Like there was any doubt that anyone could actually catch Roger Federer in 2007, Roger Federer made it official by beating the Jarko one in straight sets to win his home town tennis tournament and celebrate his fourth year at the top male tennis player in the world. Of course, the battle for World No. 2 is still up for grabs between Nadal and Djokovic. Stay tuned!

Roger Federer has dominated the men’s tennis for 4 years now. With one more victory at his home favorite tournament in Swiss he will lock up the World year ending No. 1 ranking for the 4th straight year. But don’t judge a book by its cover. 2007 is going to be the year the Roger Federer’s streak of winning at least 10 titles a year ended. Federer has lost to Canas and Nadal, twice each, plus he has dropped matches against Djokovic, Nalbandian, and Volandri. Don’t get me wrong. That is still quite an achievement, going a year with only 7 or 8 losses, but in comparison to last year, there is nothing Roger Federer can do to make this year a success.

Federer’s game has been extremely passive this year. One can notice that from his loss to Djokovic. Federer should’ve closed out Djokovic in two sets, but failed to put him away and his passive shots in the tie-breaks did him in. Against Canas and even Nadal in Monte Carlo, Federer was not close to his best and failed to find the aggressiveness necessary to win. The French Open loss was expected, but it was anything but a close match. Nadal was always in control, and Roger was lucky to even win a set. Roger Federer was even more lucky to win Wimbledon after Nadal’s body starting giving up on him in that fourth set.

Roger Federer’s loss to Nalbandian was an eye opener for me personally. It showed me that Federer has gone back to his old days of using shots that are technically sound but tactically questionable. Roger has all the shots in the game, but against formidable foes like Nalbandian, Nadal, and Djokovic, he needs to have the right strategy as well. Unfortunately, Federer seems as though he needs a reality check. These losses can only help the legend at this point. He has dominated the game for so long that it seems unthinkable to him that people like Nadal and Djokovic are mounting challenges against him. Not only that, someone like Canas should have no business beating Roger 2 consecutive times, and that really showed in their third match of the year where Roger put a bagel on Canas. So the problem is not the loose forehand or fragile backhand, but Roger’s inability to accept the fact that others could beat him if they use the right strategy and the right shots, and he doesn’t. Federer could easily go on and win 18 Grand Slams in his already great career, but he could also lose his No. 1 status as early as next march if Nadal manages to win the Australian Open. Don’t count Djokovic out either!

Roddick’s up and down year continued at ATP Lyon when was edged by, guess who!, Fabrice Santoro. Grandpa Santa was able to beat Roddick in three sets and by doing so proved that the Roddick 2.0 era may be over. Roddick was on the up even when he met Roger Federer for the first time at Wimbledon. The very next year, he reached the final and lost a very close match. But that was when Roddick 1.0 started to reach its end of cycle. Roddick start to lose to Mullers, and other top 100 players, and he fell so low that he decided to fire Goldfine to have the chance to challenge Roger Federer again. Jimmy Connors managed to reinvent Roddick into an aggressive ace bomber. Not only that, Connors taught Roddick 2.0 how to actually use his backhand to hurt people. Roddick immediately saw the fruit of his trust in Connors by reaching the final of the U.S. open last year. But he was dismantled by Roger Federer again, and this time it seems Roddick has all but lost his opportunity to beat the master. He has been dominated by Federer since then in Australia and the U.S. Open 2007, and these matches have not really been close. But Roddick 1.0 did not have a problem with the likes of Santoro, but now it seems Roddick needs to stop worrying about Nadals and Djokovics and start focusing on Canas, Robredo, and other top 30 players. With Roddick relying heavily on his serves to get out of trouble, people are now figuring out ways to return and neutralize his bombs, and that would mean Roddick’s days of challenging for Grand Slam titles are all but over.

Had a story yesterday about how Nalbandian has risen from his ashes to dominate No. 2 Nadal and No. 3 Djokovic on his way to ATP masters in Madrid. But the thought of Nalbandian repeating the peat he achieved 2 years ago at Shanghai when he came back to beat Roger Federer in 5 sets was hard to come by.  Read the rest of this entry »

We have all heard of tennis players who just don’t go away. The best example of that are Nadal, and Djokovic. Whether you are up 2 sets and and 2 breaks against them or have 6 match points, they are not going to give up. But David Nalbandian has not enjoyed the same reputation in the men’s tennis. In fact, David is actually known as a player who doesn’t like to practice much (reminds me of Allen Iverson in the NBA), and he is in fact somewhat overweight. But no one can deny his brilliance. When this guy is one, there is virtually nobody who can defeat him, maybe expect a red hot Federer. This year has been somewhat disappointing for David as he has not reached the final or rather semis of many tournaments, and he has lost to lesser man on smaller tournaments. But what David has done this week in ATP masters Madrid is simply astonishing. Read the rest of this entry »

Of course, it is Andy Murray. But a deeply disappointed Andy Murray. This is the look of a Murray who has lost to Nadal in a fairly close match 7-6, 6-4 with numerous chances to snatch the second set. But why does he look like a player who has lost to someone 200 levels below him in the ATP rankings? It’s Brad Gilbert. Brad Gilbert has made Andy Murray believe in himself, and perhaps this belief made him pull off that special upset against Roger Federer a year ago. Roger was completely off his game, and Murray was at the right place at the right time. But, even so, only a future champ could tame an off Federer that day, and Murray did that. Murray’s probably not going to win 10 Grand Slams or anything like that, but his unpredictable game will allow him to pull off surprises, one after another. Murray’s opponents always feel very uncomfortable with his game, and we don’t have many people like Nadal whose mental stength could pull them through tough matches. Today, Murray was primed to beat Nadal for the first time. He had just routed Radek Stepanek and blew Chela off the court the other day. But Nadal is a different animal. Just ask Federer. A break point against Nadal is different from any other point in the game. Nadal will push you to your limit and will win that point 9 out of 10 times by making you tap out on the tennis court. Read the rest of this entry »

Eurosport.com has for long been one of my favorite websites. I have been checking that site regularly for over 3 years now. A while back they entered a partnership with Yahoo! Sports which I think was a bad decision as it left the site worse off. But for a while I believed that the coverage that was provided by Eurosport tennis was unbiased. Read the rest of this entry »

Andy Murray is one of the most promising youngsters in today’s men’s tennis, and he is going to have many bright years ahead of him. But one thing that Andy needs to learn at this point of his career is to pick the right fights. By claiming that “everyone” in tennis knew gambling was going on, Murray has raised a few eyebrows. Of course, he has felt the wrath of some of his colleagues such as the top 5 player Davydenko.

Now Andy is backtracking on his corruption in tennis comments. But one wonders how much does Andy know about the match fixing issue that tennis is dealing with right now. Andy sounded so confident that his backtracking is not going to make the issue go away. Even Federer was left stunned by Murray’s comments. There is no question that no one in their right mind would approach a 12 time Grand Slam winner to fix a match, but Roger would know more than anybody if the match fixing issues is as widespread as Murray described it to be. For the sake of Tennis, let’s just hope Murray is wrong!

2008 will finally be the year where Federer’s grip on the tennis world loosens. Federer has been in an irresistible run this past couple of years. But recently we have seen him slip up and even succumb to defeat against players that he should not be losing to. No offense to Canas or Volandri, but they are by no means in the same league as the 12 time Grand Champion that is Roger Federer. To be fair, Djokovic should have pushed Federer harder for the U.S. Open title, and Nadal should’ve probably won the Wimbledon in 4 or 5 sets. French was again disappointing for Roger. So we only saw the real Roger at the Australian Open, and since then we have since a passive Roger who often contends with staying back and pushing the ball back with his back hand and some time his ineffective slice. Read the rest of this entry »