Rewind the clock back to 2001, in the fourth round of Wimbledon, and you may recall a match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. By today's standards, it was a strange match. Both men served and volleyed extensively. Pete did so because his body couldn't take the pounding of playing at the baseline for any
The last three matches of the day were all pretty tough. Gilles Simon kept even in the first set, but ran away with the first set tiebreak over Ryan Harrison as Harrison got frustrated. He was up 5-2 in the second set, but Harrison won a series of games and took the second set. Because
Of the top four, Nadal has looked the most solid. In three matches, he has not dropped a set, and most of the wins have been comfortable. Dolgopolov was expected to be a tough guy to play. With his change of pace and big forehand, Dolgopolov troubles many opponents. But he produced too many errors
The top half of the draw played yesterday. Djokovic apparently has several Facebook accounts, one of which may not be accurate. In one, he said he was dropping out of Indian Wells and heading to Miami. In the other (and apparently, the official one), he was ready to head to court. And that he
With a bug going around at Indian Wells, players are trying to stay healthy. Federer apparently has some combination of a cold and flu, but it didn't affect the results against rising talent, Denis Kudla, who he beat 64 61. Kudla is a contemporary of Jack Sock (the two played as juniors). This was his
The last two years, Andy Murray went into a funk, after losing in the finals of the Australian Open. In 2010, he lost to Federer in the finals, then skipped Marseille, lost in Dubai to Tipsarevic. He did OK in Indian Wells, losing to Soderling in the quarterfinals, but lost early to Mardy Fish in
This time, del Potro kept the match close. In Rotterdam, Federer got out to a fast lead then had to hold in the second set to beat the resurgent Argentine. In the semis, del Potro kept toe-to-toe with Federer. Fed was actually doing a much better job of holding his serve, nary seeing a break
The two kept even early on at 2-all. But that was as far as it would go, as Murray went on fire the rest of the set. Neither Murray nor Djokovic had played exceptionally well to get to this point. Murray, in particular, had seemed a bit nervous in an effort to close his match
The nine Masters 1000 has been shuffled around a few times, but the Paris Indoors has been a mainstay of this series. It's also been a tough one for the big names to win. Murray has never won it. Nadal has never won it. Federer has never won it. Indeed, of the three, only Nadal
When you watch a match like Federer vs. Berdych, today's semifinals, you see how each player works the strengths and weaknesses of the other player. Let's start with Berdych. Berdych has a pretty big serve, but his strength is his forehand. He hits one of the hardest, yet most effortless forehands. He can hit it
