Monfils gave in. The third
Federer used to be one emotional guy. He'd cry. He'd yell. He used to smash racquets. But these days, Federer has become positively Swedish, or at least Borgian, in his emotions. He calmly plays one point after the next. True, when he hits a good shot, he's still prone to a brief emotional outburst, but
Once you get to Labor Day, you move from the obligatory early round matches to the business end of a Slam. Those that want to seriously make a run need to get to Labor Day, when the fourth round begins. Let's begin with a quick recap of what happened so far. Among those coming in
As the first week of the Open begins to wind up, we're getting to the serious part of the tournament. Roger Federer has still not dropped a set. He beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. He faced only 4 break points, and didn't get broken. Federer was also efficient breaking winning 4 of 6 break
What's happened to Marin Cilic? Last year, he reached the quarterfinals of the US Open and took a set off Juan Martin del Potro. Some felt, if he hadn't given into nerves, he might have toppled the Argentine giant (though, the Croat, is just as tall as del Potro). He took one more step forward,
If you could boil down the US Open 2009 into one shot, one singular feat, it would have to be Roger Federer's tweener against Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the US Open. This is how it went down. Djokovic is down 0-30. If he loses his serve, Federer will win the match. Djokovic hits
Mardy Fish must feel his buddy, Andy Roddick's pain. Roddick had not lost serve until the final game that gave Wimbledon 2009 to Roger Federer. Fish hadn't been broken either, until 4-all in the third set, when Fed got to 30-40 and Fish netted a shot. Fed had had chances including a marathon third game
Roger Federer might point to his match in Indian Wells where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis in three sets as the first of a series of disappointments. He went to Miami and lost Tomas Berdych after being up match point. He went to Rome and lost to Ernests Gulbis in the 2nd round. He went
Few players have beaten Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the same year. Andy Murray pulled the feat this year at Toronto. Nikolay Davydenko did it in Doha at the start of the year. Both these guys are in the top 10. But add Marcos Baghdatis to that list of names. Back in Indian Wells,
