Is it worth playing a tennis tournament the week before a Slam? One player that has a habit of playing up to a Slam is Fernando Verdasco. Last year, Verdasco played the Pilot Pen Classic the week before the US Open and beat Sam Querrey to win the title. He reached the quarterfinals of the
Most of the top pros like to spend the week before a Slam putting in last minute prep work. For example, Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic are not playing this week. However, there's almost always a tournament that is played the week before a Slam because some pros want match practice all the way up
I'll do one preview now and maybe a modified preview once the draw is out. This preview is primarily based on how players are playing now. Let's start with the top contenders for the French Open. Favorites Rafael Nadal You have to give Rafa the nod heading into the French. Although there were some issues
Oh Roger, how could we doubt you? Just because you've been mishitting balls since Indian Wells, and then Miami, and then Rome, and then Estoril. You kept telling us "everything is fine--I'm having good practices", telling us not to panic. But how were we to know? If you could play like today, then what was
There's only been a handful of players that have pulled off the Nadal-Federer double, that is, to beat both at the same tournament. They include David Nalbandian, Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Martin del Potro, and Novak Djokovic. The two play such disparate styles that beating both is a task. And yet, the most shocking person that
It was only two weeks ago when Verdasco decimated Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semifinals, 6-2, 6-2. Djokovic promised that he would acquit himself better this time around. And so, Djokovic did, but the second hottest player on the clay circuit, Fernando Verdasco, still won, in a 3 hour plus match. Verdasco has taken a
It used to be a spring ritual. When the tour headed to Europe on a 7 week clay excursion, most players were playing for second place. Rafael Nadal would typically play four clay events heading into the French: Monte Carlo (an optional Masters 1000), Barcelona, Rome, and Madrid (this used to be Hamburg, until Hamburg
Fernando Verdasco, who reached his first Master 1000 semis last week in Monte Carlo, continues to play well in Barcelona. Verdasco, apparently, had not planned to play Barcelona but was given a wildcard. He faced talented but erratic, Ernests Gulbis, in the quarter finals and won, 6-2, 7-6(4). Gulbis has been having a solid, if
For those of you who doubted Nadal was back, he's back with a vengeance. Verdasco started off nervous, then had few answers for Nadal. Everytime he'd come back and tie things up, Nadal would win another point, get another break. Nadal wins over Verdasco, 6-0, 6-1. The question is how his form will hold up
I was perusing a website that was making predictions about the Monte Carlo semifinals which pitted Novak Djokovic against Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal against David Ferrer. The thinking went something like this. Given that Nadal had easily mowed through his first two rounds, dropping one game each, and given that he dropped 6 games
