Lost in much of the coverage of Federer the Great and Serena’s win in singles in the Australian Open were the feats by two sets of American siblings:  twins Bob and Mike Bryan won their eighth Grand Slam title, and Serena and Venus Williams won their 11th.  Americans may not win many singles titles these days, but [...]

Marin Cilic served 20 aces to Andy Roddick’s 15, and although Roddick fought back from a two-set deficit to push it to a fifth, the lanky 21-year-old Croat came out on top in the quarters of the Australian Open, knocking Roddick out of the first Grand Slam of the year.
I have to think Terrell Owens jaunt [...]

From Pete Sampras’ win in the 1990 U.S. Open to Andre Agassi’s win in New York in 1999, American men won 21 of the 40 Grand Slams of the decade.  The following ten-year stretch started strong, with Sampras, Aggasi and Andy Roddick combining for six more through September 2003.  However, since Roddick’s U.S. Open win seven years ago, only Andy has come [...]

The big servers with the big streaks came through on Friday in Australia.    John Isner started strong and finished well in the tiebreakers to beat Gael Monfils in four sets, and Andy Roddick survived a tough four-setter against Feliciano Lopez, placing each in the round of 16.
Roddick has been here many times before, but this [...]

A very entertaining match last night/today in Melbourne:  An inspired and later cramping Marcos Baghdatis came back from two sets down to beat David Ferrer, cheered on by a singing band of flag-waving compatriots from his home country of Cyprus.  Baghdatis struggled through the final game, fighting a cramp in his left leg, and hopped and [...]

Michael Russell won a set but fell in four to Juan Martin Del Potro.  Mardy Fish, but Andy Roddick and Wayne Odesnik moved onto the second round.  In Tuesday’s schedule, starting Monday night at 7, the remaining eight Americans see action.  The most interesting match is wild card 17-year-old Ryan Harrison versus Serb Janko Tipsarevic.  They are scheduled fourth on [...]

I wrote in May before the French Open that the tennis world should get ready for a Rafael Nadal grand slam.  That seems like a very long time ago.  In that post I quoted from the then out-of-print Rod Laver biography, The Education of a Tennis Player.  I was delighted to learn today that it’s coming [...]

I had a dream sometime before dawn Thursday morning that my match in the Lukoil Open had gone to 15-games all in the third set, and that people all over the world were following it on the web.  That’s obviously a combination of my own delusions and a hangover from the agonizing loss Andy Roddick [...]

Of the five Green Valley Tennis Club members in this year’s Lukoil Open, Anthony Pozzi had a bye in the first and then won his second round match and is still in the hunt.
Jim Lewis won his first round easily, and then put in a strong showing in a los to the number one seed [...]

Andy Roddick was so close, the ball high above his shoulder but on his strings, an open court awaiting an angled backhand volley to give him a two sets-to-none lead over Roger Federer.   I hate the dreaded high backhand volley, and apparently Roddick does too, missing the ball badly wide, and blowing the fourth of [...]