According to this blog post on Wimbledon.com, the odds were only one in 127.  Leave it to a Cambridge math professor to sap the life out of something remarkable.   But what were the odds of it happening twice?  Is it two in 254?  My mom is suspicious of the draw — and I agree with [...]

OK, I don’t know if the ousted American players in America have  hangovers down in Australia, but staying up to 3:45 a.m. Saturday with the John Isner marathon loss to Marn Cilic saddled me with one on this fiercely cold Philadelphia weekend.  It was a fun match to watch up until Isner double-faulted twice in [...]

I am, and I’m taking the U.S. win of the Hopman Cup as a good omen for John Isner and the other three American men in the top 20.  Look for the draw up soon on the Australian Open’s web site, and tennis from the land of January warm weather starting Sunday night in the [...]

Bob and Mike Bryan added another trophy to the case Sunday morning, winning the title in Rome over friends and fellow Amerians John Isner and Sam Querrey.  All this national media attention of late has been good for the twins.

Let me set the scene for you:  Weekly doubles match, indoors, Court 3, under a bubble covering four clay courts.  In the very first game I was struggling to hold serve when Anthony Pozzi, a good friend and lefty opponent possessing a devastating drop-overhead volley (yes, it doesn’t seem possible but it is — a dropper from [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]