Daily Roundup: Thursday, March 27

The top half players played their first round matches today.

In a see-saw match that produced a scoreline more fitting for the WTA than the ATP, Julien Benneteau (pictured right, click for larger) beat Rainer Schuettler, who is still unable to find the form that took him to the top ten in 2003. Dominik Hrbaty, trying to come back after surgery, showed some signs of life against Ernests Gulbis, but lost in three.

One of the most dramatic matches of the day came from - who else - Marat Safin and Bobby Reynolds (pictured left, click for larger). Reynolds got off to a good start and earned the early break, but Safin was able to reclaim it and force a tiebreak, which Reynolds won. Safin recovered from losing the first set to break and hold on in the second, but the third set was much like the first and despite there being no breaks of serve (though Reynolds had a match point on Safin's serve at 5-4), Reynolds claimed the 'upset' in a tiebreak after Safin had gotten out to a 3-1 lead. Although Safin was able to save 9 of the 10 break points he saved, he won under 30% of receiving points. To his credit, Reynolds said after the match he felt he served very well and that he just kept fighting. For Safin, the abysmal start of 2008 continues; he has not won a match since the first round of the Australian Open and sinks to 1-5 on the year. After the match he remained adamant that he is still playing tennis because he enjoys it, but one has to start to wonder...

Jurgen Melzer, not really known for his mental strength in tight moments, pulled off an excellent win over Michael Llodra in two tiebreaks, qualifier Ivo Minar upset Olivier Rochus in straight sets, and qualifier Viktor Troicki won his first match in a Masters Series event with a blowout against Victor Hanescu. Mario Ancic (pictured right, click for larger) should probably have beaten Gilles Simon in straight sets, but upped his level in the third and closed out the victory in the end. Janko Tipsarevic (pictured left, click for larger) got off to a good start against Yen-Hsun Lu; he won the first set 6-1 but it got much tougher from there and he barely squeaked it out 6-4 in the third.

In later matches, Mardy Fish had a difficult time recovering after the emotional week he had in Indian Wells and fell to Arnaud Clement (both pictured right, click for larger). Fish was actually out-aced by the diminutive Frenchman and could not convert any of his four break points. Fish admitted after the match that while he felt physically OK, it was the mental turnaround that he did not handle well. If he wants to achieve any consistency and post good results week after week, he will simply have to learn to deal with these things better. In today's scoreline of the day, Robin Soderling crushed Stefan Koubek in under 40 minutes. Apparently, Koubek is suffering from a pretty serious back injury that took him out of the Sunrise challenger last week. Why he subjected his body and his pride to a match like this is unclear.

More good news for the lesser-ranked Americans: Ryan Sweeting (pictured left, click for larger) posted a nice straight-set victory over Filippo Volandri.

In the late matches, Thomas Johansson overcame a very slow start to beat Igor Kunitsyn in three sets. In the night match on the Stadium, John Isner got off to a good start against Gael Monfils, who is still trying to come back from injury. But Isner could not keep his double faults under control and could not convert a break point when he needed to (he was only 2/13) and ultimately lost in three sets.


Here are the full results from Thursday's play in Miami:

J Acasuso (ARG) d S Ventura (ESP) 62 64
A Clement (FRA) d M Fish (USA) 63 63
J Melzer (AUT) d M Llodra (FRA) 76(6) 76(5)
D Sela (ISR) d H Lee (KOR) 64 63
J Benneteau (FRA) d R Schuettler (GER) 16 61 62
E Gulbis (LAT) d D Hrbaty (SVK) 63 46 61
S Bolelli (ITA) d [Q] S Giraldo (COL) 63 75
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [Q] Y Lu (TPE) 61 46 64
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d G Simon (FRA) 62 67(2) 63
[Q] B Reynolds (USA) d M Safin (RUS) 76(3) 46 76(5)
[Q] V Troicki (SRB) d V Hanescu (ROU) 64 61
[Q] I Minar (CZE) d O Rochus (BEL) 63 62
R Soderling (SWE) d S Koubek (AUT)60 61
[Q] R Sweeting (USA) d F Volandri (ITA) 63 62
T Johansson (SWE) d [Q] I Kunitsyn (RUS) 46 61 62
G Monfils (FRA) d [WC] J Isner (USA) 67(8) 63 63