What happened? Bad day at the office? Rough night? What kind of excuse could Nadal (2 in the world) and Murray (4 in the world) possibly invent to explain such miserable performances away. Well, in reality they don’t need any. We should be surprised that they win as many matches as they do in such a tough, competitive and injury-prone sport such as tennis. We never marvel when they pull off hard-fought wins, but we complain when they are beaten by guys who are good and can play with absolutely no pressure. Both Ivan Dodig and Kevin Anderson are very …
Here are the amazing matches to look forward to today: Murray vs Gasquet – I think Murray is too good and Gasquet will surely get a flashback from being 2-0 sets up and serving for the match a few years ago. Gasquet has improved, but Murray looks determined to go far this Wimbledon. Nadal vs Del Potro – Match-up of the day. Can Del Potro’s ball-busting strokes knock Nadal off balance or his the defending champion too strong? If this was hard court I would place a bet on Delpo, but considering his Bambi-like movement on grass, I don’t see …
Yes, even a tennis crazy blogger needs to have a break from time to time. I will be back on Friday so please be patient! Maybe I’ll throw in a tweet or three @tennisnerdnet so make sure you follow me on Twitter. By the way, Nadal was beaten today by Tsonga in Queens and maybe it was a relief for the Spaniard. He sure needs some rest before Wimbledon. Also, Big Congrats to James Ward getting ready for his first ATP semifinal against Tsonga! See you soon tennis lovers! Wimbledon is near!
Yes, Nadal showed his dedication to the sport and to his career by coming to Queens despite and exhausting French Open. It’s more important for Nadal to get a lot of practice and matches under his belt, than it is for Federer. Federer tries to keep the body fit, chooses his tournaments carefully and that’s probably one of the reasons he hasn’t missed from a Grand Slam in many, many years (ever?). This approach show how different the two legends are and that of course makes their rivalry and their quest for the GOAT title even more interesting. Today he …
We are usually quite obsessed with working on our weaknesses. We want to improve shots we don’t feel very confident in, we want to hit that backhand technically correct, we want the volley to feel confident, we would like to add those extra miles per hour on the serve. This is all good. But sometimes we forget that when match play comes around we need to focus on our strengths. If you have played tennis for many years and feel really uncomfortable hitting for example a drive backhand despite hours of coaching, then try to avoid hitting so many drive …
Today is the first official day of the 2011 grass court season and it’s not a bad one. The two main warm up events for Wimbledon are as usual Queens and Halle. The big question is of course which stars will come to play after a long and testing French Open, Federer (Halle), Nadal (Queens) especially. But even if they don’t participate we should be in for quite a treat. The first day action offers: Nieminen vs Lu – Â Lu had an amazing Wimbledon last year, but we haven’t seen much good from either player of late. I would say …
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 …
And so here it is, the match we’ve been waiting for, another grand slam final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. In some way this final feels different then the previous ones, especially since they played their last GS final against each other in the 2009 Australian Open 2,5 years ago. A lot has happened since then. Djokovic has showed he’s probably the best player in the world right now. Federer has won the French Open and reached 16 Grand Slam titles. Nadal has proven that he wants to be in the GOAT discussion by making a career slam and winning 9 …
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 …
