The Millennial Tennis Blog

Nadal and Berdych stroll into the finals

2010-07-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

This makes for a very interesting Wimbledon final. Berdych, has continued, to defy the odds, by dethroning yet another top seeded player. This time in straight sets. I thought for sure Djokovic, would have finished him. Albeit probably in a close five setter. But it surprises me, to see Berdych, getting the better of the #2 and #3 ranked players in the world. I think in this case, it was Djokovic's, second serve that was his downfall. He had 8 double faults in the match and won only 42% of the points on his second serve. No where near good enough, for the later stages of a grand slam.

Berdych, did a very good job of consistently applying pressure to Djokovic through out the match. This was a well deserved victory for him.

The other semi-final, turned out to be fairly routine as well. Andy Murray, was attempting to become the first British man, in a billion years to reach the finals of Wimbledon and to his credit he played a solid match. He just got outplayed. Nadal's level was very, very good. Not up to his 2008 level, perhaps but still excellent. Rafa, got lucky in the tie-break, at 6-all. His return clipped the net and just barely tipped over. Making it impossible for Murray, to return it. This set up, a set point for Rafa, which he won and in doing so sealed Murray's fate.

Furious, over losing the second set, Murray, played the third set, with full aggression. Breaking Nadal straight away and giving the crowd, a slight hope of a comeback. Unfortunately, for Andy, he wasn't able to maintain that level long enough to serve out the set. Nadal got the break back, a few games later and then broke again one final time to win the match 6-4, 7-6(8), 6-4.

Now for the finals: I think Berdych's dream run, is going to come to an end. He's played great and deserves to have gotten this far. I don't see what advantage he has on Nadal, except for the serve. Both have great forehands, good backhands. Nadal is much better on the run and mentally stronger than Berdych in pivotal moments. I predict the finals will go to 4 and that Nadal will be the 2010 Wimbledon champion.

Wimbledon: Quarters

2010-07-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Federer is out. Can you believe it. For the first time in 8 years, there will be a Roger-free final at Wimbledon. Love him or hate him, this is going to be weird. It feels like Roger is as much a part of Wimbledon as the all white dress code, the strawberries & cream or the unpredictable weather. While, I'll miss watching Roger play for the title, it's also kind of refreshing to know that someone else is finally going to get a chance to win.

Berdych, has had a phenomenal year. For a guy that looked washed up when he was 23 years old, he's had quite the turn around. I'm very excited to see how he does against Novak, this should be a great match. I predict it'll go the full distance but I'm giving a slight edge to Nole. He's a little more familiar with the later stages of slams and it might give him enough of an edge that he'll pull it out. Again, I expect this will be very close.

Djokovic, beat out, Yen Hsun Lu, in a very easy straight setter to reach the semis. He's gone up several levels, since his first round struggles with Rochus.

Nadal, looked great against Soderling. Even though he lost the opening set, he was able to come back and tear right through Soderling, sending him packing with a breadstick (6-1.) Nice stuff, from Rafa. Going to be tough on Andy Murray, who was able to come through a relatively competitive quarter-final match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Intersting fact, is that despite the head-to-head being 7-3 in Nadal's favor. Murray holds even when playing Nadal in slams. Their record is 2-all.

So with only 4 players left in the draw it's time for me to make my pick for the finals.

I'm going with the top seeded Rafael Nadal to play Novak Djokovic, for the title.

Round of 16 at Wimbledon

2010-06-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I'm surprised that all 4 of the top seeds are through to the second week. These guys, have struggled and struggled, through their fare share of 5 setters, but they're all still alive and ready to go from the looks of things.

Nadal's match against Paul Henri-Mathieu, showed some noticeable improvements in the Spaniard's game. Rafa's forehand was very good this time around and he served into the 120s. He also, won 47% of the returns off Mathieu's serve. If there was one area that he could have improved, it would have been on converting the break points. Nadal, only managed to get 5 for 15, a good number but still a little lacking. He looks set for the quarters against Soderling, who was nearly beaten by Rafa's compatriot David Ferrer.

Ferrer, has never really done well on grass. In fact this was only the second time in his career, that he's reached the fourth round at Wimbledon. As for the match, he did a nice job playing against Soderling. When his first serve percentage was high, he was able to cruise through the match. His second serve was a different story though. He didn't put enough on the ball and allowed Soderling, to attack it with ease, which explains why Soderling broke him 6 times in the match. Robin, did get the win after 5 sets but I would have like to have seen a cleaner performance from him. His unforced were a bit too high today. He'll need to clean that up, if he wants to have a chance to beat Nadal in the quarters.

The biggest surprise of the day, turned out to be Andy Roddick's downfall at the hands of Yen-Hsun Lu. This, was the first time that I had ever seen Lu, play and while I admit his win was impressive and well deserved, it was also highly unexpected. Lu, doesn't have any real weapons, to threaten Roddick. He doesn't hit big, he doesn't serve hard, but he does play a very smart game. And when he see's an opportunity, he goes for it.

Lu, served very well, in both tie-breaks and I was impressed by how easily, he was able to win points against, Roddick by going for placement rather than brute force. Lu, was the better man today. I don't expect he'll make it much further though, as he now must face Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer back to back.

Djokovic's form, has been improving steadily and I can't see him losing to Lu, unless something goes wrong. Perhaps, there's a small glimmer of hope, given Lu's win over Roddick but really this is Novak's match to lose.

Roger, continues his early round struggles, Davydenko out, Mahut and Isner set record for longest match

2010-06-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

Another tough match for Roger, this time with Serbian, tennis player Ilija Bozoljac. Bozolijac, actually outplayed Roger in many aspects, coming up with more aces and winners. He was almost able to steal this one from Roger, but like in the Fella match, Rog was just too good and put away his opponent, in a very tight 4 setter.

Roger, has been thoroughly tested, in the early rounds of Wimbledon. It should bode well for his confidence, but it hasn't been easy on him physically. He's still got five more matches, to go. That's a long way to the championship.

As for Davydenko, he met his match against Daniel Brands. Brands, initially got off to a rough start, dropping the first set. But he didn't let the deficit stop him and stole the next two sets in tie-breaks. After taking the lead, Brands was then easily able to put Davydenko away, winning the match 1-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(10), 6-1.

Now on to the one you've been waiting for. The one that has everyone talking. The conclusion of the psycho marathon, match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Which is now officially, the longest match of all time. Strung out between 3 days but only took 10 hours to complete. Neither player was able to break the other guy's serve. Which is why it lasted forever and ever and ever but don't get me wrong, this was one incredible match to behold.

Now some people have said that the return games of Isner and Mahut, were lacking and that's why it went to 70-68. These people don't know what they're talking about. Mahut alone, had 244 winners to 34 unforced errors, 103 aces and won 502 points (he actually outperformed Isner in the stats department.) Does that sound like a guy who played a bad match?! No way.
I couldn't believe the level, they were able to produce for 10 straight hours it's mind boggling.

This was a very well deserved win for John Isner and a heart breaking loss for Mahut. Hopefully there won't be another one like it for a while though. I'd like see this record stand. It's an epic battle in it's own right. A definite must see, if you haven't already.

Fed and Djokovic forced to five in round 1, Nadal and Murray progress in straights

2010-06-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

I never thought, I'd see the day where Roger Federer, would be pushed to five sets in the opening round of Wimbledon, but sure enough, it at hand.

Roger's opponent, Alejandro Falla played incredibly well, winning the first two sets and putting Federer, in a deep hole, with not much chance of a comeback. Amazingly Roger, still pulled it out in just under 3 and a half hours. I can't say he looked great in the match, but he finish off Falla with a bagel. And most likely Fed, will continue to improve in the rounds to come.

Nadal, posted a relatively routine, win over Kei Nishikori, while still managing some thrilling winners. Rafa, played great here. His serve in particular, has come a long ways, he was able to keep it at 70% winning 80% of them, while still maintaining an average speed of 115 mph. Nadal, may have a tough draw but if he continues, playing like this, he'll have a great chance at regaining his 2008 Wimbledon title.

Djokovic, did not get off to a great start against Olivier Rochus. Novak's serve was terrible, he had 17 aces to 12 double Faults and won only 68% of his points on first serve. He also, had an inordinate number of unforced errors, topping out at 60 for the match. This was not a good performance from Djokovic and he's going to face Taylor Dent in the next round. If he found Olivier Rochus, to be tricky, then Taylor Dent, should present some serious problems. The American, has a huge serve that get's up in the 130s and is very adept at the net.

Davydenko, made a successful return to the tour, by narrowly surviving, a viscous 5 setter against Kevin Anderson. Can't say Davydenko, played great but I will give him credit for gritting his way out of a 2 sets to love deficit. Since, he's just getting back to playing on tour (and because he's not good on grass) I don't expect he'll go much further. We're going to have to wait a few more weeks, until the summer hard court season approaches, to see how he's coping with his wrist injury.

Wimbledon predictions

2010-06-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the first time in many years, Roger Federer has looked vulnerable on his favorite surface. Just 2 weeks ago, his long time rival Lleyton Hewitt, was able to win his first match in 7 years against the world #2, beating him 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. Prior to this defeat, Roger, had won 76 of his last 77 matches on grass but now it seems that his aurora of invulnerability has faded. He's no longer a sure win, for the title and with the Fed/Nadal era weakening, there may be a wide enough gap, for someone like Roddick to bag the trophy.

So with that said, here's my prediction for how the top 10 will do at this years Wimbledon:

10. Jo Wilfried Tsonga: He's had some good results at Wimbledon in the past and has a relatively reasonable draw, for the early rounds. I expect he will reach the quarter-finals.

9. Fernando Verdasco: He's got all the right tools to do well on grass. Hard serve, fast paced groundies, which he can hit with a lot of variety. I think he can do better, than the fourth round this year. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, but I'll pick him to reach the semi-finals this year.

8. Juan Martin Del Potro: Poor Del Potro, has missed yet another slam, because of his wrist fracture. I hope he gets well soon.:(

7. Andy Roddick: Last years, finalist may have the best chance of everyone to win a slam. He's now one of the older players in the top 10 but his serve is still a tremendous weapon and he's played some great tennis earlier this year. The highlight, being his win over Nadal, in Miami. I'm picking him to reach the finals but don't be surprised if he wins it.

6. Robin Soderling: Really has a tough draw. He'll be tested early and to make matters worse, he has to face Nadal in the quarters. Given the head-to-head I'll side with Nadal to beat him, but Soderling, could surprise everyone and upset the world #1. He's got the game to do it, he's got the game to win the championship, but I still believe, he'll only reach the quarter-finals.

5. Nikolay Davydenko: He's had a lot of time off, recovering from the wrist surgery, so he's going to be out of form, heading into Wimbledon. Coupled, with the fact that Davydenko, never does well, on grass, I'd say he'd be lucky to reach the third round.

4. Andy Murray: It's tough to say how he'll do. Murray has been erratic, ever since his run to the finals at the Australian Open. He could lose early or he could reach the semis. But my gut tells me, he won't go all the way. Prediction: Quarter-finals.

3. Novak Djokovic: His game has been a mess, this year. He may be #3 in the world, but he's well out of form. Todd Martin, Djokovic's former coach, has made some adjustments to his serve, which hasn't paid off for him. He really needs to go back to basics, with his game. Prediction: fourth-round.

2. Roger Federer: This is hard to predict, because he's been inconsistent, recently. I could see him winning Wimbledon again, but sadly I could also envision losing in the third round. I'm going with the Semi-finals for Fed, his game, isn't on right now and if he runs into Roddick, it could be serious trouble for Fed. Andy, is going to want to avenge his defeat in last years final and I know, if he gets to play Roger, he'll come out at full force.

1. Rafael Nadal: If you haven't already seen his draw, I'd advice you to go take a look. It's one of the nastiest things, I've ever seen. For round 1 he has Nishikori, round 2 is Blake, round 3 could be Gulbis, fourth round may have Isner, and for the quarters, none other than Soderling. Yeah, that's a nightmare draw, if ever I've seen one. Luckily, Nadal has been playing very good tennis lately. Not his best but still solid. If he's able to fight his way through this mountain of a hurdle. I believe, he'll be the champion. It's not going to be easy but then again, what slam is?

Nadal defeats Soderling to win Roland Garros 2010

2010-06-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

What a disappointment. This match had so much potential but sadly it never lived up to expectations. After watching, Soderling dismantle Roger, in the quarters, I was convinced, that if he made the finals, he'd be the favorite to win and that anything less than a great performance from Nadal would equal a straight sets victory for the Sweede. Boy, was I wrong. Nadal, seemed to only play at about 70%, but it was more than enough for him to thrash Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

Robin, was simply, not able to hang with Nadal on the longer points and didn't bring out his aggressive style of hitting either. There were very few occasions where he managed to get himself completely in control of the point and run Rafa ragged, like he did last year. There were a lot of things he needed to do better in this match.

Soderling, has proven, that he has potential. He may even be good enough to win a slam and I think he's got a few good years left. Who knows. We could be looking at next years French Open champion. But if he is going to win the French. He'll need to start playing these finals on his terms and not allow Nadal to keep him pinned behind the baseline with his topspin forehand.

Top seeds advance to Quarters in Roland Garros

2010-05-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

So far so good, for Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. All 3 of the top seeds have made it into the quarter-finals with the loss of only 3 sets (all by Djokovic.) At this point, a Nadal/Federer final seems imminent but Soderling and Almagro could put a stop to it. Soderling, last year's French Open finalist, has an explosive game and he's capable of completely hitting people off the court. So far, it's been completely unsuccessful against Roger who owns their head-to-head 12-0 but tomorrow is a new day and you never know what might happen. Roger, has been in great form since losing, Estoril to Montanes, so I'm picking him to win this match in 4.

As for Nadal, he's kind of in the same position with Almagro, a dangerous player, with explosive ground strokes, yet completely unsuccessful against the world #2. Just two weeks ago Almagro, won a set off Nadal in Madrid and it turned out to be the only set that Nadal lost, for the entire tournament. Yes, I think Almagro, has the game to trouble Nadal, but it remains to be seen if he's good enough to beat him. I'll go with Nadal to win this one in 4 as well.

The Berdych/Youzhny match is tough to call. The head-to-head between these two players is very tight but slightly favors Youzhny. Youzhny, is also the higher ranked player although Berdych, is in better form than years gone past. This could be a close competitive match.

Finally there's Djokovic vs Melzer and I have to take Djokovic, for this match. He's the higher ranked player, who's familiar with reaching the later rounds of the majors. The Austrian, Melzer, played a tremendous match in the fourth round to take care of Teimuraz Gabashvili in 4 sets. It was impressive but I don't think it's enough for him to beat the high ranked Serbian. I'm picking the Djoker, to win this in 4 sets.

Round 2: Fognini upsets Monfils, Murray survives again

2010-05-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

In a stunning turn of events, Fabio Fognini, upset the 13th seed Gael Monfils, in a five set, come from behind victory, that lasted over 4 hours. Initially, it looked like Fognini, would be no match for the Frenchman. He quickly fell behind, two sets to love but the Italian, refused to give in and mounted a comeback to bring the match to 2 sets all. Late in the fifth set Fognini, had two match points, but he couldn't put Monfils away. Then the match was suspended at 5-all due to rain and the players, had to come back the following day, to finish up. Once play resumed, Fognini, played brilliantly, coming up with some epic drop shot winners. Despite being ranked 92 in the world he completely out-performed Monfils, breaking his serve at 7-8, to seal the victory.

This was a crazy match, I think the tournament organizers made a mistake by allowing it to continue into the night, where neither player could see the ball. They definitely should have stopped it sooner. Aside from that, it was very entertaining.

Andy Murray, was tested in his match against Juan Ignacio Chela. The Argentine, took the second set in a tie-break, before being overwhelmed by the world #4. Murray played a solid match but still hit too many unforced errors. I'm hoping that he extra sets, won't take their toll on him. I'd really like to see a Murray vs Federer semi, but it may not happen if he continues to struggle against the early round opponents.

Speaking of Roger, I know that I promised to review his match against Allejandro Falla, but unfortunately, I didn't get to see it!!!:( So, it turns out that I won't be able to give too much insight as to how Roger is playing. He seems, to be doing good, he hasn't dropped a set in his first two matches. Hopefully, next time I'll be able to watch the match and give an opinion on it.XP

Day 3 at the French

2010-05-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another tough day for the home favorite, French tennis players. Indeed, Gianna Mina and Jeramy Chardy, proved to be no match for the veteran pros Rafael Nadal and Lleyton Hewitt, who stormed into round 2 without dropping a set.

Now, to be fair Gianna Mina, really did play great tennis under the circumstances. He's 18 years old, making his first appearance, in a grand slam tournament and he was up against the 4 time champion, in the first round. Nobody expected him to win, nobody gave him a chance and even though this match wasn't close, Mina, played amazingly well considering how new he is to the pro-tour. It's obvious this guy, has huge potential, think of him as James Blake, Gael Monfils, and Nadal all rolled into one. I'm almost certain, after what I saw today, that he's got a future in the top 10, maybe even the top 5. His ground strokes were explosively powerful and he's extremely fast. I think in a couple of years, he'll have the game needed to beat Nadal at the French Open. That's how much potential, I see in this guy and I'm sticking to that statement.

Now let's talk about Nadal. His performance, was relatively clean but definitely not his best. It looks like he's lost some speed or perhaps his aurora of invincibility. He's still a phenomenal clay courter but he's got a lot of room to improve. Also, his winners to unforced errors ratio, was a little pedestrian. Especially by Nadal standards.

Next up was the Lleyton Hewitt/Jeramy Chardy match, which turned out to be good. Hewitt was in great form and Chardy's forehand was a mess. He hit 20 unforced errors, off that side alone and lost the match 7-5, 6-0, 7-5. Chardy's, one break against Hewitt, came late in the third and by this point it, the tables were turned, so strongly in Hewitt's favor that it didn't matter. Hewitt took this one, without too much grief.

Ordinarily, based on Hewitt's solid performance, I'd favor him to make a deep run in the draw. The only problem is that he's scheduled to meet Nadal, in the third round, so his run in this years French Open, will most likely be short lived.

Well, tomorrow, we'll see Roger back in action against Alejandro Falla. Should be exciting, I'll be back to give my thoughts on it. Till, then. Peace out.

Day 2 at Roland Garros

2010-05-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today, was a tough day for the French tennis players. Arnuad Clement, fell in 5 sets to rising star, Oleksandr Dolgopolov. Richard Gasquet, lost in five sets to Andy Murray. And Gael Monfils squeezed by Dieter Kindlmann, in 4. However, the quality of tennis, played in all 3 of these matches was outstanding.

Gasquet and Murray, were first up. Gasquet, was a force to be reckoned with, right from the start of the match. He pounded away at Murray, eventually breaking him and going up two sets to love, taking the second set in a tie-break. In set 3 Gasquet, managed to gain another break on Murray, but this time the Scott answered him, by returning the favor. Murray, won the set 6-4. From that point on Murray was able to dominate Gasquet, putting him away in 5.

The Clement/Dolgopolov, match was also closely contested. At first, I thought Clement, was going to run away with it because he won the first set, rather convincingly, 6-3. However, Dolgopolov, remained determined, not to lose in the first round. He held strong and forced a second set tie-break, where he overcame Clement, with some deftly placed drop-shots. The players split the next two sets and in set five, youth prevailed, as Dolgopolov, was clearly fresher than his 33 year old opponent. Clement, didn't go down easily though, he made Dolgopolov, earn it by saving several break points. Still, it wasn't enough to prevent the inevitable. After 3 hours and 45 minutes, Dolgopolov, prevailed, making this his first grand slam match victory.

Finally, there was the match between Gael Monfils and Dieter Kindlmann. This was probably my favorite of the 3 that I saw, because Monfils, is such a talented athlete, you never know what kind of shot he's going to come up with. I was kind of surprised to see Kindlmann, win the third set, especially since he had to come from behind to do it. Monfils, was the over-all better player for most of the match. I think he's got the potential to go a long ways in this tournament, especially given the draw. He will have to face Federer in the fourth round but given Roger's recent inconsistencies he may even have a shot at winning that match.

Anyway, there should be a lot more interesting matches, in the coming rounds. I'll be back tomorrow, with my thoughts on Nadal's form. Until then, adios.

Madrid final: Federer vs Nadal

2010-05-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

This was the final, that we've all been waiting for. A classic showdown between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Or was it? The first set, really wasn't up to the usual Federer/Nadal par. Which probably explains why these guys, no longer dominate the tour. Both of them have slipped a few gears, in the last year or so. Don't get me wrong, it was a great match, but nowhere near the best I've seen from Roger or Nadal.

Roger, started off the match as the fresher player, he put pressure on Nadal serve and managed to get an early break point. Nadal, sensing the danger, served his way out of trouble and held for 1-all. Then in the next game it was Nadal who broke serve only to lose it back immediately afterward, evening out the match at 2-all. As the match progressed both players appeared stuck in third gear. Rafa, had another break point against Federer at 4-all and converted on it. Then he managed to fend off a last ditch effort from Roger to win the first set 6-4.

The quality of the match steadily improved in set 2. Nadal, broke Fed's, serve midway through and then Federer returned the favor to level the set again. The set went to a tie-break, with both players, playing exceptionally well. Federer, took a temporary lead in the tie-break but he couldn't fend off the fury of Nadal and he miss-timed a fairly easy forehand on match point to give Nadal, the victory in just over 2 hours.

Over-all this was a very enjoyable match. Roger, has improved tremendously since Estoril and now seems ready for the French Open. It's going to be a tough for him but given his performance in Madrid, I think he'll reach at least the semi-finals in Paris. Nadal, looks ready to win the title, although he seemed vulnerable at times against Federer. He'll need to cut down on the unforced errors if he wants to reclaim his title in Paris.

Roger and Rafa through to the semis, Almagaro and Ferrer join them

2010-05-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, Roger did come through against Gulbis. It wasn't easy or pretty for that matter, but in just under 2 hours he had the Latvian, beat 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Roger's performance in the first set wasn't stellar by any means. I thought Gulbis had the match won for sure, when he broke Fed to start the second set but Gulbis choked badly and allowed Roger back into the match. He started hitting the balls shorter and allowed Federer to attack them. Roger, wheeled off six straight games to claim the second set easily. Gulbis, started to come back to life in the third set but by this point it was too late. Federer's level had greatly risen and he was easily holding his own service games, he broke Gulbis one time and served out the match just before the rain hit.

Then came the David Ferrer/Andy Murray match, which was tightly contested. Ferrer, started off strongly, by breaking Murray, in the second game and he eventually lead 4-1, only to see it slip away, as an angry Murray stormed back into the set, hitting winners and raising his game several notches to match Ferrer's. Ferrer, broke Murray's serve at 5-all, then served out the set at the 1 hour mark. Set 2, was pretty much the same as set 1, Ferrer, took an early lead, Murray leveled it out but then Ferrer broke again and finished off the Scott 7-5, 6-3.

Ferrer, was truly superb for most of the match. I believe he stands a great chance against Roger, even though their head-to-head suggests otherwise. I didn't get the chance to watch the other two semis, so unfortunately this is all I've got for now.:(

Top 3 seeds into the quarters of Madrid

2010-05-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Roger, has found his rhythm. At least that's the way it looks for now, after beating his fellow country man Stanislas Wawrinka, in straight sets, Federer, progressed to his first masters series quarter-final, in nearly two months. Could it be here at last? Another rematch in the Federer/Nadal rivalry? Well, I must admit, that it seems likely to happen. There's just one problem. Ernest Gulbis, stands in Roger's way and he clearly has the game to give Roger all sorts of problems. His hard hitting style landed him a spot in the semi-finals of Rome (and a set off Nadal.) The surface in Madrid is noticeably faster than the clay in Rome. I've also heard that the ball bounces a bit higher. Which makes Gulbis' game, all the more dangerous. If Federer, can get past Gulbis, he's scheduled to meet Ferrer or Murray in the semis. Both of which could also be tough for him.

Andy Murray, started his clay campaign on a down streak but he's turned that around in Madrid and he's now back to his usual dangerous level. Ferrer, if anything has been better than ever. After witnessing him demolish Marin Cilic, I'd have to put him as a very strong contender to win Madrid. If he can get over the hurdle of the top two seeds (he's 3-20 against Roger and Nadal) he's got a great chance of winning. I'll give Ferrer, the edge going into the match with Murray, he leads their head-to-head 2-1 and clay is probably his strongest surface. Murray, does have a chance but if he's going to win he'll need to take the ball early and hit Ferrer off the court. Again, this match could go either way but I'm leaning towards Ferrer.

Then there's the match between Nadal and Monfils. To be honest I'd be surprised if Monfils, is able to make this close. He's been off for two months nursing a hand injury from the BNP Paribas Open. Nadal, shouldn't have any problem with Monfils here. He might have a run in with Almagro in the semis and even though Almagro is playing some of his best clay court tennis ever, I still feel confident in saying Nadal, will win in straights.

Roger Federer, no match for Estoril defending champion, Alberto Montanes

2010-05-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get a little bit worried about Roger. His game, was way off in this match against Montanes and the French Open is only a few weeks away. Roger, said in his post match interview, that he wasn't worried about the loss and that the French Open was still far off but as things currently stand, it seems unlikely that he's gotten enough match practice, to be set, for Roland Garros. He also, has to worry about keeping his #1 ranking, which will be up for grabs after Madrid. Federer, is currently 3,950 points ahead of Nadal. which would ordinarily be a huge lead, but he has to defend all of his points from Roland Garros and Wimbledon. That, combined with Madrid, means he'll have 5,000 points to defend. Nadal, only has to defend a relatively modest 580 points. Put simply, if Nadal wins RG and Madrid and Federer fails to reach the finals in one and the semis in the other, he will lose the #1 ranking. So as you can tell, this is a very precarious position for him to be in. On top of all that, he's 5 weeks away from breaking the record for longest reign at #1.

Federer's, first opponent in Madrid will be Benjamin Becker, who just squashed an out-of-form Carlos Moya in straight sets. I'm thinking this could be a tough opponent for Roger, given that Becker played a great match against Moya. He's also a huge server, with an explosive forehand. His game isn't best suited to clay but it could still present some serious obstacles for Federer. This match should be telling, as to how ready Roger is for the French Open.

Wrist surgery could bring an early end to the season for Del Potro

2010-05-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

I have some bad news, regarding Del Potro's recent wrist injury. It turns out that it's more serious than was initially thought and it's going to require surgery, which will put him out for at least 4 months. Needless to say this will be detrimental to his ranking, I don't even want to think how far he's going to fall, at least out of the top 20.

On a positive note, he is still young and will probably have some great days ahead of him, but this wrist injury is quite serious. I know that Andre Agassi and Venus Williams, both had wrist operations, and were able to make a full recoveries. I would assume the results will be similar for Del Potro but it's going to take some time to get through the rehabilitation and then getting back to practice and fitness training. I expect this will take him until the end of the year to recover from.

He's definitely got a long path in front of him and I'm sure it won't be an easy one. I wish him the absolute best, for his journey ahead.

Who are Nadal's biggest threats on clay?

2010-05-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is a question that probably bugs a lot of tennis fans, since practically no one can get in this guy's head and beat him on his best surface. But there are a few players good enough to give him some trouble and I'm thinking Gulbis has now joined this club.

It seems like the tall, hard hitting, aggressive baseliners are the players that Nadal, struggles with most. Over the past year he's faced Soderling, Del Potro, Djokovic, yeah, I'll throw in Davydenko and they've all given him problems, even on clay. If Nadal were, to lose the French Open this year, then my guess, is that it would be to one of these powerful baseliners and not to Roger Federer.

Lately, there's been two different Roger Federers, on tour. The Roger, who plays in the masters series and the Roger, who plays the majors. They're both strikingly different. Masters Series Roger, has an error ridden game and is prone to losing in the early rounds of tournaments. Grand Slam Roger, is a great player who sometimes struggles, in the early rounds but usually finds, his best game and simply confounds his opponents, with incredible shot making.

Grand Slam Roger, is a serious threat to Nadal but he's still at a disadvantage because his game relies on timing, where as Nadal's does not. Even if Roger comes at Nadal with everything he's got, Nadal will probably still win the match. Roger's backhand has been his Achilles heel and Nadal knows that he just has to work it over until the errors start surfacing in Federer's game. Nadal is just a bad match-up for Roger, especially on clay.

Finally, there is one more player that I wanted to talk about, Thomas Berdych. Berdych, is a tall guy with a huge serve, excellent ground strokes, good consistency, and pretty solid movement. On paper he has all of the tools needed to beat Nadal and he's even had some success again him, although it's mostly been on hard courts. I think Berdych can beat Nadal, but I'm not sure if he believes he can do it. Berdych, has a reputation for not staying focused throughout matches and for blowing leads (like in the 2009 Australian Open, when he lost to Federer, after being up 2 sets to love.) In my opinion, Berdych needs to come to the French Open, focused and ready to blow Rafa off the court and if he does everything right, while keeping his focus, he stands a great chance to force the upset.

Verdasco wins Barcelona Open

2010-04-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Another great week for Fernando Verdasco, but certainly not an easy one. After clawing his way back from a 6-7, 2-4, deficit against David Ferrer, in the semis. Verdasco, was poised to take on his biggest challenger yet, Robin Soderling, a player who held a 4-1 record against him (2-0 on clay) and was last years French Open finalist. It took some great playing from Verdasco, but he was able to wrap up the match and win the Barcelona Open, for the first time in 3 sets.

Soderling, played a good match but lacked the aggression needed to win. He'll need to improve a little more, if he wants to make another deep run in Roland Garros, He's also going to have a huge test, later this week in Rome, where he's scheduled to face Nadal, in the quarter-finals. This match will be very important for both players, Rafa needs to beat Soderling, in order to get their head-to-head back in his favor and Soderling, needs to upset Nadal's momentum on clay and hopefully get in his head a bit more.

These guys don't like each other and that could lead to some super high quality tennis and on-court drama. Of all the possible match-ups, this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. I would also love to see a rematch at the French Open but only if they're both players are playing well.

Monte Carlo finals: Nadal vs Verdasco

2010-04-18T01:06:00.001-07:00

This was a strange match. From the score line, you'd think it was a blow out but Verdasco, actually pushed Nadal, quite hard, even managing 5 break points against the Spaniard's serve. However he didn't handle the big points, well at all. There's one particular game that stands out to me, where Verdasco, had won 3 of the first 4 points and was serving for a 2-1 lead but then choked it all away by double faulting twice. His game was way too inconsistent to beat Nadal but reaching the finals was a great showing for him and he was able to get enough ranking points, to pull himself back in the top 10.

Nadal, played an unbelievable tournament. He lost just 14 games which is an ATP record and it should send a message to Roger Federer, that if he wants to defend his Roland Garros crown and potentially achieve the calendar year grand slam, that he'll have to do something he's never done before. Beat Nadal where it really counts, in a five set match in the finals of the French Open.

This next Roland Garros, could be very exciting. I'm really looking forward to it. It's still a bit too early to know if Nadal and Roger will both be in the finals. Nadal, looks set to do it but Roger has been bombing out of tournaments for the last two months, he hasn't made a serious run since the Australian Open but given his tendency to peak at the majors, I think it's likely that they might meet again in the French Open finals and then possibly again at Wimbledon.

Murray falls, Nadal and Djokovic both through to the quarters

2010-04-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Looks like this clay court season might be a great one for Nadal. So far, he's lost just 1 games per match and his form has been better than ever. His next opponent is the clay court veteran, Juan Carlos Ferrero. Now, ordinarilly Ferrero, would be a sizeable threat to anyone on clay, but given Rafa's, current playing level, I don't think Ferrero's, chances are all that good. If he plays aggressively and tries to hit Nadal off the court, then he might be able to make it a close match but I'm picking Nadal, to win this one in straights.

On the other half of the draw, Novak Djokovic, managed to overcome a stern test from the 20th ranked, Stanislas Wawrinka. Djokovic's, game looked pretty good in the match. He'll need to return a little bit better but he'll continue to improve as the tournament goes along. He's definitely a favorite to reach the finals, although his quarter-final opponent, David Nalbandian, might have something to say about that.

And then there's Andy Murray. The poor guy has really struggled over these past few weeks, his game was way off when he played Mardy Fish, in Miami and it was even worse today, against Phillip Kohlschreiber. It sounds like Murray, is having a mental or emotional battle with tennis, he said that he's "Fallen out of love with the game" and that could be the reason for these recent losses.

We'll have to wait and see what happens with him, but my guess is that he'll have his head back on straight by the time the grass season starts. Wimbledon, is an extremely important tournament to him, he's got a lot of points to defend from last year. I doubt he'll let that get by him.

Djokovic and Murray out of Miami

2010-03-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Could this be the break that we needed to witness another Federer/Nadal showdown? After their biggest threats, crashed out in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open, Nadal and Federer now look poised to meet in the finals of a tournament, for the first time in nearly a year.

There's still quite a few opponents left in the draw who could stop this meeting and Roddick seems to be the best bet for doing it. Since, the start of the tournament Andy, has blown through all of his opponents, without losing serve once. While, that's very impressive, it won't necessarily translate over to a match-up with Nadal in the semi-finals.

But this is still a good sign for Roddick fans, Andy's playing well, serving well, and those are two things that he must do, to have any chance against Nadal, if they do meet later in the tournament.

I was disappointed to see Murray and Djokovic, crash out so early. This is going to cost them both, a serious amount of ranking points ( they made the finals here last year.) Not to mention this really doesn't bode well for Djokovic, heading into the clay court season. He has a lot of points to defend up until the French Open and given his recent form, I would be surprised if his ranking doesn't drop at least 2 spots.

Ironically, Juan Martin Del Potro, the guy who's been side-lined with an injury for two months. May be the player who benefits the most from these upsets. Starting in April, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic, have a ton of points to defend and given their inconsistencies, don't be surprised if you see Del Potro, within striking distance of the #2 ranking, by the end of May.

Tennis pros & steroids

2010-03-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about this? Apparently Wayne Odesnik, was found with several small containers of HGH, which is a performance enhancing drug (or human growth hormone.) This is extremely serious and could lead to him, being banned from the tour for 2 years.

Odesnik, is not the first person on tour to be found with performance enhancing drugs, several other players, especially clay courters, have been linked to this stuff.

This of course, brings up the question, "Are steroids and other performance enhancing drugs being used by other athletes, on the tour?" In my opinion, there's a definite possibility of it.

Just look at these pictures of Sam Stosur, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams

Honestly, I am at a loss to explain, how they could have gotten this kind of muscle mass, naturally. To me, it doesn't look real. Nadal, is the one that disturbs me the most. Back during his early years on tour, he would fist pump, scream, and jump into the air, pretty much every time he won a point. He was also, extremely strong at a very early age, to the point where, yet again, I can't explain it. Could his celebrating after every point, have been some sort of an affect of roid rage? And if so, then does this partially explain why he has slimmed down and is more naturally athletic looking today? He's stopped using roids.

I don't know, but Nadal, Stosur, and Serena's physique's have always been a bit of a question mark to me. Even though, I'm a huge Nadal fan, I still don't understand how he was able to gain all of this muscle mass, when he was only 18 and then suddenly lose quite a bit of it in just a few months time.

Take a look at these pictures and you'll see what I mean

Just doesn't look right, does it?

Federer to win Sony Ericsson Open

2010-03-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

That's my prediction. Even though, Roger was a little bit off last week, in Indian Wells, I think he's likely, to make his comeback here and win his second title of the year.

Nadal, who has often been Roger's foil, recently stated that he's been having excruciating pain, from his wisdom teeth. It's caused him to miss a few days of practice but he's back at it now and will be looking to win his first title in Miami. Nadal has been to the finals of this tournament twice, in 2005 and 08 but whether he'll win here or not, is a whole nother matter. The courts here are pretty fast and that usually doesn't bode well for him. Nadal, hasn't won a title in 10 months and I don't see that changing until the start of the clay court season, where he'll probably resume his dominating ways, pick up a bunch of titles, and get himself back in contention for the number one ranking.

Novak Djokovic, and the defending champion Andy Murray, are also serious contenders for the title. Djokovic, has had a tough start to 2010, even though his current ranking is the highest it's ever been, he hasn't had many victories over players ranked in the top 10. I see him getting upset early in this tournament.

Murray, seems to be the more consistent of the two, for the time being, I'll pick him to meet Roger in the finals. With Nadal, reaching the semis and Djokovic, losing in the quarters.

Other dark horses include, Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, and John Isner. Honestly, of all these players, Isner, seems like the most likely player to make a major impact in the tournament. He's got an amazing serve, great ground strokes (that are usually consistent) and he's good on the returns. I still believe, Isner, has a real chance at a slam but if he's going to do it, then it's got to be within the next couple of years.

Otherwise, the competition will pass him by.

Roddick vs Ljubicic BNP Paribas finals

2010-03-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you can pick them and sometimes you can't, I admit it.

While, I did think Roddick, had a good chance, of reaching the finals, I would have never in a million years, picked Ljubicic, to be the one, he'd play for the title. Especially since Ljubo, had to go through Djokovic and Nadal to even make it there.

Can Ljubicic, really do the unthinkable? Can he beat the hard serving American Andy Roddick, in a match, that should be Andy's to lose? My thinking is, yes he can. Just a couple of years ago, Mardy Fish, did the same thing, that Ljubo's doing now. He had an incredible hot streak and blew through opponents at the Pacific Life Open, who would crush him under ordinary circumstances.

Roddick, hasn't played his best this week and Ljubo should have an opening to take it from him.

With Roddick, his game usually revolves around his confidence and playing in front of the home crowd always helps him out. Ljubo, will definitely have his hands full but if he plays as well today, as he did against Nadal, in the semis, then I think he's got a great shot, to win his first masters series tournament.

Ljubicic, at 31 is at the end of his career, he probably won't get another chance at a title this big, so I hope he makes the best of this one.

My Prediction is that Ljubo, beats Roddick in 3 sets.

Bhagdatis upsets Federer, Djokovic ousted by Ljubicic, Nadal survives scare from Isner

2010-03-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Been a tough few days for the top seeds in the BNP Paribas Open. First Baghdatis, felled Federer, in a nail biting 3 set match that went over two hours. Then Rafa, looked like he was going to have the same fate handed to him when Isner, took the second set in their 3 set match, but he managed to fight through it and made his way, into the quarter-finals. Finally Djokovic, who already struggled earlier in the week against Kholscrieber, was downed by Ljubicic, in straights.

At this point Rafa and Murray are the two most likely finalists. A repeat of their match in the finals last year is imminent. But Soderling and Roddick, are the two players most likely to stop that from happening and they're both stationed in Murray's half.

Nadal, has been playing great, as has Murray and I'm really looking forward to a potential showdown between them. Although, Soderling/Roddick vs Nadal would probably be just as exciting.:)

Btw, I hope everyone got the chance to see the Marcos Baghdatis/Roger Federer match. It was a simply incredible, performance from Marcos, even struggled against Roger, he still produced a brilliant level of tennis and played the important points, better than Roger did.

Marcos, really deserved this and I was glad to see him win.

Don't worry too much Federer fans. It wouldn't surprise me at all, to see him come back hard and take Miami, just a couple weeks from now.:)

Ferrer breaks Ferrero's winning streak on clay

2010-02-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

This has been, one hell of a great month for Juan Carlos Ferrero, in terms of tennis. The Spanish player who just recently turned 30, claimed the Brasil Open, Copa Telmex, (defeating Ferrer) and then reached the finals in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, losing narrowly to Ferrer, in 3 sets.

In total, Ferrero, was on a 14 match winning streak, before losing to Ferrer in the finals. He attributes his recent success, to having improved his fitness, which is critical for doing well, on clay.

Now, I realize that most of these tournaments are relatively small and the results he managed to achieve in them, might not translate to the bigger, masters series events, but still, he's headed right back to the top 10 if he keeps this up.

His ranking improved to 14 in the world, which is the highest that it's been in nearly 6 years. The only down side, is that he did injure his knee a bit, in the finals against Ferrer. As a result, he's pulled out of the Davis Cup match, scheduled for next week and will be replaced by Nicolas Almagro. I'm not quite sure how serious this injury is but I hope to see him back next month for the BNP Paribas Open.

It's also, possible, that he could make a serious run at the French Open later this year. Assuming, that he's able to keep his injuries down to a minimum.

Del Potro, out for at least a month with wrist injury

2010-02-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

Today, I want to talk about injuries. They're very common at any level of competitive sports, although they seem to be getting more prevalent. Especially, amongst the top players in mens tennis. Just in the last 7 months, 6 of the top 10, have been affected by some kind of an injury. Why is that? Is it because of the lack of time off between tournaments? The over-scheduling of their season's? inadequate technique? Luck? Is it all of these things or none of them?

Despite being one of the oldest players in the top 10 Roger Federer, has never seemed to struggle with injuries. He's had the occasional spat with his back and came down with mono a couple of years ago but otherwise, he's been completely healthy. His technique and well managed playing schedule has allowed him to keep his injuries to an absolute minimum and even at 28 years old he's one of the fittest players on tour.

Now compare him to someone like Lleyton Hewitt or Joachim Johansson. Both players, started on tour around the same time as Roger but they've had completely different kinds of career because of their injuries. In Lleyton's, case it's been his hip that's slowed him down and for Johansson, it's been his shoulder. I don't see either one of them lasting on tour, much longer, which is a same because injuries aside, they were great players.

Nadal, is yet another player, who is in serious danger of having a shortened career from his injuries. He's no longer the fastest player on tour and he can't go more than a few months without having to take time off to rest his knees.

Juan Martin Del Potro, should be very careful with this injury. This isn't the first time that he's had problems with his wrist. If he does irreparable damage to it, then it could mean the end of his career. I hope he takes all the time off, that he needs to make a full recovery.

Fernando Verdasco beats Pete Sampras in San Joes exhibition match

2010-02-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

For all those guys out there, who still think Pete, can make a comeback at Wimbledon, you need to watch this match. Pete, may have been an incredible champion in the 90s and even the early 2000s but he doesn't have the legs anymore, to win ATP level tournaments. Verdasco, pretty much steam rolled him in the first set and held well in the second. This was only an exhibition match but it does demonstrate the division between Sampras and the current generation of tennis players.

Now with that said, I thought Pete, played a pretty nice match. He was serving very well, in fact he outdid Verdasco, in that department. Both players seemed like they were having a good time and that's really all that's important in an exhibition match. I'm glad to see, Pete still enjoys the sport and is willing to get out there and play against the current group of players. In the future, I'd like to see an exhibition match against Pete and Nadal, or maybe Borg against Federer.

Pete's, undoubtedly got some good years left for future exhibition matches but a return to the ATP tour isn't going to happen for him.

Where are the Chinese tennis Players?

2010-02-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

You know I'm really surprised to not see more Chinese tennis players amongst the world's best. The Chinese, are a huge forced to be reckoned with in Badminton and Ping Pong, yet when it comes to tennis, they are no where to be found, (Li Na, of course being the exception.) Maybe it's because of their smaller stature or perhaps the Chinese just aren't all that interested in tennis but I still believe it's just a matter of time until that country starts turning out top level tennis players who will break into the top 20, then 10 and maybe one of them will even be able to claim the number one position in the world.

Check out these videos down here and you'll see the unbelievable athleticism of these players

I don't know about you but I can totally see a future Asian player, who will dominate the sport in the same way that Roger Federer is doing right now. Ping Pong and Baminton are much different than tennis but there are some similarities. Fast hands, great agility, and speed are required for both sports and from what I'm seeing in these videos, the top Chinese players are loaded with it.

So what's been holding them back until now?:/

Do you watch doubles?

2010-02-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

What's your preference when it comes to tennis? Do you like singles or doubles? Mens or womens? Boys or girls? Wheelchair or mixed wheelchair?

I've always had a strong preference for mens singles. I think the quality is the best in the ATP single game and it's not very often that I'll tune in to watch a WTA or doubles match. I know I'm probably missing out on some great tennis by not watching more from the other divisions but there's just no way I'd give up watching a Federer vs Cilic semi for a Klijsters vs Henin final.

However, even with my preference being towards singles, I've recently started exploring the doubles field a bit more. Earlier today I saw the Rajeev Ram/Eric Butorac vs Bopanna/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and wow, was it awesome. I know this might sound kind of silly but I didn't know the doubles players, could play this well, or that watching doubles could be this entertaining. Bopanna & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, played a tremendous match to beat Ram and Butorac in straights. There were great shots coming from every direction, one point was particularly memorable. It had Bopanna and Aisam, at net trying their best to put the ball away but Ram and Butorac were retrieving everything, the commentator said it resembled a ping pong point and I agree with him, it was quite good.

After seeing this match, I think I'd like to give doubles a second chance. This match sparked my curiosity and now I'd like to watch some matches with the Bryans or Nestor/Zimonjic, the top two teams in the ATP doubles. Maybe I'll even start blogging a bit about doubles.

Anyway, I'd like to hear from you guys, what kind of tennis do you like to watch? Who are your favorite players and why do you like them?

Roger Federer wins his 16th slam in Australia

2010-02-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, Murray, just got steam rolled by the Fed Express. With the exception of the third set, he never really saw the upside of the match. Fed's, level of play was just insane, every bit as good as the finals last year against Nadal and when he's playing at this level it's nearly impossible to beat him.

With that said though, I did not like the way Andy Murray played against him. He wasn't aggressive and he didn't try to put the pressure on Roger, instead he tried to out-rally him and this is not the way Murray should play Roger. Unlike Nadal, Murray doesn't give him high kicking balls to his backhand. His ground strokes are relatively flat, they don't always penetrate through the court and this is just what Federer enjoys. It didn't seem like Murray, went out there with a game plan and he paid dearly for it. If Murray, does reach another grand slam final, then he absolutely most play more aggressively. He can't afford to be tenative and use his traditional style of defensive tennis. Murray's, got a huge backhand and a great serve but he didn't use them today. Hopefully next time he'll go out there, play with some confidence and make Roger, eat the ball every point. Because that's the only way he's going to win a slam against him.

As for Roger, I think he will win many more grand slams, possibly even into his 30s. He hasn't lost any of his peak ability and I'm starting to think he's got another chance at the calendar year grand slam. It seems surprising me that his best chance for winning the grand slam might be this year rather than in 2006 or 07 when he was younger, didn't have kids, and played much better tennis during the smaller tournaments. Right now he holds 3 of the 4 major titles. Again, the French, is going to be the hard one for him to win and the only way I see him winning it is if Nadal is injured. Roger's played Nadal 4 times at the French and he's never beaten him. There's just no question Rafa Nadal, is better than him on clay and with all these past defeats still luming in his head he's not going to turn that head to head around any time soon. Should Federer, find a way to win the French then he's got an incredibly good shot at the calendar year grand slam, I don't know if he'll be able to do it but I'd love to see it happen.

Injuries, plauge the top seeds. Nadal and Roddick fall in the quarters.

2010-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

What a shame, the Nadal/Murray match had to end with a retirement. It was really getting good in that second set, both players were starting to play great tennis, especially Murray, who dominated with his serve and returned great against Nadal. After losing the second set in a tie-break, all hope for a come from behind, win quickly flew out the window for Nadal, his right knee gave out on him and rather than risk injuring it any further, he chose to retire, putting Murray, in the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in his career.

I like, what I saw from Murray in this match, if he manages to return this well against Cilic, he's got a great chance of reaching the finals and maybe, just maybe, my prediction will come true and he'll win his first major at the Australian Open.:)

The Roddick vs Cilic match, was a strange battle of ups and downs. First Cilic, came out playing amazingly well and crushed Roddick in the first two sets. Roddick, managed to claw his way through set number 3 and then in the fourth, Cilic's game fell through the floor, while Roddick's couldn't have been better, he dominated up until 5-0 when Cilic suddenly found his game again but still managed to serve out the set 6-2. In the deciding set Roddick faltered, his shoulder injury flared up again and Cilic was able to take the fifth set 6 games to 3.

This is Cilic's, first appearance in a grand slam semi final. Because it's only his first time and because Andy Murray returned unbelievably well against Isner and Nadal I'm going to give him the edge to beat Cilic but it wouldn't surprise me if this next match turned out to be very close. Think I'll take Murray over Cilic in 5 sets and then Murray will meet Roger in the finals.:)

Roger Narrowly avoids first round upset

2010-01-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

Even the number 1 player in the world isn't invulnerable. In fact he may be more vulnerable than any of the other top 5 players. Federer, came out playing terribly in this match. His forehand was inconsistent and has backhand had nothing on it, he just blocked the ball back to Andreev and allowed him to completely dictate play for almost all of the third set. Finally towards the end of the third Andreev, broke Roger and went to serve for a two sets to one lead. Then everything went awry. Andreev, had 4 set points but he choked them all away, in some really bizarre ways, then in the tie-break, Andreev, mentally collapsed, he lost the tie-break seven points to two and by the beginning of the fourth it was obvious that he was defeated. Roger sent him packing from the tournament with a bagel.

This was a weak showing from Roger, but it's only the first round of the tournament. Most likely he'll continue to improve as the Open progresses and by the end of the first week he'll be playing at a much higher level than he did today. He's got to find a higher level if he wants to reach the finals again because this performance was very, very weak.

Davydenko won't win the Australian Open

2010-01-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

No doubt, you've heard that Davydenko, has been playing outstanding tennis as of late. He's beaten Nadal and Roger, twice in the last month, he's won 3 consecutive tournaments and played some of his best tennis while doing it. So then why do I say that he has no chance? Well, here's a few reasons:

1. Never been past the semi-finals of a major before.

2. Never beaten Roger or Nadal at a grand slam tournament and let's face it. Roger, always packs his A game at the majors. Lots of players have beaten him in the smaller tournaments, like Karlovic, Benneteau, and Simon, but beating him at a major is something entirely different. Not to mention Davydenko, is scheduled to meet Federer in the quarters and will have to end his streak of 22 straight major semi-finals.

3. Davydenko, is a cold weather guy. He was born in the Ukraine and currently lives in Russia. He's not going to want any part of the Australian summer, with practice sessions and matches in the 90-100 degree range.

Davydenko, is a great player and he's kept himself solidified in the top 10 for almost every week of the last 4 and a half years. He's capable of winning a major but I don't think it's likely to happen and he's definitely not the favorite. Maybe, I'm wrong and he'll pull off an upset victory over Roger but with a 2-12 head to head and Roger's consistency in reaching the later rounds of a major tournament, the odds are stacked heavily against him.

Andre Agassi Open review

2010-01-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

I just finished this book a couple of days ago. It was really good, I'd strongly recommend it to all tennis fans. There's a lot of information about the life on tour, Andre's, relationship with past players, and even a little bit on Roger, Jame Blake, and Nadal. But with that said there's also quiet a bit of negativity from Andre. After reading it you might think of him as a bitter, selfish, prick rather than the mature, insightful, ex-rebel that he was portrayed to be, prior to the release of his book.

Andre's book, is more centered around his personal life, than tennis. Towards the end, he talks more about his family and less about his matches, even if they were important ones. He doesn't hesitate to critisize his peers. He's particularly down on Sampras, Chang, Becker, Muster, and Nick Bolletelli and his basis for disliking them is over small, petty things, like Muster ruffling Andre's hair at the end of a match, or Chang thanking God for his victory.

Even if you read the book, you won't be able to get inside of Andre's head. Some of his decisions just don't make much sense. I really don't know why he chose to marry Brooke Sheilds. Their relationship was going through a hard time when he proposed and he later admitted that he didn't want to go through with marrying her. So then why didn't he just break off their engagement?

Early in the book Andre, talks about meeting his fitness trainer Gil Reyes, during the fall of 1989. At the time, Gil was in charge of training young athletes, at a local college fitness center. Andre, had recently lost a tough five set match to a clay courter named Alberto Mancini and wanted Gil's help to improve his stamina. They hit it off, right away and before long, Andre, wanted Gil to quit his job and work full time for him on the road, as his personal trainer. Gil agrees, quits his job but he leaves his family for 16 years to go work with Andre! At the time Gil, had young children, one of whom is less than 7 years old. Yet, he seems to just disregard it and left his wife to take care of their kids. I thought this was very strange and I wish Andre, had given a better explanation as to why Gil agreed to do this.

Overall this is a good book, it has many surprises and after reading it, you should have a good idea who the real Andre Agassi is.

Nadal stops Soderling in the Abu Dhabi exhibition match

2010-01-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

Although this little exhibition, tourney in Abu Dhabi, doesn't mean much of anything, it's still a nice way for Nadal to start the new year. By defeating the man who literally ripped him a new one at the French Open and then again at the World Tour Finals.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see this match since it was only an exhibition tournament and didn't get any broadcasting, (at least none that I'm aware of) so I can't tell you for sure how well Nadal or Soderling were playing, but I'm guessing Nadal must have done pretty well to have beaten Soderling in straight sets on a hard court.

The day before their match, Soderling, stunned Federer in 3 sets, making this the first time that he's beaten the #1 player in the world. I don't think Roger, particularly cares about these exhibition matches. In fact he doesn't seem to care about any of the tournaments except for the majors. That's where he plays his best tennis, so this loss isn't really all that surprising. If Julien Benneteau, can beat Roger Federer on hard courts, then Robin Soderling, sure as hell can do it.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T15:26:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to say Merry Christmast, to all my readers out there. I got something really awesome for Christmas this year. Along with some tennis gear, I received a copy of Andre's new book Open.

Now I can finally review it in depth, so give me a few days, I'm going to take some time and read it, then I'll be back with a full lenth review on the book.

Happy hollidays.

Stan the man, ties the knot

2009-12-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of Stan with his new bride Ilham Vuilloud. I was a little bit surprised to find out that she was 11 years older than him but I guess, Stan's got a taste for older women. Vuilloud, is about 7 months pregnant with their first child, so this could be a tougher Australian Open than typical for Stan. His focus may not be there and it could leave him vulnerable to an early round upset. On the other hand maybe he'll rise to the occasion, just like Roger did at Wimbledon.

Best wishes to Stan and his new family I hope they have a happy holiday season.:D

2010 Grand Slam Champions prediction

2009-12-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

With 2009 now in it's last few weeks, I decided it was time to get started on my prediction list for next year's grand slam champions. This was a bit tricky because I believe it's mostly going to come down to Nadal and Roger. How good they're playing, if Nadal is injured, etc. If they're both have a great season next year they could easily sweep the majors like they've done in the past but if they're a bit off their games or there's an injury, then the door is certainly open enough for someone else to take the titles from them. Anyway, I've come up with a list, it's a little bit different than what you might have expected but I think it's a pretty feasible one.

Australian Open: Andy Murray

Last year, around this time, I predicted Nadal, to win the Australian Open. He was playing great tennis in 2008 and for the most part he was outplaying the rest of the field. I also had a feeling that he was going to win the title and now I've got that same feeling about Murray. Murray's 09 season was relatively mediocre, he hasn't reached a slam final since 2008 and that might motivate him to put up a great performance at the first major of the new year. Murray's, biggest obstacle, most likely will be Roger Federer. In their past 10 meetings Murray has never once beaten Roger in a slam, and if they both make the finals, it will be all the more difficult. Roger, is a tough player to beat on any normal day but when he makes the finals, he raises his game to it's absolute limit making him damn near impossible to beat. Murray's going to have to reach a new level to beat Roger. He'll have to play harder, make better use of his serve, and really play aggressively from the baseline but if he's able to do all that, he's got a great shot at the title.

French Open: Rafael Nadal

This year was just a bad year for Nadal. When he lost to Soderling, he had everything going wrong, bad knees, fast clay, and an opponent who was playing well above his usual level. If Nadal comes into this without being injured, he should walk away the champion. He's still heads and shoulders above everyone else on clay.

Wimbledon: Rafael Nadal

Again, this is assuming that he's not injured. I expect Roger will make the finals again but just like in 2008 Rafa, will get in his head and will beat Roger on his strongest surface in a close 4 or 5 set match.

US Open: Roger Federer

I think Roger will take back his US Open crown next year. He's just too dominant at this tournament for me to rule against him. Roger, will be 29 next year at the US Open and that's not young for tennis but I still believe he's got enough time to win a few more majors. I predict Roger, will win back the US Open title against Del Potro in the finals.

New gear at Pro Direct.

2009-12-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

If you want to see the new racquets, strings, and apparel, for 2010, look no farther than Prodirect.com http://www.prodirecttennis.com/depthome.asp?depthome=men. They've got a bunch of the new stuff on pre-order, so definitely check that out. The 2010 Nike apparel that I've seen is a lot better than the 2009.

I'm also hosting this Flash Game tournament on Tennis Warehouse Forums and one of the participants was nice enough to recommend me to this website (thanks Kishnabe): http://www.sticksports.com/tennis/gamegrandslam.php. This is probably the best tennis flash game that I've ever seen. I was really happy that I could play with my favorite characters (Nadal, Federer, Simon, Monfils, Verdasco) and next to the Topspin series for the X box, it might be the one of the best tennis games ever made. I strongly recommend trying this if you are at all into gaming.:D

Spain, crushes Czech Republic in the Davis Cup Finals

2009-12-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

Spain's matches against the Czech Republic, in the Davis Cup Finals, were less like a competition and more like a slaughter. Typically, when you get 5 Spanish players, together on slow clay courts, you're putting their opponents at a significant disadvantage but if most of those Spanish players happen to be in the top 20, you may as well sign their opponent's death warrants. The Czech Team lead by Tomas Berdych and Raddek Steppanek, simply didn't have the weapons needed to beat this strong of a team on their best surface.

The first match of the Davis Cup finals was between Nadal and Berdych and if you've been following tennis closely over the last month or two, you'll already know that Nadal, has been on a losing streak. Since his return back in August he hasn't been playing up to his 2008/ early 09 standard, so what better way to restore his confidence than by trouncing Berdych, a player known for his occasionally strong hard court performances. Well, that's exactly what he did on Friday. Berdych, was able to hold his ground for most of the first set but once Nadal, broke serve at 5-all, the match was over. Rafa, won 13 games in a row before Berdych finally managed to spare himself from the dreaded double bagel. Still, Rafa took this one with ease, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2.

In the second match of the finals, Spain, sent out David Ferrer and the Czech Republic used their second best player, Raddek Steppanek. This was a surprising move on Spain's behalf because Fernando Verdasco was available to play and he's ranked higher than Ferrer is. Well, Ferrer was able to win the match but it took him 5 long grueling, sets to do it. Stepanek, was absolutely brilliant and he dominated Ferrer, in the first two sets. Even though he desperately struggled throughout the beginning, David improved as as the match went on. He found his footing, early in the third set and eventually started breaking Steppanek's serve. After more than 3 hours both players were level at 2 sets all. Now, came the final set and with this being a make or break match for the Czech Republic, I'll tell you it was very intense. For the first 12 games of the final set neither player was able to break the other one's serve, but it was becoming apparent that Stepanek, was running out of steam. Finally at 6-all, David Ferrer, broke serve and was able to hold his own to win the marathon five setter and give Spain their second win in a row.

Next came the doubles match between Lopez/Verdasco and Berdych/Stepanek. Unlike Ferrer, it didn't take Lopez and Verdasco five sets to win. They were able to finish off Berdych & Stepanek in a relatively competitive 3 sets.

For the last two matches, I'll use two words to describe them..."Squash Match." Now, if you're not a WWE fanatic, you probably don't know what those words mean, so let me explain. In the Pro Wrestling world, they have a term which is used for describing a heavily one sided match, where one wrestler dominates the other one. This term is called a squash match. I think this term perfectly describes the Nadal vs Hajek and Ferrer vs Dlouhy matches. Nadal squashed Jan Hajek and Ferrer squashed Dlouhy to give Spain a shut out victory over the Czech Republic and also their second consecutive Davis Cup title. Not really sure why they had to play these last two matches, because they already had a 3-0 lead which guaranteed them the title but oh well.

Anyway congrats to Spain, for winning their second straight Davis Cup title. They're going to be serious contenders in the future because they've got all the right players on their team and when they're able to compete on clay they're just about unstoppable. I expect Spain, will go on to win many more Davis Cup titles, in the next few years.:)

Kim Sears says enough to Andy Murray's gaming habits

2009-12-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Did you hear about this? Supposedly Andy Murray's girlfriend Kim Sears, got fed up with Andy's excessive gaming habits and decided to break up with him because he was playing Modern Warcraft 2 for up to 7 hours a day. I laughed so hard when I heard this that I was literally rolling on the floor. I mean think about it, Andy Murray is the #4 tennis player in the world, he has a great looking girlfriend, yet he would rather spend lots of time playing a PS3 video game (albeit a very good one) than working on his tennis game or spending time with his GF?!

Ok, I know that's not completely fair, the tennis player do get a lot of down time towards the end of the season and my guess is that Andy, was probably playing the game back in October when he was sidelined with his wrist injury. Still, I am a little bit surprised that he had that much time to play. How was he able to fit tennis in, if he was playing the game for 7 hours a day? Not to mention press conferences, flights, physical training, and drug testing.

There's probably more to this story than was made public but still it's really weird.:D

Davydenko wins the ATP World Tour finals

2009-12-01T11:12:00.001-08:00

At the start of the tournament, I doubt anyone who would have predicted Davydenko, to walk away the champion, but congrats to him for doing so. Not only is this his biggest tournament victory ever, but he also managed to snap a 12 match losing streak against his long time rival, Roger Federer. Davydenko's road to the finals, wasn't an easy one though, he lost the opening round robin match to Djokovic in a very tight 3 set match, but he recovered against Nadal winning easily in straight sets, then Davydenko put up a great performance to overcome Soderling in another tight 3 set match. Once in the semis, Davydenko had to face Roger Federer and anyone who knows anything about their head-to-head wouldn't bet on Davydenko to win the match. In the past Davydenko has struggled against Roger and has even developed somewhat of a reputation for choking away matches against him. This time it was different, Davydenko got the perfect start against Roger and lead 4-1 in the first set before closing it out a few games later six games to two. In the second set Roger struck back hard and leveled the match at a set all, so now it's the third set both guys are playing great especially Davydenko, all he needs to do is get the one break on Roger's serve and he can win the match. At 4-5 love-15 Roger hit an amazing overhead and jammed Davydenko at the net which brought him to 2 points from winning the match. Davydenko, held his nerve and managed to serve out the game, then at 5-all he finally got the break he needed and went on to serve out the match. The confidence that Davydenko got from beating Roger, was enough to carry him through the final match, where he rolled past Del Potro 6-3, 6-4, to claim his first ever Masters Cup trophy.

If there was one thing that disappointed me about the World Tour Finals, I would say that it was Nadal's early exit. I would have loved to have seen a Federer vs Nadal semi-final match and it was really sad to see him get destroyed by Soderling and Davydenko. I mean he's the #2 player in the world, I just feel like he should have been able to win one of those matches or at least force them to 3 sets. I don't know, I hope Nadal has a much better year next year and if he's able to stay relatively injury free he might be able to win a couple of majors. We'll see how he's playing next year but that's my hope.

Santoro hangs up his racquet after 20 years on tour

2009-11-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

I've always liked Fabrice Santoro, his polite and classy behaviour combined with his incredible shot making and determination, has made him a hugely popular player amongst hard core tennis fans. While he might not have been a house-hold name to the casual follower, Santoro, was still one of the most enjoyable players to watch. He favored spin and placement over aggression and power, he was mostly a defensive player but at times he could go on the offense by coming to the net or adding more spin to his serve. He's also, one of the few players ever to have had a two handed forehand, which is definitely a must see. In case you haven't seen it before, I've included the link to a few of his matches at the bottom of this post so click on them and enjoy.:)

Santoro's, pro career began 20 years ago, at the 1989 French Open, where he lost a five set match to David Wheaton in the first round. This was also the same tournament where he claimed his first (and only) boys jr. grand slam title. In his early years on tour, Santoro managed to get some very credible wins against the best players, he beat Boris Becker in the 1992 Olympics and managed to win 2 of his first 3 meetings with Pete and Andre but despite his success against the top players, Santoro, routinely struggled to get into the later rounds of the majors and was only able to make the second week once in his whole career. Oddly enough, he skipped Wimbledon 7 times but only missed the French Open once.

The late 90s/early 2000s were probably Santoro's best years on tour, he claimed 4 of his 6 singles titles during this time period and in August of 2001, he reached his career high ranking of 17 in the world. In 2003 and 04 Santoro and his doubles partner Michael Llorda, claimed the Australian Open title back to back and managed to reach the French Open finals. Two years later Santoro achieved his best results ever at a singles grand slam, reaching the quarter-finals at the 2006 Australian Open.

Even in his last years on tour, Santoro proved that he was still dangerous, by upsetting high ranked players like Djokovic and big servers like Isner. In 2007 and 08 Santoro claimed the New Port title, making him one of the oldest players ever to win an ATP level singles tournament. Earlier this year Santoro, declared that this would be his last year on tour. And after losing to James Blake today in the Paris Masters tournament, Santoro shook hands at the net, (while exchanging shirts) and left the stadium for the last time, the crowds applause roaring behind him.

Fabrice wins the 1989 French Open boys jr. title
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y28r3eVHaJE&feature=PlayList&p=B3219EAF276965C8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=45

Santoro defeats Novak Djokovic Paris 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qHMszmc_Ys

Santoro vs Andre 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW-92FPFrn0

Santoro rallies against Federer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmuKzIEkafc&feature=related

Fabrice retrospect on his career:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gtQ1lWr79Y&feature=related

Thoughts on Andre's new book

2009-11-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

I've decided to write a post about Andre Agassi's new book titled 'Open'. In this book Andre, brings up some pretty controversial things. Substance abuse, his marriage with Brook Shields, being pushed into tennis by his father, and he even admitted to having worn a wig during the 1990 French Open Final.

In addition to all of those things, Andre, also confessed to having a deep, secret hatred for tennis, brought about by his father's incessant need for him to become a pro. According to Andre, he didn't even want to go pro, but his dad never gave him a choice about it. It all started for him, when he was a small kid. Andre's, father made him practicing returning 110 mph balls, against a mechanically altered ball machine. As Andre got older, his father, would bribe him to skip school, in order to practice more tennis. Andre, said that his dad didn't think much of education and encouraged Andre to scorn it as well. Andre's dad put so much pressure on him to perform, that he began to hate tennis, this anger towards tennis continued into his adult years and was one of the main reasons for his inconsistency. Andre, didn't want to be a tennis player and he didn't care if he did well at it, it was just something that he had to do.

Unfortunately, this probably happens to a lot of kids, who's parents force them into sports or competitions. There's so much pressure to perform that they get fed up with it and rebel against their parents. I'm sorry to hear this happened to Andre Agassi, considering the stories that I've heard about Andre's father smashing his fourth place trophy when he was 10 years old, I can understand why Andre wouldn't have enjoyed tennis.

Now as for Andre's drug abuse that's completely different. The media has been making a huge deal out of this, we've had tennis players, both current and past who have been giving their opinions on it, in fact pretty much everyone has an opinion on this. I personally, am disappointed but not altogether surprised that he resorted to drugs, during the low point of his tennis career. Things, weren't the way Andre wanted them to be and he was severely depressed. so when his assistant offered him some crystal meth, he decided to take it, thinking that his life couldn't get any worse.

While, I can understand Andre's desire to get out of his depressed state, it doesn't change the fact that he was using an illegal substance, that could debateably be considered a performance enhancing drug. Why didn't the ATP hold him accountable for this? Well it turns out that he did fail one of his drug tests, and they did question him about it, but he made up some story about his assistant slipping meth into his sports drink by accident. Why the ATP bought this story I'll never know. Today, these athletes are tested almost every week for illegal drugs. Just this year, Gasquet had a drug test that turned out positive, for a tiny, tiny amount of cocaine and that resulted in an instant ban for him, until he was able to clear his name. Should Andre receive the same kind of punishment for using crystal Meth. It's been 12 years but it doesn't really seem fair that he should be able to get away without any kind of fine. It's a tough question to answer. Performance enhancing drugs will get you a 2 year ban on the tour and that would strip Andre of his Roland Garros and US Open titles from 1999, as well as his Australian Open title from 2000.
Would this be the right thing to do? I don't know, it seems a bit excessive but then again he did break the rules. This is definitely a tough question to answer.

So I'd like to hear from you guys, what's your opinion about Andre's drug use? Should he be fined, penalized, have his titles taken away or was it just too long ago for it to matter?

Worst tennis video games of all time part 2

2009-10-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I'm back now with part two of this series. Well, so far the games I've reviewed have been awful. Could these next two games possibly be any worse? Let's find out.:)

Game: Tennis

Year: 1989

System: Game boy

In this game, you play as a kid, who's goal is to become the best tennis player ever. To do this, he has to overcome four opponents of various skill levels to become the "Tennis Master" or something like that. Anyway, the serving is much simpler and the groundstrokes and cross court volleys are easy to execute but covering the court is frustrating to say the least. Your character is so slow that it's pointless to rally from the baseline, if you hit a decent shot it will most likely be a winner since neither you nor your opponent are able to run very fast. The best tactic for this game is to just serve and volley. You can do this pretty much all through the game, as long as you have decent serves out wide, you'll have no trouble.

All in all, this one isn't bad but the lack of speed from your character can make it annoying. The controls are also pretty good with this game.

Game: Andre Agassi Tennis

Year: 1993

System: Super Nintendo

This game, is HORRIBLE!! It is so bad and so boring that it's not even worth playing. I am not exaggerating when I say that this game, is the worst tennis game, that I've ever played. Easily the worst. However, I did promise to review this one so, here it goes.

When you first turn on the game you are greeted with pictures of Andre during his early mullet days at Wimbledon, that and some cheesy music. Once you press start you can choose what kind of match you want to play, IE: exhibition, practice, or tournament. You can also choose to be a female tennis player but there's only 2 of them to pick from. I guess the game designers didn't think that girls would buy this, or they would have included a better selection.

Once you start the tournament you can choose what surface you want. There isn't any difference between them, so it doesn't really matter which one you choose. Ok, now we can finally start the match. The first thing that you'll notice, upon starting, is how bad the graphics are. The animation is poor, the characters are not well detailed, and the colors are hideous. In addition to that, the ball bounces like a deflated tire, making it just about impossible to carry on an extended rally. Serving, is annoying because the ball tends to go wide if you hold down the arrow, in the direction that you want to serve. It's better to just toss the ball up and hit it in,without going for precision. The ground strokes, in this game are WORSE than in Top Players Tennis, if you can believe that. You can hit the ground strokes so that they bounce high or drop low and that's it. No slice, no topspin, no underspin, no variety, just high balls and low balls.

If you are somehow able to master the worst controls of all time, you may be able to win the tournament and beat the game. I don't know what happens, I've never been able to do that, I can't win more than 2 games per match and I've tried several times.

This is without a doubt the worst game I've ever played. It's a disgrace that it was ever made. Stay away from this thing, it's just pure junk.

Worst tennis video games of all time

2009-10-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

Since, this is towards the end of the tennis season and the World Tour Final isn't for a few more weeks, I decided to do a few posts just for fun, to talk about some of the worst tennis video games that I've played. Surprisingly, there's a lot of them.

Now, if you're like me, you pretty much grew up with video games and started gaming at a very early age, with Nintendo, Sega or Playstation. The first system that I ever owned was a Super Nintendo but later on in my early teens I played a couple of the old NES games at a friend's house and two of the games that he had were, Top Players Tennis and Jimmy Connor's Tennis.

Today I'll be reviewing both games for the original Nintendo and just to be fair I replayed them recently and they were just as bad as I remembered.

Game: Top players Tennis

Year: 1990

System: Nintendo

This is the most pathetic excuse that I've ever seen for a video game. When you first turn on the game, you are greeted by an annoying robotic voice which tells you the names of the two pro tennis players, in this game, Chris Evert and Ivan Lendl. When you press start the player select screen pops up and you can play as one of four players, Evert, Lendl, and a really ugly boy and girl. The controls on this game just suck. Your character tosses the ball so high, that it almost goes out of the stadium and it makes the serve extremely difficult to time. You have to start your service motion when the ball is at it's maximum height so it looks like you're swinging at a ball that's over 40 feet in the air. The ground stokes, while confusing, are manageable, but serving, volleying, moving the character, and controlling the ground strokes is a nightmare.

Bottom line, this game just sucks, it's so bad it's worth trying it just for a laugh but don't spend any money on this early 90s piece of junk.

Game: Jimmy Connors Tennis

Year 1993

System: NES

Well, for a game coming out as late as 1993, I would expect something much better than this. The music is so bad in this game that they give you the option to turn it off and the controls aren't much better, although the serve is much easier in this game than in Top Player's tennis. Jimmy's, ground strokes are slow and his primary weapon is some kind of weird slice shot that he can execute if you hold the B button and then release when you're ready to strike the ball. The volleys are very hard to hit unless you are right on top of them but moving Jimmy around the court isn't that bad. He doesn't slide in the same way that Lendl does in the Top Player's tennis game.

The one strange about this game is that it seems to be set in the 70s. Instead of playing with a yellow tennis ball and graphite racquet, Jimmy is back to his old days of wood frames and white tennis balls. The tennis ball is actually too small in this game, it looks more like a golf ball or maybe a wadded up piece of paper. Yeah, that sounds right to me, Jimmy Connors, is beating his opponents with a wadded up piece of paper.

Anyway, this game is pretty bad but it's not terrible. If you can learn to master Jimmy's weird slice backhand then you might have fun with it but it's going to take some work and a few play throughs, it's not something that you can just sit down and completely master in 5 minutes.

Check back for part 2 where I will be reviewing Andre Agassi's tennis for the SNES and Tennis for the original game boy.

Nike 2010 line

2009-10-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, 2009 is almost at an end and in my opinion this has been one of the worst years for Nike in a long time, there clothes this year have just been weird. However, there is good news, I've seen the new Nike line for next year and most of it looks really nice. Here are the links for the Spring and Summer 2010 Nike line on Tennis Warehouse forums:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?s=fc8b3298f27fe2fe21fa646bfad9c9c3&t=294052

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?s=9303c6761d7f374950cb0bfa01658154&t=281842&page=4

It seems like Nike has finally gotten away from strange combinations like turquoise with pink and green, or pink with black and yellow and other ugly patterns from earlier this year.

Need I say more.

Safin surpises Davydenko in the first round of the Kremlin Cup

2009-10-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or does Marat look kind of like Neo from The Matrix in this pic?

Despite being just a few weeks away from hanging up his racquet for good, Marat Safin managed to prove that he's still got game by eliminating the recent Shanghai champion and former 3 time Kremlin Cup champ Nikolay Davydenko, in 3 sets. I took a look at their head-to head on the ATP website and I was surprised to see that Davydenko has never beaten Safin on hard courts, yet Safin had never beaten Davydenko on clay. It's strange sometimes how the surfaces can make all the difference in a match.

Anyway, I can't say that this is a particularly huge win for Safin, since he's not going to be around for much longer but it would be kind of cool if he wins the Kremlin Cup, at least that way he can sort of go out with a bang.

Safin, will be missed next year, especially by his fans, but I know that he's ready to go and hopefully his life after retirement, will be easier for him than these last few years on tour have been.

Davydenko defeats Nadal to win Shanghai Open

2009-10-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

What a strange tournament it's been. With players retiring left and right, Nadal was able to easily progress into the finals defeating two players who retired half way through the matches with injuries. In my opinion, the ATP has got to do something about these injury problems. Federer, Murray, Roddick, Monfils, are all out with injuries and Nadal has been out a lot this year because of his knees. They need to cut back on the amount of tournaments the players are required to play or at least change things around so that months like August, March, April, June, and May aren't so grueling.

Anyway, as for the match, it was a good one, Davydenko played great in parts, (especially in the first set tie-break) and Nadal was a bit off his mark. This is Davydenko's third ATP Masters series title and it will just about guarantee him a place in the World Tour Finals. In last years Year End Masters Davydenko made the finals. With the fast indoor courts playing well to his game, I think he's got a chance of actually winning the title. For him Roger Federer will be the big problem. In all 12 of their meetings he's never beaten him but Roger has been somewhat vulnerable over the last two years and since he's just coming back from his back injury...well who knows. Good luck with that match Nikolay.:)

Who do you want to win the majors next year?

2009-10-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this recently and I've been trying to figure out what would be the most interesting match ups for the finals of the grand slams, next year. Obviously the Nadal and Federer matches, would probably first come to mind but I tried to pick other top players who would not only be likely to make the finals but would also be capable of playing a great match.
Well, this is what I've come up with for now, let me know what you think:

Australian Open: Nadal vs Del Potro

Reason: Del Potro killed Nadal in all 3 of their meetings on the fast hard courts this year, but the Australian Open surface is different. It's slower than most hard courts and produces a higher bouncing ball, making it a much easier surface to play on for topspinners. Even though Del Potro still has a height advantage, the slowness of the court combined with the higher bounce would give Nadal a fair chance. In fact this would probably be the most neutral surface that I can think of for these two players to meet on. Neither one would have an overwhelming advantage and it would all come down to who played the better match.

French Open: Nadal vs Djokovic

Reason: Since there's already been 3 Federer/Nadal French Open finals, I decided to make my French Open choice between Nadal and Djokovic. Even though Djokovic, has never beaten Nadal on clay, he's come very close several times. Djoker, frequently takes sets off Nadal and he's even had match points in their meeting in Rome 2008 and then earlier this year in Madrid. I'm not sure if Djokovic, would really do any better against Nadal than Federer would but I would rather see him get a chance to prove himself in the French Open finals. Even if Djokovic, loses in straight sets, I know he would at least put up a good fight.

Wimbledon: Nadal vs Federer

Reason: There's just no question that the Federer Nadal matches at Wimby are classics. I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to see more of them. Regardless of who wins, you know your going to have a great match and that's why I'm picking this for the Wimbledon finals.

US Open: Del Potro vs Tsonga

Reason: This one was a bit tricky for me, but I eventually decided to go with Del Potro to make the finals next year, because I'd like to see him try to defend his title, on the biggest stage of all. As for his opponent, I wanted someone who he hasn't played a bunch of times. That's why I'm going with Tsonga. Ever since making the finals at the Australian Open, Tsonga, hasn't come close to winning a major, but I think that would probably change, if makes the finals at the US Open. Tsonga has done well against the top 3 players and he's got the game needed to win the here. He has a huge serve and a powerful forehand, not to mention great volleys. Making him one of the few real all court players still left on tour. Because his game is well rounded, he doesn't have to rely on any one particular shot, in the way that Roddick relies on his serve, or Gasquet relies on his backhand. Tsonga, should be able to give Del Potro everything he could handle and I'd really like to see this one happen next year.

Tsonga, overcomes Youzhney to win the Tokyo Open

2009-10-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Now with the Tokyo Open in his pocket, Tsonga's chances of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals, have greatly improved. If he does make the cut this will be his second year in a row doing so and with the super fast speed of the Indoor hard courts, Tsonga's, chances of winning there should be as good as any ones.

The next two Masters series tournaments will be played on hard courts, with the BNP Paribas Masters, being held indoors. This should be very good for Tsonga, who likes those fast courts where his serve and groundstrokes, penetrate with lightning fast speeds.

Last year at this time, Tsonga, became a dangerous player and managed to win Bangkok and Paris to seal his place in the year end Masters. I'm expecting similar results this year. Although, that 8th spot is still up for grabs. Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco, and Nikolay Davydenko are probably the players who will most seriously contend for it.

For now I'll go with these 8 players to make the World Tour Finals:

1. Roger Federer
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Novak Djokovic
4. Andy Murray
5. Juan Martin Del Potro
6. Andy Roddick
7. Jo Wilfried Tsonga
8. Fernando Verdasco

I'm going to go with Verdasco to just edge out Davydenko and qualify for the first time, in his career. Yeah, ok I admit I'm favoring him because I'm a Verdasco fan. :)

Anyway, that's just a guess, at this point but it seems like the most likely group to me.

Hewitt, ends Vasselin's dream run. Djokovic downs Verdasco

2009-10-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Even though the Vasselin/Hewitt match was one-sided, I really enjoyed what I saw especially in the first set. Vasselin's shot making was incredible and so was Hewitt's. At 4-all Vasselin, had a tough service game with a few too many unforced errors and Hewitt was able to capitalize and break Vasselin, for a 5-4 lead. In the next game Hewitt, managed to serve out the set and then kept the pressure on Vasselin in set 2, which turned out to be more than the Frenchman could handle. Hewitt, took the second set easily without much resistance and finished the match by bageling Vasselin.

This was a good performance, from Hewitt. He's played solidly this week and I think he might be able to make the finals in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for the Djokovic vs Verdasco match. Ordinarily these are two of the most entertaining players on the tour but in their quarter-final meeting they were both very erratic. Djokovic, took the first set easily getting an early break against Verdasco in the second game. but in set two, Djokovic, suddenly faded and it was Verdasco, who dominated, claiming the second set easily 6-1. Then the roles changed again in the final set this time Djokovic was the dominating player. He won the first five games before Verdasco was able to get on the board and avoid being bageled. Then Djokovic finished off Verdasco, in the next game, easily holding serve, to win the match 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

As a Verdasco fan this was very disappointing. Verdasco, is one of those super talented players, that on his best day is capable of beating anyone. He routinely takes sets from the top 5 but he just doesn't have the consistency to win those matches very often. This wasn't really a bad match but I would have liked to see more from Verdasco and Djokovic probably could have played better in the second set.

Del Potro upset in the first round at Tokyo

2009-10-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey guys.:) Sorry to have missed a few days with my blog, I've been playing a lot of tennis recently and I haven't quite had the time to post on here.

I saw the match between Del Potro and Edouard Roger-Vasselin at the Tokyo Open and I was really surprised that Del Potro lost the match in straights. I actually thought Del Potro, played decently for most of the match, he just had a couple of games where he had too many unforced errors and his opponent was able to get the winners when he needed them. Edouard Roger Vasselin, did a great job on saving the break points that Del Potro, had against him, especially since his game didn't seem to match up that well against Del Potro's. He's a good player but he doesn't have an overwhelming serve and he tends to favor spin more than flat hitting. He's also a more defensive type of player than Del Potro. In the very first game of the match, Del potro absolutely served Vasselin, right off the court. Initially I didn't think that he stood a chance but Vasselin proved me, the crowd, and possibly even himself wrong when he managed to get two important breaks to over-come the #5 player in the world, in straight sets.

If Vasselin, continues to play like this then he'll have a good chance of making a decent run in the Tokyo Open. Regardless, of how far he makes it, I'm sure he's thrilled to be into the next round and have a victory over one of the best players in the world.

Gael Monfils claims his second career title in Open de Moselle

2009-09-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Now that the US Open has ended, the excitement of the tournaments kind of slows down until the Year End Masters Cup or the Davis Cup finals. In my opinion, Spain, is very likely to win the Davis Cup, especially if they play the finals on clay. At the moment they just have the best players on their team, Nadal, Verdasco, and Ferrer. Verdasco's, game is well suited to hard courts and Nadal is just about unstoppable on clay. They're already the defending champions and they're such a well rounded team I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that they will win the Davis Cup 2009.

As for the other smaller tournaments, something kind of surprising happened this past week. Gael Monfils claimed an ATP title. That might sound kind of harsh but it's been a long time since he's won an ATP level tournament. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it, but when I found out about it later on, I was thrilled. Monfils, is one of my favorite players and I'm surprised that he hasn't won more title by this point in his career. He's been in 6 finals since winning the Prokom Open, in 2005 but this time, he was the one, walking away with the trophy. Maybe this is the start of something new for him or maybe it's just a surprise win that won't amount to much of anything. I hope it's beginning of something good for him, but we'll have to wait and see.

Most of the top players are now playing in Bangkok, Thailand. The French guys seem to be doing pretty well over there. Gasquet and Monfils, both had strong performances in the early rounds and the defending champion Tsonga is now into the quarter-finals, even though he had to struggle to get past Ernests Gulbis. As for Thailand, I like Tsonga's, chances of retaining his title there, although I could see Gilles Simon, taking it from him. Personally, I hope that Simon does win, he's #9 in the world right now and a victory here would pretty much solidify his chances of qualifying for the Year End Masters Cup.

Britten loses in the opening round of the Davis Cup

2009-09-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Despite having the power-house Andy Murray, on their side, Britten, was overwhelmed in their opening round match for the Davis Cup. This was a sad display from everyone except Murray. Murray, even risked further damage to his left wrist, (which is currently recovering from a strain) by coming out to play in the Davis Cup. Britten's Dan Evans, was put in the final match against Poland, but he clearly wasn't ready for that responsibility and he lost Michal Przysiezny in straight sets, giving Poland a narrow victory over Britten 3-2.

I think that maybe in a few years Evans, will be a better player, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he suffers the same fate as Donald Young. A talented player, with great touch who just doesn't have a big enough game to stay competitive in the important matches. I could be wrong about Evans and I hope that I am. Britten, desperately needs someone to back them up in the Davis Cup. Had it not been for Andy Murray, this would have been an absolutely humiliating defeat for them.

Juan Martin Del Potro wins the US Open

2009-09-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

At first I wasn't really sure how I felt about Del Potro winning the Open. I mean I was kind of happy to see a new champion, and knowing that Del Potro is 20 and Roger is 28 it's not really that surprising that a younger player taking over Roger's reign as US Open Champion. Del Potro will be the future of the tennis world and will probably and I'm pretty sure that this US Open title is just the beginning of things to come for him. So while it seemed kind of fitting that Del Potro beat Roger, I was kind of sad to see Roger lose. He's been the US Open champion since I started watching tennis and it's strange, for me, now that he's not.

Many people, including myself, think that Roger is the greatest player of all time, although when it comes to five set matches at the majors, he has shown some vulnerability. This is now the third time that he's lost a 5 set match in a grand slam final. If you compare his five set record in slam finals 2-3 to his four set record (5-2) or 3 set record ( 7-1) you can see that he tends to win more often in shorter matches. I think that his mediocre 5 set record is mostly due to his lack of mental fortitude. Don't get me wrong, Federer is still a strong mental player, but sometimes he gets frustrated by an opponent or his own tactical decision making and instead of trying something different he tends to repeat the same mistake, a good example of this would be in Miami against Djokovic. Or a few years ago at the French Open, when he refused to use a drop shot against Nadal.

As for Del Potro, this title is a huge win for him. Now that he's won a major he's proven that he's a viable threat for the upcoming slams and that he's capable of beating the world's best, on the biggest of stages. I guess time will tell with this guy, he could be a major dominating player in years to come or he could be a flash in the pan who burns out after a few years at the top, kind of like Lleyton Hewitt. A lot will also depend on what kind of rivals Del Potro has during his peak years. I mean think about how many majors Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick would have won, had it not been for Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. Andre, would have possibly doubled the amount of slams that he ended up with and I'm pretty sure Roddick could have won at least 7 or 8. That same kind of fate could befall Del Potro, if he winds up playing in the same era as a player, far superior to him.

Del Potro destoys Nadal, Roger battles past Djokovic

2009-09-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, and I thought the loss Nadal had to Murray last year was bad. This was the worst loss that I've seen for Nadal since the Australian Open semi-finals last year. Nadal, was far too defensive against Del Potro and he paid for it. Del Potro, had him on the run through out most of the match. I never felt like Rafa had a good chance of winning the match after he lost a break early in the first set and was then broken again for Del Potro to win the first set 6-2. Del Potro then repeated that pattern twice and had Rafa beat in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Even though Nadal, lost pretty badly this was still a good result for him, to make the semi-finals at the US Open. He didn't lose any points from last year and he actually regained his number 2 ranking thanks to Murray losing in the fourth round. I hope that next year he plays with some more aggression though. It's the only thing that will get him past these powerful flat hitting baseliners.

Federer played a good match against Djokovic. He had an acceptable first serve percentage, and had 49 winners to 33 unforced errors. Djokovic, played well too but he didn't have enough winners to make up for the 31 errors. As for the match, it was a lot like their US Open Final in 2007. Djokovic managed to stay competitive with Roger in all 3 sets but in the moments when he needed it most, Roger was able to come up with the answer he needed to take the set. This was a pretty enjoyable match though.

By the way, did any of you guys see Shaq VS last night when he took on Phelps? I would love to see Shaq, take on Andy Roddick or John Isner, in tennis. I think that would be awesome.

Nadal finishes Gonzalez. Serena disqualified from her match!

2009-09-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't really have a whole lot to say about the Nadal vs Gonzalez match. Nadal, came out and pretty much dominated Gonzo, right from where they left off. Gonzalez, played terribly in the third set, his forehand was missing constantly and he lost the set and match 7-6, 7-6, 6-0.

Now, as for Serena and Kim Clijsters, I have a lot to say about their match. Ordinarily, I don't comment much about the WTA, so something pretty important has to happen for me to make a post on it. Well, something incredible did happen. Serena, got herself disqualified by verbally abusing a lineswoman after she incorrectly called a foot fault against Serena.

The lineswoman's, call was a bit questionable but Serena just snapped and went off on this woman. Here's the video in case you haven't already seen it:

I think that Serena's reactions during the whole match were inappropriate. She acted more like a bitter, vengeful, maniac than a former 3 time champion. After losing the first set she threw her racquet on the ground, picked it back up, and then proceeded to smash it against the court until it broke. That was just a warm up, for what came next. Starting in the second set Serena, started to get more verbally aggressive. She started using more 'come on's' after winning points against Kim's serve and in between points, she would pace around the baseline, talking to her racquet, with her body language becoming increasingly negative. Finally with the end of the match, in sight, Serena snapped. The line judge called a foot fault against her when she was serving at 15-30, on her second serve. It gave Kim ,two match points, but she never got to play them because Serena went right over to the line judge and started swearing at her and threatened to ram one of the balls up her ass.

The lines judge went over to tell the chair umpire what Serena had told her and the chair umpire motioned for Serena to come over to them. They brought out two officials and Serena basically tried to deny what she had said. They told her she was disqualified and she walked over to shake Kim's hand and then left, with the crowd booing her as she went. In the press conference, after the match, Serena, pretty much denied what she had said but she did later give an apology to the woman on her website.

I was disgusted by what I saw from Serena Williams. Like I said before, she acted more like a bitter, vengeful, woman with a serious anger-management issue, than a 3 time US Open champion. I hope that she is fined for her outburst, and maybe even a temporary ban from some of the tournaments.

Serena's outburst shouldn't be tolerated and what would it say about the WTA if they just allowed one of their players to get away with something like this. It would show where their priorities really are and how little they care about the lines people who are trying to do their job.

Mens quarter-finals tennis matches

2009-09-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I was wrong. I really thought that Verdasco would have won the match against Djokovic and I still think that he should have won it. He had two break points/set points when Novak was serving at 4-5 15-40 but he failed to convert one of them. Then he lost the tie-break against Novak but managed to break his serve 3 times in the second set. Then he broke his serve again in the third before Novak returned the favor. Finally, he cramped late in the third set and from that point forward the match was over, Novak easily beat Verdasco after he strained his abdomen winning the fourth set 6-2.

If Verdasco, had won one of those two points at 4-5 he would have been up two sets-to-love at the start of the third set and Novak, probably wouldn't have been able to come back from that. It's kind of too bad that the match ended the way it did, I was hoping for more.

Congrats to Novak for making the semis, for the third straight year. He should give Roger a pretty good match and he definitely has the ability to upset him. I'm sticking with Roger to win it though.

Roger's quarter-final battle with Soderling, turned out to have a very surprising ending. Roger, absolutely dominated Soderling in the first two sets and played some of his vintage best tennis towards the end of the third set but Soderling kept himself, alive in the match by winning his service games in the third set and late in the tie-break he was able to seize advantage of a momentary lapse from Roger, to bring the match to 2 sets to 1. The fourth set also went to a tie-break, and Soderling, was coming on strong. Roger did manage to win the fourth set but only just barely. Soderling, played great after the second set and a match like this proves that he has the ability to beat Roger. He's just going to have to play his best tennis all the way through.

I was kind of disappointed by the Cilic vs Del Potro match. Mostly because Cilic, beat himself. He did a great job taking out Murray in the fourth round but he hit way too many unforced errors against Del Potro. 53 errors to 29 winners is a terrible stat. Del Potro, played well in this match, nothing super special but enough to win pretty cleanly after getting the break back from Cilic in the second set. Cilic, seemed to play more inconsistently as the match went on and only won 3 games in the last two sets.

As for the Nadal vs Gonzalez match, I haven't currently seen the end of it yet, because it's been suspended by rain. So far, Nadal is up 1 set to love and they're in the second set tie-break at 3-2. This match has been extremely entertaining. Gonzalez has been streaky but when his forehand has been on, it's produced some incredible winners. Rafa, has looked good, I think he's playing well enough that if he does win this match, he should be able to over-come Del Potro and make the US Open finals for the first time in his career. I'm not sure how he will do against Djokovic or Federer, in the finals. That's probably going to be the big test for him.

US Open fourth round, Americans are gone and Verdasco looks strong

2009-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

I hope you guys have been enjoying the tennis matches over Labor day weekend. Some of them were really exciting like Oudin vs Sharapova match and the Verdasco vs Haas match. Others weren't as quite as good, Nadal vs Almagaro and Federer vs Hewitt. Still, I enjoyed watching the matches in general.

Verdasco, has been doing great at the Open. His shot making has been at it's best throughout the tournament and he's managed to make the quarter-finals of a major for the second time in his career. His next opponent is Djokovic and that's going to be a really tough match for him but I actually think he has a chance. Djokovic, probably won't be able to over-power him and he doesn't really have any tools that are tremendously better than Verdasco. If Verdasco, continues his excellent shot-making and serves well, I think he's got a good chance of making the semi-finals.

Federer, started the tournament off in third gear but after losing the first set to Hewitt in his third round match, he's gradually improved his game and he's now playing pretty good tennis. Like before, I think Roger's probably going to win the US Open but if there's one player likely to upset him it's Murray.

Nadal, has seemed to be kind of inconsistent. He looked great in his match against Gasquet but he was broken 5 times when he played Almagaro. Three of those breaks came in the first set.
If he's going to make the semis again, he going to have to improve his first serve percentage and cut back on his unforced errors. He also needs to put some power into his serve and not play as defensively. Gonzalez and Tsonga, are both lurking in his quarter of the draw. They're big hitters who are capable of overpowering Nadal on the faster courts, especially when he's playing too defensively. I'm not sure how Nadal's going to do at this point. Let's wait and see how he does against Gael Monfils.

Marat Safin loses in the first round of his final US Open

2009-09-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

In the year 2000 a young Russian player named Marat Safin, upset the tennis world, by dethroning the king of the US Open Pete Sampras, in straight sets. At the time, Safin, was new to the tour and looked to be a very promising player of the future. 9 years later, a grizzled veteran emerged on court, worn out from his surgeries and time spent playing, Safin, had declared this would be his last US Open. His opponent, was Jurgen Melzer. Melzer, had beaten Safin in 3 of their 4 career meetings and despite his lack of achievements at the majors, he was still the favorite in their match. Safin, got off to a powerful start easily taking the first set from Melzer, but Melzer rallied back hard and used his superior fitness and good shot making to win the second and third sets. In the fourth set Safin, tried his best to stay with Melzer, and he was able to keep the set level until he served at 4 games all. Melzer, sensed a weakness and came up with a few extraordinary shots to break Safin. Melzer, then proceeded to serve out the set, both wining the match and ending Safin's career at the majors. Melzer, won their match 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

Marat's, career has had a lot of ups and downs. Some people think that he never lived up to his full potential and that's probably true, especially, because of his injuries. However I feel that he's had a solid career for the most part. Safin, made four grand slam finals and won 2 of them. He also managed to win 5 masters series and made 27 finals throughout his career.

Even if he had been injury free I'm not convinced that he would have been able to win any more slams. Half of his career was during the Federer Nadal era and it's unlikely that he would have been able to break that up and steal a few majors from them, except for the one in 2005.

I think Marat Safin, has a lot to be proud of. He's been able to hold his own against the best players in the world and on his best days, he was capable of beating them. He'll definitely be missed but it's obvious he's ready to go, I hope he finds something else that he enjoys doing to replace tennis.

The US Open 2009 draw

2009-08-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

When I first saw this draw I couldn't believe it was for real and I'm not just saying that as a Nadal fan. I mean look at this, it's got to be one of the most difficult draws ever.
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/ms/r1s2.html

Nadal's draw has Gasquet in the first round, Possibly Keifer in the second, Almagaro and Ginepri both lurking in the third round, a possible meeting with Ferrer in the fourth and Berdych or Tsonga in the quarters, with Murray in the semis and Federer in the finals.

Now of course, that's the worst case sinereo but still, that's incredibly hard. Federer, on the other hand has a very easy draw. No tough opponents until Hewitt in the third round and that's really just about it, except for a possible run in with Soderling or Blake in the fourth round and Davydenko in the quarters. Novak Djokovic has Ljubicic in the first round and is in the same quarter as Roddick, same half as Roger. Murray has Del Potro in his quarter and will face Gulbis in the first round.

Based on these draws, I think Roger has a great chance of making the finals, even if he doesn't play his best tennis he should still be able to get there. Rafa's been struggling to get back into his rhythm and based on the hard draw I wouldn't be surprised to see him upset earlier in the tournament. Murray, has Del Potro in his quarter and Djokovic has Roddick. These guys will have to go through each other to get to the semis. That's good for Roger, his biggest competition will be eliminating itself. In fact the more I think about it the more I like Roger's chance of claiming his sixth US Open title. We'll see what happens but for right now I'm going with Roger to win the Open.

Federer wins Cincinatti title over Djokovic

2009-08-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

I think this was the closest I've seen to vintage Roger Federer in a long time. His forehand was solid his backhand was solid. His serve was there for him when he needed it and his game was just all-around great. Everything about Roger's game looked good. Djokovic on the other hand was completely off in the first set, Roger completely dominated him and came within two points of bageling Djokovic. In the second set Djokovic, seemingly managed to take quick control. He broke Roger's serve and went up 3-0 only to be broken back his very next service game. Both players held serve from that point on until 5-all when Roger broke Djokovic's serve yet again and served out the match the 6-1, 7-5 to claim his third masters series in Cincinnati.

So now with the US Open being only a week away, I would say that Roger Federer looks to be the strongest contender of the "Big four" or "Big six" if you include Roddick and Del Potro. He finally put an end to his losing streak against Andy Murray by dominating him in the semi-finals. Nole took out Nadal, and Roddick lost to Querrey in the second round. Based on the results of Cincinnati and Fed's recent performance in slams, he is probably the favorite for the Open. However, it's far from a foregone conclusion that Federer will win his 16th major at this US Open. Any one of the guys in the "Big six" could upset him. Even Roddick could do it.

It should be a really good US Open. I'm really looking forward to it.

Rafa's knees...are bad!!!!

2009-08-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

After watching Nadal's matches against David Ferrer, and Juan Martin Del Potro, I can say with 100% certainty that Rafa knees are in big trouble. I really didn't like what I saw in either match, especially against Ferrer.

Nadal, has made some major changes to his game, since he took time to recover, after the French Open. He's now trying to play a more aggressive game from the baseline, keeping his opponent on the run as much as possible while moving as little as he can and keeping the points shorter. Unfortunately, speed has always been something that he's relied on, it's a critical part of his game and it's the one thing he was definitely lacking in Montreal. Just from watching him, you can see he isn't trying to run down the balls anymore. But that's a problem for his game because his serve isn't good enough to constantly keep him on the attack. Even aggressive players like Roger, have to do some ball retrieving. I realize he's trying to save his knees but he's not going to be able to play offensively all the time against guys like Andy Murray and Roger Federer. If they sense a weakness like that, they'll keep him on the run, at least part of the time and at some point he'll have to take more time off from the tennis season to rest his knees. It sucks that his knees are in such poor condition. If he developed a better serve earlier in his career which could have saved him from having to do all the running, he probably wouldn't be in this situation. I don't know why Rafa never placed more importance on developing his serve, surely he didn't think his knees would hold up under that kind of abuse forever. Why didn't his Uncle work with him on this important part of his game? The serve is important on every surface except clay. And why was he over-booking himself during the clay court season. Just to maintain his ranking? Why not cut out a tournament during the clay court season and replace it with one in the US Open series. That way he would have been more warmed up for the US Open and less tired for Roland Garros. Some of his scheduling doesn't make sense to me.

I hope Nadal, does find a way to improve his serve and ball placement, his movement wasn't good in Montreal but he hasn't played a match in over two months, so I'll cut him some slack on that. I wish him the best of luck and I would love to see him find a way to deal with his tendinitis and still win majors. Rafa's probably the mentally strongest person on tour, so if anyone can find a way to deal with this injury, it'll be him.

Montreal Finals: Andy Murray defeats Juan Martin Del Potro

2009-08-16T14:05:00.001-07:00

This was a strange match. Del Potro, seemed to be tired from his 3 set semi-final match against Andy Roddick. He took so much time, between points that the umpire gave him several warnings, for time abuse. But he still played great in the first two sets and stayed completely even with Murray, narrowly winning the first set tie-break thanks to an unforced error from Murray, and then narrowly losing the second set. By the very end of the second set it became obvious that Del Potro was running out of steam. He took an extensively long injury time-out after the second set. Murray, complained to the umpire about the amount of time Del Potro was taking and the umpire said he would deal with it. Murray, seemed to be angry with Del Potro for taking so much time and the sports commentators said that Murray and Del Potro had somewhat of a bitter rivalry going back to their jr. days. Murray started to play more aggressively in the third set, and thorougly dominated Del Potro, eventually taking the the set and match 6-1.

Final thoughts: This was a good match. Both guys played in top form, for most of it and Del Potro in particular served great. One side note, the sports commentators were extremely annoying. They kept calling Del Potro "Del Po" or "The big man" I guess that's their way of trying to add color commentary but it just came off as stupid. I swear they get the worst people to commentate at the US Open series tournaments.XP

Monday in Montreal

2009-08-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today, I've decided to try something different, I'm going to post a review on the matches that I saw and rate them based on how enjoyable I thought they were.

Mikhail Youzhny vs Marin Cilic

Unfortunately, I missed the first set of this match, so I can't say much about it, other than Marin won it fairly comfortably 6-3. The second set was much closer, Youzhny and Cilic exchanged breaks of serve late in the second set, then Youzhny broke serve again and went to serve out the set at 6-5 but despite having 5 set points, Youzhny wasn't able to do it and Cilic broke him to take the set to a tie-break. Once, in the tie-break Youzhny seized command and ran away with it 7-4. In the final set, Youzhny got an early break against Cilic, and never looked back, he closed out the final set easily 6-1.

Winner: Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 7-6, 6-1.

Thoughts on the match: While, I enjoyed this one, I would have preferred some more consistent play from both of these guys. Cilic, pretty much self-destructed in the third set and it was kind of sad to see. He may be a good player with a lot of talent but he's going to need to work on his mental strength if he's going to be a serious force on tour. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Kunitsyn vs Niemeyer

This one was really good, even despite the large number of unforced errors. Both of these guys came up with jaw dropping winners and Niemeyer's huge serve was especially impressive, which he used to bail himself out of trouble against Kunitsyn. The first set of this match was very close, with Niemeyer just edging out Kunitsyn 7-5. Then, Niemeyer, on the verge of a massive upset, dominated Kunitsyn in the second set and took the second set and match 6-1. Niemeyer, now 33 years old, plans to retire after this year, his opponent in the next round is Roger Federer. Niemeyer, is ranked outside the top 400 so his match against Roger could be his last one.

Final thoughts on the match: Good quality stuff, no real complaints although I was hoping it would go to 3 sets. 4 out of 5 stars.

Bruno Agostinelli vs Peter Polanski

Polanski, dominated the beginning of the match, going up 3-0 but Bruno broke back at 1-3 and held serve to level the set at 3-all. Polanski, then re-gained control and took the first set 6-3.
A rain delay occurred early in the second set and forced a time delay. Once play resumed, the players took the second set to a tie-break which Polanski won 8 points to 6, to seal the victory.

Final thoughts on the match: I enjoyed this one as well. Especially the second set. Polanski, seems like a good player and his fore-hand is nice. He's scheduled to meet Djokovic in the next round, be sure to watch that one it should be an exciting match. Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Stanislas Wawrinka vs Nicolas Kiefer

This one was a good match too. Wawrinka, had some great shot making and was always in control of this match. Once the first set was over, so was the match. Wawrinka, easily defeated Kiefer 6-4, 6-1.

Final thoughts on the match: Stan played a near flawless match. His shot making was just incredible at times and Kiefer was completely out-classed. 4 out of 5 stars.

There were a lot of good matches today. Oh and I forgot to mention, Nadal made a successful return to the tour, winning his doubles match against Djokovic and Vemic. Although, I wasn't able to see the match, I was glad to hear that he made it through without his knees bothering him. Hope they hold up well during the rest of the week.

Nadal to return in Montreal, Querrey wins first title of 2009,

2009-08-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sam Querrey, has now gained the lead in the US Open series by defeating Carsten Ball in the finals of the LA Open. The match went all the way to 3 sets but Sam took the third set handily 6-1. This was a really important match for Sam. If he had lost here, it would have been the third time in a row that he lost in the finals to a lesser ranked opponent. Which brings up the question, does Sam Querrey have choking problems? Let's see how he does in Montreal, next week. The competition will be more difficult and if Sam, is able to consistently prove himself against tougher competition, it would indicate that he's making a break through in his career.

Speaking of Montreal, Nadal has announced to the press that he will make his return to the tour next week in the Roger's Cup. His uncle Toni, said that doesn't expect Nadal, to be at 100%, since he has not fully resumed his training. Nadal's performance in Montreal should answer a lot of questions about his tendinitis. Whether the rest has helped him or if the torn cartilage is too much for even Rafa to over-come. I hope to see him play great but I'm a little bit doubtful at this point.

Nike bandana review

2009-07-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm making this review for everyone interested in buying a Nike bandana but isn't sure whether it's worth the money or not. I hope this review will answer most of the questions that you have about the swoosh and dri-fit bandanas.

First of all, I do own the bandanas, several of the dri-fit and a couple of cotton ones as well, I don't have any head-tie bandanas yet but I am planning on getting one in the future so I'll add my opinion about them when I get around to buying one. There are also Yonex and Addidas bandanas which I don't own, so I'm not sure what they're like by comparison.

Nike cotton bandana:

Fit: It's basically fits and feels like any typical bandana, it's 100% cotton and has a nike swoosh painted on the front.

Comfort: I think these bandanas are very comfortable, it's thin though, so if you sweat a lot you will probably have to wash it every other practice session.

Is it worth the price? Well as I said before there is absolutely no difference between this and a traditional bandana and since a normal bandana can typically be purchased for around a dollar, it wouldn't seem like a very good deal but they are very stylish and great quality, so I would strongly recommend them if you're willing to put up a few more dollars for style.

Side note: The white bandana gets dirty really easily. It's hard to keep clean and even harder to get the stains out of it. You'll probably have to wash this one the most of all the bandanas and while it's probably the nicest one, it's also the hardest by far to keep clean.

Nike Dri-fit bandana:

Fit: This one is bigger and thicker than the cotton bandana. It absorbs sweat better than the cotton one.

Comfort: This one is, also very comfortable but it does feel a little bit tight, when you tie it and because of the bulkiness I think the cotton bandana may be slightly more comfortable but both are still very good.

Is it worth the price: I think with this one it depends mostly on your preference for the fit of the bandana. If you like a slightly bulkier fit, you will probably like this one. I would probably recommend trying the cotton swoosh bandana first and if you like that one, then consider buying one of these.

Over-all I prefer the cotton one, just a little bit more than the Dri-fit bandana. Thanks for reading my article, please let me know if you agree with me.:)

Early predictions for the US Open

2009-07-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Even though the US Open is nearly a month away, I've decided to post my early predictions for the last major of the year. I say early, because they may still change, it's impossible to know what will happen with Nadal, how he'll feel and whether he will even play in the US Open. So for this prediction I won't be including him.

Here are some of the serious contenders for the 2009 US Open title:

1. Roger Federer: This guy has won the US Open 5 times in a row. He's obviously a huge favorite. But this year things could be different, he just recently became a father and shortly before that, he broke Sampras's record of 14 grand slams. Roger's biggest obstacle this year may be his focus rather than his competition. If I'm wrong and he comes to the Open with more determination then ever to win, I really don't see anyone who could stop him, except for maybe Andy Murray. Prediction: Roger wins his sixth US Open.

2. Andy Murray: Last years finalist, is still the guy most likely to upset Roger. He wasn't ready before but he might be now. It will take everything Andy's got to beat Roger but he is capable of doing it. He's won the last four matches against Roger and they have all been on hard courts, but he's never beaten Federer on a big occasion at a major. Andy is going to have to do that, before he can be considered a legitimate rival to Roger. Prediction: Murray finishes runner-up but there is a chance for him to win.

3. Andy Roddick: Even though Andy Roddick, has been out recently with a shoulder injury, he's still a favorite to win the US Open. In July he beat Andy Murray to make the finals at Wimbledon and I really felt that he should have taken the final from Roger. He was unlucky to lose that match. If Roddick plays at the US like he played in the Wimbledon final, he will win the US Open. Otherwise look for him to make the second week. Prediction: Semi-finals if he plays normally, champion if he plays his best.

4. Novak Djokovic: It seems like Novak has been on a steady decline since winning the Masters Cup last year. He's number 4 on my list only because he's the #4 player in the world, I don't think his chance of winning is very good. He desperately needs a resurgence and winning this title would give it to him, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire during a match later in the tournament. Prediction: Quarterfinals or earlier.

5. Juan Martin Del Potro: He's a promising up and comer. He took Federer, to five sets at the French and probably came within a few points of winning Roland Garros (assuming he had beaten Soderling in the finals). Maybe in another year or two he will be ready to win his first major. At some point I think it's going to happen for him. Prediction: Maybe this is a little extreme, but I'm going to say Quarter-finals.

Other people to look out for:

Tommy Haas: He's having a career resurgence right now. Some people think he's playing the best tennis of his career. He's not the person that comes to mind when you think champion but he could cause a few upsets. Prediction: I'll go out on a limb and say Semi-finals.

Jo Wilfried Tsonga: He has a big, serve and power ground strokes, he's also a former Australian Open finalist. This guy could make a deep run in the tournament. Prediction: Fourth round.

Robin Soderling: Much like the player above, Soderling has all the right tools to cause an upset. Big serve and powerful ground strokes, can he duplicate his success at Roland Garros? Prediction: Fourth round.

Fernando Verdasco: He plays well on the hard courts and he took Roddick to five sets 3 years ago. He made the semi-finals at the Australian Open this year and he has the potential to upset some of the higher seeded players. Prediction: Quarter-finals.

I was going to include Sam Querrey on this list but after watching him choke against Ginepri, I don't know about his chance. He's a question mark for right now.

Indiannapolis Finals Sam Querrey vs Robby Ginepri review

2009-07-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

Usually Robby Ginepri, is not known for his consistency but I'll give him credit, he played a solid match, Sam Querrey, on the other hand, played atrociously. His first serve percentage was very low and he missed way too many shots, making the quality of this match (especially in the first set) pretty bad. Things picked up a bit in the second set. There were a few extended rallies and Ginepri showed off his shot making ability, Sam started to play better but quickly reverted back to his old ways at 4-all when he gifted Ginepri a break by double faulting. Ginepri, then pulled through his next service game to win the match 6-2, 6-4.

As I said before this wasn't a real great match, I think the pressure got to Sam and he choked it away. This should provide a confidence boost for Ginepri and puts him in serious contention for winning the US Open series. I was disappointed by Sam's performance and I hope to see more from him next time.

Nike 2009 Fall line...with dots

2009-07-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Ordinarily Nike is one of my favorite tennis brands. They've got great quality clothes and most of the time their stuff looks awesome but I've been pretty disappointed by most of what they've released in 2009. It's been a very strange year from them, to say the least:

To stay consistent with their strange patterns. Nike is releasing new clothes for the fall, with dots.

Now some of this stuff is not bad, the colors are pretty nice, especially the gold and I kind of like the shoes:

And this polo is nice too.

But part of the reason I like them is because ot the absense of the dots. Maybe, I'll pick up a few of these when they're on clearance but for the most part I'm not too impressed with what I see. Hopefully they'll have some better stuff in 2010.

Favorite tennis You tube videos

2009-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, You Tube is one of the best places to go if you want to watch tennis videos. Well, it's probably one of the best places for free videos period. Yesterday, I came across a few vids that I really liked and I thought I'd share them with you, so I've created a top 5 count down of my favorite You Tube tennis videos.

Here they are:

#5: Tennis player kills pigeon

And you thought Roger's forehand was precise.

This one's funny, although I feel kind of sorry for the bird. Lol.

#4: Andy Murray warming up...sort of

Not really a whole lot to do with tennis but I like this for the amusement factor. Doesn't Murray's hair kind of remind you of Kuerten?

#3 Pros warming up

Ok, I'm sort of cheating with this one because I'm using two videos. I like this video of Nadal warming up, the music fits in well with the video.

But this one of Gael Monfils is better. It's also filmed from a court-side view which is cool. I find videos like this to be useful for improving my game. You can learn a lot just by watching a pro.

#2 Nick Bollettieri on Donald Young

This is a pretty good video. Nick Bollettieri has trained some great players in the past like Becker, Agassi, and Hingis. More recently he trained Sharapova and Jankovic. He does seem a little skeptical of Donald's career but that's another story in itself. All in all I like this one because it gives you an inside look, for the life of an up and coming tennis player.

And my #1 choice is:

Bret Abel tennis videos

These videos are great, they're fun to watch and he gives a lot of good advice to help improve your technique. Sort of like a free tennis lesson. There are a few other tutorial videos on You Tube, which are also worth checking out as well.

Anyway, those are my top 5 favorite videos. I hope you enjoyed this post, feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Who looks promising in the next generation of American tennis players

2009-07-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

As we're approaching the end of this decade, one question is becoming more imminent. Who is going to take over for James Blake and Andy Roddick when they retire? James Blake, is now five months away from his 30th birthday and Andy Roddick is about a month away from his 27th. Obviously, these guys aren't going to be around forever but there are a few promising young players that might be able to fill in their shoes. I'm talking about John Isner, Sam Querrey, Jessie Levine, Ryan Sweeting, and Donald Young.

I'll start with Isner, the tallest of these guys who has a tremendously strong serve and groundstrokes. Isner, made it to the fourth round of the US Open in 2007, where he took Federer to four sets. Since then he's had a few wins against guys as good as Monfils and Marat Safin but he's mostly been ranked outside of the top 100. Recently he had to take some time off because of the mononucleosis, which he contracted back in May. His game is very similar to Karlovic's and with the huge serve he should be able to get his ranking back into the top 100 or even top 50 once he makes a healthy return to the tour. But with that being said, I don't expect him to be the next Roddick or Blake, because he doesn't really have the consitency and talent needed to land in the top 20. Next on my list is Jessie Levine. While not one of the taller guys on tour (he's 5'9) he has some great attributes like speed and aggressive ground strokes, not to mention excellent hand eye cordination. Like, Isner he's beaten some credible opponents. At this years Wimbledon he defeated Marat Safin and went all the way to the third round before falling to Wawrinka in four sets. At 21, I think we could see some exciting things from this guy, he's an up and comer with potential.

Sam Querrey, is next on the list and perhaps has the best prospects of all these guys. He has a big serve and powerful, aggressive ground strokes. He's been to the fourth round of the US Open, has beaten Blake and taken sets off Nadal. He's had the best results of the guys that I've mentioned. I think right now, Sam Querrey is the front runner for this group of up and coming Americans. Last there is Donald Young. He's the youngest of these players at 19 but probably has the bleakest looking career. He's done fairly well on the challenger tour but has been totally overwhelmed on the ATP. While he'll continue to get better over the next few years, I don't think that he has the abilities needed to hang with the top guys. My guess is eventually, he'll find some balance between the challengers and the occansional ATP level tournament.

Now that I think about it, there's one more guy I probably should mention, that's Ryan Harrison. He's 17 years old right now which means he will be on the tour and in his prime after the Federer era is over. That in itself should make winning a major much easier. Harrison has already won an ATP level match and he made the semi-final round at the boys Australian Open. He's definitely got potential and with his speed and powerful ground strokes he's got a game perfectly suited to hard courts.

Time will tell with all of these guys but to me, Querrey, Levine and possibly Harrison look to be the future of American tennis.

Federer breaks Pete's record, wins sixth Wimby title and is the new #1.

2009-07-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

Roger, had to put up the fight of his life but in the end he was just good enough to pull out the Wimbledon championship in a nail-biting five set match, which lasted over four hours. I felt bad for Roddick at the end, you could tell how badly he wanted to win. After-all that might have been his last chance at winning a major. If anything Roddick, played a better match today then he did on Friday. He did almost everything right and still lost. What impressed me most about his game was his consistency and ability to hold his own against Roger, even in the extended rallies. Something which he could not have done 4 or 5 years ago. Roddick, has developed a really nice shot with his backhand down the line. He scored quite a few winners against Federer by using this in the important points during the match. Both guys served great but Roger, was far better. He had 50 aces against Roddick's 27 and only 4 double faults. He hit an astounding number of winners (107) and kept his errors down to 34. Compare that to his semi-final match against Djokovic in Miami. When he had 17 winners and 49 unforced errors. WOW.8O If Roger, keeps playing like this for the rest of the year, he will be almost unstoppable.

Roger, made some great tactical decisions against Roddick and I thought it was particularly clever of him to slice the ball low to Andy, knowing that his topspin heavy forehand would struggle with a low bouncing ball. Andy, rarely had an answer for these and netted most of them. Despite Roger's great strategy he was mostly over-whelmed by Roddick's serve and wasn't able to break him until the very last game of the fifth set. In this match Roddick was Roger's equal and from the way that they played you would have never guessed that he had lost to Roger 18 out of 20 times.

In many ways, this could be the start of something new for A-Rod. He's now with-in a few hundred points of being #5 in the world. I would love to see Roddick make a resurgence and I think it's likely that he will. The US Open is his favorite tournament and he plays his best tennis when he has his confidence and the support of the crowd. If Andy, was able to come with-in a point of winning Wimbledon, then there's no reason why he shouldn't be a valid contender at the US Open.

Now that Roger has regained his #1 ranking and won his 15th grand slam, fans are beginning to speculate on how many more he'll be able to win before he retires. There is no accurate way to predict this because it mainly depends on his rival, Rafa Nadal's physical condition. I hope Nadal comes back to the US Open feeling better, makes it to the finals and plays Federer. It's the only major title that has eluded him and if he wins it, he'll have completed the career grand slam. It's too early to know if he can do it. We'll have to wait and see how he's playing when he makes his return to the tour.

Federer and Roddick are in the finals.

2009-07-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am by no means exaggerating when I say this. Roddick played the match of his career to beat Andy Murray and make it to his third Wimbledon final. This is easily the best match I've ever seen him play, John McEnroe said it too and I'm agreeing with him. His tactical decisions were great, he switched up his play when he needed to and his consistency was there when he needed it most. While this is a tremendous achievement for Roddick, it will take this kind of performance and a lot of luck for him to have any kind of chance in the finals on Sunday.

Roger, is so tough on grass, that no matter how well Andy plays it will still be a nearly impossible challenge for him to overcome. Fed, played a solid match against Haas in the other Wimbledon semi-final. His performance wasn't ground breaking or anything but it should be good enough to out-do Roddick in a best of 5 set match. Although wouldn't it be amazing if Andy did beat him? Usually I'm a Federer fan but I may support Roddick tomorrow when he plays for the championship. It's hard not to. He's made a lot of improvements in his game and he came so close in 2004. Roddick is kind of in the same position that Nadal was in last year. Playing phenomenal matches against Roger and continuing to improve until he finally breaks through and de-thrones the king. It took Rafa 3 tries so maybe the third time is the charm for Roddick as well.

Whatever happens I'm just hoping for another classic Wimbledon final.

Wimbledon quarter-final review, Haas makes first ever Wimby semi-final

2009-07-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

At 31 years old Haas, has been doing some amazing things. Taking Federer, to five sets in the French, beating Djokovic in Halle and then again in Wimbledon to set up a semi-final match with Federer. While, I don't think Haas will win this match, I would say that his chances of upsetting the Wimbledon king are better than anyone Federer has faced so far. It's been 7 years since He's beaten Roger but within that time, Tommy, was able to push Federer, to five sets twice and took a set off him in Halle. It would take everything Haas has and Federer would have to be off his game but there is a small possibility of an upset.

the other Wimbledon semi-final is going to be a "battle of the Andy's". Murray, owns their head-to-head 6-1 and most of those wins weren't particularly close. Roddick has been playing well but not good enough to beat Andy Murray. I'm going to go with Roger to face Andy Murray in the finals. By the way, I hope you saw the quarter-final match between Hewitt and Roddick, it was definitely worth watching. The match lasted five sets and it was a great showdown between two tennis veterans.

It's unusual for me to cover women's tennis but there's something that's been bothering me and that's Serena and Venus's total domination of this tournament. Sharapova, Ivanovic, Safina, and even Henin (back when she played) were completely dominated by one or both of these sisters. When the #1 player in the world is nearly double baggled by the #3 that should be a sign that there's something severely wrong with the tour. With the WTA, it seems like everyone gets a turn at being #1. A year ago, Ivanovic was the #1 player in the world, then she lost early in Wimbledon and was replaced by Jelena Jankovic, who at the time had never even been beyond the semis of a slam. I feel that the Williams sisters deserve to be #1 and #2 but what annoys me is that there isn't anyone around to really challenge them. Jankovic, is one of the few players able to stand her ground against the Williams and she hasn't even won a major. It's too bad that Justine Henin retired from pro tennis. If she came back, she might even be able to regain the #1 ranking.

I'll be back here on Friday with a recap of the Men's semi-final matches.

First round action from Wimbledon

2009-06-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Even without Nadal, I'm really enjoying the matches at Wimbledon. I was happy to see Fabrice Santoro win, his opening round match, especially since this might be his last year on tour. Santoro is probably my favorite player to watch. His shot placement is sublime. He'll be missed for sure when he does retire.

The Andy Murray vs Robert Kendrick match turned out to be very exciting. Kendrick put up a great fight to get to the fourth set, his serve was really good and he had some unbelievable diving volleys that flustered Murray but he didn't get many looks at Murray's serve and despite playing great tennis Murray was way too strong for him.

I was surprised to see how tough Andy Murray's draw is. He's got Gulbis, in the second round and then a potential match-up with Dent and Wawrinka in the third and fourth rounds. I'm guessing Murray, will make it through but don't be surprised if he's pushed to four or five sets in a few of these matches.

Now on to Roger. Well, I know he likes to wear a special outfit at Wimbledon, but could this one possibly be any more over the top? It reminds me of a wrestlers gimmick and I think Roger has taken this way too far. It was bad enough when he came out with the blazer in 2006, since then he's added pants, a vest, and a hand bag and a leisure suit jacket to his image. I hope he doesn't come out next year with a crown and scepter.XP Now I'm not trying to make fun of him but it's hard not to when you see him come out with the leisure suit. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

At least his game is on. Roger, always brings his best game to Wimbledon and he completely dominated his first and second round opponents. The chance of him winning a sixth Wimbledon is very high. We'll see what happens but I strongly feel that Roger will break Sampras's record next week.

Early Wimbledon predictions

2009-06-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

Wimbledon, is now just a few days away, along with the 1 year anniversary of my blog.:P I feel like there's a lot riding on this particular Wimbledon. For one thing, Federer will have a chance to regain the #1 ranking if he wins the tournament and Nadal loses before the semi-finals. Unlike last year, I won't be favoring Nadal to win the title, it's clear that his knees are very painful, he said in an interview that they have been bothering him for a while and that he can't go on like this. Nadal is scheduled to play an exhibition match against Hewitt on Thursday, to test out his knees. We'll have to wait until after that match to know how he's doing. If by some miracle he's feeling good and they aren't hindering him too much then Federer should be on full guard. Nadal could easily beat him in the finals, but my guess is that it won't happen this year.

So that leaves us with the other Wimby threats: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and to a lesser extent Ernest Gulbis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, and Andy Roddick. Tsonga, Soderling, Roddick and especially Gulbis are a long shot but I think they'll cause some upsets and go deep into the draw. I'm picking Andy Murray to go all the way to the semi or better this time. I know that McEnroe supports him and says that Murray is in Federer's head. That may be true and Murray has owned Roger in the past but he's never beaten him on grass. He's 0-1 against Federer in grandslams and to be honest I don't think Murray is good enough to beat him on grass. Andy's best surface are the hard courts, he's way more likely to win the US Open than Wimbledon.

As for Novak Djokovic, I think he'll just lose in the early rounds, he said that he's been having a hard time dealing with the loss to Nadal in the Madrid semis. Maybe that partly explains why the 31-year old veteran Haas crushed him in the finals at Halle. That was a huge win for Tommy but it doesn't say much for Nole, if he's struggling against guys like that, what chance does he have of upsetting Roger, or Rafa? I understand that players go through ups and downs. Maybe Novak can turn his slump around, but until he does he's not (in my mind at least) a top level candidate for the Wimbledon title.

Final prediction: Federer wins his sixth Wimbledon title. Andy Murray makes either the semis or the finals depending on what side of the draw he's on in relation to Federer. If Fed beats Murray in the semi-finals, he might face Roddick in the finals.

Hope to hear some feedback from you guys and thanks again for reading my blog. ;)

Federer wins 14th grand slam and ties Pete Sampras

2009-06-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

This picture perfectly describes Roger's emotion after winning the French Open. He was nearly sobbing when he got to match point and after firing off one last service winner Roger fell to the ground and broke down in tears. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. So what's next for Federer? Breaking Pete's record by winning one more major? Another chance at the gold medal? Or perhaps setting a new record for grand slams that may never be broken?

Even though Federer played great, in the finals there were a few things that bothered me about the match. I was disturbed by that guy who ran out onto the court when Federer was getting ready to return serve early in the second set. The security was not present and the guy was able to get close enough to touch Federer, he tried to put his hat on Federer's head and took off running when he saw the security guards finally arriving on the court. This should never have happened and it wasn't until the end of the match that the French security was even visable. What the hell is wrong with the French tournament officials?! I know the Seles stabbing was a long time ago but there may be another incident like that if they don't keep their security guards courtside during the matches. The second thing that bothered me was Federer's response in the post match interview, one of the reporters asked him if he deserved the title even though he didn't have to go through Nadal to win. Federer, said that he did because he had beaten Nadal in Madrid a couple weeks ago. Hold on Roger, you're taking a victory in a masters series final and comparing it to a victory in a grand slam final. That's ridiculous there's no comparison. First of all, the Madrid final was best of 3 sets not best of 5, secondly there's no question Nadal would have taken the Roland Garros final more seriously and would have played better than he did in Madrid. It's a major and he was the four time defending champion. You can't compare Madrid to the French Open and this is coming from Roger himself, it makes him sound like a poor sport.

I was happy for Roger when he won the French but I would have preferred a more competitive match. Soderling never had a chance after the first set. He played decently in the second set but he was never able to get his game into the top gear that brought him to the finals.

Does it seem kind of strange that only a year ago Federer was in a slump and Nadal was winning tournaments left and right, after watching Nadal blitz Federer in the French Open finals I and most of the tennis community thought Nadal would win Wimbledon for sure. Now a year later Federer is playing awesome tennis again and despite having complications in his life it looks like he could make a resurgence. Nadal on the other hand has been having problems with his knees and now we're not even sure if he will be able to play Wimbledon, Federer, could potentially regain his title without having to go through Nadal. It's really amazing what changed in a year. I hope this isn't the start of something bad for Nadal but his knee problems are becoming more than a concern, they're more like a hindrance. I've heard that he's been having acute pains in his right knee but there's a rumor going around that it's just an excuse to give him some time off to deal with his RG loss. I'm not sure what the truth is but it would be a big loss if he misses Wimbledon.

With the clay season now at it's end, get ready for a few exciting weeks of grass tennis. Wimbledon is right around the corner and I'll be back to blog about the matches in Queens. Later.

Davydenko and Murray out of the French, Gonzalez and Soderling into the semis

2009-06-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't expect to be saying this but I'm now convinced that Robin Soderling has a legitimate chance of winning the French Open. He completely over-powered Davydenko, during their semi-final meeting, in a similar way to Gonzalez dominating Murray in the other semi today. Assuming he's, able to get over the Gonzo hurdle I think Soderling should at least be in the finals. Federer, had a narrow win over Haas on Monday but I don't think that will stop him from reaching the finals. Of the remaining players Fed still has the best chance but if Soderling plays against Federer like he played against Nadal, he will give Federer all he can handle. Even though their head-to-head suggests otherwise (Federer has beaten Soderling all 9 of the times they played.) Federer's has another advantage as well, he's 38-1 against the other five players still left in the draw. The more I think about it, the more I like Fed's chance of winning his first French Open title.

My new prediction is for Roger Federer to win the French Open over Robin Soderling, in four sets.

Robin Soderling ends Rafael Nadal's undefeated streak at the French Open

2009-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe this, when I read it on the ATP website earlier this morning, later this afternoon NBC re-ran the match so I was able to watch it and to be honest I still couldn't believe it. Nadal losing to Soderling, at the French Open. it's not possible, is it? Well, I guess it is because that's exactly what Robin did. He over-powered and out-played him completely. Soderling's ground strokes, particularly on his forehand side were devastating, Rafa struggled with the pace just as much as the placement. Realistically this could have been a straight sets win for Soderling if he hadn't choked in the second set tie-break. With Nadal and Djokovic both out of the French Open that opens up the door for Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and every other player still left in the tournament. I think this may be Federer's last 'real' chance at this major. He's never had a better opportunity than now, to win the French. It's up to him, if he can bring back his dominating level of play, like he did at the Australian Open earlier this year, he should win the title. Nothing is certain with Federer, but he's got the best chance of everyone left. Murray, is probably the next most likely so I'll go with him as a back-up in case Fed loses. This title is very much up for grabs and it would mean the world to some of these guys. Davydenko and Robredo are approaching the end of their careers, every grand slam opportunity is important to them at this point. For Del Potro and Soderling it would be their first huge break through in the tennis world. Murray would be solidify his hold on the #3 position if he wins the title and Federer would complete his grand slam collection.

Despite Nadal's departure I expect we'll see some amazing tennis over the next week. One thing I know is that these guys want this title. It could change their careers.

Top seeds struggle, Roddick into the third round. Del Potro and Djokovic look strong

2009-05-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Despite a shakey first round match against Marcos Daniels, Nadal, is now into the fourth round after dismantling Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in just under two hours. Federer, now hopes to join him in the round of 16 but first he's going to have to get past Paul-Henri Mathieu. Mathieu, is the first seed that Federer will have to face, so far in the tournament. He's good on clay and took Nadal to 4 sets a few years ago at the French. If Roger isn't on his game or he starts to beat himself then Mathieu may upset the Swiss player.

As surprising as this may sound, I like Roddick's chances of getting into the quarter-finals. Only Marc Gicquel and Gael Monfils stand in his way. Roddick should be able to beat Gicquel without any problems but Monfils could be another story. Last year Monfils reach the semi-finals and his game is perfectly suited to clay. However, he's also injury prone. This will be a tough match for Roddick but if he can do it, he'll be in his first ever French Open quarter-final where he will face...Roger Federer. Losing to Federer is something that Roddick is familiar with, so one more loss shouldn't bother him too much. Making the quarter-finals would be great for Roddick anyway as he's only made the third round at the French Open once in his career.

Davydenko, Wawrinka and Soderling are other threats lurking in Nadal's half of the draw. It would be interesting to see Nadal re-new his bitter rivalry with Soderling. Neither player likes the other one, just check out this video and you'll see what I mean:

Anyway, I hope to see some more great tennis at Roland Garros, next week. I'll be back soon with my opinion on where things stand at the French.:D

What got you to tennis?

2009-05-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Today, I thought I would talk about what drew me into professional men's tennis. I've talked about the players and my opinions on them but I realized that I've never said much about why I enjoy tennis as a sport. I started watching bits and pieces of matches in 2001 but it wasn't until several years later that sat through an entire match. The first one that I followed closely was the Thomas Johansson vs Andy Roddick 2005 Wimbledon semi-finals. At the time I was pulling for Roddick simply because he was from my country. During the match I heard the commentators talking about Roger Federer, beating Roddick at several tournaments in the last few months. I had never seen Federer at this point, so I was really curious to see how good he was. I didn't have to wait long, the next day I tuned into watch the Wimbledon finals. The first two sets were already over but the third was just starting. Roddick's, serve was amazingly fast and he won his first service game easily, because of it. Yet, despite Roddick's great serving Roger, never looked flustered. He blocked back Roddick's serve like it was nothing special to him and he frustrated Roddick even more by hitting winners from the most difficult position on the court. Roger's, performance that day was too good to be true and he dominated Roddick on the important points. By the end of the match Roger Federer, had become my new favorite player. How could you not like the guy? He was polite, he came up with amazing shots, and he was cool, nobody else on the tour was like him. I think Roger Federer's dominating performance and jaw-dropping winners is what kept me interested in pro tennis over the next few years. When Nadal came along and challenged Federer, I became more interested in the pro game. Here was Federer, blowing away all of the competition, except for this one guy who had somehow gotten into his head and basically owned him in every match for over two years. Everyone has a different opinion of what the best rivalry in tennis has been but I strongly feel that their's is the best one. In nearly all of their matches it has brought out top level performances from both players. They've played 20 times, far more than the Borg/McEnroe rivalry and they've played in a grand slam final on all 3 different surfaces. More diverse than, the Agassi/Sampras rivalry. For me it's the ability of the players, that keeps me interested in the pro game. It's hard to imagine tennis without Federer and Nadal but at some point they will both retire. I hope that the guys who replace them will be equally skilled and form rivalries that are at least as good if not better. As long as there are great players, with exciting new styles I will continue to watch pro men's tennis. For me it's just too much fun to stop any time soon.

Federer snaps losing streak against Nadal and ends his title drought

2009-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

It doesn't seem possible for Nadal to lose a match in straight sets on clay but that didn't discourage Roger Federer, who beat his greatest rival in two sets 6-4, 6-4 at the Madrid finals. I'm glad that I was able to see this match, although I was disappointed that Nadal seemed to be tired and didn't have the energy he needed to win. On the other hand Roger looked great, his backhand was consistent enough that it didn't hinder him and his forehand had finally become his weapon again. Most importantly Federer, switched up his tactics when he was playing Nadal and brought back his aggressive game and even served and volleyed on some points. He didn't get into defensive rallies with Nadal and kept down his number of unforced errors.

Now, you may remember that I gave my early predictions for the French Open a few weeks ago. Has it changed, because of this victory? Not really. I still think Nadal is going to win the French, in his typical dominating fashion. I don't expect him to lose more than two sets this time. Nadal is undefeated at the French Open (28-0) and I doubt that will change this year. However, if I am wrong and Nadal is upset, then it will be either Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer, who beats him. No one else is up for that task.

The most important thing that I saw from this match is that Roger still has the belief in himself.
If he can still play like this he will be a threat to Nadal and any other player, tired or not. This match proves that Roger's recent decline has been mostly because of his mental lapses. If his focus and belief stays with his game. Then I could easily see another epic showdown between Federer and Nadal at Wimbledon this year.:)

Murray is the new #3. Fed doesn't seem to be impressed.

2009-05-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

I recently read this article. It's Fed's perspective on Murray's recent assent to #3 in the ATP rankings. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.tennistalk.com/en/news/20090507/Federer_unimpressed_with_Murray%27s_rise_to_No._3

Federer, brought up the fact that Murray has yet to win a slam but did include Murray as one of the best players during the hard court season. I don't know about some of Fed's comments, Murray has pretty much owned him recently, in fact Fed's only win since 2005 against Murray, came at the US Open finals. Murray has proven himself to be a very consistent player on hard courts, in fact I would even say that he's had better results than Federer, in the past 7 months. No doubt, Fed, is also aware that Murray is closing the gap between them. In 6 months he's only reached 1 final, while Djokovic and Murray have routinely beaten him in the semis. Unless, he's able to figure out a way past them, it will only be a matter of time until both Murray and Djokovic pass him in the ATP ranking.

Early predictions for Roland Garros

2009-04-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Rafael Nadal, has continued his amazing clay court domination this season by claiming the first two clay titles. He went undefeated in 2006 and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if he did it again this year. No one has been able to overcome him on this surface and most players can't even come close. Djokovic, has been the only player in 2009 to take a set off of him during their finals match in Monte Carlo. Surprisingly Federer, hasn't been there to challenge Nadal. He's been way off his game for most of the year although he's recently started to play a little bit better at Rome. If he's able to make the finals and get himself back on the right track, I could see him reaching the finals of Roland Garros for a fourth straight time, although it's extremely unlikely that he would be able to beat Nadal even if he got there. Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka are also good bets for the finals. Andy Murray just isn't good enough on clay to pose any kind of a threat to Nadal.

My guess is that it will be Novak Djokovic against Rafael Nadal at the Roland Garros finals (assuming they are on opposite ends of the draw.) Roger and Stan are the two other likely candidates but at this point they are distantly behind Djokovic. If Nole is able to put up a good fight I could possibly see him taking a set and maybe forcing a tie-break, if he doesn't do well then... I hope he at least finishes the match.

Prediction: Nadal wins Roland Garros over Djokovic 6-3, 6-2, 7-6, if Nole plays well. If not then 6-2, 6-0, 2-0 Djokovic retires.

Monte Carlo Semi-finals predictions

2009-04-17T11:26:00.001-07:00

Well, I was a little bit off with Federer, I didn't expect him to go out in the third round to Stanislas Wawrinka, but it's hard to make predictions for Federer now a days because he's so erratic. Anyway, these are my predictions for the semi-finals:

Nadal vs Murray:

Nadal, kind of obvious, he's much better on clay than Murray. I don't think that this will be close at all. Nadal in straights.

Djokovic vs Wawrinka:

A few days ago Stan won his match against Roger Federer but I would be surprised if he was able to upset Djokovic. The Djoker has a big lead in their head to head and has beaten Wawrinka on clay. I think Djokovic moves through in two very tight sets.

How does the future look for Roger?

2009-04-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Roger, has entered a new chapter in his life. Now that he's married his long time girlfriend Mirka and is expecting a baby with her this summer, where will his tennis career rank? How will these changes affect him as a player? Can he ever get back his #1 ranking now that he has other responsibilities and his primary competition is 5-6 years younger than him? Finally, how will his career end?

My guess is that Federer won't be able to regain the top spot again. Roger did more with with his four years at the top, than virtually any other player in the history of tennis. He's reached countless finals and has won all of the grand slams (excluding the French Open) at least 3 times. There really isn't that much more for him to achieve. He can break Sampras's record of 14 majors and he can still try to win the French Open to complete the career grand slam. At this point a calendar year grand slam would be too much to ask.

Nadal, is still the one major obstacle in Federer's path. He's stopped Federer from becoming the GOAT by defeating him four times at the French Open. Even if Roger were to somehow beat Nadal in the finals, It doesn't seem like it would mean that much because Nadal has owned him so many times.

I was surprised that Federer decided to play Monte Carlo this week, since he has just gotten married. I don't think his chances of winning are very good unless Nadal goes out early with an injury, but even reaching the finals might be challenging for him. Federer, has reach only a 9 finals since his streaky results started in early 2008. Federer's Monte Carlo draw is favorable for him to make the finals but he's probably going to have to contend with Novak Djokovic in the semis. If Roger brings his best game to Monte Carlo, plays great tennis all the way through the tournament getting by in as few sets as possible and Nadal is a little off his game, then I think Roger might have a decent chance of winning his first ever Monte Carlo title.

A lot of things will have to go right for him and it's going to take some luck but he could do it. Even if he's not the #1 player in the world anymore, Federer is always a threat in any tourament, even on his worst surface. Nadal is the heavy favorite, but if he doesn't play well this week, look for Federer to possibly win his first Monte Carlo title.

Roddick/Federer head-to-head

2009-04-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

In the history of Men's tennis I don't think there has ever been a more one sided head-to-head than the Roger Federer/Andy Roddick one. The closest that I know of was Rod Laver vs Roy Emerson: 14-1 and Bjorn Borg vs Vitas Gerulitas: 16-0. Roddick is now 2-17 vs Federer and there will most likely be even more victories for Fed in the future.

Whenever these two played, Federer always had an answer for Roddick's shots. Federer, was an expert at returning Roddicks huge serve and once the point began, Federer was able to move Roddick around the court and place the ball in tough places for him to get to.

Federer has recently lost some of his consistency and I think that's the main reason, Roddick, was able to beat him last year in Miami. With Federer's consistency dropping, Roddick may have some opportunities in the future to win their matches. However, I would still favor the former world #1 to win their most important meetings.

What's wrong with Djokovic?

2009-03-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

If you were following tennis in the early part of last year, you couldn't help coming across Novak Djokovic's name every couple of weeks. Djokovic, was playing the best tennis of everyone on the tour and it seemed like it was only a matter of time until he replaced Federer as the #1 player in the world. Both Nadal and Federer were off their games, Federer in particular had some horrible performances in several of his matches early last year. At the Australian Open, Djokovic, snapped Federer's streak of 10 straight grand slam finals and beat Nadal, one month later at the Pacific Life Open. Novak, even won the Rome Masters series title, by defeating Stanislas Wawrinka in the finals. The following week Novak, earned himself a chance to become the #2 player in the world by reaching The Hamburg semi-finals. Ironically his opponent was the current #2 player in the world Nadal. After an exciting 3 hour match, Nadal walked away the winner and saved his ranking. Djokovic, continued to impress by reaching the semi-finals at the French Open (again losing to Nadal) and later made the finals at The Artois Championships where he lost to Nadal again.

It was around this point that Djokovic started to struggle, he lost early at Wimbledon and the Rogers Cup although he was able to avenge his series of losses to Nadal, during the US Open Series. Nole, seemed to regain some of his fire at the Olympics and won most of his matches easily but he was stopped again by Nadal in the semi-finals.

The next month he made the semi-finals at the US Open and consistently had good results at the tournaments but he wasn't able to win a title. Nole, went on a losing streak against Jo Wilfried Tsonga and lost to him 3 times before the end of the year. Despite the setbacks he was still able to win the Masters Cup for the first time.

Since the beginning of the year, Djokovic hasn't brought his best performance to most of his matches. He lost in the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and was beaten at the BNP Paribas Open. His head-to-head against the top players is bad. He's lost the majority of the matches against Federer, Nadal, Tsonga, and Roddick.

I would like to see Djokovic turn this slump around but I'm not sure if he's capable of it. At times he doesn't seem to really be motivated and I wouldn't be surprised to see Andy Murray take over the #3 ranking, sometime around Wimbledon. I could even see Murray replacing Federer in about a year. Federer's, seems to be declining and he said on his website that Mirka is pregnant with their child. I don't think this can do anything but make his lessen his chances of staying on top. The big question for me is, whether or not Federer break Sampras's record of 14 majors.

Nadal vs Borg

2009-02-25T13:07:00.001-08:00

If you could have any two players from any time period play each other 1 match, who would it be and why? It's a tough question for me. There are so many fun match ups: Nadal vs Sampras, Federer vs Laver, Edberg vs Borg, Roddick vs Tilden, Federer vs Budge etc. It's hard to pick just one. I guess if I had to I might go with Nadal vs Borg, two of the greatest clay court players of all time. Nadal and Borg have similar birthdays, and playing styles. They even look similar because of the long hair with the bandana/headband. If they were able to play each other on the European red clay it would be hard to say who would win (assuming that Borg was using and adept with a graphite racquet.)

Bjorn Borg, stopped playing the majors in 1981 and later completely retired from tennis in January of 1983 (with the exception of an unsuccessful return to the tour, in the early 90s.)
Years before I was born and about 22 years before I saw my first tennis match. I had actually never seen a Borg match until last year when I found one of his Wimbledon finals on You Tube. I had read about him and had heard that he was one of the greatest clay court players of all time (maybe more so than Nadal.) So, I was very curious to see how good he really was. I was impressed with what I saw. Borg was able to generate tremendous topspin with a wood racquet (very difficult to do because of the small head size.) Borg, lacked some of the power that Nadal has and looked less intimidating because of his smaller size but he was still extremely fast. My opinion is that Bjorn Borg deserves most of the praise that he gets. I wouldn't say he was the greatest player of all time but his French Open and Wimbledon achievements were amazing.

Despite having similar styles, there are noticeable differences between Borg and Nadal. Borg came to net a little bit more than Nadal and was probably more reliant on his serve than Nadal is. Nadal plays almost all of his points from way behind the base-line, where as Borg was more willing to step into the court and put more aggression into his ground strokes. Actually, Borg reminds me more of Federer on clay than Nadal. Both Nadal and Borg were incredibly fast runners.

If they were to play a match, in their primes, with the technology staying the same (both with a graphite) and Borg was able to master the newer technology, I think it would be an extremely close match. Nadal, would probably would have a strength advantage over Borg. I would probably go with Nadal in a very close 4 or 5 set match.

Who do you think would be the winner?

Will Nadal's knees cause his downfall?

2009-02-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

I recently read that Nadal, is now going to skip Dubai, because of an injury that he suffered to his knee during his match against Murray in Rotterdam. This is the second time in the last two and a half months that he's had to skip an event because of knees pains and it may not be the last time that he's sidelined this season. Nadal's, knees aren't going to get any better, in fact his Uncle has been talking about seriously cutting back on the tournaments during the hard court months.

It's really too bad that he has these kinds of problems at 22. Nadal's, knees will most likely force him into retirement at some point. It's impossible to know when but it's not a good sign if he's already re-injured them only a month into the tennis season.

What are your thoughts on Nadal's knees?

Nadal vs Federer Australian Open Finals

2009-02-03T09:44:00.001-08:00

It's only February and I think this may already be the match of the year. I woke up at 4:00 AM to see this one. Since it was between Nadal and Federer I knew that it had to be good.

Once the match began Federer, played a horrible first game and was easily broken by Nadal. Fed got the break back the next game and from that point on the first set was very close. Both players were playing amazing points, they struck winners that would blow your mind. Nadal, eventually got a break late in the first set to win it 7-5.

In the second set Nadal got an early break to go up 3-2 but Federer managed to dig deep and win four straight games to win the second set 6-3.

The third was extremely intense and produced some of the best points in the match. I had a feeling that whoever won the third set would win the match. Neither player was able to break serve so it eventually went to a tie-break. Nadal and Federer traded mini-breaks in the tie- break before Nadal began to pull away. Rafa won the tie-break 7-3.

With Nadal, now up two sets to one and Federer's chances looking worse than ever, I thought that Nadal might run away with the match. It didn't happen. After having several chances to break serve during one of the early games in the fourth set, Nadal, let down a bit and Federer was able to keep his hopes of a 14th grand slam alive by winning the fourth set 6-3.

Nadal, broke Federer's serve in the fourth game of the fifth set and ran ahead to a 4-1 lead. Federer tried his best to fight back but was broken when he was serving to stay in the match at 2-5.

This was a classic match. Fun from the very first serve. The trophy celebration at the end was somewhat awkward. Federer, wasn't able to hold in his feelings and he started crying when he went up to address the crowd after the match. I felt badly for him but it did detract from the ceremony. Nadal, was nice about it and reminded Fed that he was one of the greatest players of all time and would no doubt break Sampras's record by the end of his career.

Some people think that Federer's reaction during the ceremony was inappropriate. I'm not sure, what do you think?

Autralian Open Quarter-finals

2009-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Fernando Verdasco, has upset another top-seeded player. Jo Wilfried Tsonga, the #5 seed and the runner up at last years Australian Open became Verdasco's, latest victim, falling in an intense four set match.

Verdasco's, performance at the Open, has been nothing shy of incredible. Although he's probably tired from the grueling match with Murray, Verdasco, does stand a good chance of making the finals, despite having an 0-6 head to head vs Nadal. I think it's going to take everything Rafa's, got to put an end to Verdaso's amazing run.

Roger Federer, more than made up for his sub-par fourth round match by demolishing Del-Potro in... get this 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. I'm not surprised that Federer beat Del Potro but a double bagel?! It really doesn't say much for the sixth best player in the world. Still, I'm glad that Federer is taking the Open seriously. With a blow-out like this I would have to favor Federer to make the finals.

Andy Roddick, has made it to another major semi-final, his opponent, Novak Djokovic, apparently knew that Roddick wanted to make the semi-finals and was willing to retire from the match in the fourth set, so that Roddick could move on to face Federer in a match that he will most likely lose. Seriously, why does Djokovic retire from so many of his matches? Is it because he doesn't want to lose and feels that he's getting out of it this way? I don't know but I don't buy all of his injuries.

Maybe it's just me but I thought there were some especially good matches at the Australian Open this year.

Australian Open week 1

2009-01-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

It looks like Nadal is bringing his A-game to the Australian Open. I wasn't quite sure how the time off after Paris last year would effect him. Nadal, seems to be incredibly focused at the Australian Open and he's adjusted well to the change in the court's surface. He's kept his points shorter and has actually been coming to net more often than usual. Nadal has also changed his look for the Australian Open. Instead of the sleeveless look with the long shorts, he's changed to a crew shirt with shorts that are maybe a little shorter.:/

Like Nadal, Gilles Simon also came to play at the Open. Simon, has had strong performances in most of his matches, taking down opponents like Guccione, Ancic, and Monfils. Simon, has really become a different player since his breakthrough during the summer hard court season last year, he's now a serious force to be reckoned with. I don't like has chances against Nadal in the quarters but a quarter-final finish is still enough to keep him in the top 10.

Roger Federer, seems to be continuing his 2008 performance, he looked shaky against Berdych and was lucky that Berdych self-destructed halfway through their five set match. I'm not sure how Federer is going to do from this point forward but he's got some tough opponents still left in the tournament. Can he make it past Del Potro, Roddick or Novak and Nadal to win his 14th grand slam title? I don't know but if Roger does win he will equal Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slams won during his career. I would like to see this happen because it could be many years before a player like Roger comes around again.

Another player I'd like to talk about is Verdasco. I was surprised to see him defeat Andy Murray. I saw the last two sets of their match, Murray looked burned out and unhappy. Verdasco was by far the fresher of the two, despite being down two sets to one. Verdasco, got an early break in the fourth set which helped level the match out. The fifth set was very close, there was one game where Verdasco was trying his best to hold serve but every time he got the advantage Murray would come up with a great shot and force the game back to deuce. It was a very intense, exciting match.

Bernard Tomic, made his grand slam debut and managed to make the second round before losing to Gilles Muller. At 16, Tomic is in the same position that Donald Young was a couple of years ago. The new guy on the tour and a player with tremendous potential. I'm hoping that Tomic will have an easier time making the adjustment to the pros than Young had.

Demoing racquets

2009-01-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Over the Christmas holiday I demoed some racquets, I'm about a 4.5 (I say about because it's hard to practice in the snow);) and I was looking for a racquet that would help take my game to the next level. I decided to demo the Head Microgel Radical Pro, the Babolat AeroPro Drive Cortex, and the Wilson K-Factor KSix-One Tour 90.

If you are a Federer fan, you might recognize his racquet in the ones that I demoed. As a Federer fan myself, I was very curious to see what the racquet was like so I decided to demo it, merely out of curiosity and I'm very pleased that I did. Fed's racquet was unbelievable at the net, it was very light weight and when I swung it, it felt more like a wand than a racquet. I was able to get a nice pop on the ball and it really enhanced my slice. It was also a great racquet for flat hitting. All in all, it's a great racquet, although it's not for everyone. The Wilson K-Factor KSix-One Tour 90 is best suited for advanced players who really know what they're doing. I also wouldn't recommend it if your playing style is topspin oriented (like mine is.) This racquet requires practice and flat strokes, preferably some net skills as well.

After playing with the Wilson I decided to try out the Babolat. The first thing that I noticed about the Babolat AeroPro was how light it felt. The head size was fairly large for a mid plus and it had a more flexible feel than the Wilson. The Babolat racquet was more like what I'm used to and that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. It's probably the best racquet that I've ever hit with for generating topspin. It was nice at the net although not exceptional. The power level was good and I didn't have any trouble with short returns. This is a good racquet and is worth a try, although like the Wilson, your ability to use the racquet will depend on your game.

The third and final racquet was the Head Microgel Pro. Since I started tennis, I have played with Head almost exclusively but this racquet was nothing like the other head racquets that I own. In fact the Babolat AeroPro felt more familiar than this one did. Unlike the other two racquets the Microgel felt heavy and the round frame took some time to adjust to. However, this was by far the best of the racquets from the baseline. I was able to hit deep penetrating flat shots as well as awesome topspin returns. The racquet blended the control and power perfectly together and added a nice bite to my slice. It's going to take some work but I decided that this is the racquet for me. In my opinion it was the most versatile of the three racquets, it was good from all over the court and wasn't limited to topspin or flat shots (which is perfect for me because I have a flat backhand and a topspin forehand.) This was by far the racquet that I enjoyed the most.

Finding Christmas tennis deals

2008-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas, is almost here and if you're looking for some last minute deals on tennis gear, then you should check out http://www.tenniswarehouse.com/, http://www.midwestsports.com/, and http://www.prodirecttennis.com/.

Tennis Warehouse, has some very good deals on their bags right now. I recently bought a Wilson K Factor Super Six Bag from Tennis Warehouse for $30 off. The bag is amazing and was definitely worth the money but what I really like about Tennis Warehouse is how fast they process orders. I'm one of those people who gets impatient if my package doesn't arrive on time and Tennis Warehouse has done a great job of delivering my package when they said they would.

Midwest Sports, has good deals and sometimes they sell their tennis gear a little cheaper than Tennis Warehouse does.

Tennis Warehouse and Midwest Sports, both have some low prices on the older model tennis racquets, if you are a 3.0-4.0 and don't mind playing with an older model racquet, you should be able to pick one up for under $100.

Pro-direct Tennis is a good place to go, only if you are interested in very specific things. Pro-direct is currently carrying the Spring of 2009 tennis apparel, if you like to collect or wear what the pros wear then I would strongly recommend Pro-direct but be aware that the shipping costs are very high if you aren't living in Europe.

Thanks, to all of my readers for reading my blog this year. Merry Christmas and hopefully I'll see you back next year.

Adios

Spain wins the Davis Cup Finals

2008-11-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

pics taken from dailymail.uk and DavisCup.com

Despite having their best player side-lined with an injury, Spain, was able to pull off an upset over Argentina and claim the Davis Cup title. This was the third time in the history of the Davis Cup that Argentina, has made the finals but they haven't been able to win the silver trophy yet. It looked like they had a pretty good chance this year. David Nalbandian, and Juan Martin Del Potro, were both playing well going into the finals and the Argentine's had home-court advantage and were playing on hard-courts, which is usually a weaker surface for Spain.

Nalbandian, got things started on the right track by completely out-performing David Ferrer, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to win the first match of the final, surprisingly it was Del Potro, who fell down against Spain's Feliciano Lopez, which gave Spain, the hope that they needed to get back into the finals. The doubles match which pitted David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri against Feliciano Lopez and Fernado Verdasco, was an awesome match. There's no other way to describe it. Spain split the first two sets with Argentina, with both of the teams winning the sets 7-5. Nalbandian and Calleri, had to come back from 1-5 in the third set and were able to push Spain to a tie-break but it still wasn't enough to claim the set, the 3rd set went to Spain 7-6.
Spain, again had a two break lead in the fourth set but this time they were able to hang on to it and they won 6-3 in the fourth to put Spain ahead of Argentina 2-1. What turned out to be the final match was between Fernando Verdasco and Jose Acasuso, the match was originally scheduled for Del Potro and Ferrer but Del Potro, was forced to pull out because of an injury. Emilio Sanchez, chose to replace David Ferrer with Fernado Verdasco to play for the title. This turned out to be a great decision, Ferrer, hadn't played well against Nalbandian and he has the tendency to defeat himself in crucial points during a match. Acasuso's career record is pretty modest but he gave it everything he had and almost upset Verdasco. Verdasco, won the first set pretty easily but Acasuso, tripped him up during the second and third sets and gave Argentina, a good look at a fifth match to determine the final. It never happen though, after the third set Acasuso, was burned out and was pretty much destroyed in the last set. Verdasco, won the match 6-3, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, and won Spain their third Davis Cup title in the last eight years.

Flash tennis game on Mini Clip

2008-11-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

Play this free game now!!

Anyone who is a fan of flash games and tennis should try this game. I found this at Mini Clip and I was impressed with the graphics (which are pretty good for a flash game.) My high score is 86,220.

There are a few other tennis games on Mini Clip but this is probably the best one.