For the last four years, men’s tennis has had Roger and Rafa, two giants who have transcended the rest of the sport. For the past two years, the ATP Tour featured a Big Three in which Novak Djokovic joined the studs from Switzerland and Spain. Over the past 12 months, the Big Three has allowed [...]
If Roger Federer continues to play with fire, his hopes of Grand Slam glory will go by the wayside. Then again, after yet another remarkable escape at a major tournament, perhaps the iconic Swiss champion won’t have to dance so intimately with the grim reaper of tennis as the 2009 French Open continues. In a [...]
The official public record indicates that Maria Sharapova has played four women’s singles matches at the 2009 French Open. For all intents and purposes, however, it sure seems as though the three-time Grand Slam champion has played only one match during her stay in Paris. The key, though, is that the globally-recognized figure has found [...]
In horse racing, “winning by a head” represents a very small margin between the winner and the runner-up. In tennis, the same phrase could accurately characterize the way in which champions so frequently fend off talented challengers in the early rounds of Grand Slam tournaments. After surviving a scare from amped-up Argentine Jose Acasuso in the second round [...]
American female tennis players have a way of winning on native soil. Australian and British girls don’t get many chances to wow the home crowd in Melbourne or suburban London. As for the females of France, the comforts of home just aren’t comfortable enough, and never seem to be sufficient on any day, in any time or [...]
As Day 4 of the French Open unfolded in Paris, Andy Murray provided a performance that generated more chatter than it silenced. Still alive in the year’s claycourt major, but hardly in first-rate form, the third-seeded Scot had to grind out a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Italy’s Potito Starace in 2 hours and [...]
The French Open draws are out, and a quick look at the singles brackets suggest that the two top seeds should stroll to the finals, and very likely capture the second Grand Slam event of the season. Part I – Women’s Singles Of the 128 women who will converge on Paris over the next 15 [...]
As the claycourt season begins on the ATP Tour, Rafael Nadal can be relied on to deliver the goods. Outside of the King of Clay, however, the world of men’s tennis faces numerous uncertainties on the red dirt of Europe, and the early rounds of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 event showed why. Two talented [...]
