Is Berdych copying Federer?!

It looks like Federer has gained a new fan. This time it's a fellow player on the ATP. I may just be imagining things but it looks like Tomas Berdych is deliberately copying Federer. Tomas, now wears a polo shirt along with Fed's 9" Nike shorts. Not only that, he's even managed to copy Federer's return of serve racquet twirl. Here check out this video of Berdych at the Czech Open this year and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.protenis.cz/video/clip.php?vid=821

By the way protennis is an awesome website. It has tons of videos many of them are close-ups of the pros during small tournaments. I find it helpful for improving my game.

I'm a little surprised that Tomas has had to resort to such drastic measures to improve his own game but I guess that's what happens when you develop a losing streak against the former #1 (Berdych is now 1-7 against Fed.) Who knows. Maybe Roddick, Davydenko, and Youzhney will start wearing the Nike bandana in an effort to change their games. At least Roger, isn't a bad role model.

Andy Murray wins Madrid title

Well, I was almost right on the semi-finals. Murray did play Federer and Nadal made it as well but who would have predicted Simon to be the fourth semi-finalist? I have to admit I've been impressed with Giles Simon this year, his game is far from overpowering and yet he's been able to beat the power hitters like Blake and big servers like Karlovic, not only that, he was able to win a match against Federer. It was during the summer hard court season when Federer was routinely bombing out in the first or second round but it's still an impressive victory. It's more than Davydenko or Youzhny can say, they are a combined 0-22 against the former #1.
Those guys must have nightmares the night before they have to play Federer.

Anyway, both of the semi-final matches were pretty close. Murray beat Federer 7-5 in the third set and Simon got a surprise victory over Nadal winning the third set tie break 8-6.

In the final, Murray, won the first set pretty easily 6-4. Simon, stretched him to a tie-break in the second set and almost won it but Murray played better during the important points. This is Murray's fourth title this year and most likely we will be seeing much more of him next year.

Andy, is becoming a very consistent semi-finalist or better and if his consistency remains the same then it's only a matter of time until he over takes Djokovic and moves up to 3 in the world.

Can Federer or Nadal win their second Madrid title?

Nadal and Federer have both survived their first two matches and are into the quarter-finals in Madrid. Nadal had a tough first round match against Ernest Gulbis but he was able to beat the Latvian in a very close three set match. Federer on the other hand has been cruising through his early round opponents. Fed, downed Stepanek without any problems and completely destroyed Tsonga 6-4, 6-1 in the second round. With Federer playing in top form it looks like he's on course for meeting Nadal in the finals again but Djokovic, Murray, and potentially Del Potro could prevent that from happening.

Del Potro, has been continuing his ascent towards the very top of the Men's game over the past few weeks. Del Potro, is ranked 8th right now and it's only a matter of time until he breaks into the top 5 and he took out the defending champion and his Davis cup buddy David Nalbandian on his way to the quarter-finals. Del Potro, will play Federer in the quarters along with Nadal vs Wawrinka, Djokovic vs Simon, and Murray vs Roddick/Monfils. So I'm going to infer that it will be a Murray vs Federer and Nadal vs Djokovic semi-finals.

We'll see if I'm right and please let me know what you think.

Tsonga wins Thailand Open

This is the time of the year when the ATP tennis season starts to calm down. With the US Open now over and the Davis Cup finals not for almost two months, there isn't very much to report on, after all, most of the important tournaments won't be held until next year but I was excited by how well Jo Wilfried Tsonga played at the Thailand Open, this past week. Tsonga crushed most of his opponents including Djokovic (in straight sets) on his way to the title.

Tsonga, has been plagued with injuries throughout most of his professional career which is unfortunate because he's a great player, I think that Tsonga, will probably break into the top ten before the year is over, he's 16 in the world right now and I'm really looking forward to watching him next year. Hopefully, without injuries.

Spain will play Argentina in the Davis Cup finals

Juan Martin Del Potro has had a tremendous season and although he is ranked lower than David Nalbandian, Del Potro, has become the anchor for the Argentine team. The head-to-head record between the Argentine and Spanish players slightly favors the Spaniards with Ferrer and Verdasco having won the majority of their matches against Nalbandian and Nadal and Ferrer with a winning record against Del Potro. Nalbandian, however has a 2-0 head-to-head record against Nadal. Both victories came last year and were on hard court.

Spain last won the Davis cup in 2004, after defeating the US 3-2 in the finals. Argentina, finished as the runners up in 2006 and will be looking to win their first ever Davis Cup against Spain. The Argentines, will have the advantage of playing the final at home and will also decide which surface the final will be played on.

Prediction: I think that Argentina, does have a good chance of winning their first Davis Cup title but it will require Nalbandian to play well. Nalbandian's record hasn't been very good this year in fact he lost the last match he played to Nikolay Davydenko, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Nadal or Ferrer roll over him. I expect Del Potro, will continue to play well and will probably keep hope alive for Argentina. I'm not sure that the effort of Del Potro alone will be enough to win, so I'll take Spain to win over Argentina 3-2.

Rod 'The Rocket' Laver vs Roger Federer: Battle of the GOAT part 2

Ok here is a video of Federer vs Roddick at the US Open 2007



And here is one of Laver against Roche at the Australian Open 1969. (Laver is the guy with the white hat.)



It might seem kind of absurd to compare the styles of tennis players or athletes for that matter who played more than forty years apart but I believe that this is the only way know for sure who the better player was. I think that it's also worth noting that I had never seen Rod Laver play before I watched the video and I was actually impressed with what I saw.


It's apparent from watching the video that Federer serves and returns much harder than Laver does. The shot placement from both players is very good and Laver's volleys are very precise. Both of the players move exceptionally well although the slower rally allows Laver a bit more time to get to the ball than Federer has. All in all they both played very good against their opponents however if Laver and Federer had met in their primes with the technology being consistent with their times (Laver with a wood racquet and Federer with a graphite Wilson K Factor) Fed would easily win. The racquets back in the 60s lacked the power to hit passing shots like the racquets today can hit. This would probably be enough for Federer to defeat Rod Laver's opponent Tony Roache and can you imagine Laver trying to defeat a player like Andy Roddick when the average players in the 60s hit hit their first serves in the 90 mile an hour range? I can't. Roger Federer's, average first serve speed is probably between 114-120 mph.


In conclusion, I think that Laver was a pretty good player and probably the best during his time period but is he really the GOAT? No. His style is just too dated to actually beat any of the best players in the world today or probably within the last 25 years. Their never will be an official greatest of all time because it's speculation it comes down to what you believe and who you think that person is. Hope you enjoyed reading this article. If you have any comments please feel free to post and I'll be back next week with the Davis Cup. :)

Rod 'The Rocket' Laver vs Roger Federer: Battle of the GOAT part 1

Thank you http://www.australianhistory.org/
and http://img.dailymail.co.uk/ for supplying the pictures.


Recently, I've been posting on Tennis Warehouse Forums and I've noticed that several of the threads mention Laver, as the GOAT or greatest of all time. I found this kind of surprising, after all Laver, only won 11 majors and yet he was considered to be better than Federer, who owns 13 majors or Sampras, with 14? I decided to do some research about Laver, so that I could better compare him to Federer and Sampras.


After doing some reading about Laver, I realized that it's difficult to judge how many majors he actually won. Wikipedia, listed him with the following achievements:

Rod Laver

11 major titles. The majors were won from 1960-1969.
Two calendar year grand slams (winning all of the majors in the same year.)
185 titles. Although some of those are amateur level.

But as I've mentioned before, prior to 'the open era' in 1968 all of the grand slam tournaments were open only to amateur level players, so it's impossible to compare Laver's amateur grand slam victories to Federer's Professional grand slam victories. Which means that in order to compare Laver to Federer I would have to exclude all of Laver's grand slams before 1968. Now there were professional level tournaments back then. The US Championship, The French Championship, and The Wembly Championship. These were like the majors today except there was only three of them and they were only played on two surfaces, grass and indoors. In 1963, Laver turned pro and won 8 of these tournaments over the course of four years. Unfortunately, before the Open Era the amateur circuit was more popular than then professional circuit and sometimes the professional tournaments were cancelled because people wouldn't even go to watch them. The quality level of the players who played at these tournaments varied from year to year so it's difficult at best to judge how important winning these tournaments actually was. Laver, only won 5 grand slam tournaments during 'The Open Era' and these are the only majors that can be directly compared to Federer. Basically, Rod Laver cannot be compared to Roger Federer based on achievements. If I tried to it would look like this.

Rod Laver

11 grand slam titles (5 pro) (6 amateur)

12 straight major semi-finals (or better)

There was no ranking system back when Laver was playing but most historians believe that he was the best player from 65 until 69.

Laver, did win the calendar year grand slam but three of the four majors were played on grass. Which was Laver's best surface.

Roger Federer

13 grand slams (professional)

18 straight slam semi-finals (or better)

#1 player for 237 straight weeks

Did not win the calendar year grand slam

That makes it really hard to compare them. Well since achievements are out I decided to compare videos of Federer and Laver. In the next part I'm going to post some videos of Laver and Federer and compare their playing styles.

To be continued...