2007 was another exciting year for the men’s tennis. Roger Federer continued his quest towards a calendar and career slam and he boiled at both. Nadal passed Hewitt and Safin as the player with the highest number of slams after Roger Federer. Nadal almost beat the King Roger at Wimbledon only to fall. Federer won the U.S. Open but a star was born in Djokovic. Nalbandian came back to life for the last two weeks and beat Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic back to back. Federer beat Roddick and Nadal again enroute to Tennis Masters Cup title. Federer finished the year as the world No. 1. Sounds awfully familiar?

OK. Maybe it was not as dramatic as the title of this post suggests, but Federer simply didn’t put his effort forward against Sampras at Macau and now we have a new fire under the whole GOAT discussion. Federer lost 6-7, 4-6 to end the three match series between the titans. Of course, the fact that Federer won 2 out of 3 does not matter to most fans. Federer shouldn’t have lost to Sampras as it seems Sampras is a nobody and Federer is a God. Sampras may be retired but on a given day and on a super fast court he can probably beat most people, except maybe Nadal. The reason for that is that Sampras can’t hang from the baseline with Nadal, and Nadal would never give you anything less than 110%. Imagine if this was a match between Sampras and Nadal. Nadal would be going for 6-0 sets (not suggesting he would pull such feat off against the great Sampras). I think that sets apart Roger and Rafa. Even though Rafa is No. 2 in the world, you know what you get from him every single point. With Roger, he is inconsistent with his moments of pure genius mixed with moments of stupidity and carelessness. Personally, I would take Federer’s genius over Nadal’s will, but unlike what Sampras suggested, Federer does have a formidable opponent. Nadal would’ve beaten all Sampras’ opponents on a daily basis! Care to disagree?

Thank God for YouTube and those who share these great videos on YouTube. The second exhibition match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras is now on YouTube. You can check it here. Also, here is a nice interview after the match. So can Sampras beat or take a set off Federer in their third match? We’ll have to see!

Federer and Sampras finally got down to business and played 2 of their 3 scheduled exhibitions this week in Asia. Federer won the first match 6-4 , 6-3 in only 61 minutes. But the second match was much closer 7-6,7-6 as Federer struggled to break Sampras’ server. After the match Federer explained that he thought Sampras was still a top 5 player if he was playing. While I understand Federer’s being respectful towards Sampras, the Grand Slam king, this argument is as flawed as the concept behind the Clash of Times matches. Sampras would not simply be a top 5 player as he needs to be able to perform like he did against Federer consistently. In addition, while Federer is considered the best, there are numerous other individuals that cause Sampras match up problems. For instance, I can’t see Sampras beating Nadal nor Djokovic. In addition, great returners such as Ferrer would definitely trouble Sampras more than Federer did. Let’s not forget that Federer was not playing 100% against Sampras as the goal of these exhibitions is not to humiliate either Sampras or Federer, but to entertain people and pocket some cash for the players. I agree with Federer that Sampras is capable of causing upsets as we have so many overrated players these days. It is true that Sampras would beat the likes of Roddick and Davydenko, but there will be enough players to knock him out of tournaments consistently. Also let’s not forget that Sampras is could for only 2 or 3 sets, so in a Grand Slam Sampras would have trouble putting people away. Sampras retired because he realized he was not good enough to challenge for top honors, and it would simply be a mistake for him to come back. Having said that, it would be intriguing to see Sampras challenge the likes of Nadal or Djokovic in Wimbledon 2008. The big question is, will he return?

Federer vs. Ferrer. Federer’s era coming to an end, Ferrer on the rise. At least that’s what a few analysts were claiming after Federer lost to Fernando Gonzalez. Ferrer on the other hand was 4-0 in the Tennis Masters Cup, having dominated Nadal, Roddick, Gasquet, and Djokovic. But Ferrer was simply no match for Roger today as he was utterly dominated by the master in three straight sets. It was certainly no surprise as Ferrer had a 0-7 record against Federer, but his victories over some of the best players in the world had given a few people hope that he could have a shot against Roger Federer. Not true!

Overall, this year’s Masters Cup was pretty disappointing. Most players were either tired or had other agenda on their minds (Roddick). The hottest player on the tour simply didn’t make it (Nalbandian) and those who did, Djokovic and Gasquet, underperformed. Gonzalez showed flashes of brilliance against Federer, but then went back to old bad Gonzo days. The final between Ferrer and Federer was as boring as last year’s final between Blake and Roger. The fact that Roger had wrapped up the No. 1 ranking way before this tournament started made this tournament a rather “dead” tournament. Sort of like your last exam after a tough school year where you know you have passed and you try your bare minimum not to embarrass yourself. Of course, Shanghai timing did not help either as matches were either way early the morning when people were asleep or way late in the morning when tennis fans were at work. In some ways, the last year’s masters had more intensity to it than this year’s. Having said that, next year’s promises to be an exciting one as there certainly be a few of these young guns who will challenge the top 3. I guess the question is who from this year’s field will not make it. My money would be on Gonzo, Roddick, and Ferrer. We shall see!

A rather quick update from Shanghai for those of you who haven’t been keeping up with 4 A.M EST live coverage of matches. Ferrer, Nadal, Roddick, and Federer are the semifinalists of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. Ferrer has been the surprise of the tournament as he was able to beat Nadal again after he knocked Rafa out at the U.S. Open. This victory was even more remarkable than the previous one as Rafa was 100% healthy and he knew that finishing second would get him Federer. Roddick has also played well enough in the lousy red group. Davydenko and Gonzalez showed flashes of brilliance, but they never were in it with a shout. Now here is the interesting question that came up today before Roddick-Federer match. If you were Federer, would you lose to Roddick and get Ferrer rather than Nadal in the semis? As great as sir Roger has been over the past 4 years, he has not quite mastered Nadal like others. But the fact that Roger came out today and blew Roddick off the court showed that he is not afraid of Nadal. Not only that, he rather land the knockout punch in a best of 3 sets match rather than grappling with Nadal in possibly a best of 5 sets match. Finally, taking out Nadal in the semis almost certainly means another big title for Roger whereas beating Ferrer and awaiting Nadal in the final would leave Roger with more pressure and much more work to do. So poor Roddick! No chance for him today and probably no chance for him in the near future. But to be honest, Roddick is more likely to beat Ferrer than Nadal or Federer, so we might see a Nadal-Roddick or Federer-Roddick in the final. But at this point, Ferrer vs. Federer looks more likely!

This year keeps getting worse and worser for Roger Federer, by his lofty standards that is, but he keeps claiming that he is playing well but losing matches. Could it be true that other players are catching up to him fast or is it him not being focused enough to win the so called smaller tournaments such as Tennis Masters Cup! The fact that Federer lost to someone who had won only a couple of sets in 10 previous meetings against him is alarming to say the least. Gonzo played great and all credit to him, but Roger Federer needs to stop accepting the fact that some played too good as he is a freaking 12 time Grand Slam champ and Gonzo should not be able to outplay him for 2 sets. Make no mistake: Federer lost the match as much as Gonzo won it. It took two players to stun Federer, but Roger has been playing passive and erratic for the good part of this year. So why would be surprised when some really good players take advantage of his carelessness?

The TMC Year Ending Championship is upon us and Federer and Djokovic seem destined for another rematch in the final. Federer is pitted against Need-To-Put-More-Effort Davydenko, Fernando the-Amazonian Gonzalez, and Davis-Cup-Desperate Andy Roddick. Federer should probably not even be challenged in his group and make it to the semis to meet Rafael Nadal there. Djokovic is more likely to win the other group as he has Nadal’s number on hard courts. Ferrer and Gasquet will probably be happy just to be here in Shanghai and will compete for the third place here. So we will probably see Roddick vs. Djokovic and Federer vs. Nadal in the semis. Djokovic has already beaten Roddick on hardcourts, and I expect him to do that here. Besides, Roddick may not want to push himself as Davis Cup is his main priority. So we will probably see a rematch of the U.S. open in the final with the edge going slightly to Federer again. But like Nalbandian, Djokovic is very capable of upsetting the World No. 1 in a 5 - setter. It is certainly going to be an exciting Masters Cup, though Nalbandian would have made it even more thrilling.

Roger Federer is the No. 1 player in the world for the fourth straight year. Nadal has been the No. 2 guy in the world for more than 100 weeks and had never lost in Paris in 21 matches, until today! David Nalbandian destroyed Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-0 to beat Rafael for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. Adding to that, Nalbandian beat Federer 2 times in 3 weeks and dominated Gasquet and Djokovic too. King Federer has been under-performing for almost 9 months now, and it seems there is a new Sheriff in town! Now, if someone is kind enough to withdraw from the Masters Cup, Nalbandian will get a chance to make it 3 in a row against Nadal and Federer. Will that happen?

Tennis Masters Cup or World Tennis Championships or whatever term you want to call it is a great spectacle. 8 of the best players in the world gather in a place to compete for the ultimate crown in tennis. Of course, unlike other sports, tennis’ post-season is not as valuable as Grand Slams. Not only that, this year, a few hottest players in the world will not be making it to the masters cup due to various reasons such as early-season injuries or uninspired performances in the early part of the season. But one player who should definitely be there is David Nalbandian. David Nalbandian is has been the No. 1 in the world in the past 2 months or so, and he has dominated the top 3 players in the world like no one else. He has defeated the mighty Roger Federer twice in three weeks. Not only that, he swept the floor with Nadal and Djokovic too! Guess what? He is in another masters final tomorrow, and he is playing Rafa again. Now take someone like Andy Roddick. Roddick is a decent player Read the rest of this entry »