It wasn’t slaughter, but it did show, clearly, who is the best clay courter of all time. Rafael Nadal couldn’t put a foot wrong against Robin Soderling in today’s French Open final. It was brutal at times, but the biggest problem for the Swede was that he couldn’t capitalize on any of his many break point opportunities. If you can’t win the big points, then you have simply no chance …
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federer
After a rain-filled yesterday, the matches today have been of extremely high class. Some highlights and thoughts: I am happy short Italian Fognini beat Monfils after that darkness debacle. They should have stopped at 4-4. You can’t play if you can’t see the ball. But Monfils got the crowd all wired up and they started booing at Fognini for every point he won. It was a weird match that ended …
The biggest clay tournament of the year is on and if day 1 wasn’t that exciting to be honest, day nr 2 is something completely different. Firstly we saw Roger Federer win quite easily against Peter Luczak. Federer wasn’t fedtastic, but he definitely was on cruise control and didn’t lose his serve once and only faced one break point. A good omen for things to come. Federer will definitely be …
I recently ordered three tennis-related items. The DVDs for the Wimbledon finals 2008 and  2009 and L Jon Wertheim critically acclaimed book about the 2008 final called Strokes of Genius, Federer v Nadal, Rivals in Greatness. I started out by watching the Roddick vs Federer final from 2009 and is struck, because I was too nervous watching it when it happened to analyze, the old school shortness of the rallies. …
I am happy to announce that I was right in all my quarter-final bets/semi-final picks for the Madrid Masters. Federer managed to fight back after being a set behind against Gulbis. He looks more mentally ready now and seems to have that button he can switch on and off when a slam is drawing near. He is also lucky to play Ferrer in the semi. Ferrer is of course dangerous, …
I guess that is what many of us Federer fans feel like. This losing thing has to stop! It is not only masters anymore, I feel that that record of a gazillion straight semi-finals is in very grave danger for the French. You can not only see it in the attitude, he is really not playing well and he is playing even worse at the key moments in a match. …
Being a huge fan of Federer and his fluid, cat-like movement, and his liquid-whip forehand, I of course wanted to play with the same racket as him. So I went out and ordered the Wilson K-factor (the previous technology, now it is BLX) Six.One. On the first hit I noticed several things. The racket is pretty heavy to swing and as the head (“90) is very small you will frame …
I love the one-handed backhand. It is a beautiful stroke and great players can make it look effortless. Among the strongest on the tour are Gasquet, Justin-Henin (WTA, but who cares, it is spectacular), Olivier Rochus, Federer, Wavrinka, Ljubicic, Kohlschreiber and I probably forget someone. Sadly, I can’t hit it as well myself but today I could look forward to two backhand greats in Olivier Rochus and Richard Gasquet battle …
When Federer won his 15th slam in the 2009 Wimbledon final I thought I would be more thrilled. But it was bittersweet. Andy Roddick is not the most versatile player, he is not always an entertaining player to watch, but man this guy got heart! And some hearts he won as well after losing an epic five-setter against the greatest player ever by 5-7, 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 3-6, 16-14. Now I …
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