0 comments by Yesh Ginsburg on 1/28/2016
When a remarkable athlete performs at his best, a turn of phrase which most readily comes to mind is “a cheat code.” That’s what Novak Djokovic has become. He reminded us of this reality on Thursday night in Melbourne. In 2011, Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon final in four sets. With the […]
0 comments by Chris Abshire
It’s an oft-seen phenomena in sports, specifically in tennis. A team or player delivers a thrilling upset, only to fall short of a title or fail to use that momentum for a substantial run. Typically, one day’s huge breakthrough is the next day’s or the next game’s deflating loss. As soon as a resurgence begins, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/27/2016
What does it look like when a talented player finally puts the pieces together in the moment when she most desperately needs to do so? Samantha Jane Stosur did this at the 2011 U.S. Open against Elena Dementieva on one Sunday, and then against Serena Williams one Sunday later. Francesca Schiavone, after many years of […]
0 comments by Chris Abshire
Tennis fans have waited years for another men’s tennis player to take the proverbial leap, becoming a player not necessarily on the level of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Andy Murray, but clearly a step above the rest of the top 20. We might be watching Milos Raonic make that move. The Canadian dispatched Gael […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/24/2016
One relatively common, pervasive and durable component of tennis analysis — especially in relationship to the practice of predicting outcomes — is the citation of a player’s form. He’s the more in-form player at the moment. Based on current form, she should be the favorite. The idea is easy enough to understand, and it’s not […]
0 comments by Chris Abshire on 1/23/2016
The scene at Rod Laver Arena during day six of the Australian Open suddenly became about far more than tennis. Early in the second set of Saturday’s third-round match between Ana Ivanovic and Madison Keys, Ivanovic’s coach Shriver added that Ivanovic knew about “a history” of health issues which may have explained the incident and likely […]
0 comments by Yesh Ginsburg on 1/19/2016
Between the men’s and women’s draws, 17 upsets emerged in the first round if viewed strictly through the prism of seeded players losing–five from the men and a whopping 11 on the women’s side. Some of these came out of nowhere, some were more-or-less expected, some were in between. In order of most expected to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The 2016 Australian Open — which burst into dramatic color on Tuesday in Melbourne — can be summarized in this image: The tournament smacked a lot of players in the face, immediately changing the tenor of a very young tennis season. * Remember the 2015 U.S. Open? Yeah, me neither. Many of the events which unfolded […]
0 comments by Yesh Ginsburg on 1/17/2016
The draw for the 2016 Australian Open is here, and everyone has been poring over it since it was first announced. So, without further ado, here are the five things that most jumped out to me when I first looked at the draw: 1. Lleyton Hewitt Has the Perfect Opportunity However much this tournament will […]
