Playing a little free association with the words “Henin,” “Sharapova,” and “Madrid,” the 2007 year-end championships final springs to mind, an instant classic in which the statuesque Russian and the petite Belgian fired groundstroke missiles at each other for nearly three and a half hours of relentlessly superb tennis. In their very next trip to the Spanish capital, however, the two former #1s tumbled consecutively to a pair of streaky but second-tier players.…

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Under the guidance of the eccentric, brilliant Romanian visionary Ion Tiriac (the non-Swiss legend above), the Madrid event has evolved into the top ticket in European tennis outside Wimbledon and Roland Garros. From its glamorous website to its sparkling arena, La Caja Magica (Magic Box), Tiriac’s territory exploits every opportunity to engage and inspire the spectator…

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It's still a little soon to start reading the tea leaves for future guidance into Ernests Gulbis's career after his semifinal run at the Italian Open last week. One thing is for sure, the 21 year old Latvian who has been touted as the "next big thing" is finally, and I do mean finally, living up to that hype.



After several years of showing flashes of brilliance and flashes of awful, mixed in with a bad judgment call last year in Stockholm involving certain "ladies", Gulbis, with his… Continue

Despite promising portents during Ana’s Stuttgart loss to Radwanska, we were unprepared for the implausibly sudden awakening of Serbia’s Sleeping Beauty. For us, the most remarkable moment in her eye-opening win over Dementieva was not her 27-minute first-set rampage over the Olympic gold medallist, nor was it her stabilized serve, her fearless forehand, or her improved mobility, which allowed her to prolong several points until the Russian donated an unforced error. While all of these…

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This tournament was quite competitive and has gotten stronger and stronger every time. There were several top twenty prospects in the draw



warm ups



qtr finals pt 1…

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Confronted with a lethal-looking draw at the outset of this week, Nadal now finds himself within two comfortable wins of tying Agassi’s record for career Masters titles (17). Although he had been projected to play Soderling, Federer, and Djokovic consecutively, ambushes by Wawrinka, Gulbis, and Verdasco erased all three threats from his path. The Latvian should connect with some…

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