In terms of joint events, Rome bucks the trend with the ATP main draw beginning before the WTA draw. On Sunday, there will be six ATP first round matches, which is why the preview is a little early. Personally, I like to post the preview before anything has happened. Novak Djokovic has arrived in Rome…
This is the first occasion in quite sometime that I have been more intrigued by the men’s draw at a joint event. This clay court season has been wildly unpredictable for the men and I like it. Rafael Nadal has been struggling for form. Novak Djokovic has looked great, but has been troubled by a…
It’s time for the Madrid-Rome double, beginning with the Mutua Madrid Open. Madrid is ranked as the more lucrative of the two events, but personally, I have always favoured Rome. The main stadium in Madrid, La Caja Mágica, is pretty ghastly and being at altitude, the clay plays differently to Rome and Roland Garros, thus not being the most accurate…
After two busy weeks, this one feels like a bit of a breather before Madrid and Rome back-to-back. There is a joint event in Oeiras, Portugal (formerly Estoril) which has attracted a strong WTA line-up and a bare looking ATP draw that has just about been saved with Tomas Berdych taking a late wildcard. There…
On the mens side, there are two events this week in Barcelona (ATP 500) and Bucharest (ATP 250). The clay court event in Barcelona has drawn a reasonable line-up which as always, is spearheaded by Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. The top 16 players have byes into the second round. Let’s take a (slightly different)…
Stuttgart is my favourite WTA event on the tour excluding my biased love for Eastbourne. The draw may be missing Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na, but it remains absolutely stacked. You will be hard pushed to find a better line-up of first round matches in any WTA draw this year. Can you tell…
Following the tennis season can be rather manic. As the Miami final finished, the draws for Charleston and Monterrey were already in progress. Tennis seems to move so quickly that discussing anything from Miami already feels irrelevant. This seems like a marvellous time to plug my review of the womens tournament in Miami, which you…
Last year, the men’s draw in Miami really suffered with the losses of Federer and Nadal. This year though it’s packed with all the big names. David Ferrer and Juan Martin del Potro are both set to return after missing Indian Wells, although DelPo remains a doubt regarding his participation. Please vote in the poll…
As the dust has barely settled from two weeks in the desert of Indian Wells, the Miami draw is out and main draw action for the women kicks off on Tuesday. It has been difficult to put a full preview together for this tournament with very limited time and with qualifiers unlikely to be placed…
The first ATP Masters 1000 event of the year in Indian Wells promises to be a fantastic tournament. This will be Stanislas Wawrinka’s first appearance on the ATP tour since winning his first Grand Slam and he is joined by familiar faces with Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Federer all competing in the desert. David Ferrer…
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