Stanislas Wawrinka can’t continue to play with fire. On Monday afternoon in the first round of the French Open, a gifted player toyed with disaster before waking up in time to live another day. Wawrinka faced a devilishly tricky opponent in France’s Nicolas Devilder, but amidst the heat of battle on a sun-baked day in [...]
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 [...]
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have made a habit of contesting claycourt championships this season. While those two rivals will clash in one of Saturday’s semifinals at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, the player they’ve suprassed will try to bounce back on the crushed red brick of Spain. In prior years, Roger Federer unmistakably stamped [...]
Novak Djokovic is making a habit out of losing the opening set against Roger Federer. For most people, that would be a problem, but for the 21-year-old Serb with ample reserves of self-belief, it’s only a reason to fight even harder. For the second time in the past month, Djokovic felled Federer in a Masters [...]
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic faced difficult draws on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters, but these two members of the ATP Tour’s “Big Four” managed to dismiss opponents seeded sixth and fifth, respectively. Nadal eased past Fernando Verdasco, 6-3, 6-3, while Djokovic clocked Juan Martin del Potro, 6-3, 6-4. After dueling for [...]
Wednesday shook up the Rome Masters tennis tournament, but Thursday’s action calmed the stormy seas at the rain-plagued event. As a result, the locals in Italy’s magnificent capital have two tremendous quarterfinals to look forward to. When the sun rises on Friday, lucky ticketholders at the Foro Italico will be treated to a pair of [...]
Following his epic five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in this year’s Australian Open 2009 semifinals, Fernando Verdasco transformed his tennis reputation from pretty-boy shotmaker to elite-level contender. Given this rise to prominence, fans and pundits wanted to see the Spaniard take on the big boys in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. When [...]
Two of the “Big 4” (Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic) are out of the Australian Open. Now Rafael Nadal will aim to make it a 50 percent success rate for the top four players in terms of reaching the semifinals. Only Gilles Simon stands in the way of the No. 1 player in the world. [...]
Can anyone stop Rafael Nadal? That question has been on people’s minds ever since Nadal struck his first ball against Christophe Rochus in the first round of the Australian Open. And that question only grows louder and louder by the day. Following a dismantling of Roko Karanusic and a three-set blowout of Tommy Haas in [...]
Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez will square off in the fourth round of the Australian Open 2009 on Monday afternoon, but the action on Rod Laver Arena will be kicked off Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils. It will be the first career head-to-head meeting on between the two Frenchman, and count on this showdown being [...]
