Perhaps Verdasco could have been forgiven for a loss to upstart Milos Raonic who made a splash with a fourth round appearance in the Australian Open as a qualifier. He had never played him before, and lost playing great service games, but was unable to win the tiebreaks, despite a 6-2 lead in the first
This one ended with a fan screaming during the serve causing Verdasco to miss the return. Even so, Raonic raised his hands in victory. Few people knew who Raonic was until the Aussie Open when he qualified then took an improbably trip to the fourth round only to lose to veteran, David Ferrer. It was
Robin Soderling, ranked number 4 in the world, reached that rank by playing consistently well in Slams and Masters 1000 events. He hasn't, however, won that many tournaments. Last year, he won Rotterdam (over Youzhny) and he won Paris. That was it. This year, barely a month into the new year, Soderling has won two
This is a bit of a surprise. del Potro already in the semifinals! Although Lleyton Hewitt is not quite the number 1 player he was a decade ago, he is still a guy that fights. But the one part of del Potro's game that contributed to his rise to the top 5 is also the
As we head into the second week of play, the top seeds continue to win. There's a decent chance that the top 8 seeds may reach the quarterfinals. The first player to finish his match at the bottom half of the draw was Novak Djokovic. He continues to have one of his easier runs to
After being pushed to 5 sets, Roger Federer got to play Xavier Malisse, someone Roger has known since he was a teenager. Roger has generally fared very well against his generation of players, whether it be Andy Roddick or Jurgen Melzer or Lleyton Hewitt or, indeed, Xavier Malisse. Although Malisse was able to break Federer
The big news is that Andy Murray, defending champ of Valencia, lost in 3 sets to Juan Monaco. Murray has lost to Monaco before, but on clay. He did mention that, due to his brother's wedding (last week), he wasn't as prepared as he had hoped to be. He is now pinning his hopes on
With the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals and the Davis Cup finals up ahead, the end of the men's tennis season is wrapping up very soon. This week, a pair of ATP 500 events are being played: Valencia (in Spain) and Basel (in Switzerland). Last year, Djokovic went on Federer's home tournament
Once you get to Labor Day, you move from the obligatory early round matches to the business end of a Slam. Those that want to seriously make a run need to get to Labor Day, when the fourth round begins. Let's begin with a quick recap of what happened so far. Among those coming in
The Spaniards may have fell by the wayside during Wimbledon (except, of course, Rafa), but they have come out in force at the US Open, and no more so fully than today. Let's start with Rafa Nadal. He played Gilles Simon. Simon has beaten Nadal before, but it was back in 2008 when Simon was
