Because of the Sunday start, the French Open's first round lasts 3 days. Wimbledon typically moves at a faster clip so they can give the middle Sunday as a break. Let's take a look at the seeds that have fallen. The top seed to lose was last year's semifinalist, Tomas Berdych. Although this is surprising,
Perhaps one player Roger Federer didn't want to see in the first round was Feliciano Lopez. Lopez pushed Federer to 3 tiebreaks in Madrid to win. Federer did have a break opportunity to take it in straight sets. Despite this, I figured Federer would feel more confident playing Lopez and not be as vulnerable to
Let's quickly review Day 1. The French Open is the only Slam that starts on a Sunday. Presumably, they do this to get three weekends in and make a bit more money. This year, they decided not to have any "top" pros play on Day 1. They also decided to switch balls to Babolat which
Let's take a quick look at the draw. Rafael Nadal starts off with big serving John Isner. Rafa should get through this round but Isner has weapons few other players do, which is a big serve. His speed (or lack thereof) will be an issue. I think Rafa gets through Isner just fine. It's tough,
Here's the problem with predicting French Open favorites. It's hard to make accurate predictions, at least based on recent performance. Let's look at last year. Last year, three players had a pretty good clay court season. Rafa won Monte Carlo, skipped Barcelona, won Rome, and won Madrid. He was the clear favorite to win the
In a post-match interview, John McEnroe asked if Rafa had played his best match of the year to beat Robin Soderling. Rafa said, no, it wasn't his best match. He thought he played better in Monte Carlo. Of course, announcers like McEnroe want answers that the best players play their best in the biggest spotlight.
They say Robin's most improved shot is his mind. But really, the all time champ is Rafa. Robin Soderling came out with a strategy to just pummel Rafa into the ground. It's a strategy that Almagro has used. It's a strategy Verdasco has used. But Rafa plays such amazing defense. With any other pro, this
Lleyton Hewitt was once asked who his tennis idol was. Rather than point to one of the numerous Aussies, many of whom had probably stopped playing by the time he was born, or even to players like Pat Cash, his role model was the Swede, Mats Wilander. Perhaps it made more sense, especially since Hewitt
For a while, the match was pretty much going the way everyone expected. Nadal won the first two sets 6-2, 6-3 as Melzer found out that Nadal hits harder than Djokovic, and the shots he was making against the Serb were suddenly missing. Nadal also got up a break in the third set, and it
You'd like a semifinal to be about great tennis, each player summoning reserves they never knew they had, making incredible shots. But tennis is such a solitary sport, and with such isolation, you have to deal with confidence. A 5 set match gives you time to work out some of those issues, and so there
