There was a brief period, sometime around 2003, when Andy Roddick must have felt he was escaping from Pete Sampras's long shadow, that he would be the American heir apparent, the next in a long line of American tennis players that had dominated world tennis since the early 1990s. Little would he know that this
The score says 63 64. This would show a comfortable win over a difficult opponent. It looks like one break a set, but it was actually four breaks, two in the first, two in the second, with Rafa getting one break back in each set. The match was delayed a few hours because of rain
Not going to say too much here, but that when you have a big serve and can hit big off the ground, you give yourself a chance. Isner has improved his ability to run down shots. One difference between Isner and Querrey is Isner's fight. He can hit big when he needs to. Djokovic wasn't
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
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
