Being spoiled with the era of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – I’m worried that the coming generation won’t be up to the same standard. I know it’s almost impossible to reach the drama of the last 8-9 years, but I want to keep watching tennis and I want to enjoy it to the max. Federer drew me back to the game after a stint of disenchantment and I would …
GOAT stands for Greatest Player of All Time and the discussion of who can rightfully claim that “title”. Since Federer holds many of the records, especially the heaviest one with 17 Grand Slam titles, most people seem to think that he deserves the GOAT distinction, but when he keeps losing to Nadal and Nadal keeps winning title after title, the discussion starts again. The facts are (Federer first, Nadal second): …
I had high hopes for the Rome final. Federer had looked good all tournament and not dropped a set and was about to commence batte for his first Rome title ever and Nadal had had some problems, especially with Gulbis. It should be a pretty even match, I thought. In my stupidity. In a one-sided affair similar of the Roland Garros final in 2008, Nadal washed over Federer’s backhand like …
It feels like a deserving duo in the Madrid Open final. Wavrinka has played amazing tennis of late, he won Portugal Open, beating Ferrer in the final and yesterday he came back from a break down in the final set to defeat Berdych 6-3 4-6 6-4. Nadal, well what can you say? He has played seven tournaments since his long injury time-out and he’s been in seven finals. A stunning …
David Ferrer played a great match against Rafael Nadal yesterday in the quarterfinals of Madrid Open. He hit the ball aggressively, used his backhand up the line to great effect and managed to get a lead of 6-4 4-2. Then something happened. Nerves, doubts, you name it. Nadal broke back to love and managed to level the match at 4-4. Nadal then broke Ferrer and was serving for set at …
I don’t want to be a grouch, but the above is not really the most exciting line-up for the Madrid Open Quarterfinals. The absence of Djokovic and Federer stand out as glaring holes and personally I would have liked Haas and Dimitrov to beautify the draw with their all-court games and one-handed backhands. But enough whining. We still have some great matches to look forward to. My pick for the …
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 …
I rarely want to write about the same player two times in a row, but I have just watched the conclusion of the first set of Almagro vs Nadal in ATP Barcelona. It was such a typical “Nadal set of tennis”. Let me tell you why. Nadal rarely comes out of the starting blocks strongly against good players. He’s probably nervous. And in Barcelona Almagro came out firing all cylinders …
Exactly how it happens we will never know. It was just one of those days when almost every shot you hit feels so, so good and somehow manages to catch the line. World #100 Lukas Rosol had the day of his life and #2 Rafael Nadal had his worst Grand Slam performance in seven years, resulting in a 6-7 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 win to Rosol. What impressed me the …
It wasn’t pretty, it was gritty. The rain ruined the rhythm of the players and the history of the moment made their nerves dangle like telephone cables in a storm. Nadal came out of the start blocks like a super-doped 100 meter runner, rushing off to 3-0 in the first set, but then the monster in his head called Novak started roaring and he got back to 3-3. The match …
