The first two Masters 1000 events of the year are held in the US, first in Indian Wells, then in Miami. Both are week and a half events. After that, every Masters 1000 event is played in a one week tournament. We move to the clay of Europe and the opening tournament is Monte Carlo,
My thinking was, despite Djokovic's win-streak, Nadal gave him all he could handle in Indian Wells. If Nadal's serve hadn't given out on him, Djokovic's streak might already have ended. To counter Djokovic, Nadal went for big serves and big groundies in the first set and it worked. Djokovic struggled to keep up. But, by
The count is 24 and running. Novak Djokovic is still on his winning streak although the world number 1 gave him all he could handle. This was exactly the kind of match that Djokovic would have had issues with even a year ago. The warm Miami weather. The slow conditions. The humidity. Everything seemed to
Roger Federer hates reporters at moments like this. Are you slipping? Will you ever win another major again? Can you beat Nadal and Djokovic again? Federer always gives the same answers. He's feeling good. He expects to play 5 more years. Stop asking him these questions. Fans of Roger Federer are so used to seeing
It was close for a game. Federer played aggressive and held his own serve. But as Nadal is wont to do, he made it tough for Federer to make a dent on his serve. Federer would lose his next serve as he tried to be aggressive but kept making too many errors. Federer seemed frustrated
Berdych served as spoiler at Wimbledon when he beat Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He was hoping to do it again against Nadal. Initially, it didn't seem like it would go that direction with Nadal dominating the first set with a 6-2 win. Nadal's focus dropped some as Berdych also played more aggressive tennis and
The weather was windy and Simon wasn't sure he wanted to be on the court. Simon had given Federer all he could handle in a five set match in Australia, but today, he went down two breaks and said he couldn't play. Apparently Fed's previous match against Rochus started very late, but that was 2
Andy Roddick gets plenty of criticism. Americans, after all, have been spoiled by the success of Americans. In the 1970s, there was Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe. Then, it was Jimmy Connors, then John McEnroe. Just when Americans were fretting that there was no one to replace these two icons. American tennis reached its zenith
Sports fans have short memories. They believe the results of the last week should matter more than the results of a year ago. Alas, the men's tennis rankings say otherwise. The ranking is a culmination of a year's work. If you played fantastic a year ago, your rankings will reflect this. Part of Soderling's lofty
Still the early rounds going on. Nadal, who rarely loses to fellow Spaniards (although he did lose to Lopez at Queen's last year and to Garcia-Lopez in Bangkok--something about that Lopez name, I guess) faced fellow lefty, Feliciano Lopez. This was a routine 6-3, 6-3 win. Federer had a tougher match, requiring a 6-4, 7-6
