Mardy Fish kicks Federer in the pants.

It looks like this is the year to dethrone Roger Federer. Roger made it to the semifinals at Indian Wells where he was dumped by 98th ranked Mardy Fish in just over an hour. Admittedly, Fish is much better than what his ranking says, but he's never been able to get anything done against Roger. In fact, no American has cracked King Fed's code since 2003. This match was a complete role reversal. Fish was faster, he controlled points, he played with incredible confidence, and he predicted everything Federer tried. The post-match interview transcript captures the class act that Federer is. He gave all credit to Mardy, saying

I've had a great record against him, you know, always sort of had sort of controlled matches against him, but today was different. He came out playing very, very well.
Yeah, he played great today. I mean, I can only congratulate him. Fantastic.

Classiness aside, people are beginning to notice that Federer's game looks very predictable these days. Anyone notice that 95% of the second serves to his backhand side up meeting Roger's slice to the same exact spot in the court? During the whole match, Mardy attacked Federer's backhand. In the past, Roger hit winners with his backhand thereby nullifying this strategy. This match with Fish, and also in the Aussie open final against Djokovic, Federer used his backhand defensively in order to set up a forehand winner. Watching this match at 3am was unbelievable since I knew exactly what shot Roger was about to hit on almost every point. Someone on ESPN noticed this and drafted up a very good column about the rise of Djokovic. The author, Joel Drucker, notes that both Federer and Nadal need to adjust their games if they are to retain their superiority.

So now everyone is in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open. I happened to be in Miami for business during this this week last year and was able to see Venus Williams and Roger play back to back at night. It was incredible. I bring this up because the first round started, and Djokovic just received a stomping.
It seems the chair umpire finally told Djokovic to stop bouncing the ball so much before each serve. This was enough to throw off the best player so far this year. See ya.

Since the power players in tennis seem to be shifting on the men's side, something even more important is taking place on the women's end of things. Maria Sharapova, the celebrated Russian known as much for her good looks as she is her victories may soon be dethroned as the best looking tennis player on tour. Ana Ivanovic may take the cake. Personally, I think she's better looking, but you be the judge. My guess is Ivanovic has a lucrative endorsement career ahead of her.
http://www.anaivanovic.com
http://www.mariasharapova.com