The odds-on favorite to win London has to be Novak Djokovic. Unlike last year, where the brutal final between him and Nadal resulted in Djokovic getting hurt, and then not having much to give the rest of the year, Djokovic has been a lot fresher. Perhaps the sting of not winning any Olympic medal or
Surely, David Ferrer had to wonder if this day would ever come. At 30 years of age, Ferrer has been toiling on the tour for some time. Ferrer's career started its upward trend back in 2010 when he won two titles but reached three additional finals. Ferrer has been an incredibly solid top 5 player
This was the first real match that I've seen Janowicz play. My first mental note was: this guy hits a lot of drop shots for a big guy. Janowicz stands at 6'8" in the rare air of Isner, Karlovic, and Anderson. I amended that note: this guy hits a lot of drop shots for anyone.
Ah, puns. When the ATP Tour decided that pros needed more rest in the off season, they removed the week between Paris (Indoors) and London (World Tour Finals). Surely, organizers had to realize that such a move would create a bit of havoc with the schedule--and it has. Djokovic lost in his opening round. Murray
Male players had been clamoring for a longer off-season. The women just had their championship conclude the past week, so they are, for the most part, done (oddly enough, they run additional tournaments after the year-end championship). The ATP has to placate many tournament organizers who like hosting a world-class event. While tennis pundits (looking
When they decided to remove the week between Paris and London, you knew that odds were that the top 8 players would not be completely motivated to win Paris, especially, the top 4. Of course, Nadal has already decided to take the rest of the year off to recover, so he was a no-show regardless.
Let's rewind the clock some--back to 2008. 2008 was the year of the previous Olympics, back in Beijing. Andy Roddick decided not to play the Olympics that year, hoping that he could do well in the US Open series with a depleted field due to the Olympics. Heading into Los Angeles, he reached the finals
No, Ferrero did not simply retire. He had long since decided to retire at Valencia where he and David Ferrer partly own the tournament. Ferrero was part of the Federer generation, the players that followed Agassi and Sampras and hung around a few years before Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray came up the ranks. Like Hewitt
After this match, you have to say Djokovic and Murray are the two best returners in the sport. In the first set alone, of 5 games Djokovic won, 3 were breaks of serve and two were holds. Murray won 4 breaks of serve and held 3 times. Both served under 60% first serve and were
In many ways, this final has similarities to the US Open final minus the wind. Novak Djokovic strolled to the finals without struggling too badly. Given his form heading into the finals, he was favored over Murray who had yet to win his first Slam and had struggled in several of his matches--matches that went
