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Cilic has a very interesting service motion: Not since Stefan Edberg have I seen such a severe back-bend. Cilic looks like "Neo" (of The Matrix movies) bending his back to dodge bullets, when he bends for the service toss. The service motion also reminds me of Max Myrni's motion, but...

What are the chances of ESPN showing this marquee matchup (a rematch of the US Open QFs) tomorrow? I'd say ZERO. The pattern I've seen all week has been Serena and Venus on one day, Roddick next day, Serena/Venus next day, Roddick again, Isner next day + Serena/Venus (DOUBLES for christ sakes)...

If it were a 10 year career, I'd pick 1982 - 1992. That way, I would have been on tour with the likes of these slam winners, even if some were one-slam wonders: Bjorn Borg (retired Jan 1983) Guillermo Vilas Vitas Gerulaitis Jimmy Connors John McEnroe (would've witnessed his magical 1984)...

On an ESPN morning debate, good ol' Skip Bayless again makes an absurd comment trying to denegrate Federer by comparing tennis to golf. Skip claims it is way easier to win a major in tennis than it is in golf because "Federer only has to play 7 opponents on his way to a slam title, whereas...

Roddick. Roddick got the ATP #1 ranking in 2003. Chang peaked at #2.

I picked Connors because he won 5 US Opens and will fight and claw till the bitter end. I guess I forgot the fact that: a) not all of Connors' US Opens were on hardcourts (he also won on grass and green clay), and b) he probably wouldn't give a rat's *** about my life so he'd probably...

Every morning on ESPN's 1st and 10 show, Skip Bayless debates various topics. So the morning after the Wimbledon final, the "greatest ever" debate comes up with Skip Bayless. Skip says something to the effect of "Hard for me to say Federer "greatest ever" when Nadal has owned him. If Nadal is...

Agreed. That sliding open-stance backhand pass that he hits where he practically does the splits and flicks the ball crosscourt looks pretty taxing to the knees.

Wow, kind of suprising that there has not been one mention of James Blake. He's got a pretty sweet forehand when it is on.

It really reminds me of Martin Verkerk's run to the 2003 French Open final, who took out Moya in the QF and Coria in the SF.

Robin Soderling's run in this year's French Open is reminding me of Martin Verkerk's run back in 2003. They seem like similar players too. Both are at least 6'3" in height, have big serves, and are hard hitters with an atypical game for the clay courts, but took down some clay giants...

In the third set, Nadal had the same look he had on his face that he had in the 4th set of his QF match with Youzhny at last year's US Open. Kind of a defeated, "what can I do?" look and seemed to stop fighting. The result was a final set bagel in Hamburg, similar to the final set breadstick...

Alamagro's style is of the brain-dead variety. All flash, no point construction...pretty much the model of inconsistency and how the old Gonzo played.

First Roddick tried it. Changing his game to try to beat Roger. Now Roger tries to change his clay game to beat Nadal. Both results - disastrous. Well, Roddick's was disastrous anyway. Seems the effect is you start to worry so much about that one opponent and forget that the rest of...

Ah yes, Adriano Panatta. The only guy to beat Borg at the French Open - Bjorn lost there in '73 and '76, and skipped the event in '77. Astounding!

If he wins the French, he should do everything in his power to defend the title. If anything, Federer winning 2 French Opens and no more slams would still make him GOAT at 12 slams. Why? It's a double-career slam, baby!!! He would have also defended all 4 slams, which is unheard of. His...

Q. Beside the forehand, what should you do to beat him on clay? ROGER FEDERER: Not make those mistakes, you know, and use the chance when I had them early on. I was playing very easily solid and in the beginning, created myself chances. He didn't have any breakpoints. Unfortunately it turned...

Also the slowing down of the game in general, by slowing court surfaces and increasing the size or weight of the tennis balls has pretty much given the baseliner the advantage over the S & V.

Moose, you make some good points about how a coach used to play not determining the style that the player he is coaching. I was just thinking from a tactical standpoint, would another coach bring something different for Federer on the clay? Just some other adjustments like "advise" him to...

Tony Roche is known for having arguably the greatest backhand volley of all-time, as stated by Johnny Mac. He's a serve and volleyer but ironically, his only major was a French Open title. He made 2 other French Finals so his win was no fluke, unlike Yannick Noah's. If you look at history...

I was impressed with a couple of things in Djokovic's road to the Sony Ericsson Open win: 1) Did not drop a set 2) Dropped serve only once the entire tournament (happened against Nadal in QF)! He doesn't have the biggest serve on tour but he mixes his serve up well. I think he'll do fine...

What illness? The chicken pox? I don't think that was during that time period. Federer last lost to Hewitt in Davis Cup September 2003. That was when he was up 2 sets to love and blew it. Roger recalls that match being the turning point of their head-to-head, stating something like...

Federer tiebreak records compared with a few Open era greats in their peak years: Federer: Year |TB's| Record 2003 | 42 | 26-17 2004 | 25 | 20-5 2005 | 39 | 28-11 2006 | 51 | 37-14 2007 | 4 | 4-0 Sampras: Year |TB's| Record 1993 | 50 | 28-22 1994 | 35 | 27-8 1995 | 40 | 20-20...

I've noticed since Federer started dominating in 2004 that the number of tiebreaks he plays is steadily increasing. Here's a breakdown of the number of breakers and his record in them: Year |TB's| Record 2004 | 25 | 20-5 2005 | 39 | 28-11 2006 | 51 | 37-14 This begs a couple of...

Doubt Federer will want to play that long. I think he mentioned he'd like to win Olympic Gold at the 2012 Olympics in London and retire that year.

The sketch I'm referring to as Mark Knowles is the Hewitt one.

Not a complaint or anything, but that sketch really looks like a picture of doubles specialist Mark Knowles.

Flashiest one-handed backhand in the world, no doubt. One of the best topspin one-handed backhands in the world also. Like others have said, Federer has more variety. Federer has the best one-handed topspin backhand return I've ever seen. That "stiff arm" backhand block against huge serves...

Maria Sharapova is often known for her mental toughness, but she doesn't seem that tough. She loses so many semifinal matches that are usually close. Maybe she should be known for her fight, as results don't show her mental toughness. Nicole on the other hand, seems mentally very tough, at...

The previous 3 decades, esp. the 80's brought us some mad phenoms winning slams in their teens. We had: Borg winning '74 FO at 17 Wilander winning '83 FO at 17 Edberg winning '85 AO at 19 Becker winning '85 W at 17 Chang winning '89 FO at 17 Sampras winning '90 USO at 19 It's amazing...