Hopman Cup Let's start with an exo, only because I caught the tail-end of this. This is like a mini-Davis Cup. One man. One woman. Two singles. One mixed doubles. The finalists, this year, were Spain and Serbia. Of course, with Novak Djokovic, Serbia won the men's singles. Anabel Medina Garrigues then won a touch
Often the opening tournaments of the new year tell you more about the players ranked outside the top 5 than they do the top 5. After all, it's not only the best of the best that use the off-season (which lasts maybe two months for lower-ranked players) to ramp up their game. So here are
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
Last week, three ATP 250 events were being played. Given the proximity to the year-end finals in London, some top-ranked players opted to play. Let's start in Moscow. Andreas Seppi faced Thomaz Bellucci in the finals. Bellucci twice had chances to serve out the match in the second set, but ultimately lost in a tiebreak,
The French may not do well on their home Slam, but they love the hard courts. In the finals of Bangkok, Gilles Simon took on Richard Gasquet. In Kuala Lumpur, Julien Benneteau took on Juan Monaco. Three of the four finalists were French. Let's start with Bangkok. Gilles Simon has been a more successful finalist
The Asian swing of ATP tour starts up with two exotic locales: Bangkok, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Let's start with Bangkok. Last year, Andy Murray decided to play Bangkok. None of the other top 4 players elected to play. He won the tournament. However, with the Olympic schedule, Murray has chosen not to defend
`Yes, Virginia, there is tennis after the US Open. Historically, this tennis has two parts: the Asian swing, which is primarily held outdoors, and the European swing, which is primarily held indoors. This year, the tour has decided to mix it up, holding two events in Europe earlier than it usually does. Normally, St. Petersburg
What a difference a few months make. For some reason, Europe seems to get John Isner in a funk. He's played well in Europe before, but the last two years, not so much. The solution, it seems, was return to home soil. Last year, Isner decided to play Newport. Newport is played the week after
Ricardas Berankis, formerly Richard Berankis, is one of those players that are almost mentioned with the next group of up-and-comers which include Bernard Tomic, Milos Raonic, Ryan Harrison, and Grigor Dimitrov. However, Berankis, much like Dimitrov, has never had a great result. With the Los Angeles field decimated by the Olympics, it was 50th ranked
Muller? Muller? Gilles Muller comes from the tiny country of Luxembourg and was once the top ranked junior in the world. That success never quite translated to the pro tour. Muller has had the occasional upset, most notably, a first round upset of Andy Roddick in the US Open in 2005. Muller has only been
