Maybe this is a product of my buzzed brain, but hear me out. Rafa has been plagued by tortured knees for years now. He's struggled to play an entire year of tennis. His M.O. has been to play to about the US Open, and then fade through the end of the year. Rafa has won
It's now been 7 months or so since we last saw Rafa play a real match. Last match was the shocking loss to Lukas Rosol. Rosol turned out not to be all that, but for one day, when Rafa wasn't feeling his best, Rosol went ballistic. Rafa announced shortly afterwards that his knees were bothering
Perhaps, on the conclusion of the US doubles match in the first round Davis Cup tie between US and Brazil, a match that made it to 7 hours and involved a rare feat, a defeat of the Bryan brothers, by the veteran duo of Melo and Soares. The Brazilian duo lack the credentials of the
When Nadal started his ascendancy to the top of tennis, he provided a foil to Roger Federer's tennis. Roger Federer was offense to Nadal's defense. Nadal didn't play pure defense, but if you tried to hit him off the court, he'd come up with an amazing shot to defend. Like a cornered animal, Nadal was
I'll spend time in this article talking about the tactics used in this match as well as observations. Much like the US Open, which was played in windy conditions, Andy Murray decided to play a lot of balls up the middle slightly to the Djokovic backhand. At the US Open, he did this for several
This isn't the final most people had hoped for, but it was the one that many people expected. The question, for most, was whether Roger Federer would be in the finals with Novak Djokovic, or would it be Andy Murray. Now that Murray is the one to face Novak Djokovic, we can ask: can he
Andy Murray has a pretty good record against Roger Federer, a slight winning record. But he had been 0-3 in their Slam encounters. The first was understandable. It was Murray's first encounter with Federer at a Slam back in the 2008 US Open. In the second encounter, the 2010 Australian Open final, Murray tried to
They call them: the "big 4": Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. These four have dominated Slam titles for half a decade with only one interruption: the 2009 US Open won by Juan Martin del Potro. Had del Potro not been injured and required surgery in 2010, maybe there would be a
Sometimes we're so caught up on how well top players play week after week. Federer ended 2011 by winning Basel, Paris, and London over a four week period. Ferrer won Valencia, Paris, then played London and Davis Cup in four consecutive weeks. Most players that play on the tour lose as often as win in
2012 was not a good year for Bernard Tomic. It didn't start that way, of course. At the start of 2012, Tomic looked, for all the world, that he and Milos Raonic would fight for best newcomer of the year. He reached the semis of Brisbane losing to Andy Murray. He won an exhibition where
