It was a titanic battle that ebbed and flowed like the sea. Fitting for two Gods of the tennis court. Nadal started in positive style while Djokovic looked remarkably subdued. People started whispering about his tender wrist. The Spaniard went up 4-1 before something sparked to life inside of the Serb and he came back firing winners. Suddenly the score was 3-4 0-40 = three break-back points to level the …
Roland Garros
The battle that was on display between Nadal and Djokovic yesterday and which ended in the fifth hour with: 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-7 9-7 in the favor of Nadal – is hard to put into words. The match had everything. Fantastic points, high drama, nerves, comebacks, and brute physicality. It was another classic in their rivalry. In the end, Nadal had the edge of being (almost) unbeatable at Roland Garros …
I wrote a little letter to Mr Roland Garros today. It asked the question Why They Don’t Use Hawk-Eye On Clay. I’m not sure they have an answer. Below you find the letter. Dear Mr. Roland Garros, You run a great and noble tournament, but to be honest with you I’ve seen too many matches with unclear calls being debated by the players and the umpire. Tradition can’t keep the …
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 might sound like a weird headline to you, but there were quite a few upsets in Rome Masters today. Since it’s popular to use lists I will rank them here: Drumrolll……. Upset 1: Andy “Muzza” Murray lost to Granola Bar (Granollers) after being down 6-4 4-1, getting treatment and making it back to a tie-break, winning the tie-break and then quitting the match. Apparently he has some hip problems. Not …
It was never in doubt was it? (Okay, maybe at 15-30 against Ferrer). Rafa was going to take his fifth title of the year in seven tries (two finals) since his injury time-out. The king of clay was simply too good against a slightly nervous or tired Stan “the Man” Wavrinka today in the Madrid Open final and rolled over the Swiss by 6-2 6-4. Going into Rome and then …
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 …
That’s the sem-final line-up of Roland Garros. Not a very surprising one either, three top players in the world and I would put Ferrer as number 4 when it comes to clay court tennis (#6 in the overall rankings). We start tomorrow’s play with Nadal vs Ferrer. Like I wrote in my previous post, Nadal looks absolutely unbeatable. He’s moving fantastically, the courts are slower which allows him time to …
We are soon at the quarter-final stage of Roland Garros and right now I can only see one winner, Rafael Nadal. Djokovic looked awfully off his game last night against Seppi and was grumbling like back in the old days of being “only” #3 in the world. The conditions were tough and Seppi was really playing great tennis; not going for the lines but just being solid and consistent and …
He was the favorite and he took on the expectations and met them. But it was close, so close. In a nail-biting almost six hour long match Djokovic managed to serve out the fifth set 7-5, making the final scoreline 6-7 6-2 6-4 6-7 7-5. After losing six straight finals to Djokovic there was no doubt that he was the underdog for this encounter. Djokovic has undoubtedly all the weapons to beat Nadal …