They don't call Rafa the "King of Clay" for no reason. He has maybe 20 losses on clay, and under 10 losses since he won his first French Open title in 2005. It's very hard to beat Rafa on clay. Furthermore, it's very hard to beat him if you're not ranked in the top 40
There were some hopes that Jeremy Chardy, who upset Juan Martin del Potro, could make a match of it against Rafael Nadal, who has not had that much challenge in his first tournament back since Wimbledon. But it was not to be. Chardy's game was all over the place, as he struggled to take control
Rafael Nadal was supposed to come back to play in time for the Australian Open. But he claimed he had the flu or some similar disease, and so without the capability of making a serious run at the Australian Open, he chose to skip it, and make a more low-key return to the tour. Vina
More European clay results. In Hamburg, top seeded Nicolas Almagro beat Philipp Kohlschreiber, 75 75. Juan Monaco over Jeremy Chardy, 63 75. Marin Cilic over Albert Ramos, 64 76. Wildcard Tommy Haas over Florian Mayer, 61 64. In Gstaad, Switzerland, top seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat Jan Henrych, 61 61. Paul-Henri Mathieu over Ernests Gulbis, 46
Newport is the only remaining ATP grass court event that's held in the United States. Once upon a time, the tour primarily consisted of grass, but grass is expensive to maintain, and unlike clay, it needs to be grown and maintained. Unlike golf, this grass is on a small area, so scuffs can be problematic.
Tennis has had its share of fairy tales, players that come out of nowhere to win a title. Usually, these players are young, like Mats Wilander who claimed his first title at Roland Garros when he was 17, or Boris Becker claiming his second title at Wimbledon in 1985 after capturing his first at Queen's
This isn't quite the same story as Jeremy Lin who hit a bright patch of success when he became the point guard for the hapless New York Knicks, full of talent, and short on quality result. The Harvard grad who grew up in the shadows of Stanford enthralled media and fans across the US as
Has Rafa got his mojo back? Maybe. With his wins at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Rafael Nadal has to be feeling good on his best surface. Still, Djokovic came into the finals with two solid wins, over Tsonga and Federer. His loss to Rafa in Monte Carlo could be blamed on Djokovic's personal loss when
The women's final preceded the men's. The men's had been scheduled for around 4 PM in Rome. The women started a little less than two hours earlier. For a while, it appeared that the women's match would finish routinely. Li Na had won a close first set, 6-4. She was comfortably up 4-0 with a
Ever since the US Open, Roger Federer has been playing some solid tennis. Indeed, even if you include the US Open, Roger Federer came within a hair of beating Djokovic. Only a go-for-broke return by Djokovic followed by a dig-out return and a Federer slap shot that clipped the net causing the ball to fall
