Djokovic wasn’t as impressive as we’ve seen him so far and always seems to annoyed with the courts/shoes at RG. Bad omen? Still won in three, which shows how much we expect from him. Nadal lacks the depth on his balls, I mean shots, this is the main difference from the Nadal of 2010 for example. With the kind of intensity gone that he’s been famous for, it’s hard to see him as a favourite. But we all love a fighter. Federer hit a double-handed backhand in round 2 against Granollers and won the point. This guy knows his way …
Dimitrov
It’s simple math. Two tournaments = two winners and in Barcelona and Bucharest we, not surprisingly (if you count on Nadal’s loss to Almagro of course!), had two young guys knocking on the top 10 door, Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishkori. Nishikori jumps up to 12th place now and Dimitrov to the 13th. Well-deserved for the future in tennis and two talented and hard-working guys. Check out the rankings on the ATP World Tour website. Winner quotes: Dimitrov: “It feels good to have won. I lifted my game, not having been happy with my previous matches in the tournament. I …
Not many hours have passed since Monte Carlo Masters shut its doors for this year before we look ahead to the next couple of ATP Tournaments – ATP Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy. These are the matches we can look forward to today with my picks in bold! ATP Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell Who’s playing: Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori, Tommy Robredo, Nicolas Almagro, Jerzy Janowicz, Alexandr Dolgopolov Pick to win: Rafael Nadal (oooh, risky prediction!) Find the draw here. SCHEDULE – MONDAY, 21 APRIL 2014 PISTA CENTRAL start 11:00 am [WC] D …
After a tough Davis Cup weekend where Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic and France emerged as winners and semi-finalists, we’re ready for perhaps the most exciting “season” in tennis – the red dirt. There’s something magical about the spring and clay court tennis. Add that together with classic tennis grounds like Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros, and you have the best feeling in tennis. Looking ahead, we have the usual list of title contenders, well, it’s actually a very short list consisting of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Yes, it’s hard to see how anyone else would be able to …
Thanks to the brilliant site Roger Federer Fans there are some cool videos of Federer practising at Indian Wells. He starts his tournament tomorrow. The first one is a session with another favorite – Grigor Dimitrov and the second one with Tommy Haas. One-handed backhands for the win! I’m still extremely curious about the specifications for Federer’s new blacked-out racket. Will this be a Blade Series or a Pro Staff like before? No matter what, Wilson will sell tons of these once they hit the stores. Get your tennis racket at Tennis Express (affiliate link) On another note, it’s always …
Week 42 brought out three winners on the ATP Tour. Three players with interesting styles and an ability to hit wonderful winners from pretty much anywhere on court: Grigor Dimitrov, Richard Gasquet and Tommy Haas. It was nice to see Haas win in Vienna, a title he won in 2001 (!). Talk about making an amazing comeback from the injuries that have plagued a long stretch of his career. Now he’s even in the race, albeit barely, for the ATP World Tour Finals. Another guy who has just made a play for The World Tour Finals is Richard Gasquet, who …
The ATP Tour has moved to Rome and fitting of the world’s style capital (Romans are the most show-offy people in the world in my opinion – in a good way) most of the talk today was about Federer’s new haircut. Being a big fan of Federer, I take notice of these changes while part of me wants to scream – get on with your lives, it’s a haircut! But even the smallest features of the famous makes headlines so I shouldn’t be surprised. What should have received a headline of some kind was Federer’s play against Italian Potato Starch (his …
What a line-up we have at Madrid Open (formerly Madrid Masters) today. We have lots of top players in action, Nadal, Federer, Murray Ferrer, Berdych, Tsonga, to name a few. The most interesting match-ups in my mind is another battle of the double-handed backhanders (yesterday we had Tommy Robredo vs Tommy Haas in a well-played match) with young hot-shot Grigor Dimitrov taking on Stanislas Wavrinka, in-form Tommy Haas playing clay-demon David Ferrer and hard-hitters Verdasco and Tsonga pairing up in a heavyweight contest. Federer and Nadal are also playing of course, but as a heavy favorites. Murray and Simon will …
The first week of Wimbledon has passed and on the tennis free Sunday I will try to summarize some of the highlights or insights I’ve gathered in the first week with a dash of humor –  the Tennisnerd way. Rosol who? We who follow tennis knows how hard it is to play the match of your life, upset a better player and come back for the next round with your A-game. Lukas Rosol who managed the biggest Wimbledon upset in a long time by beating Rafael Nadal in round two, became another example of this in his straight set loss to “Coalwriter” Philipp …
Tennis can be such a beautiful sport and show such grace and humility and sportsmanship even after a long and consuming match. Just watch this clip for some fantastic rallies and a nice end that shows that after all, it’s just a sport. I hope both Tsonga and Dimitrov goes on to do well in this year’s Wimbledon.