Mahut on a Roll Carlos Berlocq and Fabio Fognini deserve a lot of credit for picking up titles last week. Nicolas Mahut receives a big shout out for winning the final event of the 2013 grass court season in Newport, Rhode Island. Mahut is a bit of a grass court specialist as he was runner-up…
Category: Roger Federer
Tennis Power Ranking 2013: Wimbledon and Murray’s Ascent
Power Ranking 2013 #8 Wimbledon Shakes up the Power Rankings #1 vs. #2 and Murray vs. History/Expectations 1. Andy Murray – Murray broke a 77 year slump for men from the UK at All England. Over the past 52 weeks, Murray has won 2 slams, produced 1 slam runner-up finish and won a gold medal….
Top 10 Gentlemen’s Championship Matches #4 – #1
As I said, I am only ranking finals that I had a chance to watch. I did not see the 1980 final. I am sure it would rank highly if I had seen it. 4. 2007 Roger Federer d. Rafael Nadal 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 In 2006, Rafa and Roger traded 4 set wins…
Top 10 Gentlemen’s Championship Matches #7 – #5
7. 1998 Pete Sampras d. Goran Ivanisevic 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 If only breaking Sampras were always that easy Pete won due to shots like these Goran also lost the 1994 Wimbledon Final to Sampras, but this was a much better match. Both men served exceptionally well. Pete survived a scare in the second…
Roger Federer and a Racquet Change
Honest Assessment Roger Federer has had a few stretches in his career in which decline looked to be steep and imminent. 2008 was the first of these patches. Novak Djokovic rolled Roger in the Australian Open semifinal round. Federer was beaten soundly by Mardy Fish in the semifinal round of Indian Wells. Nadal thrashed Federer…
Wimbledon 2013: Day 3 Predictions
Predicted Winners in BOLD Singles – Second Round [2] A Murray (GBR) vs Y Lu (TPE) – Murray is riding a nice grass court winning streak. He should move into the 3rd round without much struggle. [3] R Federer (SUI) vs S Stakhovsky (UKR) – Federer has to look at his draw and think 2…
Wimbledon 2013: Day 1 Predictions
Predicted Winners in BOLD GENTLEMEN’S SINGLES – FIRST ROUND Victor Hanescu (ROU) v Roger Federer (SUI) [3] – Federer had a tough first round in 2010 as defending champion. Still, he advanced. Benjamin Becker (GER) v Andy Murray (GBR) [2] – Murray should win against the man who sent Agassi into retirement in 2006. Rafael Nadal (ESP) [5] v Steve Darcis (BEL) – Rafa like Murray and…
Why Top 8 May Be the Same as Top 4 for Federer going Forward
Top 4 Matters So Long as … Staying in the Top 4 matters so long as the other 3 members of tennis’ big 4 remain in their top 4 slots. It is a bit like the Prisoner’s Dilema in which each player benefits from the other three banking ranking points. However, if one of the…
Halle and Queen’s Club Championship Predictions
Predicted Winners in BOLD Queen’s Club Andy Murray vs. Marin Cilic – The Croatian is the defending champion so he has to have a shot here. However, Murray is one of the 4 best players in the world for a reason. Cilic certainly needs this win more as he has lost some of the momentum he gathered in…
Halle and Queen’s Club Semifinal Predictions
Predicted Winners in BOLD Queen’s Club Andy Murray vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – Tsonga does not perform well in semifinals (too soon). This match could go either way, but Murray is the better player when he is 100%, and I would guess he is close to 100% right now. Marin Cilic vs. Lleyton Hewitt – I initially saw this as a Cilic…
Tennis Abides: Dan Martin on Tennis and Life 