Novak Djokovic is favourite to win 2011 US Tennis men’s championship.

On Monday, challenges came from unlikely sources on the men’s side but heat management may have saved Andy Murray and helped Novak Djokovic as the 3 and 4 seeds lived to see another day.

Worthwhile developments and especially newsworthy scores after a packed day of action at Melbourne Park: FIVE-SET THRILLERS ABOUND The losses of Robin Soderling and Juan Carlos Ferrero (mentioned elsewhere on this blog) weren’t the only five-setters witnessed on a rather contentious Tuesday in Australia. Other extended wars dotted the landscape on the blue plexicushion courts [...]

Two years ago on Court 1 at Wimbledon, Andy Roddick lost a match he should have won. Wednesday evening on that very same patch of grass, the newly-married American won a battle he very easily could have lost. In a riveting, rousing affair matching former world No. 1s and Grand Slam champions, Roddick nipped Australian [...]

Amelie Mauresmo can now resume playing good tennis–she won’t have to worry about the French Open for at least another 52 weeks. In yet another spectacular crash-and-burn from France’s two-time Grand Slam champion, Mauresmo–who has never handled the pressure of playing on home soil in the world’s biggest claycourt tournament–tumbled out of this year’s Roland [...]

Andy Murray wasn’t expected to win the Rome Masters this week at the Foro Italico tennis complex. In the same breath, the Scotsman also didn’t figure to bow out in his first match at this venerable claycourt event. One bad day at the office is a fact of professional sports, but Murray’s great misfortune is [...]

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 put on his third straight dazzling performance in Melbourne with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Tommy Haas on Saturday night at the Australian Open. He needed just two hours and four minutes to book his place in the fourth round. Nadal dominated both Christophe Rochus and Roko Karanusic in his first two [...]

It will be the fourth career head-to-head meeting between Nadal and Haas when the two players square off in Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. Nadal leads the head-to-head series 3-0, but Haas has played him close, especially in Cincinnati last summer. The German had plenty of chances in each set before succumbing 6-4, 7-6(0). After [...]