Federer certainly wasn't favored reaching the final. He played better in Rome than he did in Madrid, but struggled a bit against Paire in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Nadal had upped the level of aggression in his own game. While Nadal would never admit that he looks past Federer, he knows the kind of game to
Stan Wawirnka had come into the finals playing some of the best tennis in his life. But there were signs that maybe he wasn't ready to take on the king of clay. Wawrinka won Portugal last week, so he's been playing almost two consecutive weeks of tennis. Once upon a time, a player like Guillermo
In a way, Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka are similar. Both had some success when they were young. Berdych upset Roger Federer back in the 2004 Olympics when no one knew who Berdych was. Despite his talent, he struggled to make consistent results. 2010 was a huge year for him. There, he made a run
Yes, yes, Rafa made the semis, but technically, he's the number 5 player in the world. And what a match. Despite the best start of his career, Rafa would tell you that he's not playing his best tennis, and he started off poorly against David Ferrer who was only too happy to take advantage. Most
There's no particular reason why Murray or Simon can't be better on clay. Simon, at the very least, has won tournaments on clay, despite a style that is relatively flat. One reason Simon has won titles on the red dirt--he plays the smaller events. Murray's clay season is 4 titles long. Once Wimbledon is over,
Baby anything is a hard thing to live up to. Baby Jordan? Remember him? Harold Miner. Yeah, not much of a career. Certainly not even close to Baby Jordan. You could put 100 players between Harold Miner and Michael Jordan and that wouldn't scratch the surface of how far apart these two players were. Grigor
Poor Stan Wawrinka. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Stan Wawrinka played two epic matches this year and came up second. In what most experts considered the best match of the Australian Open, Stan Wawrinka pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets. He came out of the gates fast, but then had to hold on for
You know it's the 2010's. Back in 2001, Federer beat Sampras at Wimbledon, their only meeting. Federer was a teenager, and such upsets were often caused by teenagers on the rise. Today, there are no bright teens waiting to upset the top players. In 2012, Lukas Rosol upset Rafael Nadal in the second round of
Perhaps it was the rain that delayed the match for an hour, dampening the court, making it bounce low, so even Nadal's typical high loopers weren't kicking as high. Perhaps it was because Nadal still isn't feeling at the top of his game despite having his best start to the year (at admittedly subpar tournaments
Things are different in 2013 from where they were in 2011 and 2012 at the same time. In 2011, Djokovic opted to skip Monte Carlo and played in Serbia first (the week after Monte Carlo). He was undefeated, but despite two victories over Rafa in Indian Wells and Miami, the pundits were taking a wait
