Dubai, an ATP 500 event, has become the single toughest tournament played this year since the Australian Open. This year, in the top ten, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray are among the top seeds in this event. This marks Djokovic's return back to tour, as well as Andy Murray. Federer, interestingly enough, decided
2010 was a good year for Jurgen Melzer. A contemporary of Roger Federer, Melzer had stuck in the top 40 for many years, but when it came to Slams, Melzer just didn't do well. Melzer played his first Slam in 2000, but until 2010, Melzer had never even made it to the fourth round of
Roger Federer hasn't played Rotterdam in years. It's not entirely clear why he chose to play this year so soon after the Davis Cup tie, but perhaps getting some ATP points is something he has planned. He has won the title, way back in 2005 and that was the last time Federer played the tournament.
Some players show remarkable dedication to their racquets, especially old school players. Pete Sampras stuck with the same racquet, the Wilson Pro Staff 85, his entire career. Stefan Edberg played with this racquet as well. Boris Becker played with a single racquet his entire career. When the racquet was to be discontinued, he acquired all
Marcel Granollers must love playing in Valencia. Tennis fanatics know that David Ferrer was the defending champ at Valencia. He lost in the semifinals to Argentine, Juan Monaco. Few remember who Ferrer beat in the finals. The finalist was Marcel Granollers who had to qualify for Valencia a year ago. And he didn't even succeed
Playing Roger Federer for the first time can be daunting, especially after Federer has taken off some six weeks to recover and to train. Roger Federer found himself in the same scenario as last year, or possibly even worse. Last year, Federer had won only one Slam and lost early at the French and Wimbledon.
If you looked at the semifinal lineup at Valencia (which the announcers have taken to calling "Valenthia" to imitate the lisp that Spaniards have), you would have seen del Potro vs. Granollers and Ferrer vs. Monaco. Granollers is ranked 34 in the world, and he's the fifth ranked Spaniard behind Nadal, Almagro, Lopez, and Verdasco.
For a while, Nishikori seemed to be in a fog. Djokovic was hitting deep balls and Nishikori was unable to track them down, hitting errors. It didn't help that his serve was not finding the target. It seemed like this would be a quick match with a 6-2 double break. But early in the second
When Pete Sampras was playing Andre Agassi, he seemed to have supreme confidence. No matter how well Agassi had been playing or how poorly Sampras had played, if the two met, Sampras believed his serve and his groundies could bother Agassi. Agassi would think he could play with Sampras but he'd lose a few points
Kei Nishikori has been Japan's best hope since Shuzo Matsuoka, and right now, he stands a good chance of doing far better than his compatriot. Nishikori has an intriguing style of play. He's fairly quick, has a good sense of how to hit a lob, but what separates him from most of his opponents is
