It's been the monkey on Murray's back. He can beat Federer, just not at the Slams. Three times they've met in the Slams. Three times Murray has been runner-up to Roger Federer. Murray lost to him in the US Open final in 2008, then in the Australian Open final in 2010, and finally, in the
Let's start with the earlier of the two quarterfinals played Wednesday in Melbourne. Andy Murray's camp has complained that Roger Federer has had all the night matches. This is of concern because the Australian Open plays its semis and finals at night. Court conditions generally slow down when it gets cooler. All of Murray's matches
Now that week 1 is over, this is a good time to review the top players plus a few more things. Novak Djokovic Through the first three rounds, Djokovic has looked the most solid. His strokes always looks pristine. Admittedly, he played a resurgent Paul-Henri Mathieu who, nonetheless, hasn't worked his ranking up to its
The scores look nearly the same. Federer beat Tomic in the third round, 64 76 61. He beat Raonic today 64 76 62. And yet, the impression from watching both matches was completely different. Despite the thumping that Tomic eventually took in the third set, he was able to make Federer work hard. Tomic brought
They call them: the "big 4": Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. These four have dominated Slam titles for half a decade with only one interruption: the 2009 US Open won by Juan Martin del Potro. Had del Potro not been injured and required surgery in 2010, maybe there would be a
Many local fans looked at the potential third round match between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic with delight. Much like last year, Tomic started the pre Australian Open warm up strongly. Last year, Tomic used his slow slices and unorthodox hitting to get himself past a powerful, but erratic Fernando Verdasco. Then, he met Roger
Since I missed Day 4, let's recap. The top seeds, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, had few problems. Despite Davydenko recently reaching the Doha finals, this Davydenko was not the same as 2010 who was fresh off a win at London in 2009 and was in the top ten. Federer had too many answers for
When the draw came out a few days ago, Roger Federer looked like he had a tough draw, relatively speaking. Murray landed on his half of the draw. His first round opponent is the talented Benoit Paire of France. Nikolay Davydenko, who gave Roget a scare in 2010, at the Australian Open and who recently
The big question, heading into the Australian Open, with Nadal out due to a stomach virus, is which half Andy Murray, the number 3 seed, would fall. He's in Federer's half. This puts David Ferrer, the fourth seed, in Djokovic's half. Things aren't all rosy for the top seeds. The high seed for Djokovic in
With the start of the new year, the tennis cycle starts afresh. It was only about 6 weeks ago that the last official ATP event was played, namely, the Davis Cup finals. Since then, some players have used the extra time for exhibitions. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were
