Before there was Juan Martin del Potro, there was Guillermo Coria. He had won the French Open as a junior in 1999. For three brief years, between 2003-2005, he was the king of clay. 2003 was a particularly good year for the Argentine. He won Hamburg, Kitzbuhel, and Stuttgart. One could say that he was
Rafael Nadal has announced his withdrawal from the Australian Open due to a stomach virus), and this has to make his competition delirious with delight at the chance to make it deep in the draw. Nadal's absence has lead to some wild speculations including those who think his knee isn't healing that well (despite Nadal's
It's getting to be the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, so it's a good time to look back. At the end of 2011, Djokovic had had the best year of his life, but he never quite recovered after a grueling US Open where he beat Rafael Nadal in four long sets, but
Basketball may have been the first sport to have a shot clock, that is, a time period which an attempt must be made to make a basket. The penalty is to give the other team possession of the ball. Prior to then, a team could, in theory, hold the ball and pass it around for
2008 was Andy Murray's breakout year. He reached the quarters of Wimbledon. He fizzled at the Olympics, but arguably, Nadal was fatigued from playing the Olympics, so Murray had a shot at beating him in the US Open. In 2008, a huge storm was moving its way up the East Coast of the US, and
Depending on when you asked, the "next generation" of tennis players--the ones after the highly successful group of Murray, Djokovic, Nadal, and del Potro--were going to come from Ryan Harrison, Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, and Bernard Tomic. Of the four, it turns out only Raonic has made significant leaps and is likely to be the
How do you measure the "greatest of all time"? Some would say, if you could transport all the players in time and have them compete against each other, who would win. That would favor modern players who hit harder than ever before. Heck, even a relatively unknown Gilles Simon would probably easily beat a Don
I often credit Ivan Lendl with being the father of modern tennis. He did so many things that influenced how today's game is played from his meticulous planning to his diet to having freshly strung racquets that he would change every ball change. In a day and age where men's tennis was all about who
I'm not the kind of person that likes to predict Slams. These tend to be "wish for" exercises. You never know when, say, Rafael Nadal will get injured, and then all your Slam predictions go bye-bye. Instead, I'll try to look at the form of the top few players. Novak Djokovic 2011 was a great
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
