tennis gut

ATP – Yearend 2014 and Forecasts Change is a-comin’.  The big 4 (or big 3?) is not dead yet, but there has been an undeniable reboot of the system.  Before the 2014 US Open, the last time no Big-4 (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray) member made a slam final was at the 2005 Australian.  That’s over 9.5 years – long enough!  Looking at spots held in grand slam finals by Big-4 members per year (maximum 8), the trend is unavoidable.  The halcyon days are over.  What will 2015 bring? After a few years of relative stability, the top 10 have been infiltrated by the next tier.  Gone are the multi-year tenures of Tsonga, Gasquet, and Del Potro.  And teetering perhaps are Ferrer, Berdych, and Wawrinka.  The next wave has arrived. Finally. It’s only been forever... well seven years or so, since the exciting prospects of Djokovic and Murray, and then Del Potro, broke into ...

US Open Men’s Preview 2014 Charles Friesen Novak Djokovic is playing terribly.  Rafal Nadal is injured… so is Juan Martin Del Potro.  Andy Roddick is retired.  That leaves Roger Federer and Andy Murray as the only former USO winners in the last 12 years left standing.  Last week, Federer beat Murray in Cincinnati, site of Murray’s first triumph over the Fed, to level their series at 11 wins each.  So is Federer the US Open favourite?  The bookies are still giving the nod to Djokovic by a sizable margin.  Are they right to? Tallying slam matches won this year, the leaders are a familiar foursome: Slam match wins 2014 Djokovic 17 Nadal 16 Federer 14 Murray 13 Berdych, Raonic, Wawrinka 11 Anderson, Dimitrov, Ferrer, Tsonga 9 Even Wawrinka, winner in Australia, is relegated to no better than 5 th .  ...