Whenever Djokovic and Nadal meet, there's a chance that the match will be a grind-fest. Nowhere was this more evident than the 2012 Australian Open final which went 6 hours. These are the two best defensive players in the world. Nadal was looking to win his first year-end championship. Many years, due to injury, he
These days, when Federer plays Djokovic, there's a period of time where Djokovic's game seems to go off the boil and Federer is able to play his game and win a set, but it always feels like the reason Federer wins the set is that Djokovic's game is slightly off, not because Federer is really
John McEnroe was famous for his tirades against chair umpires calling them the pits of the world. Maybe his steady drumbeat of complaints lead tennis to increased professionalism in umpiring. Back when Mac was playing, umpires were local, and so they didn't call matches all that often, which meant they weren't always that good. By
You know, it started as well as Federer could hope. He was hitting awesome, got an early break, and it looked like all the good play from beating Murray would carry over to Djokovic. But, just as he's accomplished similar feats against Nadal, his opponent, this time Djokovic, clawed his way back, some based on
Well, it's come down to number 1 (Djokovic) and number 2 (Federer) in the year-end finals. Some had hoped that del Potro would have come all the way back and challenge the top players. However, Djokovic (and Murray, for that matter) had a good record against del Potro even when del Potro was at his
Federer had been hoping to get back on the winning track beating del Potro. Ever since del Potro returned to tour after nearly a year off from playing, he has slowly, but surely been ascending up the ranks. Federer has, in the meantime, been able to beat del Potro on a regular basis, biding his
Djokovic still looks like the odds-on favorite to win the year-end championship. With Roger Federer still struggling with serve and Murray have dropped a match to the Serb, Djokovic was looking to finish his group undefeated. Djokovic took the first set rather comfortably at 62. He attributed this to some poor serving by Berdych which
Even as Federer passes 30, he still has more records to achieve and more to preserve. First, with a victory, he exceeded the number of wins Lendl had at year-end championships. Second, he's had never lost to Ferrer, and had not been broken by Ferrer since 2010. This is impressive given that Ferrer is one
There are some who believe that Andy Murray shouldn't have gotten credit for the US Open because it was played in windy conditions and Djokovic performed worse in the wind than Murray. But Murray's made a good point about why he's lost so many times in Slams. Consider Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer. Nadal's first title
People had been wondering whether Murray was choking with an advantage. In the last three matches, Murray held match points, but was unable to seal the deal. In Tokyo, match points were held against Raonic. In Shanghai, it was against Djokovic. In Paris, against Janowicz. Of course, when match points are lost, it's often a
