Category Archives: ATP Tour
A Comforting Thought
Montreal Masters, Semifinals Fish d. Tipsarevic, 6/3 6/4 When Mardy Fish assumed the mantle of the top ranked US male tennis player, there was a widespread and mostly justified belief that his ascent owed as much to Andy Roddick’s decline … Continue reading
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Federer-like
Montreal Masters, Second and Third Rounds (13) Tsonga d. (3) Federer, 7/6 4/6 6/1 Dodig d. (2) Nadal, 1/6 7/6 7/6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga this evening defeated Roger Federer in an enthralling three set encounter that recalled last month’s Wimbledon quarterfinal, … Continue reading
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The Big Flaw
Montreal Masters, Second Round Anderson d. (4) Murray, 6/3 6/1 Kevin Anderson today defeated two-time defending champion Andy Murray in two astonishingly straight sets. It was clearly the upset of the day, although it may not rank in the top … Continue reading
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Deuced Flat
Washington, Final Stepanek d. (1) Monfils, 6/4 6/4 Radek Stepanek today defeated Gael Monfils in straight sets in the Washington final, a putative upset that has been widely attributed to the vagaries of scheduling, as though a poor Monfils performance … Continue reading
Luck of the Draw: Montreal 2011
The Montreal Masters draw has been released, and as usual bad vibrations are thrumming the ether: it’s all rigged, and your favourite player has the toughest draw since the Challenge Round was abolished, which as I understand it required William … Continue reading
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Compromising
Washington, Third Round Isner d. Blake, 7/6 1/6 7/6 ‘Blake actually went for the winner . . . I’m surprised he did that.’ It’s hard to imagine any commentator in the last ten years uttering these words with a straight … Continue reading
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The Stories They Won’t Tell
Washington, Second Round Blake d. (8) Nalbandian, 6/2 6/4 In the dew-smeared eyes of the sadly uninitiated, it probably seems as though the last decade of men’s tennis belonged to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Champions, both, and champions define … Continue reading
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The Art of Understatement
Gstaad, Final Granollers d. Verdasco, 6/4 3/6 6/3 Hands up who remembers that American Express ad from some years back, the one in which Andy Roddick stoically endures those side-splitting situations that arise when one transports various trophies via commercial … Continue reading
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All Fun and Games
Thanks to Oscar Wilde and the apparently irresistible nature of puns, Ernests Gulbis’ early career has been dogged by pedestrian wordplay in near-lockstep with his varied results. When Federer avenged a prior loss to the Latvian in Madrid last year, … Continue reading
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Here We Are
Los Angeles, Second Round Through no fault of mine, the US Open Series gathers momentum, or more accurately mass, with the consequent increase in gravity drawing in more and more high-quality protagonists from elsewhere in the cosmos. Some are even … Continue reading
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