I blame it on his fat ass. He was all talent, no work. But if you watched the '07 Master Series in Madrid* & Paris when he was in one of his best moments ever, you might remember just how good he could be – beat Nadal & Fed in consecutive semis and finals. Only man to do so until Djoker did it last year.
So no, I don’t think I exaggerate. In fact, I wasn’t a fan of his, but couldn’t help but marvel at his game. Specially the insane angles he could create off of his exquisite backhand.
There was some Aussie who won the Australian Open while being ranked about 200. He has to be worse.
In addition to Johansson, who did not win his major as much as Safin lost it.
Gaston Gaudio? Never amounted to much. Never got past the 4th round besides that final victory. Johansson at least reached Semis and Quarters of other majors.
2)Petr Korda. He was a mediocre player, though he did reach two slam finals. He was also a druggie to boot.
Alberto Costa. Never won anything except on clay.
Besides that; Carlos Moya? Nah, was world number 1. Although that was in 1999, when I could have been world number 1, the way the ranking bounced about that year was ridiculous.
Richard Kraijek? He reached several Semi Finals in his career. Was unlucky to often have to play great players in tournaments.
It’s probably just some crank on the internet, although the security people will have to make sure they do an A-plus job regardless. Murray and Djokovic are back in action this week and Shanghai will be Federer’s first tournament since the U.S. Open. Nadal’s camp is saying he may start practicing again soon, but they’re sending very mixed signals about when he might be ready to play a tournament. He is supposed to play Djokovic in an exhibition match in (I think) December.
Are you thinking of Mark Edmonson? The last Australian player to win the Open? He did beat John Newcombe although he was probably at the end of his career.
D’oh! Novak had one of those rare off-days I think.
Anyhow, we are now at the end of a long season and I think we can forgive the top guys for taking their eyes of the ball (ha!).
It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out at the O2 tournament in London. It is one that they tend to save themselves for in a last hurrah and looking at the form going I reckon you have to fancy Murray for it. Home crowd, favoured surface, an excellent second half of the season, his fitness looks good. He could do well.
As for the others, there is no doubt that Federer is starting to wind down (as he fully deserves) Novak is looking a little erratic and poor Rafa is having a world of trouble with his knee. I mentioned it earlier in the thread but I really think we have seen the last of him as a major force. I just don’t see how he can play his astonishingly dynamic game on dodgy knees.
Murray is out as well, now. What and odd tournament. Roger should have joined in and he might have just walked through to a victory. Or not, I doubt he cares.
Anyway, Murray lost to Jerzy Janowicz, the rare player I have zero memory of. Good for him.
Spain David Ferrer
Czech Republic Tomáš Berdych
France Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Serbia Janko Tipsarević
Spain Nicolás Almagro
Switzerland Stanislas Wawrinka
Forgive the messy pasting, but that is who is left of our seeds. Who will win? I think it will be Wawrinka or Ferrer.
Ending a streak of 17 straight Masters events won by the Big Four. The last guy outside the top four to win one of these was Soderling in Paris at the end of 2010. I hope Soderling comes back at some point.
I have to say that, though I predicted a Murray win Federer played some frankly unbelievable tennis yesterday. Really rather special. I suspect the little break he had has done him good.
