Been too busy to blog, but still some activity on Twitter! (Check it out and follow). To summarize my thoughts of the day so far: Have a hard time seeing Murray go very far in Cincinnati. He looks a bit uninterested. Maybe 2012 will be the year he gets it all together. Most improved player in 2011? @mardyfish – no question about it. Taking your physique and your game seriously is key. A true role model! Tough loss for Dimitrov against Ferrer, playing well, but forehand is lacking a bit of Federeresque zip. Major talent tho! Hard to see anyone …
djokovic
I’m not going into a detailed analysis of each section of the draw and I’m not going to predict every match, but I’m going to touch on what I see could be key points in the Wimbledon Draw this year. The Wimbledon draw threw us an interesting surprise in giving us a re-run of Mahut vs Isner. I think the hype about this match is about much, especially since I don’t see how it can resemble the affair of last year. This time we might have three straights to Isner for example. But if both players serve as well and …
It was excruciating at times for Federer fans such as myself, but in the end you just had to give it to Nadal who was too good on the most important points and at times played his very best clay court tennis in his 7-5 7-6 5-7 6-1 victory. But it was Federer who took the lead early, first at 3-0, then with set points at 5-2, serving for the set at 5-3, before Nadal won seven straight games to lead 7-5 2-0. Nadal was tentative in the beginning and made a few rare unforced errors while on the other …
People were talking, writing, twittering and commenting on Rafa’s lack of confidence in his matches. Balls were landing short, he was making unforced errors, and he looked completely out of sorts. But not yesterday against Robin Soderling, yesterday we saw the real Rafa, hitting winners of his backfoot, doing bicep pirouettes and forehand winners down the line. He looked super-focused and for the first time this tournament really motivated to play his best. Maybe he got tired of the talk about his lack of form (party spurred on by his own comments), maybe he just dislikes Soderling and wanted to …
While people were talking about Djokovic‘s fantastic streak and Nadal‘s lack of confidence, Roger Federer found his form and has now won all his matches on the road to the semi-final without losing a set. This should be a slight warning to Djokovic. The Serb is also bound to be a little nervous as he for once is the favorite and has a lot more on the line than Federer. If Djokovic wins he will be the number one player in the world and play his first Roland Garros final. In the final the winner of the Djokovic vs Federer …
Today we only have two men’s matches to look forward to, the final set of the Murray vs Troicki match and the big excitement and crowd pleaser of the day, Roger Federer vs Gael Monfils. Monfils might very well be playing the best and most solid tennis of his life, but is it enough against the Swiss maestro who looks more inspired than in a long, long time? Federer leads their head to head 5-1 but the last match they played was in Paris 2010 (indoors) and Monfils won it in three tight tiebreak sets. This together with the strong …
Yes, today at Roland Garros it was pretty much business as usual. At least for five time champion and world number one Rafael Nadal who won his match against Antonio Veic, losing only four games. Djokovic vs Del Potro was resumed and Djokovic resumed business being the invincible man and won today’s two sets 6-3 6-2 against a seemingly frustrated Del Potro. It’s hard to see how anyone except for Nadal can stop Djokovic in this tournament. Soderling and Simon both won their matches in straights and looked pretty impressive, but although they are both in good form it’s hard …
It was a slightly strange day at Roland Garros. It started in a pretty normal fashion though with the Fed Expess rolling through Tipsarevic in routine style, 6-1 6-4 6-3 and sending a small warning to Djokovic and Nadal that he’s in Grand slam mood. Clay court demon David Ferrer is another threat. He destroyed a tired Stakhovsky 6-1 6-1 6-3 and if I remember correctly has yet to lose serve. He can surely mix it up against both Federer and Djokovic although Nadal should have him pretty much figured out by now. The French hopes Gasquet and Tsonga looked to …
Most people probably thought it would be easy for Nadal to beat his compatriot Andujar, but tricky windy conditions together with great resistance and aggressive play from Andujar made the three setter a whole lot tougher than predicted. Andujar was attacking Nadal and although the world number one managed to win the first two sets, he was down 5-1 in the third. Then Nadal launched his famous fighting skills and together with Andujar’s nervousness he managed to win the third set in a tie-break. Nadal has now had to fight quite hard in both his opening matches which should have …
It was a bit like the slow start on Sunday and not a very eventful day at Roland Garros, but at least we got to see three of the top names in action. Federer made it look easy against French qualifier Texeira and after an inspired start from the Frenchman made it clear that he’s still one of the most elegant and forceful players. Scoreline: 6-3 6-0 6-2. Djokovic cruised through Hanescu who had to retire early in the third set. The Djoker will now play Del Potro who also won in three straight sets today. This match will be …