It can be a little deceptive to use a player's form heading into the US Open as a prediction of how the US Open will turn out. Let's take a look at last year's US Open and how various players did leading up to that point. Recall Roger Federer reached the finals of Toronto and
Wimbledon is a good time to take the temperature of tennis. It's about halfway through the tennis season, but because tennis is played mostly in the northern hemisphere and played mostly outdoors, it must usually be played in summertime or certainly late spring lest we subject our pros to cold and we prefer to subject
It's 2011, but the question has been asked of Roger Federer since 2008. Is Roger Federer in decline? The obvious answer is yes. Federer no longer dominates the calendar like he used to. In his heyday, Federer would lose maybe half a dozen times a year, and most of them to Nadal on clay. He
It's rare for anyone to pay attention to the rankings beyond the top 3 or 4. Djokovic is number 1 by far, then Nadal is 2 by far, then Federer is 3 by far. Then, Murray is number 4 by far. Each successive player is about 2000 points ahead of the next one. But peruse
For years, fans have complained about NBC's outdated method of showing the premier grass court Slam on TV. In the old days, which includes this year, NBC felt it was much more important to show the event when they wanted to show the event, and not live. Even as fans clamored for Wimbledon to be
Murray is perhaps the best player to employ a "Nadal strategy" that is significantly different from the way he normally plays. Nadal is one of the most difficult players to get off his rhythm. Bernard Tomic was able to rattle Djokovic some by hitting slices, off-pace shots, and combining that with hard-struck shots. It's arguable
When Wimbledon made its draw last Friday, two names appeared near one another: John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. What were the odds of that? Roughly speaking, less than 1%, but not much less. There were accusations that Wimbledon organizers rigged this, even though the draw was conducted in public (which would require some sleight of
HBO recently aired McEnroe/Borg: Fire and Ice. I started paying attention to tennis in my early teens at a pivotal time in tennis. The year was 1982. Borg had basically retired. McEnroe was the number one player. Two players were on the rise: Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander. One veteran continued to battle for Slams:
Even if Roger Federer thinks otherwise, Federer's game is currently behind Djokovic and Nadal. With Djokovic's loss, the big question is whether his mental toughness that kept him on this streak will last the rest of the year. Historically, the answer is yes. When McEnroe lost to Lendl in the 1984 French Open, he continued
OK, this is a theory and may not be completely valid, but I think Djokovic's transformation comes partly from learning how Davydenko beat Nadal. (For the curious, this was last year in London after a round-robin match. They swapped shirts like soccer teams often do). Up to Davydenko, the way to beat Nadal was to
