When you play aggressive, like Tsonga or Federer, your success depends on how often you can get your aggressive shots in vs. how often you miss. Nadal gets to as many balls as anyone in the game, and it allows him not to be terribly aggressive if he doesn't want to and let the errors
When you're called "Baby Fed", that puts a lot of pressure on you as a player. Not everyone that's been given such a nickname does well. There was a guy named Harold Miner who was called "Baby Jordan", and nothing much came of him. There is a French player, Josselin Ouanna, who vaguely looks like
Andy Murray has always said clay is his weakest surface. He plays on the surface anywhere from 3-4 tournaments a year, and he didn't grow up on the surface. Prior to his work with Lendl, the clay didn't support his flatter, less aggressive style. Although Murray has been classified as a counterpuncher, he doesn't spin
Although the French Open title is more prestigious, and thus where Rafa Nadal has secured the moniker "king of clay", it's Monte Carlo where his dominance has reached epic proportions. Monte Carlo is a strange Masters 1000. Of the Masters 1000 titles, it's the only considered "optional". You aren't penalized for skipping the event with
Today, two big men went into finals of clay events hoping to win a title on clay. One man did. John Isner combined a play of hard serving with consistency to get a win over Nicolas Almagro. Despite Almagro's rank as a top clay courter, the two have played each other close on clay. Despite
The myth used to be that big men prefer faster surfaces. Grass and hard courts were better for big guys who had big serves but lumbered around. Clay courts, by contrast, were bad for big men who allegedly lacked big groundstrokes. Indeed, as in basketball where big men were told to play center and close
2005 was a key year for Americans and it culminated in the US Open run of Andre Agassi, the last hurrah of America's last great champion. This event felt like a passing of the baton. Agassi beat young James Blake in 5 sets in the quarters of the US Open and beat Robby Ginepri in
I guess it's safe to say that Nadal is back, at least on clay. Nadal has been called the king of clay with good reason. He's lost only 20 matches on clay in his entire career, and in the past few years, with the odd exception of his recent loss to Horatio Zeballos, he's never
The semifinals on Saturday were mostly meh. Berdych crushed Tursunov in one semi. Anytime he went for a big shot, Tursunov made an error or couldn't reach the shot. Gilles Simon didn't fare much better against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga making more errors than usual. Neither loser won more than 4 games. The final, by contrast, was
Bernard Tomic almost didn't get out of the first round, facing one of last year's new upstart, Martin Klizan, but he managed a third set win. He had a comfortable win against Somdev Devvarman in the second round. But his big challenge was the top-ranked Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Last year, Tomic showed a great deal
