In his first official order of business, U.S. Davis Cup Captain Jim Courier today announced his lineup for the match in Chile on March 4-6.  I’m surprised he’s taking the Bryans — not that they won’t dominate and win their match for sure, but with the Davis Cup format, if Roddick or Isner get hurt [...]

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 [...]

Georgia Bulldog John Isner beat the very tough Radek Stepanek in four, joining Andy Roddick as one of only two American men in the round of 32.  It gets tougher, Marin Cilic in the next round, and then, if he survives, most likely Nadal.  There ain’t no gimmes in the Australian Open.  A hot day, [...]

Watching matches the past two nights from Melbourne, I’m struck by how many awesome unseeded players there are in the men’s game.   With 32 seeds, it would seem the talent would drop down after the seeds end, but it’s far from the case.
Just ask Roger Federer about Gilles Simon, ranked 34th now, but who only [...]

All my life I have been playing tennis and reading Tennis Magazine, so it was a thrill two years ago when Peter Bodo published an essay I wrote about searching for Bill Tilden’s grave in the U.S. Open issue. Earlier this year I happened to play Anna Mamalat, a 15-year-old girl with a professional world [...]

I should have slept in.  After yesterday’s fantastic doubles comeback by the French,  I woke up early, expecting the Monfils-Djokovic match to be a battle.   Instead Monfils made a mess of things.  Michael Llodra did no better against Victor Troicki in the second match, very uneventful for the rare 2-2 matchup in a final.  The [...]

Forget football and its ex-dogfighting bankrupt heroes and laptop stealing corrupt college “students.”  The best sporting event this weekend is the Davis Cup final between France and Serbia, tied after Friday at 1-1.  Djokovic and Monfils, first up on Sunday, promises to be a humdinger, with the country that wins Saturday’s doubles going for the [...]

Even though Andy Roddick once pondered how someone could spend four hours watching cars make left turns, the ATP tour and NASCAR have a lot more in common than you might think.  For starters, the season-ending pinnacle events in both solo sports take place at the same time — The Sprint Cup finale is today, and [...]

Jimmy C — Courier, that is — became the new U.S. Davis Cup Captain today.   He’s a great choice, an underrated and often forgotten player from the era that produced Sampras and Agassi.   With two French Open championships under his belt, he might even deserve some playing time on red clay come March when the [...]

The 2011 Davis Cup draw is out, and the U.S. team will turn and head back south again — this time to Chile, instead of Colombia.  The U.S. on March 4-6 will play a team without Fernando Gonzalez who is having hip surgery in October and is expected to miss nine months.
If the U.S. wins, [...]