A few months ago, an academic accused the Slams of pairing Federer and Djokovic in the same half. Indeed, this happened all four Slams in 2011 and all but one Slam in 2010. It's happened way more often than statistics would tell you. At the Australian Open, Federer and Nadal finally fell in the same
Bernard Tomic is big news in Australia. With Lleyton Hewitt heading to 30 and unlikely to reclaim his number 1 ranking that he had nearly a decade ago, all eyes are on Tomic. Tomic is some weird amalgam, as if Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were somehow merged together. He combines the touch of McEnroe,
Let's take a look at how the top four are faring then quickly talk about the other players that might make noise realizing, of course, that someone might play better than expected (or worse). Novak Djokovic This is difficult. Djokovic did not play that well after the US Open. Most of Djokovic's losses came after
After some complaints that Federer and Nadal had been on opposite halves of the draws in Slams (all four Slams last year and often 3 of 4 Slams in previous years) despite the changing seedings of Federer and Nadal, this year, the Australian Open put Federer and Nadal in the same half. Let's work section
It was last year after a semifinal win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during a post-match interview with Jim Courier that Roger Federer said "I know he'd like to win a first for British tennis in, what is it? 150,000 years?". It was a light-hearted moment that was, nonetheless, a dig at his opponent, one that he
Roger and Rafa have made many players' lives miserable. That is, if you feel the best of the best should win Slam titles. The 2008 Australian Open was the last Slam that didn't have either Roger or Rafa in the final. Roger lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Roger had had mono and was
It's well-known that the seedings prevent number 1 and number 2 from meeting each other until the final. What's not as well known, because people often neglect non-favorites, is that number 3 and number 4 can also not meet each other in the final. With Federer and Nadal being so dominant, usually one or the
If you looked at the form of the players the last 2-3 months, Federer was the man. He won Stockholm. He won Basel. He won the year-end championship without dropping a match. This included a defeat of his main rival, Rafael Nadal. He started the year playing well, winning Doha over Davydenko. Nadal ended last
Everyone loves to do it, but it really doesn't make sense. Back in December, people were asked "make predictions who will win the Slams in 2011". You never know which player will come out of nowhere to make an impression. If you were to ask, at the end of 2008, who would win the Slams
Andy Murray had only played Alexandr Dolgopolov once, nearly 4 years ago, in a clay court in a Davis Cup match. Murray won this against a very young Dolgopolov. He expected a far different match from the one he had played so many years ago. Dolgopolov has a reputation for being a tricky player to
