In the bottom half of the women’s draw at the 2010 Australian Open, two clear storylines are emerging after a fateful Friday in Melbourne. While Serena Williams and Venus Williams do battle in the top half of the draw, en route to a potential semifinal showdown, the bottom half of the women’s field has proven [...]

In a match that reminded tennis fans of another epic encounter, Marcos Baghdatis returned to prominence at the tournament that first made him a household name. Three and a half years ago, at the 2006 U.S. Open in New York, Baghdatis – the colorful Cypriot with an endlessly expressive personality – warred with Andre Agassi [...]

Juan Martin del Potro has to carry a rangy, lanky, 6-foot, 6-inch frame around a tennis court. He doesn’t have the smooth, gliding footwork of Roger Federer, whose rather compact frame enables him to reach shots with relative ease. He lacks the thick, muscular build of Marat Safin, a man who probably had the greatest [...]

Just before the 2009 Australian Open, Roger Federer said that Grand Slam tournaments are “a different animal.” The comment referred to the difficult task facing Andy Murray, regarded by many pundits as the favorite for the tournament despite the lack of a major title. Federer tried to make the point that it’s extremely hard to [...]

In one sense, it was a huge surprise that tenth-seeded David Nalbandian crashed out of the Australian Open in the second round. Then again, one of the tennis world’s most puzzling players can never proceed through a tournament without serving up a surprise. On paper, the Argentine had no business ducking out of the year’s [...]