Ernests Gulbis with his winner's trophy at Delray Beach. Don't ask.
In 2010 five players claimed their first career ATP titles:
John Isner (Auckland), Ernests Gulbis (Delray Beach), Andrei Golubev (Hamburg), Viktor Troicki (Moscow) and Mikhail Kukushkin (St Petersburg).
Here are ten of the leading contenders looking for their maiden crowns in 2011. Continue reading
Some of the best tennis media from the last week collected into one place for your convenience.
1. Noam Okun discusses his career and laments never reaching his potential. He also makes some interesting points about Dudi Sela and the hardships that Israeli tennis players from relatively poor backgrounds have to endure.
Haaretz.com: Interview with Noam Okun
2. Bernard Tomic in pissing everyone off shocker. But has he cost himself an Australian Open wild card? Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
This week’s twitterverse (sorry) mainly consisted of pre-season prep, traveling chaos, Christmas cheer and the Wayne Odesnik affair.
It’s time for a quick tribute to Jurgen Melzer, whose achievements in 2010 haven’t received the attention they merit.
Let’s look at it this way. Matches won in 2010:
Jurgen Melzer – 82 (51 singles + 31 doubles) Rafael Nadal – 77 (71 singles + 6 doubles) Continue reading
Japanese star Kei Nishikori announced today that he will be employing Brad Gilbert as a coaching consultant in 2011.
Gilbert will travel to 15 tournaments with Nishikori although main coaching duties will lie with Dante Bottini, a trainer at Nick Bolletieri’s academy. Continue reading
It’s not very controversial to say that Donald Young has completely failed to live up to the potential he showed as a junior.
The Atlanta southpaw is currently languishing outside the world’s top 100, and it’s now been over two-and-a-half years since he reached his career high mark of No. 73. He is only 21 but has stopped making any worthwhile progress.
While it is still too early to write him off, it appears that Donald Young has simply settled for mediocrity. Continue reading
