Much Ado About Clay
Madrid is mercifully behind us, and hopefully we can soon stop hearing the lingering refrains lambasting the blue surface at the tournament this year. While Roger Federer kept his usual calm demeanor, rolling with whatever conditions came his way and needing no excuses en route to his third Masters title in the Spanish capital, his fellow contenders in the triumvirate at the top of the men’s game bombed out and blamed the court for their struggles.... Read More
Thoughts on Men’s Draw Before U.S. Open Semifinals
The chalk held, that’s all that we can say when we look at the final four that survived the first five round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows. There were no real surprises in the end, nothing out of the ordinary that would really leave anybody with a legitimate suspicion that things are in disarray in the men’s game. There’s the world’s top player, Novak Djokovic, is there after Janko Tipsarevic withdrew from their quarterfinal... Read More
Stats and Sensibility: Three Ways to Rethink Serve Stats
I decided to wander over to the ATP World Tour website for no other reason than to see if the leaders in the various statistical categories were the leaders in the rankings. By and large what I saw was what I expected to see. There were a few oddities there at the top of some of the categories, for sure, but for the most part the top players in the game were the statistical leaders as well. Do the statistics really tell the whole tale of greatness?... Read More
A Teatime Preview of Wimbledon
This time of year is a whirlwind of activity for tennis, as the Orwellian odyssey in Paris and London yields two Grand Slam champions in a month’s time. It was just a few short weeks ago that we wrapped up the clay-court season at Roland Garros, and already we’re just a day away from the start of lawn tennis’ pinnacle tournament. The All-England Lawn Tennis Club is set to host the 125th edition of The Championships, Wimbledon, beginning... Read More
Double Vision of Djokovic’s Demise
Does anybody ever wonder why NBC has migrated to a third-rate network? It is a rare talent to know how to piss off multiple constituencies simultaneously, yet somehow in tape-delaying their French Open semifinal coverage of the duel between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and blotting out Days of Our Lives to the heartland in the process they left both groups of fans dissatisfied. No wonder Dick Ebersol walked away rather than accept a lowball offer... Read More
