Paolo Lorenzi is no young'un on the tour. The Italian is about to turn 31 which means he's around the same age as Roger Federer. He's generally not done well enough to get out of qualifiers, but 2012 has been good to him. His rank has given him enough to get into the main draw.
What a difference a year makes. Last year, Donald Young was on something of a roll. He reached the semis of Washington DC. He reached the fourth round of the US Open. His ranking was high enough that he could skip Challenger events. However, rather than continue on that win streak, Young's career went into
Ricardas Berankis, formerly Richard Berankis, is one of those players that are almost mentioned with the next group of up-and-comers which include Bernard Tomic, Milos Raonic, Ryan Harrison, and Grigor Dimitrov. However, Berankis, much like Dimitrov, has never had a great result. With the Los Angeles field decimated by the Olympics, it was 50th ranked
There are players on tour that have been there for some number of years. Not everyone who plays pro tennis hoists trophies week after week. Some labor even when titles are scarce. After all, they are still among the top 100 or so players in the world. More than ten years ago, Gilles Muller, from
Julien Benneteau has been on the tour a while. He joined the tour back in 2000, making it his 11th year on tour. His ranking is normally around the top 40. He played a few doubles ties in Davis Cup with Michael Llodra. His ranking has slipped some, and now he's 113. It's so low
It may have been prophetic. Novak Djokovic was playing a match against Tomas Berdych. Berdych has secured a break in the middle of the first set on the heels of an amazing point. Although Berdych held to lead 5-3, it would be the last game he would win. Four games later, Novak Djokovic claimed the
And then there was four. At the beginning of the tournament, there was some hope that the top four seeds might make it to the semifinals. Such occurrences are rare enough. There were question marks hanging over the heads of 3 of the top 4 players who lost early in Montreal. With the loss of
It seemed like a danger sign, didn't it? Tomas Berdych dispatched of Nicolas Almagro, 6-2, 6-2. Almagro is no chump. He's had one of his best years. But Berdych is a player when he's on, and that's rare, he may be the most talented pure hitter on the planet. Alas, he's not usually on, and
Beating Nadal is no easy task. He can come back from a grinding match like he did against Verdacso and come back fresh as a daisy the following day. Mardy Fish, who is having his best summer ever, wasn't about to believe that Nadal was going to roll over. As he headed out onto court,
