The old rivals turned ugly when Agassi mocked Sampras’ alleged stinginess Friday night in the charity match.  Pete could have come back hard by miming a deep inhalation of crystal meth.  Pete wasn’t about to take a sleazy shot, but it would have taken the smile off Andre’s face.  Pete will always have the last [...]

This year thus far has been the breakout year for John Isner – winning his first ATP title, reaching the round of 16 in Australia, and making a heroic Davis Cup debut this weekend in which he played all three days, including a great effort as a last-minute sub in the doubles and a valiant five-set [...]

Leif Shiras asks Roddick in phone interview during Isner-Djokovic match if he will play Davis Cup again? “I don’t know,” he said.  Adding that he won’t play this year, and about the future he doesn’t know.  Roddick is 31-11 career in singles at Davis Cup, second in wins for Americans to John McEnroe, who is 41-8.  He’ll never [...]

Sam Cissell, recently named by the USTA as Alabama’s junior player of the year, also has the distinction of having been across the net from three-fourths of the U.S. Davis Cup team that plays in Serbia later this week.   The 16-year-old Cissell and friend Andrew Crumm last year won a doubles tournament that gave them the opportunity to [...]

A new era for American Davis Cup has begun, and it will be up to John Isner and Sam Querrey to step up and fill the shoes of long-time Davis Cuppers Andy Roddick and James Blake who are sitting out the competition this year.   The tall twosome — Isner is 6′9″ an Querey 6′6″ — have a [...]

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 [...]

I doubt most readers of this blog have been to an American dog track, where greyhounds run a frantic loop chasing an electronic rabbit that scoots along the rail.  In Sarasota, Fla., the announcer starts each race with a fevered, “Here comes lucky!” the dogs take off, and hundreds if not thousands of fans hold their [...]

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 [...]

Donald Young started strong but finished weak against Lleyton Hewitt (who I think is a dark-horse to go deep — he’s a feisty Aussie who knows his time is running out), but this tournament was a good showng for Young, who won four matches counting the qualies.  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rolled over Taylor Dent.
Tonight, Roddick goes [...]