Around the ATP

Davydenko Takes Miami and Challenger Roundup

2008-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

The fact that Nikolay Davydenko was even in the final of Miami was surprising in itself. After saving a match point in his first match and getting through some other tough matches, he finally got a win over nemesis Andy Roddick in the semifinals. Later we would find out that he had started using a new Prince racquet in the tournament and only had ONE. Yes, one racquet for the whole tournament. If he broke a string during a match, he was in real trouble.

Anyway, the final on Sunday started out pretty evenly. The players traded early breaks, and Davydenko saved break points serving at 2-3, but then Davydenko started to find his form. Attacking Nadal's short balls with apparent ease and barely missing, Davydenko raised his level notches above even that he showed against Roddick. Davydenko steadied his nerves to serve out the first set.

In the second set, Davydenko didn't let up and got out to an early lead and didn't let up. Although Davydenko has been plagued by nerves in the past, he closed out the match confidently for his first win over Nadal, his second Masters Series title, and 12th singles title overall. After the match, Nadal explained how he and Roger Federer and Roddick might get all the attention but that in the locker room, everyone knows how good Davydenko can be.

Challenger Circuit Roundup

In Naples, Italy, local favorite and #1 seed Potito Starace claimed the title over Marcos Daniel, and Tomas Cibulec and Jaroslav Levinsky took the doubles title. In St. Brieuc, France, Christophe Rochus found a little career resuscitation by taking the title over #1 seed Marcel Granollers-Pujol and Adrian Cruciat and Daniel Munoz-de La Nava took the doubles.

Tournament Update: Semifinal Play in Miami and Bryans Take the Doybles Title

2008-04-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the first semifinal pitted Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) against Tomas Berdych, who came into the match with a 3-0 record on hardcourts against Nadal. Nadal broke at 4-3 in the first set, served for it at 5-3 but couldn't close out the set. He had a set point at 5-4* but didn't convert it. Berdych lost the first set in a tie break with a double fault. What more is there to say about the second set except that it was really easy, and it seemed as if Berdych just gave up.

In the second semifinal, Nikolay Davydenko didn't look like he had a 0-5 record against Andy Roddick (both players pictured left, click for larger). Looking like a different player than 24 hours before when he upset Roger Federer, Roddick was back to the passive meters-behind-the-baseline play that has lost him so many matches over the past few years. Untroubled by nerves, Davydenko took full advantage of Roddick's paceless short balls and served exceptionally well. Roddick was up 3-1 in the tiebreak but Davydenko won it in the end. At 1all in the second, Roddick played the only exceptional game of the match, pulling off an excellent backhand pass and return to break for 2-1. Just when it looked like he was getting some energy and getting the crowd to work for him, he went on to lose five games in a row and the match.

In the doubles final, Bob and Mike Bryan (pictured right, click for larger) played, according to them, one of their best matches in some time with a 6-2 6-2 win over Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi. It is the Bryans' 11th Masters title and good news that they finally won a final after four losses already this year.

Tournament Update: Quarterfinal Action in Miami

2008-04-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

The quarterfinals have been completed in Miami.

On Wednesday, James Blake looked to re-establish his hardcourt dominance over Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) in Miami after losing to him in three sets in Indian Wells. He got off to a great start with his attacking play, he was able to pressure Nadal and get a late break to take the first set 6-3. Then Nadal was able to raise his level and turn the tables and take the second set before really deflating Blake's hopes to take the third set 6-1. After two consecutive wins over Blake, who'd had a 3-0 head-to-head record, Nadal has to be encouraged that he is figuring the American's difficult power game out.

Nadal's semifinal opponent will be another player who has a 3-0 head to head on hardcourts against him: Tomas Berdych (pictured left, click for larger). Berdych beat Igor Andreev in straight sets. Berdych saved all three of the break points he faced and was able to convert on the only two he had - once in each set - to seal the victory. Amazingly, Berdych is the only semifinalist who has not lost a set in the event yet.

On Thursday, the top half played its quarterfinal matches. Although Janko Tipsarevic came into his quarterfinal match against Nikolay Davydenko (pictured right, click for larger) playing top tennis, Davydenko would have none of it. He got off to a good start and took the first set behind two breaks. He got off to a 2-0 start in the second set, but Tipsarevic broke right back. That would end up to be Tipsarevic's only game that set, as he was unable to hold at all. Davydenko surprisingly served nine aces in the encounter and has an uphill battle to climb to win this tournament, considering he has never beaten Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, or Rafael Nadal.

And to the last, and most anticipated, quarterfinal, between Roddick (pictured left, click for larger) and Federer. Both players started well, especially on the serve. Neither player had much of a look on the other's serve, and the set fittingly went to a tiebreak, which was nothing like the set. Roddick got out to a double minibreak 4-1 lead with a smashing return winner, then promptly lost the next two points on his serve. Roddick got the minibreak advantage back and made no mistake as he served out the set with an ace. Federer only won one service point in the tiebreak, Roddick only three.

In the second set, Federer started feeling it a little more. He had his first break point on Roddick's serve early in the set, which Roddick saved. Roddick saved another at 3all after having 40-0. Finally at 4all, Roddick started missing first serves more, Federer strung together some passing shots off ill-advised Roddick approaches and broke. He served the set out and the match went to a decider. Roddick got off to a solid start in the third and held easily for the most part. Same for Federer, who had not faced a break point all night. At 3all, Roddick was down 0-30 and pulled out of the game with four straight points. A passing shot winner and three Federer unforced errors later and somehow Roddick was serving for the match. He stretched his consecutive points won streak to 11 by going up 40-0 before Federer saved two match points with forehand winners. With his box almost unable to watch, Roddick finally slammed down his last 140mph service winner of the night to beat Federer for the first time in almost five years. Unfortunately for Roddick, he can't celebrate this victory long as he has to play Davydenko tonight in the semifinals; at least he can take heart in the fact that he has a 5-0 record against Davydenko and has only ever lost one set.

In the doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan coasted into the final easily while Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi won the last five points of the match tiebreak to save three match points and win. The Bryans will look to win their first title of the year after a run of disappointing losses in finals

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

Singles - Quarterfinals

[6] A Roddick (USA) d [1] R Federer (SUI) 76(4) 46 63
[4] N Davydenko (RUS) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 62 61

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d J Coetzee (RSA) / W Moodie (RSA) 61 64
[4] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d [6] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) 76(5) 46 11-9 - Saved 3 M.P.

Tournament Update: Third and Fourth Round Play in Miami

2008-04-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

The third round finished up on Monday and it took no time for the drama to begin. Simone Bolelli saved all six break points in the first set against Nikolay Davydenko (pictured right, click for larger) and took it in a tiebreaker. In the second set, it was Bolelli's turn to have lots of chances - he had six break points, all of which Davydenko was able to save. Davydenko then got the break at the end of the set and coasted to an easy victory in the third set.

Julien Benneteau (pictured left, click for larger) scored an upset over countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. While the scoreline looked convincing, the result was more due to Tsonga's poor play than Benneteau's strong play. Benneteau saved all of the break points he faced in the contest. Janko Tipsarevic ended Thomas Johansson's run with a straight-set victory.

Roger Federer got an easy passage into the fourth round when his opponent Robin Soderling (both pictured right, click for larger) retired with a problem with his legs. He told the umpire and Federer that he could not move them. Mario Ancic got off to a good start against Juan Monaco; the two exchanged breaks and Ancic took the set in a tiebreaker. Monaco squeaked out the second set, and in the third, Ancic really found his form and took the third set easily.

Without a doubt the craziest match of the day was that between Mikhail Youzhny and Nicolas Almagro. Youzhny got off to a very quick start and built a 4-0 lead before Almagro clawed back and forced a tiebreaker, which Youzhny took. Almagro rebounded nicely and took the second. The drama really heated up in the third set. Almagro was serving for the match at 5-4 facing break point, which he saved. Youzhny pretty much freaked out on himself, smacked himself on the head three times with his racquet, which caused a cut that needed medical attention. Needless to say, Youzhny broke back and won the match in a tiebreak.

In the night match, Andy Roddick (pictured left, click for larger) had a tight first set against Ivo Minar and got out to a good start in the second set before playing a lazy serve game to draw level at 4all. He broke immediately again and made no mistake serving out the fairly routine straight-set victory; however, Roddick still has not shown the form that won him the Dubai title so he will want to raise his level.

Click here for all of Monday's singles results and here for all of the doubles results from Miami.

On Tuesday, the full fourth round was played.

James Blake (pictured right, click for larger) played solid attacking tennis in a straight-set victory over Radek Stepanek. He did have some trouble with his serve in the second set and was broken twice, but he still managed to end the match in fairly routine fashion.

Igor Andreev (pictured left, click for larger) outlasted last year's finalist Guillermo Canas in a greuling straight-set match that lasted over two hours. Andreev was up a break in the second but could not maintain the advantage; he also let slip a match point on Canas's serve before finally closing it out in the tiebreak. Because Canas had made the final last year, he will drop out of the top 20. Tomas Berdych (pictured right, click for larger) handled Dmitry Tursunov with no problem in just over an hour. Always capable of playing top-quality tennis, Berdych has quietly moved through the draw and has won his matches with relative ease. Berdych saved the only break point he faced and broke Tursunov all four of the times he had a chance to.

Roger Federer (pictured left, click for larger) had a difficult time with Jose Acasuso in the first set. Acasuso saved all four of the break points he faced and was able to force a tiebreaker, but Federer won that and then coasted in the second set. Federer did not face a single break point in the match and only lost three points on his first serve.

In a see-saw match, Janko Tipsarevic (pictured right, click for larger) scored the only real upset of the fourth round with a three-set win over Mikhail Youzhny. Tipsarevic got off to a quick start in the first set and built a 2-0 lead but Youzhny came back to win five games in a row and take the set 6-3. The rest of the match, however, was all Tipsarevic, including a bagel in the second set.

The most dramatic match came from Nikolay Davydenko (pictured left, click for larger) and Mario Ancic. Ancic got off to a good start and took the first set 6-4. Davydenko rebounded well and took the second set. The drama mostly came in the third set when there were five breaks in a row. Davydenko served for the match at 5-4 in the third before doublefaulting on the break point to bring Ancic back even. Davydenko was able to break back straight away and finally managed to hold serve to take it 7-5 in the third.

In the late match, Andy Roddick (pictured right, click for larger) fought off an inspired charge from Julien Benneteau, who had beaten Roddick the last time they met. Serving better than he had in the first sets of his two previous matches, Roddick held easily until he was suddenly broken at 4all. Playing defensive, passive, and listless tennis from the baseline, Benneteau was controlling almost all of the baseline rallies and was getting the majority of Roddick's serves in play. After just four games in the second set, Roddick had already amassed ten more unforced errors and for a stretch could barely keep the ball in play. Then, at 3all in the second, Benneteau suddenly became unable to serve. Roddick started going for his shots more and a couple of double faults later and Roddick went on a streak where he won six games in a row. Suddenly the rains came with Roddick up a double break in the third and after a 45 minute or so delay, the players came back out around 11:30pm and finished the last few games of the match in routine fashion. Luckily for Roddick he ended better than he started, but he will have to raise his play several levels if he wants to have a shot at ending his 11-match losing streak against Roger Federer in tomorrow's quarterfinal match.

Click here for all the singles and here for all the doubles results from Tuesday's play in Miami.

Daily Roundup: Sunday, March 30

2008-03-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

Following Saturday's near-insanity, Sunday's play in Miami was relatively calm, though not without some drama of its own. Dmitry Tursunov (pictured right, click for larger) lost his calm over a time violation warning and got booed when he refusd to shake the umpire's hand after the match, but he managed to keep his cool long enough to put away the three-set win over Feliciano Lopez.

Paul-Henri Mathieu (pictured left, click for larger) beat Carlos Moya in straight, but not routine, sets. Mathieu was broken serving for the match in the second set but rebounded nicely to break again and take the match.

Juan Carlos Ferrero got off to a good start against Tomas Berdych (pictured right, click for larger) by breaking in the opening game; unfortunately, though, he was unable to hold in the set and could not recover in the second. Berdych took the match in straights.

The day's biggest drama came thanks to James Blake (pictured left, click for larger) and Fabrice Santoro. Santoro went up an early break but got broken right back and Blake went on to take the first set relatively routinely. As the match wore on, the physical effects of the hot and humid weather started becoming apparent for both players. Blake seemed to be dealing with an upset stomach and though he had the break in the second, he could not hold on and the set went to a tiebreaker, which somehow Santoro found the energy to win. The third set really came down to which man could last longer. The two traded several breaks but finally, Blake broke to win the match 6-4 in the third set.

Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) survived some rain interruptions - one brief, one more lengthy - to get past Nicolas Kiefer in straight sets. In the day's later matches, Igor Andreev ended the run of Kevin Anderson in three tight sets.

In the night match on the stadium, two fiery players - Fernando Gonzalez and Guillermo Canas (pictured left below, click for larger) - played a fiery match, which Canas won in two tight sets that took over two hours. It was a high-quality encounter, in which both men played some fantastic points and hit some spectacular winners, including a between the legs winner from Gonzalez early in the second set. Gonzalez was the player with more chances in the first set, but Canas saved all four break points he faced. The set went to a tiebreak where Gonzalez had a set point on his serve and could not convert. In the second set, Gonzalez managed to get the first break of the match but was broken when he served for the set and Canas won the battle in the end.

In doubles, Marcelo Melo and Andre Sá (pictured right, click for larger) pulled off a nice upset over Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, who had won both the Australian Open and Indian Wells. Also in doubles, Gustavo Kuerten finally got a win of some kind, with his partner Nicolas Lapentti. They beat Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez in straight sets.

Click here for all of Sunday's singles results and here for all of Sunday's doubles results.

Daily Roundup: Saturday, March 29

2008-03-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

What can we say about Saturday's play in Miami except that it was a little bit bizarre; and it didn't take too long for the drama to begin.

First up on the Stadium, Jurgen Melzer got out to a good start against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (pictured left, click for larger) and looked like he was going to spring the upset. The two exchanged breaks but Melzer took the set in a tiebreaker, after which he was treated for his back. Somehow, though, he managed to hold on until late in the second set when he dropped serve. Tsonga finally loosened up and raised his level and Melzer's dropped, and Tsonga took the third set easily to advance to the third round. Meanwhile, on the Grandstand, Janko Tipsarevic (pictured right, click for larger) scored a mild upset over #29 seed Fernando Verdasco in straight sets.

Out on Court 2, Dudi Sela (pictured left, click for larger) scored another fine upset with a surprising straight set win over Tommy Robredo, whose horrible 2008 continues. With the loss, he'll likely drop a few spots in the rankings and be on the edge of dropping out of the top 20. As if all of this going on at the same time wasn't enough, Julien Benneteau (pictured right, click for larger) was out forming his own upset with a win over Ivo Karlovic in a third set tiebreak. And no, that's not all! Simone Bolelli upset #26 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.

We're tired and these were only the first matches of the day!

Mikhail Youzhny (pictured left, click for larger) restored order a little as he stopped Bobby Reynolds's run in straight sets and Nicolas Almagro beat Arnaud Clement just as easily. But it didn't last for long. Juan Ignacio Chela's terrible season continued, this time at the hands of qualifier Ivo Minar in three sets. Jose Acasuso, always capable of posting big results but rarely does he actually do so, saved all three of the break points he faced to beat Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets.

It looked for a while like 2004 Miami champion Andy Roddick (pictured right, click for larger) was also going to succumb to this bizarre day against qualifier Viktor Troicki. Serving under 50% and playing generally passively and ineffectively, he blew an early break lead and dropped serve again at 5all in the first set to lose it. Better serving an excellent forehand passing shot in the second to break turned the tides and Roddick broke again to take the second set convincingly. After saving five break points early in the third set, Roddick wasted chances of his own until Troicki was serving at 4-5 to stay in the match. The first point was one for the highlight reel and that set the tone to let Roddick break to take the match.

But no! The drama did not end there. The Mario Ancic-Andy Murray match was a true two-and-a-half hour epic. Ancic (pictured left, click for larger) got out to a solid start to take the first set 6-2. Murray rebounded nicely to take the second set by the same score. The third set is where the real drama began. Murray got out to an early lead and served at 4-2, only to lose it. The set fittingly went to a tiebreak. Ancic won four points in a row to take a 4-1 lead, only to lose the next five points. Murray doublefaulted at 6-5, the only match point he had on serve. Ancic had a match point on his own serve at 7-6 and finally took it 9-7 on Murray's serve. For Murray, the defeat is even more bitter. It marks the first time in his young career that he has lost a match after holding match point and it is also the first time he lost a third set tiebreak.

And the drama still continued. #4 seed Nikolay Davydenko eked out a third set tiebreak against rising star Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis got off to a perfect start; he saved all four of the break points he faced and broke Davydenko once. After that is where the match became more complicated. The two exchanged breaks in the second set and it went all the way to a tiebreak, which Davydenko took 8-6 to stay alive. In the third, Gulbis served for the match at 5-3 but doublefaulted on break point to pretty much choke away the lead. In the next game, he had a match point on Davydenko's serve that he could not convert and Davydenko went on to hold and take the third set tiebreak.

While Federer (pictured right, click for larger) saved all seven break points he faced in a straight set win over Gael Monfils, the last men's match of the day was yet another surprising upset. Thomas Johansson beat #5 seed David Ferrer in straight sets. Johansson lost serve once in each set but was able to break twice in each set to seal the upset win.

What a day from start to finish. Here are the full results from the day's play:

Singles - Second Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d G Monfils (FRA) 63 64
[4] N Davydenko (RUS) d E Gulbis (LAT) 36 76(6) 76(3) - saved 1 Match point
T Johansson (SWE) d [5] D Ferrer (ESP) 64 75
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [Q] V Troicki (SRB) 57 62 64
[11] M Youzhny (RUS) d [Q] B Reynolds (USA) 62 62
[12] J Tsonga (FRA) d J Melzer (AUT) 67(4) 75 61
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d [13] A Murray (GBR) 62 26 76(7) - saved 2 Match points
D Sela (ISR) d [14] T Robredo (ESP) 76(5) 61
[18] J Monaco (ARG) d [Q] R Sweeting (USA) 63 75
J Benneteau (FRA) d [19] I Karlovic (CRO) 36 64 76(2)
J Acasuso (ARG) d [21] L Hewitt (AUS) 63 76(4)
[24] N Almagro (ESP) d A Clement (FRA) 62 62
S Bolelli (ITA) d [26] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 64 63
R Soderling (SWE) d [28] S Wawrinka (SUI) 36 64 63
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [29] F Verdasco (ESP) 64 76(4)
[Q] I Minar (CZE) d [30] J Chela (ARG) 63 57 63

Doubles - First Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d R Nadal (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) 76(5) 36 10-5
A Calleri (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI) d [2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) 76(6) 76(3)
[4] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d T Berdych (CZE) / L Dlouhy (CZE) 36 63 10-5
M Gicquel (FRA) / F Santoro (FRA) d M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) 64 64
J Coetzee (RSA) / W Moodie (RSA) d G Canas (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) 63 63
I Andreev (RUS) / X Malisse (BEL) d R Lindstedt (SWE) / J Nieminen (FIN) 60 63

Daily Roundup: Friday, March 28

2008-03-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

We'll start today's recap with the match that shocked Miami. Qualifier Kevin Anderson (pictured right, click for larger), who had a great run to the Las Vegas final a few weeks ago, shocked defending champion Novak Djokovic in three sets. The first set was as tight as could be; there were no breaks of serve and Anderson saved the only break point he faced. To a tiebreak the set went and Anderson took it surprisingly easy, 7-1. Djokovic got off to a quick start in the second set and broke again to take the set 6-3.

It looked for all in the world like Djokovic would complete the comeback in fairly routine fashion, when he broke to go up 2*-0 in the third set. But the umpire gave Djokovic a time violation warning, the crowd started turning against him, and Djokovic lost his cool, the next four games, and 13 points in a row. Despite doublefaulting on his first match point, Anderson kept his nerves at bay and served out the biggest win of his young pro career and the biggest upset of the tournament so far. After the match, Djokovic gave his opponent credit and said he hadn't seen him before and didn't expect him to come out and play so well. Anderson credit his resolve to keep playing as well as possible for his victory.

James Blake (pictured left, click for larger) got his tournament off to a good start after coming back from a break down in the first set against Andreas Seppi. He got the victory in straight sets. Radek Stepanek got his first win over Sebastien Grosjean in straight sets; Stepanek came into the match with a 0-3 head-to-head against the wily Frenchman but had no trouble today. Nicolas Kiefer (pictured right, click for larger) continued his solid run so far in Miami with a surprisingly easy straight set victory over Jarkko Nieminen. Kiefer saved all five of the break points he faced throughout the match. In a couple of quick matches on Court 3, Feliciano Lopez beat Juan Martin del Potro and Juan Carlos Ferrero (pictured left, click for larger) had a solid win over countryman Albert Montanes. Tomas Berdych handed Sam Querrey a disappointing straight-set loss; the big-serving American only managed to hold serve three times.

Now to some of today's more dramatic matches. Paul-Henri Mathieu (pictured right, click for larger) lost the first set against Marin Cilic and was doublefaulted to go a break down early in the third before coming back; he broke at 4all in the third set to win the close match. Since closing out close matches is often difficult for Mathieu, we'll say this victory is a good one, despite the fact that he was the much higher-ranked player and the clear favorite before the match.

For the third time this year, Dmitry Tursunov (pictured right, click for larger) took on Richard Gasquet. Tursunov got off to a solid start by breaking Gasquet early and taking the first set 6-3. Down a break and looking down and out, it looked like Gasquet would soon be making an early exit. The players exchanged three breaks each in the second set and it went to a tiebreak, which somehow Gasquet won. The drama did not cease in the third set, but in stark contrast to the second, neither man even faced a break point. Tursunov eked out the tiebreak and the upset win.

At the beginning of his match against Benjamin Becker, Rafael Nadal (pictured left, click for larger) almost looked like he may have been going the same way as Djokovic after Becker broke to take a 2-0 lead. However, Becker could not keep it up and after a tough first set, Nadal took the second more routinely. American qualifier Sam Warburg almost pulled off an impressive upset over last year's finalist Guillermo Canas (pictured right, click for larger). Canas got off to a routine start in the first set, but Warburg sneaked out the second set and had several break points at 5all in the third before losing his final service game of the match.

In the day's later matches, Carlos Moya (pictured left, click for larger) won a very tight first set 12-10 in the tiebreak against Nicolas Mahut. The two had both converted the only break point they had in the set before the tiebreak. In the second, Moya got the one break he needed to seal the straight-set victory.

The day's other top ten upset came from Xavier Malisse, who crushed David Nalbandian in straight sets. Malisse had never beaten Nalbandian in their four previous meetings, and considering Nalbandian is currently inside the top ten and Malisse - due to injuries - is outside the top 300, it's a fairly big upset. After a convincing 6-1 first set in which Malisse did not lose serve, the second set became more complicated. Twice, Malisse was down a break and twice he broke back. Ultimately, Nalbandian was broken six of the nine times he stepped up to the service line and while Malisse is certainly capable of playing top tennis when he shows up, we can only guess Nalbandian contributed heavily to his own demise in this match. In the night match on the stadium, Fernando Gonzalez beat Pablo Cuevas easily to ensure there would be no repeat of their fiery encounter earlier this season.

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

Singles - Second Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] B Becker (GER) 75 62
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d [3] N Djokovic (SRB) 76(1) 36 64
X Malisse (BEL) d [7] D Nalbandian (ARG) 61 64
D Tursunov (RUS) d [8] R Gasquet (FRA) 63 67(2) 76(5)
[9] J Blake (USA) d A Seppi (ITA) 75 63
[10] T Berdych (CZE) d S Querrey (USA) 61 62
[15] G Canas (ARG) d [Q] S Warburg (USA) 63 46 75
[16] P Mathieu (FRA) d M Cilic (CRO) 46 61 64
[17] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [Q] P Cuevas (URU) 63 63
[20] C Moya (ESP)d N Mahut (FRA) 76(10) 64
[22] J Ferrero (ESP) d A Montanes (ESP) 63 62
F Santoro (FRA) d [23] I Ljubicic (CRO) 76(4) 26 63
N Kiefer (GER) d [25] J Nieminen (FIN) 63 62
[27] R Stepanek (CZE) d S Grosjean (FRA) 63 63
[31] I Andreev (RUS) d M Berrer (GER) 62 61
[32] F Lopez (ESP) d J del Potro (ARG) 64 62

Doubles - First Round
M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d J Acasuso (ARG) / J Monaco (ARG) 63 76(2)
C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) d L Friedl (CZE) / D Skoch (CZE) 26 64 10-4
[6] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) d E Butorac (USA) / J Kerr (AUS) 62 64
[8] P Hanley (AUS) / L Paes (IND) d Y Allegro (SUI) / P Mathieu (FRA) 26 60 10-3

Daily Roundup: Thursday, March 27

2008-03-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

Daily Roundup: Wednesday, March 26

2008-03-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami got underway today with the bottom half playing its first round matches. Xavier Malisse and Marin Cilic got the event off to a quick start with easy wins over Oscar Hernandez and Kristof Vliegen, respectively. Playing his first match since the Australian Open due to a severe back injury, Juan Martin del Potro came back from a break down against local player and wild card Jesse Levine. Dmitry Tursunov (pictured right, click for larger) came back from a set down to defeat countryman Evgeny Korolev for the first time.

American Sam Querrey (pictured left, click for larger), trying to keep up his good start to the season, overcame a close first set against claycourt specialist Carlos Berlocq, where both players exchanged breaks twice, but managed to get the straight-sets win nonetheless. Querrey admitted after the match that he could have played better, but that he was pleased with the win and hopes to play better in his next match.

One of the mild surprises of the day was Albert Montanes's (pictured right, click for larger) straight set win over Kei Nishikori. Nishikori had a 3-0 lead in the first set before apparently falling apart. This is a disappointing result for Nishikori, considering Montanes's poor record on hardcourts. Kevin Anderson, perhaps still riding high off his final appearance in Las Vegas, won an epic match against Agustin Calleri, who had been injured. Anderson had claimed a break of serve to open the third set but was broken back immediately before both players held serve until the tiebreak. Perhaps all the tennis of the past week finally caught up to Robin Haase; he lost to Michael Berrer in straight sets.

In perhaps the match with the most surprising stat of the day, Andreas Seppi (pictured left in one of the ugliest shirts we've ever seen, click for larger) squeaked by Marc Gicquel. In a match that laughably featured 15, yes 15 breaks of serve, Seppi came back from both a set down, and an early break down in the third set, to claim the victory. In perhaps the most surprising scoreline of the day, Fabrice Santoro bludgeoned fellow over-30 Jonas Bjorkman. Bjorkman served at 80% and still only held serve once; he only won 18 points throughout the whole match in a shocking encounter.

In the most sentimental match of the day, Gustavo Kuerten fought as well as he could in a straight set loss to Sebastien Grosjean (both players pictured right, click for larger). Playing what is likely his last professional match in North America, Kuerten hand-picked Miami as it is one of his favorites. He had his chances in the second set, including three break points at 4-3, but was unable to convert and Grosjean took the victory in straight sets. But in this match, the result is not as important; what is important is that the crowd and Kuerten got a chance to properly say goodbye to each other.

The anticipated all-German night match turned out to be a bust as Tommy Haas withdrew from the match against Nicolas Kiefer early on Monday because of his lingering sinus infection. He was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez served for the match at 5-4 in the second but was broken. An epic tiebreak ensued, and Kiefer saved two match points to take it 11-9. A late break in the third set was all Kiefer needed to seal the hard-fought victory.

The doubles draw has been released. Check it out here. Some interesting players in the draw - it's rare to see Andy Roddick playing doubles, and the #1 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan will have a chance to open up against the world's best in singles in their match against Rafel Nadal and Tommy Robredo.

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

Singles - First Round
J del Potro (ARG) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 75 61
N Mahut (FRA) d F Mayer (GER) 76(6) 63
M Cilic (CRO) d K Vliegen (BEL) 63 62
D Tursunov (RUS) d E Korolev (RUS) 46 63 62
X Malisse (BEL) d O Hernandez (ESP) 61 61
A Seppi (ITA) d M Gicquel (FRA) 26 64 62
S Querrey (USA) d C Berlocq (ARG) 76(4) 63
M Berrer (GER) d [Q] R Haase (NED) 64 64
A Montanes (ESP) d [WC] K Nishikori (JPN) 75 62
S Grosjean (FRA) d [WC] G Kuerten (BRA) 61 75
[Q] S Warburg (USA) d P Starace (ITA) 76(2) 62
[Q] B Becker (GER) d S Roitman (ARG) 63 64
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d A Calleri (ARG) 76(5) 36 76(4)
[Q] P Cuevas (URU) d V Spadea (USA) 64 62
F Santoro (FRA) d J Bjorkman (SWE) 61 60
N Kiefer (GER) d (LL) G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 46 76(9) 64 - Saved 2 match points

Weeks 13-14 Preview: Sony Ericsson Open in Miami

2008-03-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Singles Draw
Doubles Draw (Coming Wednesday)

The second of the two Spring US Masters Series events gets underway tomorrow with the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. One of the most exciting events on the tour, Miami always has a fun Latin flair. Let's hope the tennis is as exciting as the tournament.

So we start with the top quarter of the draw, which looks similar to the Indian Wells top quarter in some ways. Headed up again by Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, who must be disappointed to have landed in Federer's quarter two major events in a row, the two seem headed for a quarterfinal clash. Though they've played pretty much everywhere else on hardcourt, they've never played at Miami. Before they reach that match though, both must navigate through some potentially difficult matches. Federer's path to the quarterfinals looks a bit easier, with few potential roadblocks. He could have a tough match against Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round, but it's nearly impossible to see him losing before the quarterfinals. Roddick's path is a bit tougher. He should advance pretty easily to the fourth round, where Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Ivo Karlovic should be waiting. Either player would pose a difficult match for Roddick.

The second quarter is headed by #4 Nikolay Davydenko and #5 David Ferrer and appears more wide-open than the first. Murray could have an interesting opening match against Mario Ancic, and Mikhail Youzhny can be dangerous if he finds form. Also in this quarter is last week's Pacific Life Open finalist, Mardy Fish, who looks to have a manageable draw until the fourth round where he would likely meet Youzhny. Look for Ferrer to come through this section if he finds good form - he has done well in Miami in the past (semifinalist in both 2005 and 2006).

Leading the way in the third quarter is #3 and defending champion Novak Djokovic, fresh off his run in Indian Wells. While his draw to the semifinals appears fairly manageable, an interesting potential third round match looms between Fernando Gonzalez and Guillermo Canas, who upset Federer at this event. The winner would play Djokovic in the fourth round. The other top seed in this quarter, #8 Richard Gasquet, also has a reasonable draw to the quarterfinals. He might face a tough opponent in the third round in Feliciano Lopez, if Lopez can rediscover his excellent form from Dubai. However, a Djokovic-Gasquet quarterfinal would be a potentially exciting one.

The fourth quarter of the draw is full of interesting matchups. Headed by #2 Rafael Nadal and #7 David Nalbandian, both players will have to navigate fairly difficult draws if they want to meet in the quarterfinals. Nadal could have a very tough third round opponent in Jarkko Nieminen or Tommy Haas. In the fourth round, he might face Paul-Henri Mathieu or close friend Carlos Moya; the two have had many close matches in the past including an epic earlier this year. Nalbandian's draw is not much easier. He should face in-form Radek Stepanek in the third round and either James Blake or Ivan Ljubicic in the fourth round. A Blake-Nalbandian match has the potential to be very exciting.

By the way, Robin Haase ended up taking the Sunrise Challenger title on Monday; he then rushed down to Miami to play a late qualifying match Monday evening, which he also won. Nice effort. Serbs Janko Tipsarevic and Dusan Vemic took the doubles title

Daily Roundup, Sunday, March 23: Djokovic takes Pacific Life Open & Challenger Roundup

2008-03-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

In today's Pacific Life Open final, #3 Novak Djokovic took on unseeded Cindarella story Mardy Fish (both pictured right, click for larger). Fish started out a bit sluggish and perhaps nervous. Djokovic won the first six points of the game and got out to a 3-0 start before Fish started finding his range. He drew it back on serve to 3-2, but then lost the next three games to drop the set 6-2. Djokovic went up 4-2 in the second set and looked like he would be well on his way to easy victory but Fish was able to break back to level the set at 4all. They continued on serve, until seemingly out of nowhere, Fish managed to sneak out a break at 5all before serving out the set 7-5 to take it to a decider.

At the start of the third set it looked like Fish was going to keep it up as he quickly got a 0-40 lead on Djokovic's service game. But Djokovic saved the three break points with three aces and squashed Fish's early hopes. Djokovic would break in the next game and take a 3-0 lead. Fish would have no more real chances to get the break back and the two men held until Djokovic served out the set and the match 6-3. For Fish, his sluggish movement and untimely unforced errors (44 to only 29 winners), in addition to his low first serve percentage (40% for the match but only 33% in the third set), proved to be fatal. For Djokovic, he was steadier with the same 29 winners, but only 33 unforced errors.

And so, Djokovic's fairytale and nearly perfect start to the 2008 season continues with his second title and third ATP Masters Series title overall. He puts a further dent into the points difference between he and Nadal, and, like Erlich and Ram in the doubles, has taken both of the required events that have been played this season thus far. For Fish, he will rise from the brink of falling out of the top 100 to #40 and will be the #3 ranked American once again. Hopefully he will be able to stay healthy - something he has had trouble doing - and keep this form up as he has very few points to defend until the summer.

In their speeches on court after the match, Fish thanked the crowd for getting him through several of his matches this week and proclaimed it is one of his favorite tournaments on the tour. Djokovic gave credit to Fish for his outstanding run and said he should be ranked higher than his current ranking.

Challenger Circuit

To the Challenger Circuit, where there were four events this week. In Sarajevo, Bosnia, Andreas Beck beat Alexander Peya in straight sets, while Scandinavians Johan Brunstrom and Frederik Nielsen took the doubles over #1 seeds Lovro Zovko and Peya. In Meknes, Morocco, it was a good day for Spain as Ivan Navarro beat Jiri Vanek in straight sets and Alberto Martin and Daniel Munoz-de La Nava took the doubles. In San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Brian Dabul beat Mairano Puerta by walkover, and Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek took the doubles.

The highlight of the Challenger Circuit this week was in Sunrise Florida. Because it is during the second week of Indian Wells and in close proximity to the upcoming event in Miami, many high-ranked players who lost early in Indian Wells head over to Sunrise to play some matches. In light of this, some of the normal Challenger rules are stretched and higher ranked players are allowed to enter. As such, the top seed in this event was 12th-ranked Fernando Gonzalez and the original cutoff for the event was inside the top 100, which is comparable with ATP tour level events. Unfortunately for one of the finalists, Robin Haase, the final's completion has been delayed until Monday, so he will have to finish the Sunrise final and then go south to Miami for his first round Qualifying match in the same day. We'll let you know tomorrow how this one turns out.

Tournament Updates: Semifinals and Erlich & Ram Take the Doubles Title

2008-03-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Today's first semifinal between #2 Rafael Nadal and #3 Novak Djokovic (both pictured right, click for larger), last year's Pacific Life Open finalists, was a highly-anticipated encounter. Nadal struck first and got the early break at 1all, but was broken right back. The two continued on serve until Djokovic led 4-3 when attacking Nadal's forehand finally paid off and Djokovic broke for 5-3 and served out the first set. In the second, Nadal had the first chances to break at 2-1 but was unable to convert. That proved to be the final blow for Nadal as he lost the final five games of the match and Djokovic advanced to his second consecutive Indian Wells final and his second final after the year.

Unfortunately, the match proved to be disappointing and the trend for none of their matches to reach a deciding set continued. The statics proved to be telling in this match: Djokovic's winners to unforced errors were even at 21 each, but Nadal only had 9 winners to an uncharacteristically high 23 errors.

Before the second semifinal between #1 Roger Federer and unseeded Mardy Fish (pictured left, click for larger), it would have been reasonable to think it was going to be an ugly one. But I think very few of us thought that Federer was the one it was going to be ugly for. Taking advantage of a sluggish and error-prone Federer, Fish found his aggressive best and smacked winners from both wings and all parts of the court to take an early 3-0 lead to begin the match. Despite Federer finding his range on his own serve, he was unable to capitalize on the fact that Fish served only 33% of his first serves in throughout the first set. Fish saved the only break point he faced and went on to hold for a routine 6-3 first set.

Federer could not start out the second set any better and Fish was somehow able to keep up his shockingly good level by breaking Federer immediately to open the second set, and he never looked back. Continuing to attack from every corner of the court, Fish broke again at 3-1 to take a stranglehold on the match. Federer looked like he might have been able to find one last gasp after saving two match points serving at 1-5, but Fish steadied his nerves and served out the match in the next game. After the match, Fish and his support staff could hardly hide their disbelief. Fish fully admitted in his interview with FSN that he knew Roger was far from his best but that he was thrilled with his own win and that this would be one of the ones he'd remember forever. To his credit, Federer gave all the credit to Fish after the match saying that in their past meetings (Federer came into the match with a 5-0 head to head against Fish) he had been the one able to take control but not today.

For Federer, the shockingly disappointing year continues, as he is yet to even reach his first final. He had not lost to an American since before he even reached #1 in the world - when he lost to Andy Roddick in August of 2003. For Fish, he has one more tough task ahead of him in Djokovic, but considering he needed a wild card to get into this tournament at all (until he got in directly off the Alternate list when a few players above him withdrew), this week is already an almost indescribable success for Fish. On the brink of falling outside the top 100 at the start of the week, Fish will rise to around 40 in the world on Monday, even if he loses the final.

In Friday night's doubles final, Jonathan and Erlich (pictured right, click for larger) kept up their amazing start to the year with a 6-4 6-4 win over Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic. Adding this to their historic Australian Open win and Erlich and Ram have gotten out to a huge lead on the rest of the pack and have taken both of the Required events that have been played in 2008 thus far.

Tournament Updates: Indian Wells Quarterfinals

2008-03-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Indian Wells quarterfinals started on Thursday, with the two bottom half matches. Novak Djokovic played against Stanislas Wawrinka (both pictured left, click for larger, and it wasn't a good one to watch, that's for sure. Both players made a lot of mistakes throughout the whole match. Djokovic served for the first set at 5-3, but was unable to close it out. At 6-5 it was Wawrinka's chance to do so, but he didn't do it either. The set went to the tiebreak and the Serbian finally closed it out. The set's stats were awful, with 32 unforced errors for Djokovic and 20 for Wawrinka and very few winners (13 for Djokovic and only 6 to Wawrinka). The second set was a bit easier, with Djokovic winning 6 games to 2. Final stats were 29 winners for Djokovic and 14 for Wawrinka and 44 unforced errors for the Serbian and 30 for the Swiss. Djokovic now improves his head-to-head record against Wawrinka to 3-2.

In the second quarterfinal match, Rafael Nadal beat James Blake (both pictured right, click for larger) for the first time in his career after three losses to the American. In the first set, Blake got to a 4-1 lead, but Nadal broke him back. At 5 all, Nadal broke Blake's serve thanks to some mistakes by the American. In that game, when Blake was break point down, he challenged a deep shot Nadal hit. Unfortunately for him, the ball was in and he lost the serve. Nadal managed to close the set after coming back from a 0-40 deficit. In the second set, Blake played really well and he didn't give any break point chances to Nadal and took it 63. In the third set, Nadal saved a break point in the beginning of the set, and at 4-3* he played aggressively again, hitting great second serve returns to break Blake's serve. He closed it out at love with an ace. Once again, Blake tried to play aggressively while Nadal just hang on in there. At the end of the match, Blake hit around 40 winners and had as many unforced errors, while Nadal hit 25 winners and made 28 unforced errors. Nadal plays Djokovic in the semifinals. They faced each other in last year's final, when Nadal won in straight sets to take the title.

Here are Thursday's full results:

ATP Main Draw Singles - Quarterfinals
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [9] J Blake (USA) 75 36 63
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d S Wawrinka (SUI) 76(5) 62

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Semifinals
[3] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d R Gasquet (FRA) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 75 62
[4] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) 63 64

Friday's top half quarterfinal matches started with the unfortunate news that Tommy Haas would withdraw due to a sinus infection, this giving Roger Federer a free pass into the semifinals. Federer's opponent was to be the winner of the final quarterfinal match between last American hope Mardy Fish (pictured right, click for larger) and resurgent David Nalbandian. Fish started out the match well; he won the set 6-3 after coming back from an early break down. The second set was a much tighter affair; the players exchanged breaks and despite ten aces from Fish in the second set alone, he was unable to close out the match and Nalbandian took it to a decider. Things looked good for the American after he had break points at 4-3* and again (also match points) at 5-4* but was unable to convert either time.

The match immediately swung in the next game, when Nalbandian broke to go up 6-5 to serve for the match. This time, on Fish's fifth break point of the set, Nalbandian made it easy by double faulting and so Fish would have to play a third set tiebreak for the second time in a row. Considering Nalbandian went into the third set tiebreak with a 5-1 record on the year and Fish with a 1-6 record, one would've given Nalbandian the edge, but once again Fish dug deep to pull out another impressive win, especially the last few points of the match when he really raised his level, for a final score of 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(4). In a week reminiscent of his 2003 run to the Cincinnati finals, Fish is serving better than normal and is mentally performing better on the big points. Of course, he will face a tough task against a rested Federer tomorrow; Federer has won all five of their previous meetings. Before Nalbandian lost this match, he had won 15 Masters Series matches in a row, which stretched back to his back-to-back wins in Madrid and Paris last fall.

And so, tomorrow's semifinals will be contested by the world's top three players, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic...... and #98 Mardy Fish, whose result this week will propel him up near the top 50.

Indian Wells Pictures

2008-03-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

I went to Indian Wells this past weekend for 4 days and want to share my pictures with you all! Between the four days, there are pictures of almost every ATP player in the draw (and some women's players too, for the fans):

Friday, March 14: http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/CMe983
Saturday, March 15: http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/c63B9w
Sunday, March 16: http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/0f7339
Monday, March 17: http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/0ko100

Enjoy and all I ask is that if you'd like to post them somewhere else, please ask and credit me (Debra).

Daily Roundup: Fourth Round Action at the Pacific Life Open, Wednesday March 18

2008-03-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Wednesday saw the full fourth round played. Top seed Roger Federer (pictured left, click for larger) beat #23 seed Ivan Ljubicic, who turned 29 yesterday, in straight sets 63 64. An interesting stat of the match is that Ljubicic won less than 50% of the points on his first serve in the second set. Federer improved his head-to-head record against Ljubicic to 12-3 (winning the last nine in a row). Federer's next opponent is Tommy Haas (pictured right, click for larger), who upset #11 seed Andy Murray in three sets. Haas served for the second set at 5-3 but couldn't hold. In the third set, before finally being able to break Murray, Haas had to save five break points on his own serve. It's another impressive win for Haas, who lost to Murray last year in Indian Wells quarterfinals in a third set tie break.

Rafael Nadal (pictured left, click for larger), as expected, had lots of trouble against #17 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Both players exchanged breaks in the first two games of the first set, but Tsonga won it in a tiebreak. They also exchanged breaks in the beginning of the second set, but Nadal didn't give up and fought to win the set in a tiebreak. Things started to look good for Tsonga when he got to a 5-2 lead in the third set. He attempted to serve it out at 5-3, lost his serve twice in a row and handed five games in a row and the win to Nadal. Nadal now has a head-to-head lead 2-1 against Tsonga, who beat him in this year's Australian Open semifinal in three easy sets. Nadal's next opponent is James Blake (pictured right, click for larger), who won the Davis Cup preview match against Richard Gasquet in two easy sets 64 62. Blake has a surprising 3-0 head-to-head lead against Nadal going into tonight's quarterfinal match.

Third seed Novak Djokovic (pictured left, click for larger) didn't have much trouble with #16 seed Guillermo Canas and won in straight sets 62 63. In the quarterfinals, Djokovic faces Stanlas Wawrinka (pictured right, click for larger), who beat Hyung-Taik Lee in three sets. Lee fought until the end, but looked tired after his long epic battle against David Ferrer in the previous round.

Seventh seed David Nalbandian beat #22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero easily 62 62, after losing their previous match badly at this year's Australian Open. Nalbandian now evens out their head-to-head at 3-3, after losing three times in a row. In the quarterfinals, Nalbandian faces Mardy Fish (pictured below right, click for larger), who played a great match to beat Lleyton Hewitt in a third set tiebreak in a late match on Court 2. Fish hit lots of winners and was aggressive throughout the whole match. It was only Fish's first tiebreak win this year after having lost the previous five and an impressive mental performance for him, considering this is something he often has trouble with.

In the doubles quarterfinals, top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan were upset yet again by Jamie Murray and Max Mirnyi in a third set super tiebreak. And so, the Bryans' disappointing start to the 2008 season continues with yet another loss in a close match.

Here are the full results from Wednesday's fourth round play in Indian Wells:

ATP Main Draw Singles - Fourth Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d [23] I Ljubicic (CRO) 63 64
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [17] J Tsonga (FRA) 67(4) 76(3) 75
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d [16] G Canas (ARG) 62 63
[7] D Nalbandian (ARG) d [22] J Ferrero (ESP) 62 62
[9] J Blake (USA) d [8] R Gasquet (FRA) 64 62
T Haas (GER) d [11] A Murray (GBR) 26 75 63
M Fish (USA) d [24] L Hewitt (AUS) 75 36 76(4)
S Wawrinka (SUI) d H Lee (KOR) 61 57 64

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Quarterfinals
M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d [1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) 57 64 10-6
[4] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d [6] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) 63 64

Tournament Update: Third Round Action at Indian Wells

2008-03-19T17:00:00.001-07:00

To open third round action on Monday, James Blake (pictured left, click for larger) and Richard Gasquet both won easily. Gasquet played very impressive tennis to dismiss Juan Ignacio Chela with the loss of only three games and Blake got off to a slow start but came back from a break down in the first set to win four games in a row to take the first set and coast to victory from there. This sets up an interesting fourth round match as it will likely be a Davis Cup preview match of the two countries' upcoming quarterfinal tie in April.

Donald Young did the best he could against Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) in his first match against a really top marquee player, but he was really nervous throughout the match and didn't play his best tennis. He found a bit of form and played some good points in the second but still made some unnecessary mistakes especially on the big points. Nadal didn't get broken in the whole match, and faced his only break point when he served for the match. Unfortunately for Young, it was too late, with Nadal winning the next three points to close it out.

In an exciting match between two players who may have been playing for the second Davis Cup singles spot, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (pictured left, click for larger) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu. The first set was really close with an early break for each player Many service games went to deuce, and both men had their chances. The set went to a tiebreak, where Tsonga had a 4-0 lead after some suspect play by Mathieu. Mathieu brought it even to 5-5 but then lost two silly points and the set. The second set was much easier, with Tsonga losing just one point on his serve. He finished the match with 15 aces and an impressive 83% of first serves in.

Novak Djokovic (pictured right, click for larger) beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight easy sets. The German didn't have any break points on Djokovic's serve and the Serbian won 56 points against 39 for Kohlschreiber in the whole match. Djokovic now plays Guillermo Canas in a rematch of last year's Miami final. Canas beat Juan Monaco in three sets. Canas improved his head-to-head record over Monaco to 3-0.

Hyung-Taik Lee (pictured left, click for larger) produced the biggest upset of the day with a win over David Ferrer in a three-set battle that went to three tiebreaks. Stanislas Wawrinka beat Marcos Baghdatis. Baghdatis served for the second set but couldn't hold. They went to a tie break, where Wawrinka (pictured below, click for larger) played badly and Baghdatis finally took the set. In the third, however, Wawrinka started playing well again, Baghdatis's level dropped a lot, and Wawrinka took the match with a bagel in the third set.

Here are Monday's full results from Indian Wells:

ATP Main Draw Singles - Third Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [WC] D Young (USA) 61 63
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d [27] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 63 62
H Lee (KOR) d [5] D Ferrer (ESP) 76(5) 67(5) 76(3)
[8] R Gasquet (FRA) d [28] J Chela (ARG) 62 61
[9] J Blake (USA) d [19] C Moya (ESP) 63 64
[17] J Tsonga (FRA) d [14] P Mathieu (FRA) 76(5) 64
[16] G Canas (ARG) d [21] J Monaco (ARG) 63 67(1) 62
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [18] M Baghdatis (CYP) 63 67(1) 60

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Second Round
[6] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d N Davydenko (RUS) / N Kiefer (GER) 63 64
R Gasquet (FRA) / R Lindstedt (SWE) d E Butorac (USA) / A Murray (GBR) 64 64
J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (ZIM) d F Cermak (CZE) / J Kerr (AUS) 76(2) 36 10-3

The third round was completed on Tuesday. In a match that may have been even easier than we might have expected, Roger Federer (pictured right, click for larger) beat Nicolas Mahut 61 61 to face frequent opponent Ivan Ljubicic, who beat Tommy Robredo in straight sets a match between two former top ten players who have fallen in the rankings due to poor play lately.

Mardy Fish (pictured left, click for larger) produced the biggest upset of the day with an easy win over #4 seed Nikolay Davydenko. Fish was steady throughout, despite serving below 50% and no aces, but Davydenko played terribly. Fish now faces Hewitt who beat Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.

In the most bizarre scoreline of the day, David Nalbandian (pictured right, click for larger) beat Radek Stepanek 76 06 76. This will be a tough match for Stepanek to get over, considering that he served for both of the sets he lost. Nalbandian will now face Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat Mario Ancic in a third set tiebreak. In an exciting match that was played at a high level and contained many great points, Ferrero saved two match points at 4-6 in the tiebreak and lost his first two match points at 6-5 in Ancic's serve before the tie break. He closed the match 7-6(7).

In the late match on the Stadium Court, Andy Murray (pictured left, click for larger)unsurprisingly had a tough match against Ivo Karlovic, but won in three sets, including two tiebreakers. He now faces Haas, who also had to play three sets to beat Fernando Verdasco. Haas had a 2-0 lead in the second set before Verdasco raised his level to take the second. But in the third, Haas raised his level and Verdasco's typical inconsistency shone through as he was only able to win one game in the third set.

Here are the full results from Tuesday's play in Indian Wells:

ATP Main Draw Singles - Third Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d N Mahut (FRA) 61 61
M Fish (USA) d [4] N Davydenko (RUS) 63 62
[7] D Nalbandian (ARG) d [29] R Stepanek (CZE) 76(1) 06 76(6)
[11] A Murray (GBR) d [20] I Karlovic (CRO) 76(7) 67(3) 63
[24] L Hewitt (AUS) d [13] M Youzhny (RUS) 75 61
[23] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [15] T Robredo (ESP) 63 64
[22] J Ferrero (ESP) d [WC] M Ancic (CRO) 75 46 76(7)
T Haas (GER) d [30] F Verdasco (ESP) 76(5) 46 61

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Second Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d J Coetzee (RSA) / W Moodie (RSA) 63 62
[4] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d P Mathieu (FRA) / R Stepanek (CZE) 62 61
M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d [7] A Clement (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) 76(4) 64

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Quarterfinals
[3] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d [8] P Hanley (AUS) / L Paes (IND) 62 61
R Gasquet (FRA) / R Lindstedt (SWE) d J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (ZIM) 63 46 13-1

Daily Roundup: Sunday March 16 at Indian Wells

2008-03-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

World number 1 Roger Federer (pictured right, click for larger) started out well in Indian Wells on Sunday and beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez easily in straight sets. Federer wasn't broken during the whole match and closed it out in 68 minutes. In the third round, the Swiss plays against Nicolas Mahut, who beat Nicolas Almagro in straight sets. Almagro still shows he has trouble adjusting his game from clay to hardcourts (he won Brasil Open and Acapulco this year).

Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko didn't have much trouble beating American John Isner in straight sets in the cold windy conditions of night play. Davydenko faces another good server from the USA, Mardy Fish, in the third round. Fish beat Igor Andreev, also in straight sets, showing rare patience and steadiness in terribly cold conditions against a solid player.

The surprise of the round was Tommy Haas (pictured left, click for larger) beating sixth seed Andy Roddick in straight sets, after having some disappointing losses in the previous tournaments. In his press conference, Roddick admitted he played a bad match and that he didn't think he adjusted well enough to the different conditions in Indian Wells as compared to Dubia. Haas improved his head-to-head record against Roddick to 7-3. The German now faces Fernando Verdasco, who needed three sets to beat Victor Hanescu. Even though Verdasco wasted 8 break points in the first set and lost it, he finally got the break once in the second with 8 break point chances and ended up going through to the third round.

Seventh seed David Nalbandian beat Ernest Gulbis in the third set tie break in a harder than expected match that had the stands full and the crowds buzzing. Gulbis hit 19 aces and the match ended with 116 points won for Nalbandian and 114 for Gulbis. Gulbis served for match at 5-3 in the third set but was broken to love. Nalbandian's next opponent is Radek Stepanek, who beat Max Mirnyi 64 62, and improved his head-to-head record to 3-0. Mirnyi still hasn't shown his old good form that he had some time ago.

Andy Murray (pictured left, click for larger) had some trouble to beat Jurgen Melzer in three sets. Melzer started out on fire and went up two breaks, but Murray found a way to comeback and win it to go through to the third round. In the next round, Murray faces Ivo Karlovic, who hit 15 aces to beat Rik De Voest. Murray and Karlovic faced each other in last year's San Jose final in a great match that the Scot won 67 64 76.

Mario Ancic (pictured right, click for larger) beat Fernando Gonzalez in three sets. Gonzalez still shows how badly he's been playing this year. In the next round, Ancic faces Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ancic has an awful 0-3 record against Ferrero and has never won a set. It might be his chance to try to do it this time to try to get better in the rankings. Ferrero beat Thomas Johansson in straight sets.

#13 seed Mikhail Youzhny beat Gilles Simon in straight sets. Simon had a lot of chances to win though, having 2 break points at 4-3 in the first set and leading the second 4-1. Youzhny had 73% of his first serves in and won 78% of the points on his first serve, which helped him to advance to the third round. The Russian came to Indian Wells after losing three matches in a row. Youzhny now faces Lleyton Hewitt (pictured left, click for larger), who beat Sam Querrey in the night session in straight sets. Querrey was the Las Vegas champion and has been playing pretty well lately.

#15 seed Tommy Robredo (pictured right below, click for larger) beat Nicolas Massu in a battle that lasted more than three hours and was decided in the third set tie break. Massu had great chances to win the match, considering he led 4-1 in the third set and had some chances to make it 5-1. Massu also had a 4-3 lead, with serve, in the tie break. Both players haven't been playing their best tennis lately, but Robredo pulled out the win. Robredo now faces Ivan Ljubicic to try to improve his 1-4 head-to-head record. Ljubicic beat Marin Cilic in an all Croats match between an experienced player and a young one in two close sets 76 75. Cilic had an early break and 3 game points but couldn't confirm the break. In the tie break, Ljubicic got to a 6-3 lead, Cilic made it even but Ljubicic got to win it and his experience clearly is what won out in the end.

Here are all the results from Sunday's play in Indian Wells:

ATP Main Draw Singles - Second Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 63 62
[4] N Davydenko (RUS) d [WC] J Isner (USA) 62 76(3)
T Haas (GER) d [6] A Roddick (USA) 64 64
[7] D Nalbandian (ARG) d E Gulbis (LAT) 64 46 76(4)
[11] A Murray (GBR) d J Melzer (AUT) 36 63 63
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d [12] F Gonzalez (CHI) 75 36 63
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d G Simon (FRA) 75 64
[15] T Robredo (ESP) d N Massu (CHI) 64 57 76(5)
[20] I Karlovic (CRO) d [Q] R de Voest (RSA) 63 76(2)
[22] J Ferrero (ESP) d T Johansson (SWE) 64 64
[23] I Ljubicic (CRO) d M Cilic (CRO) 76(7) 75
[24] L Hewitt (AUS) d S Querrey (USA) 64 63
N Mahut (FRA) d [25] N Almagro (ESP) 76(1) 62
[29] R Stepanek (CZE) d [Q] M Mirnyi (BLR) 64 62
[30] F Verdasco (ESP) d V Hanescu (ROU) 46 64 63
M Fish (USA) d [31] I Andreev (RUS) 64 63

ATP Main Draw Doubles - First Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d M Baghdatis (CYP) / S Wawrinka (SUI) 46 63 11-9
F Cermak (CZE) / J Kerr (AUS) d [2] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) 64 67(1) 10-5
[4] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d J Chela (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) 61 62
[6] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) 63 76(3)
[7] A Clement (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) 63 57 10-2

ATP Main Draw Doubles - Second Round
[3] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d J Monaco (ARG) / P Starace (ITA) 67(5) 62 10-1
[8] P Hanley (AUS) / L Paes (IND) d G Canas (ARG) / D Nalbandian (ARG) 75 26 10-5

Daily Roundup: Saturday March 15 at Indian Wells

2008-03-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

2007 Indian Wells champion Rafael Nadal (pictured left, click for larger) started the tournament well, beating Colombia's Santiago Giraldo in straight sets to advance to the third round. The weather condition was really awful in such a windy day. Nadal hit only two winners and made 22 unforced errors, while Giraldo hit 9 winners and 39 unforced errors. In the third round, Nadal faces America's Donald Young (pictured right, click for larger). Young beat Dubai runner-up Feliciano Lopez in three sets. The court's slow speed might not have helped Lopez much, but for Young, it's s first third round in a Masters Series and a good win over a higher-ranked player who had been in good form.

Last year's runner-up Novak Djokovic (pictured left, click for larger) also had a good start and beat Italy's Andreas Seppi in straight sets, despite that Djokovic served for the match twice in the second set and needed to go to a tiebreak to close it out. Djokovic faces Philip Kohlschreiber. Kohlschreiber needed three sets to beat Xavier Malisse, but could have closed it in two sets if it wasn't for his poor break points conversion: 3/13. Malisse's wasn't any better, with 1/5.

Fifth seed David Ferrer beat Olivier Rochus, who simply could not keep up with Ferrer's consistency from the baseline, in two easy sets. It was a good win for Ferrer, considering he had a hard time to beat Rochus in Dubai a week ago. Ferrer now faces Hyung-Taik Lee (pictured right, click for larger) in the third round. Lee beat Jarkko Nieminen in three boring sets, with lots of missed opportunities for both players. Some interesting stats of this match: 13 service breaks, 9 aces and 12 double faults counting both players. Nieminen almost won the match despite only winning 50% of the points when he served and even got to serve for the match at 5-4 in the second set.

Richard Gasquet beat Robin Soderling in a routine straight-sets match. Gasquet wasn't a favorite to win the match because Soderling was coming from two finals in a row and Gasquet himself wasn't having quite a good year. The Frenchman won 90% of his first serve points and now faces last year's quarterfinalist Juan Ignacio Chela (pictured left, click for larger), who survived a 2 hour, 41 minute battle against Dmitry Tursunov. Tursunov served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but ultimately lost it in a tiebreak after having a match point in the tiebreak. He didn't convert and lost the set and the match. It was an awful serve performance by both players: 10 double faults for Chela and 6 for Tursunov. Perhaps the difficult windy conditions were to blame for all of the double faults the players hit yesterday.

James Blake served for the match twice in the second set at 5-4 and 6-5 against Marc Gicquel; he even hit a double fault at match point. He ended up needing to play three sets to advance to the third round. He now faces Carlos Moya (pictured left, click for larger), who took his opportunities against Robby Ginepri. Moya hit 10 double faults in the match, but managed to save 20 out of 22 break points to win in three sets. Moya saved 12 break point in the third set alone, including two from 0-40.

Stanlas Wawrinka (pictured right, click for larger) beat Tomas Berdych in three sets. Both players have been playing badly lately. Wawrinka served for the second set at 5-3 but couldn't close it out. Berdych had his chance to close the match at 6-5 but couldn't make it either. They went to a tie break and Wawrinka ended up winning it and saving a break point when was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third to advance to the third round. In the third round, he faces Marcos Baghdatis, who had a hard time against Wayne Odesnik, winning in three sets. Baghdatis was a break down in both sets he won, and needed 2 hours and 40 minutes to advance to the next round.

Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Fabio Fognini in straight sets. Mathieu lead the tie break 5-2 but had to save a set point at 5-6 in Fognini's serve to win it. He faces 2008 Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (pictured left, click for larger) in the third round in an all French battle. Tsonga beat Dudi Sela in straight sets. It was the Frenchman's first match since Marseille a few weeks ago.

After winning the first setGuillermo Canas was down 1-4 in the second set against Jonas Bjorkman. He had some match points when serving for the match at 5-4, but couldn't hold; luckily for him, he ultimately won the match in a tiebreak. He now faces Juan Monaco, who beat Robin Haase in straight sets.

Here are Saturday's full results from Indian Wells:

Saturday, March 15, 2008

ATP Main Draw Singles - Second Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] S Giraldo (COL) 63 63
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d A Seppi (ITA) 63 76(3)
[5] D Ferrer (ESP) d O Rochus (BEL) 62 62
[8] R Gasquet (FRA) d R Soderling (SWE) 63 62
[9] J Blake (USA) d M Gicquel (FRA) 63 67(5) 61
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [10] T Berdych (CZE) 26 76(3) 64
[14] P Mathieu (FRA) d [LL] F Fognini (ITA) 61 76(7)
[16] G Canas (ARG) d J Bjorkman (SWE) 62 76(4)
[17] J Tsonga (FRA) d D Sela (ISR) 62 64
[18] M Baghdatis (CYP) d [Q] W Odesnik (USA) 76(2) 16 63
[19] C Moya (ESP) d [WC] R Ginepri (USA) 26 62 64
[21] J Monaco (ARG) d [Q] R Haase (NED) 62 64
H Lee (KOR) d [26] J Nieminen (FIN) 46 76(5) 63
[27] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d X Malisse (BEL) 62 57 64
[28] J Chela (ARG) d D Tursunov (RUS) 67(1) 76(6) 64
[WC] D Young (USA) d [32] F Lopez (ESP) 64 67(3) 62

ATP Main Draw Doubles - First Round
E Butorac (USA) / A Murray (GBR) d [5] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) 76(5) 63
M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d I Ljubicic (CRO) / T Robredo (ESP) 64 76(3)
P Mathieu (FRA) / R Stepanek (CZE) d [WC] M Fish (USA) / S Querrey (USA) 75 76(6)
J Monaco (ARG) / P Starace (ITA) d J Benneteau (FRA) / N Mahut (FRA) 64 64

Daily Roundup: Friday March 14 at Indian Wells

2008-03-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

On Friday, it was time for the top half first round action in Indian Wells. It was a pretty good day for the American players, with John Isner being the first one to get on court. He started out strong and took the first set against Simone Bolelli. The second set had a break for each player and ended up in a tie break. The American didn't play his best in the tiebreak; he made mistakes like double faults, and the Italian took it to go to the third set. Both players held easily until 5 all in the third, when Isner saved four break points in his service game before holding. Before that game, Isner had lost only four points on his serve in the whole set. That 5all game was likely crucial and changed the outcome of the match, because Bolelli had to save three match points at 5-6 to hold and go to a third set tie break. Bolelli only lost two points on serve before that game in the whole set. After all that hard work to hold his serve, the Italian had a 2-0 in the tie break, and then lost seven points in a row to give the win to Isner. It was Isner's first win in a third set tie break this year; he is now is 1-2 in third set tie break wins in 2008. Last year his third set tie break win record was 8-3 (counting challengers and his 5 wins in Washington). The American now faces Nicolay Davydenko in the second round.

The other two American players scheduled to play on Friday also won. Las Vegas champion Sam Querrey kept his good form and beat Luis Horna in straight sets. He wasn't broken at all during the match and hit 12 aces. Horna's poorly-thought out dropshot attempts proved fatal at the start of the second set. In the second round, Querrey faces 2002 and 2003 Indian Wells champion Lleyton Hewitt. Mardy Fish finished the Americans' perfect day beating Florian Mayer in straight sets. The match started in a different way that most people expected it to. Mayer got to a 3-0 lead in the first set, but then Fish stepped up and controlled the match, hitting only 2 aces. In the second round, Fish faces Igor Andreev from Russia.

In other matches, Tommy Haas started out playing poorly in cold and windy conditions, and he lost the first set to Julien Benneteau. Haas finally started to find his game in the second set and destroyed Benneteau playing better tennis. He now faces Dubai champion Andy Roddick. Haas has a head-to-head advantage 6-3 against the American. Former number 1 Marat Safin keeps on his poor display this year, losing in three sets to Jurgen Melzer (pictured right, click for larger). Melzer took the first set in a tie break with no service breaks during the whole set. In the second set, Safin started to show he wanted to take the match and scored 62. Though in the third it was the opposite and Melzer also scored 62 to go through to the second round. Safin hit 6 aces and 7 double faults in the whole match. Melzer continues trying to improve his season season and now faces Andy Murray in the second round.

Another interesting match was between wild card Mario Ancic and Gael Monfils. Ancic won easily after waiting for the previous matches to win and warming up extra due to the cold conditions. Ancic's next opponent is Fernando Gonzalez. It was only Monfils's second match in 2008. Thomas Johansson had a hard time against Yen-Hsun Lu and was finally able to pull out a three-set win. Johansson now faces champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round in the battle of the Grand Slam champions. Both players aren't playing their best tennis, so it might be a really interesting match to watch. Qualifier Max Mirnyi beat Jose Acasuso in two tight sets 75 75. He faces Radek Stepanek in the second round, in an all serve-volley match. Mirnyi's been playing badly lately and finally got to win a tough match after passing the qualifying.

Marin Cilic beat Kei Nishikori in straight sets and now faces Ivan Ljubicic in the second round in an all-Croatian match. Ernest Gulbis beat Oscar Hernandez in straight sets and in the second round faces David Nalbanidan. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat Sergio Roitman and plays Swiss number 1 Roger Federer in the second round. After wasting a lot of match points, Nicolas Massu beat Janko Tipsarevic in an extremely long and tedious three-set match to advance to the second round. In the second round, he faces Tommy Robredo in, what can we say, will probably be a boring match.

Here are the full results from Friday's play in Indian Wells:

Singles - First Round

G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d S Roitman (ARG) 61 64
N Mahut (FRA) d E Korolev (RUS) 36 62 62
M Cilic (CRO) d [Q] K Nishikori (JPN) 62 64
N Massu (CHI) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 64 36 76(4)
J Melzer (AUT) d M Safin (RUS) 76(5) 26 62
[Q] R de Voest (RSA) d M Berrer (GER) 76(4) 75
V Hanescu (ROU) d A Montanes (ESP) 16 64 64
T Haas (GER) d J Benneteau (FRA) 36 60 62
[WC] J Isner (USA) d S Bolelli (ITA) 63 67(5) 76(2)
M Fish (USA) d F Mayer (GER) 75 64
S Querrey (USA) d L Horna (PER) 76(5) 63
G Simon (FRA) d C Berlocq (ARG) 62 63
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d G Monfils (FRA) 63 62
T Johansson (SWE) d [Q] Y Lu (TPE) 64 67(2) 64
[Q] M Mirnyi (BLR) d J Acasuso (ARG) 75 75
E Gulbis (LAT) d O Hernandez (ESP) 62 61

Doubles - First Round

[3] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d F Gonzalez (CHI) / D Tursunov (RUS) 63 61
[8] P Hanley (AUS) / L Paes (IND) d D Ferrer (ESP) / R Nadal (ESP) 63 64
J Coetzee (RSA) / W Moodie (RSA) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) / J Nieminen (FIN) 36 63 10-4
N Davydenko (RUS) / N Kiefer (GER) d T Berdych (CZE) / L Dlouhy (CZE) 64 76(3)
G Canas (ARG) / D Nalbandian (ARG) d M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 75 63
R Gasquet (FRA) / R Lindstedt (SWE) d [WC] S Grosjean (FRA) / J Tsonga (FRA) 46 62 10-7
J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (ZIM) d L Friedl (CZE) / M Youzhny (RUS) 62 26 10-7

Daily Roundup: Thursday March 13 at Indian Wells

2008-03-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

The first day in Indian Wells started with the bottom half matches. Defending champion Rafael Nadal's first opponent will be Santiago Giraldo, who beat Werner Eschauer in straight sets. Novak Djokovic will start against Andreas Seppi, who barely beat Paul Capdeville 46 76 62.

Olivier Rochus (pictured right, click for larger) finally found his old good form and beat Arnaud Clement for the very first time in his career in straight sets. Clement had never lost a set to him before, and now their head-to-head is 3-1. Rochus's next opponent is David Ferrer. Hyung-Taik Lee (pictured left, click for larger), who hasn't played since Marseille, beat Michael Llodra in straight sets 62 63. It is a great win for Lee, because Llodra's year has been pretty good, considering he has already won two titles. He now takes on Jarkko Nieminen. Stanlas Wawrinka needed three sets to beat Jesse Levine 75 46 64 and now faces Tomas Berdych,

Jonas Bjorkman beat Filippo Volandri in straight sets and now has a tough second round match against Guillermo Canas. Xavier Malisse had to play three sets to beat qualifier Florent Serra and will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round. It was Malisse's first win since January, when he beat Jarkko Nieminen in Auckland in the first round. Robin Soderling, who's coming to Indian Wells with two finals in his previous tournaments, kept his good form and beat Sebastien Grosjean 63 63 and now he plays against Richard Gasquet, whom Soderling beat in Marseille's second round.

Dmitry Tursunov (pictured left, click for larger) had some trouble against Benjamin Becker, but got the win in straight sets and now faces Juan Ignacio Chela. Robby Ginepri (picured right, click for larger) beat Vicent Spadea easily 61 61 and now takes on Carlos Moya. Ginepri made his head-to-head against Spadea look better. Spadea leads 4-3 after the loss. If some people expected to see the match between Frank Dancevic and Alejandro Falla, they ended up watching Rainer Schuettler vs Fabio Fognini, both lucky losers. Fognini won in three sets and will now face Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Always injured Nicolas Kiefer lost to Dudi Sela (pictured left, click for larger) in three sets. It was only Kiefer's fourth tournament of the season, and Sela's first tournament since Davis Cup's first rubber against Jonas Bjorkman. Sela now plays Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round. Thursday's last match was Donald Young against Bobby Reynolds. Young, who had won their three matches on the challenger circuit, won in straight sets. He now faces Dubai's runner-up Feliciano Lopez in the battle of the lefties. Lopez beat Young in last year's US Open 3rd round in four sets.

Here are Friday's full results:

First Round

O Rochus (BEL) d A Clement (FRA) 64 64
H Lee (KOR) d M Llodra (FRA) 62 63
[Q] W Odesnik (USA) d [Q] I Kunitsyn (RUS) 26 76(3) 63
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 75 46 64
J Bjorkman (SWE) d F Volandri (ITA) 63 76(5)
[Q] R Haase (NED) d [Q] D Vemic (SRB) 36 63 62
X Malisse (BEL) d [Q] F Serra (FRA) 67(5) 62 60
A Seppi (ITA) d [Q] P Capdeville (CHI) 46 76(3) 62
R Soderling (SWE) d S Grosjean (FRA) 63 63
D Tursunov (RUS) d B Becker (GER) 76(4) 63
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d V Spadea (USA) 61 61
M Gicquel (FRA) d P Starace (ITA) 64 63
[LL] F Fognini (ITA) d [LL] R Schuettler (GER) 26 63 63
D Sela (ISR) d N Kiefer (GER) 64 67(4) 63
[WC] D Young (USA) d [Q] B Reynolds (USA) 63 64
[Q] S Giraldo (COL) d W Eschauer (AUT) 76(5) 64

Weeks 11 & 12 Preview: Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells

2008-03-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

The first ATP Masters Series event of the year kicks off in the California Desert. Boasting a 96-player field (which gives all 32 seeded players a bye), the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells should be home to some fantastic tennis over the next week and a half or so. Here's our take on the draw.

The first quarter is arguably the toughest, as it arguably contains three of the five biggest favorites going into the tournament: #1 Roger Federer, #6 Andy Roddick, and #11 Andy Murray. Federer, coming off of mono and a disappointing opening-match loss here last year, will be looking to do well, and should advance to the quarterfinals without too much drama. We'll go out on a limb here and say his opponent will be named Andy. Which Andy, we cannot say. Murray and Roddick are projected to face each other in the fourth round. Murray might have a tough third round match against Ivo Karlovic, and Roddick might have to get by Tommy Haas (or in-form Julien Benneteau) and Fernando Verdasco. Interestingly, if Roddick and Verdasco face each other, it will be the third time in four years they will play at this tournament.

While it perhaps doesn't contain as many title favorites as the top quarter, the second quarter of the draw is still full of potential threats in #4 Nikolay Davydenko, #7 David Nalbandian, and former champion Lleyton Hewitt. It will be interesting how local boy Sam Querrey, fresh off winning his first title last week in Las Vegas, handles himself in a much larger tournament. A second round match between him and Hewitt could be interesting, as could a third-round match Nalbandian and in-form Radek Stepanek. While Davydenko should make the quarterfinals, he faces potential threats in compatriot Mikhail Youzhny. As for who Davydenko or Youzhny (or Hewitt or any one of the other solid players in that section) might face, the obvious favorite would be Nalbandian, but who knows which Nalbandian will show up, so we could easily see Stepanek or Fernando Gonzalez (if he can find his form in time) in the quarterfinals instead.

Last year's winner, #3 Novak Djokovic, and Finalist #2 Rafael Nadal head up the bottom half of the draw. In the third quarter, which contains Djokovic and also #5 David Ferrer, doesn't have as many lower-ranked threats, but there are still some interesting potential matchups to look forward to. An intriguing fourth round match could pit Ferrer against #10 Tomas Berdych. The winner of that match should face Djokovic in the quarterfinals, but the defending champ faces a potential test in the third round against Philipp Kohlschreiber and might have a difficult match against Guillermo Canas, who made a name for himself last year as a lucky loser who upset Federer in the second round. Still, we expect to see Djokovic in the quarters here, and probably farther.

In the last quarter of the draw, Nadal seems the obvious favorite to make it through his section, but this quarter of the draw is full of players who have the game to beat the Spaniard on hardcourts. His first test could come as early as the third round, where he will likely face serve-volleyer Feliciano Lopez, his occasional doubles partner. Lopez is coming off his impressive final showing in Dubai, where he beat a slew of top ten players before losing in the final. It won't get easier from there for Nadal, as whoever wins the potential match between Frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who took Nadal out of the Australian Open, could pose problems for Nadal. Should Nadal advance to the quarterfinals, he could face yet another player who has given him difficulties, James Blake or Richard Gasquet. Blake has had particularly good success against Nadal on hardcourts, but if Gasquet were to get his backhand firing and make it to the quarterfinals, he could also pose a tough test for Nadal. Also in that section is Robin Soderling, and while his results outdoors are not as good as indoors, he has the potential to post good results and his powerful baseline game can give any of these top players trouble if he finds his form.

As you can see, the first Masters Series event of the year is full of potentially fascinating matches and hopefully some upsets here and there! Our blogger Debra will be at the event this weekend and will have lots of pictures and reports to share when she gets back!

Daily Roundup, Sunday, March 9: Querrey Takes First Title in Las Vegas

2008-03-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

Kevin Anderson started out really well, got to a 2-0 lead in the first set and held on to win the set while Sam Querrey got more and more frustrated. In the second set, both players were even until 4-3 when Querrey got his first break points of the match. He converted and held on to take the set.

In the third set, Querrey really started improving his level and got an early break. Unlike other matches where he has had difficulty closing it out, he did not face a break point in the third set as he held on to win his first ATP title.

The statistic of the match was break point conversion. Anderson only converted one out of the ten break points he had, while Querrey took more of his chances. It's the first time since 1996 that two American men have won titles on the same weekend.

Querrey will re-enter the top 50 and go near his career high ranking, while Anderson rises from 175 up 54 spots to 121.

In the doubles final, the Bryan Brothers' woes in finals continued with another loss, this time to Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau. It was the first time the Bryans had ever lost on the court in Las Vegas, as they had won the event the previous two years.

Challenger Circuit

This week, Marcos Daniel beat Ivan Navarro for the title in Bogota, with Brian Dabul and Ramon Delgado taking the doubles. In Kyoto, hometown player Go Soeda too the singles over Matthias Bachinger, while Dieter Kindlmann and Martin Slanar took the doubles.

Daily Roundup, Saturday March 8: Roddick Takes Dubai Title & Vegas Semifinals

2008-03-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

Dubai

Andy Roddick and Feliciano Lopez (both pictured right, click for larger) took the court on Saturday night in the hopes for their first Dubai title. For Lopez, it would be the biggest title of his career; for Roddick, it would be the punctuation on a week that was already successful for so many reasons. Considering both players' games, big serves, short points, and tiebreaks were all expected. And as the match started, it did not disappoint. Roddick had chances first - three break points throughout the first set - all of which Lopez saved with big serves and crafty net play. As the set inevitably headed to a tiebreak, there was little to choose between the two players, even though Roddick had been the one with the chances to break. To the tiebreak the set went and Roddick built a 4-1 lead and looked for all in the world like he would roll to the first set, but Lopez had other plans and built some aggressive play to save a set point (with an ace, at 6-7) and go on to win the set 10-8.

However, Roddick would not go down easily, nor should he have, considering he barely lost points on his serve throughout the first. Both men continued to hang on until 4all in the second set, when Lopez threw in four errors, punctuated by a costly double fault, that handed Roddick the break and all of the momentum for the match. While Roddick had been playing a little passively from the baseline, which had allowed Lopez to approach to net more easily, he tightened up his ground game and started approaching a little more himself. The third set was a mere formality. Roddick got the early break and broke again at 4-2 to take the commanding lead. Roddick did not face a break point in the final and he went through all 55 service games of the event without losing serve. This is Roddick's 25th career title and the second that he's won without losing serve (Lyon 2005). Considering the caliber of competition he beat, this is quite a feat.

The important thing for Roddick in the coming weeks with two big tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami on the horizon is whether he can keep this form up. After the match, Roddick expressed this exact concern. He also explained that the whole week was a surprise to him, particularly considering he had only arrived early Monday morning after three different flights and that before his first round match he was so tired that he was sleeping in the locker room and didn't even warm up. Perhaps this took some of the expectations and pressure off, but Roddick certainly was impressive throughout the week. Lopez, of course, had to rue the missed opportunities and was disappointed that he played so well but could not get out the win. But he should take heart that he will rise nine spots in the rankings and come close to breaking into the top 30 again.

In the doubles final, Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi (pictured left, click for larger) claimed the doubles title in a hard-fought win over Damm and Vizner. It is Knowles and Bhupathi's second title of the year and second as a team, and they are on an eight match winning streak.

Singles - Final
[6] A Roddick (USA) d F Lopez (ESP) 67(8) 64 62

Doubles - Final
[4] M Bhupathi/M Knowles d [3] M Damm/P Vizner 75 76(7)

Las Vegas

Saturday was semifinal day in Las Vegas. Amid all the upsets, four players had a huge opportunity to advance to the final - two looking for their first semifinal, one trying to get his career on track, and the fourth on the comeback trail from injury. The first semifinal had Robby Ginepri, who will re-enter the top 100 next week, against college standout and out-from-nowhere shocker Kevin Anderson (pictured right, click for larger). Ginepri started out well and got off to an early break, only to be broken back immediately. Both players held on throughout the set, which went to a tiebreaker, won by Anderson. The second set started much like the first. Ginepri again got an early break and again was immediately broken right back.

And so in a year that's already had a lucky loser first time title-winner (Stakhovsky), a qualifier winner (Nishikori), and many other surprises, will Anderson, who had never won an ATP-level match before this week be the next? Throughout the match, Anderson showed impressive form off the ground and even more impressive movement considering his height (6'7"). Ginepri, showing more signs of his 2006-2007 form than 2005 or early 2008 form, overhit his forehand regularly and showed distressing impatience. After the match, Anderson admitted he was surprised to make the finals but that he didn't feel overwhelmed by the situation - he certainly didn't play like he was! Anderson has not even dropped a set in his four main draw matches (he dropped one in qualifying), and will be playing his eighth match of the week in tomorrow's final.

In the second semifinal, Sam Querrey (pictured left, click for larger) took on Guillermo Canas for the chance to play Anderson in tomorrow's final. On paper, this would be a difficult match for the young American, considering Canas's returning and retrieving abilities. Querrey got off to a good start and built a 3-0 lead, only to have 40-0 in his next two service games, only to lose them both. Both players held until 5-4 when Canas served for the set and had a set point. But on an impressive 42-stroke rally punctuated with a backhand winner, Querrey got the break back, held in the next game, and took the first set on a Canas double fault at 5-6.

Querrey got off to a good start in the second set as well, breaking on another Canas double fault. Canas, always the fighter, still made Querrey work for each point, but Querrey showed an impressive willingness to hang in the long rallies with the superior grinder. Canas's errors and frustration built and Querrey smacked a winner to take the second set, and the match, 6-2. For Querrey, this win is important for many reasons. Noy only was it an upset, but he advanced to his first final after failing to close out Kei Nishikori a few weeks ago in Delray Beach after holding multiple match points. Speaking on TV after the match, Querrey was thrilled with his effort and was especially pleased with his forehand during the match.

Tomorrow's final between the 6'6" Querrey and 6'7" Anderson should be an interesting one between two first-time finalists!

In the doubles final, World #1 Bob and Mike Bryan will look to snap one streak and extend another: they will look to end their 0-3 streak in finals this year and continue their unbeaten streak in Las Vegas when they play tomorrow's final against #3 seeds Benneteau and Llodra.

Singles - Semifinals
S Querrey (USA) d [4] G Canas (ARG) 75 62
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d R Ginepri (USA) 76(4) 64

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) / K Economdidis (GRE) 62 75
[3] J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d [2] J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (RSA) 76(5) 64

Daily Roundup, Friday March 7: Dubai Semifinals & Las Vegas Quarterfinals

2008-03-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dubai

So when the draw came out and we saw all the fantastic matches and such a deep field with eight of the world's top ten, did anyone really expect to see a Feliciano Lopez/Andy Roddick final? OK, we didn't think so. But anyway, this is how they got there:

Friday's first semifinal saw Lopez against favorite Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko got off to a quick start and only lost one point in the first three games. But Lopez would win five of the next six games of the set to take it 6-4. The second set was a tighter affair; both men had chances, but Davydenko wouldn't go down that easily and leveled the match with Lopez serving to stay in the set. In the third set, Davydenko broke early and led 5-2 before he capitulated and pretty much handed Lopez the match. After the match, Lopez admitted he was lucky to win but that he was happy to win such a match and make the final (he was runner-up to Roger Federer in the 2004 Dubai event). Davydenko admitted the mistakes he made in his choke at 5-3 serving for the match were what cost him and acknowledged that he should have won the match.

Lopez will face Roddick (pictured left, click for larger), who played a complete and solid match to notch his second big win in the same number of days against world #3 Novak Djokovic (both players pictured right below, click for larger). Roddick had never beaten the world #2 and #3 players back to back before. Djokovic was the first player to have chances; he had two break points early on in the match at 2-1 in the first set, but Roddick slammed down two huge serves and dug out of the game. Unfortunately for Djokovic, those would be the only breaks he would see the entire match. Despite having more aces and more winners, Djokovic managed to throw in a couple of errors in the first set tiebreak to lose it. In the second set, Roddick finally earned his first break point to go up 2-0 but could not convert; he had another to go up 3-1 but could not convert that either. Finally Roddick converted to go up 5-3 and served out the match. For the second night in a row, Roddick could not hide his glee at winning and showed his class by extolling Djokovic's virtues in the on-court interview. From a tennis fan's perspective, it was nice to see a high-quality and fair-played match played between two high-ranked competitors who have such obvious respect for one another.

After the match, Roddick was pleased at the fact that he played the "right way," taking it to his opponent and knowing that that was what he had to do to win. Djokovic admitted that he was a little nervous for the match for some reason, but gave all the credit to Roddick, saying he played well and smart. Roddick will take heart that he brings a 3-0 head to head against Lopez into the final and has much more experience in these big moments.

Here are all the results from Friday's semifinal play in Dubai:

Friday, March 7, 2008

Singles - Semi-finals
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [3] N Djokovic (SRB) 76(5) 63
F Lopez (ESP) d [5] N Davydenko (RUS) 64 46 75

Doubles - Semi-finals
[3] M Damm/P Vizner d [1] D Nestor/N Zimonjic 63 76(6)
[4] M Bhuapthi/M Knowles d [2] S Aspelin/J Knowle 62 60

Las Vegas

Friday was quarterfinal day in Las Vegas. Up first, Kevin Anderson (pictured right, click for larger) continued his striking run as a qualifier with a shocking 6-2 6-0 victory over Evgeny Korolev, last year's tournament semifinalist, in under an hour. After the match, Anderson explained that he felt great and took advantage of all of his opportunities.

Up next, Guillermo Canas, the only seed left in the event, beat qualifier Amer Delic, who was contesting his first ATP-level quarterfinal, in two sets. Canas did not face a break point throughout the match, but Delic should take some confidence from his run to the quarterfinals that will hopefully help him in the coming weeks and months as he tries to enter the top 100 again.

In the third easy quarterfinal of the day, Robby Ginepri (pictured below right, click for larger) advanced to his third semifinal in his three main draw appearances this year with an easy win over rising star Ernests Gulbis. Good news for Gienpri, who will move from 171 in the February 11 rankings to inside the top 100 next week for the first time since last October. Seems as though the hard work in the California desert with Jose Higueras is paying off for Ginepri.

In the final quarterfinal, Sam Querrey (pictured left, click for larger) looked to extend his 3-0 head to head record against Julien Benneteau. The match started out slowly and it looked like Benneteau's superior return and ground game might get the better of Querrey. However, as the match went on, Querrey's serve and forehand picked up, and at 5all, Querrey was finally able to convert a break point and served out the set. Querrey would go on to win the next four games in the second set to break the match wide open. Benneteau quite simply lost the plot, fell apart, and was disappointing especially compared to the impressive mental strength he showed in beating Hewitt two nights ago. After losing six games in a row, Benneteau finally held on but it was already too late and Querrey held on for the straight-sets win. Querrey advances to his second semifinal of the year and will look to advance to his first career final; however, he has a tough ask against Canas, whose excellent return game and scrambling style will probably pose significant problems for Querrey's power game.

Here are the full results from Friday's play in Las Vegas:

Singles - Quarterfinals
[4] G Canas (ARG) d [Q] A Delic (USA) 64 64
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d E Korolev (RUS) 62 60
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d E Gulbis (LAT) 61 62
S Querrey (USA) d J Benneteau (FRA) 75 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) / K Economdidis (GRE) d [4] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) 62 64

Daily Roundup: Thursday, March 6

2008-03-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

Dubai

Today was quarterfinal day in Dubai, and we saw three "upsets" in four matches. Right off the bat, the battle between unseeded Feliciano Lopez (pictured right, click for larger) and #4 David Ferrer provided some sparks. Ferrer took the early break lead in the first set, but could not hang on. Lopez would break two times to take the set and would come back from another early break in the second set to take that one as well. For Lopez, whose ranking has slid in recent years, this marks an excellent week of tennis with back-to-back top 10 wins, especially considering he had come into the event with a 1-4 record for the year and having lost his last three matches. It's Lopez's first semifinal since last July. After the match, he expressed his pleasure with the court, saying that the conditions are perfect for him, and the way he's playing.

In the semifinals, Lopez will face another "upset" winner - at least in the eyes of many tennis fans - Nikolay Davydenko (pictured left, click for larger), who snapped a three-match losing streak against Andy Murray with a straight-sets win. In a rocky match, Murray had break points in both of Davydenko's first service games. Finally, Davydenko was the one who was able to break through at 5all, to take the set 7-5. Murray stormed back and took a 3-0 lead but could not hold it and would only win one more game in the match. Murray was disappointed that he had so many chances that he let slip.

In the blockbuster of the quarterfinal matches, Andy Roddick (pictured right, click for larger) notched his biggest win in quite some time with a straight-set win over #2 seed and 2005 Dubai champion Rafael Nadal under the lights in a packed and electrified stadium. Both men had chances in the first set - Nadal had three break points on Roddick's serve and Roddick let seven break chances slip by. To a tiebreak the set went, and Roddick quickly found himself down 0-3 but managed to claw back and take it 7-5. The second set proved to be a mere formality as Roddick built a 5-1 lead and steadied his nerves to save two break points when serving the match out. Upon victory, Roddick could not hide his glee and said in an on-court interview that it was an honor to play this match against a champion like Nadal in an atmosphere like that. After the match, he said he knew from the first ball that he was feeling pretty good. He also revealed that he and Jimmy Connors have parted ways - we'll have more on this in a few days. Despite Nadal's sub-par form, this still marks Roddick's first solid upset win in quite some time; perhaps more importantly, he expressed on court that he knew he needed to "play like [he] used to" in terms of being aggressive more often and that he felt like he did that during his match. For Nadal, he felt he didn't play badly and that Roddick's level of serving made it difficult on his own serve.

Tomorrow, Roddick will face Novak Djokovic (pictured left, click for larger), who simply put a master class on for Igor Andreev. There's not a whole lot to say except that Djokovic was firing on all cylinders and played an excellent match. Of course, Andreev made plenty of errors as he usually does, but Djokovic kept constant pressure throughout the crushing win. Speaking on court after the match, Djokovic himself was even a little surprised with his level.

Here are Thursday's full quarterfinal results from Dubai:

Singles - Quarter-finals
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [2] R Nadal (ESP) 76(5) 62
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d I Andreev (RUS) 62 61
F Lopez (ESP) d [4] D Ferrer (ESP) 64 63
[5] N Davydenko (RUS) d A Murray (GBR) 75 64

Doubles - Quarter-finals
[1] D Nestor/N Zimonjic d [WC] R Bopanna/A-U-H Qureshi 26 76(5) 10-6
[3] M Damm/P Vizner d P Kohlschreiber/M Youzhny 64 75
[4] M Bhupathi/M Knowles d F Lopez/R Nadal 61 61

Las Vegas

The final four second round matches were completed today in Las Vegas, and the woes for this tournament just keep continue. First up, #1 seed Fernando Gonzalez took on Evgeny Korolev (pictured right, click for larger). Korolev won the first set 6-3 in fairly routine fashion... the drama came in the second set. Korolev quickly went up 5-2 with two breaks and looked like he would complete a surprising and routine victory over the #1 seed. But Korolev wasted three match points and Gonzalez broke back. Korolev let two more match points slip by on Gonzalez's serve in the next game, and lightning stroke twice in the 5-4 game, which turned into a marathon. Korolev had five more match points in this game, but was broken again. He actually had double match point four times before finally sealing it on his 11th match point in the second set tiebreaker. Wow. It's actually quite impressive that a fairly inexperienced player such as Korolev could keep his head and keep fighting and ultimately take the match in two sets. After the match, Korolev admitted that it was a bit difficult to stay focused after losing those 10 match points only to see the set get back to 5all, but that he was glad he was able to close it out.

In the next match between two old tall college foes, Kevin Anderson notched only his second ATP win of his career with a tight straight-set win over John Isner (both players pictured left, click for larger). Anderson did not face a break point and by all accounts, very little of Isner's game was working today.

Rising teen Ernests Gulbis is quietly moving through the draw and advanced to his third career quarterfinal with an easy win over Peter Luczak. In the final match of the day, Marcos Baghdatis took on Robby Ginepri (pictured right, click for larger) for the last quarterfinal spot. In a match filled with excellent rallies and flashy shot-making, Baghdatis got off to a quick start early on, sprinting out to a 3-0 lead, but Ginepri came storming back to break back. Both men had chances later in the first set but it went to a tiebreak, which Ginepri took behind some solid play. Ginepri went up an early break in the second and never looked back and sealed yet another update in his quest to rise back up through the rankings. The story of the match was Baghdatis's excessive unforced errors - 37 to Ginepri's 20 With the win, Ginepri advances to the quarterfinals in all three main draw appearances he's made this year. And so, the tournament is left with only one seed making it through to the quarterfinals: #4 Guillermo Canas.

In doubles, all three top seeds moved on to the semifinals, led by the World #1 team and defending champs Bob and Mike Bryan, who had to squeak by the first-time singles pairing of Chris Guccione and Lleyton Hewitt.

Here are all the results from today's play in Las Vegas:

Singles - Second Round
E Korolev (RUS) d [1] F Gonzalez (CHI) 63 76(4)
E Gulbis (LAT) d [Q] P Luczak (AUS) 62 61
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d [WC] J Isner (USA) 76(2) 75
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d [3] M Baghdatis (CYP) 76(2) 63

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [WC] C Guccione (AUS) / L Hewitt (AUS) 63 36 10-7
[2] J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (ZIM) d L Arnold Ker (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI) 76(1) 63
[3] J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) 76(6) 67(2) 10-6

Tournament Updates: First and Second Round Play in Dubai and Las Vegas

2008-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Dubai

Tuesday

Second seed Rafael Nadal (pictured right, click for larger) had a hard time against Phillip Kohlschreiber 36 61 64. After taking the first set, Kohlschreiber kept up the pressure in the second, holding two break points in the first game. Though he was unable to break and was broken immediately after that. The third set was tight and the players exchanged breaks, but Nadal got through. After the match, Nadal admitted he was not playing his best and that after his shock loss to Andreas Seppi in Rotterdam, he was struggling with confidence a bit, but he made it clear he was happy with the win.

There's not a lot to say about Novak Djokovic's (pictured left, click for larger) match; he played really well against Marin Cilic. After the match, Djokovic said on TV that he was healthy and feeling good and after the match to the press that he was pleased with his game throughout the match. An interesting stat is that Cilic didn't have any break point chances in the whole match.

Maybe the biggest upsets of the day, Feliciano Lopez beat Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets, and while the result itself is perhaps not too surprising, Olivier Rochus beat Jarkko Nieminen losing only three games in the whole match.

In the final match of the day, Andy Roddick (pictured right, click for larger) beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2 6-4 to extend his head-to-head record to 4-0. The American didn't get to Dubai until early Monday morning and was playing without any sleep, but it didn't look like it bothered him as he served 78%, 18 aces, and only went to deuce once on his serve. He played well from the baseline and was, for once, more aggressive than usual.

Here are the full results from Tuesday's play in Dubai:

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Singles - First Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) 36 61 64
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d M Cilic (CRO) 64 63
[6] A Roddick (USA) d JC Ferrero (ESP) 62 64
[8] T Berdych (CZE) d G Monfils (FRA) 63 62
O Rochus (BEL) d J Nieminen (FIN) 61 62
F Lopez (ESP) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 63 46 64
P-H Mathieu (FRA) d [Q] J Sirianni (AUS) 64 64
[Q] M Ledovskikh (RUS) d [WC] M Nader (UAE) 61 61

Doubles - First Round
[2] S Aspelin/J Knowle d P Hanley/L Paes 61 63
R Gasquet/F Santoro d D Ferrer/F Verdasco 67(5) 62 17-15
[WC] R Bopanna/A-U-H Qureshi d I Andreev/P-H Mathieu 75 64

Wednesday

Andy Murray (pictured right, click for larger) had a hard time against Fernando Verdasco today and needed almost two and a half hours to win. After losing the first set, Verdasco stormed back to take the second, and fittingly, they went to a third set tie break, which Murray ultimately won. According to Murray, he had some knee problem in the second set and that it bothered him a bit, but that he would be ok for his next match. Add that to the windy conditions and the fact that Verdasco's unorthodox lefty style posed some problems, and we can see why Murray had a difficult time with this match.

David Ferrer (pictured left, click for larger) needed three sets - and was near defeat - to beat Olivier Rochus, who put up a valiant effort against his much higher-ranked opponent. In one of the day's few upsets, unseeded Feliciano Lopez beat #8 seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets and now faces Ferrer (Ferrer leads the head-to-head 3-2). Lopez raises his head-to-head against Berdych to 3-2.

Also quietly moving through the draw (though we must say that his draw has been easier than most!), Nikolay Davydenko (pictured right below, click for larger) beat Jan Hernych in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.

In the evening matches, Novak Djokovic beat Fabrice Santoro in straight sets. After playing an excellent first set, Santoro raised his level in the second set. Djokovic looked frustrated in the second set and they went to a tiebreak, which Djokovic won to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, he will meet Igor Andreev (pictured left below, click for larger) who produced the biggest upset of the day in beating Richard Gasquet in straight sets. The result is particularly surprising given Andreev's poor start to the year.

In the final match of the day, Andy Roddick played Paul-Henri Mathieu, and won in straight sets. Mathieu got off to a slow start and dropped his first service game. Although he started to have more success returning as the first set went on, Mathieu didn't play the big points well and Roddick did; this is ultimately the tale of the match. Roddick didn't serve as well as the day before but still didn't get broken as he saved all five break points he faced. It was a poor match overall, with Roddick standing 2-3 meters behind the baseline in the rallies and Mathieu making a lot of errors. Roddick will have to raise his level immensely if he hopes to push Nadal.

Here are the full results from Wednesday's second round play in Dubai:

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] M Ledovskikh (RUS) 64 60
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d F Santoro (FRA) 63 76(3)
[4] D Ferrer (ESP) d O Rochus (BEL) 36 75 61
[5] N Davydenko (RUS) d [Q] J Hernych (CZE) 61 64
[6] A Roddick (USA) d P-H Mathieu 63 64
I Andreev (RUS) d [7] R Gasquet (FRA) 63 64
F Lopez (ESP) d [8] T Berdych (CZE) 62 75
A Murray (GBR) d F Verdasco (ESP) 63 36 76(5)

Doubles - Quarter-finals
[2] S Aspelin/J Knowle d R Gasquet/F Santoro 63 46 10-7

Doubles - First Round
[4] M Bhupathi/M Knowles d [Alt] J Kerr/R Wassen 64 63
P Kohlschreiber/M Youzhny d M Fyrstenbrg/M Matkowski 63 64

Las Vegas

Tuesday's play in Las Vegas saw the completion of the first round. Top seed Fernando Gonzalez avenged his loss to Dudi Sela in last year's Davis Cup World Group Playoff with a straight-set win. Good news for American fans, John Isner (pictured left, click for larger) came back from a set down against Alejandro Falla; this was an important win for the American, who'd suffered some tough early losses in the past few weeks.

More good news for the Americans: Amer Delic (pictured right below, click for larger) fought through a hip injury to upset last year's finalist Jurgen Melzer. The Austrian will surely fall some ranking spots. But the biggest. and perhaps weirdest, upset of the day was South African Kevin Anderson beating Michael Llodra in 2 sets. It was Anderson's first ATP win ever.

In the night match between Marcos Baghdatis (pictured left below, click for larger) against Vince Spadea, Baghdatis, who played some very inconsistent tennis early on, came back from a break down in the first set, to win the set in a tiebreaker. This gave Baghdatis all the confidence he needed and he crushed Spadea in the second set.

On Wednesday, four of the second round matches were played. Guillermo Canas (pictured left, click for larger) beat Chris Guccione fairly easily. Canas will be pleased that he overcame a small hiccup serving for the match at 5-4 in the second; Guccione was able to break back but Canas broke immediately again and serve out the match the second time around. Canas said it was tough to play such a big server but that he is feeling confident and happy with his game.

In a surprisingly easy result, Sam Querrey (pictured right below, click for larger) defeated Nicolas Kiefer 6-3 6-1. Querrey was surprisingly able to break Kiefer's serve five times, and Kiefer could not hold on after going up an early break in the first set. After the match, Querrey expressed his delight with the way he played, saying that he recovered well and improved after a sluggish start; he was especially pleased with how well he returned Kiefer's second serve.

A nice moment for Amer Delic (pictured left below, click for larger) who, at the age of 25, reached his first career ATP-level quarterfinal after Potito Starace retired. After the match he said he felt OK with the windy conditions because those he faced during the qualifying rounds were much worse. Delic was pleased to make his first quarterfinal and joked that Las Vegas is as good a place as ever to get lucky.

The night match between Lleyton Hewitt and Julien Benneteau (pictured right below, click for larger) can only be described as a little bizarre. At the onset, Hewitt looked more comfortable and broke Benneteau in his opening service game. Benneteau started finding his rhythm and range off the ground and troubled Hewitt with lots of consistent crosscourt groundstrokes that forced Hewitt into error. This tactic worked as Benneteau broke Hewitt's serve twice in a row and won the first set 6-3. Quickly racing out to a 0-40 lead on Hewitt's serve to open the second, it looked like a quick and surprising upset might be in the making, but Hewitt saved all three break points, and a fourth ad-out, to hold. He had more break points in Hewitt's next service game but missed an easy forehand and Hewitt pulled off an impressive dropvolley. Finally on his third break chance, Benneteau was able to convert. Serving at 3-2, Hewitt was able to convert his fourth break point to get back on serve, but Benneteau broke back immediately and at love to lead 4*-3. Benneteau served for the match at 5-4 in the second and couldn't make one first serve; add that to a couple of inopportune unforced errors, including a double fault on break point, and Hewitt got right back into it thanks to a classic choke. But Hewitt could not keep the momentum and lost serve immediately; so, Benneteau served for the match a second time. Second time lucky for Benneteau, who served out the match with four unreturned serves. So this bizarre match ended in a huge upset.

Here are the full results from Wednesday's play in Las Vegas:

Singles - Second Round
[4] G Canas (ARG) d [Q] C Guccione (AUS) 62 75
[Q] A Delic (USA) d [5] P Starace (ITA) 63 30 ret. (back)
S Querrey (USA) d [8] N Kiefer (GER) 63 61
J Benneteau (FRA) d [2] L Hewitt (AUS) 63 75

Doubles - First Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d G Canas (ARG) / S Roitman (ARG) 62 61
[4] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) 46 76(3) 10-7
M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d T Johansson (SWE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 64 46 12-10
[WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) / K Economidis (GRE) d X Malisse (BEL) / M Safin (RUS) 64 62

Daily Roundup, Monday, March 3 : First Round Play in Dubai and Las Vegas

2008-03-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

Dubai

Dubai's matches started with an unexpected result, with Fabrice Santoro (pictured right, click for larger) beating last year's finalist Makhail Youzhny 6-3 6-4. Youzhny started out making a lot of unforced errors in the first set, while Santoro used his typical frustrating style and served really well to take the set. The second set was a bit tighter, because Santoro broke to serve at 3-2 but was broken right back. Though the French broke again immediately and held for the rest of the set to close the match, saving three break points in his last service game. Understandably, Santoro was quite pleased with the excellent win, particularly regarding his serve, which he had worked on before the event. Santoro also stressed his love for the event, as evidenced by the fact that he has been one of its most consistent competitors.

In a couple of matches that were perhaps a bit surprising, qualifier Jan Hernych beat Stanslas Wawrinka in straight sets (surprising result) and David Ferrer (pictured left, click for larger) beat Tommy Haas 6-3 6-0 (surprisingly easy).

But, of course, the upset of the day was Andy Murray's (pictured right below, click for larger) win over Roger Federer in a three-set match. Murray didn't face a break point for the entire match, and to say that's unusual in a three set match against Federer would be a terrible understatement. The defeat marks the first time Federer has lost a match in the first round (his loss in Indian Wells last year was technically round 2) since the summer of 2004. Murray probably should have won the first set, as he was up 5-2 in the first set tiebreaker and had a set point, but Federer held strong and went on to win it 8 points to 6. Murray then stormed back in the second and broke at 3-2 and held on for the rest of the set. It was a similar story in the third set and Murray went on to seal his second win over Federer.

After the match Federer admitted that he knew the draw was really tough, especially considering he had not played in over a month, but that he is encouraged because he didn't feel he played terribly, though he admitted he could have played better. Murray of course was thrilled with the win and that the most important thing was that he stepped onto the court with the belief he'd win.

In the late match, Richard Gasquet (pictured below left, click for larger) played a fine match against a streaky Dmitry Tursunov to notch his first win against the Russian in two sets, despite failing to serve for the match the first time he tried to in the second set.

Here are all the results from Monday's first round play in Dubai:

Singles - First Round
A Murray (GBR) d [1] R Federer (SUI) 67(6) 63 64
[4] D Ferrer (ESP) d T Haas (GER) 63 60
[5] N Davydenko (RUS) d [WC] M Ghareeb (KUW) 64 60
[7] R Gasquet (FRA) d D Tursunov (RUS) 64 64
F Santoro (FRA) d M Youzhny (RUS) 63 64
F Verdasco (ESP) d [WC] R Schuettler (GER) 76(7) 46 61
[Q] J Hernych (CZE) d S Wawrinka (SUI) 64 64
I Andreev (RUS) d [Q] J Minar (CZE) 63 64

Doubles - First Round
[1] D Nestor/N Zimonjic d T Berdych/J Nieminen 64 76(6)
[3] M Damm/P Vizner d H Abbas/M Nader 62 62
F Lopez/R Nadal d J Coetzee/W Moodie 64 76(5)

Las Vegas

The seeds had a good day in Las Vegas on Monday. Bringing his injury comeback to the US hardcourts where he had so much success last spring, Guillermo Canas (pictured right, click for larger) recovered from losing his break advantage in the second set to claim the match in a tiebreaker. Another comeback player, Nicolas Kiefer, got his first win since the first week of the year over Benjamin Becker.

The day's most dramatic match was Sam Querrey's (pictured left, click for larger) win over Sebastien Grosjean. After a good start and easy first set, Querrey found himself in a battle and for the third time in the past four weeks saw himself playing a big match in a third set tiebreaker. Perhaps it was third time lucky for Querrey but after losing in the previous two, but after saving a match point, Querrey eked this one out for an excellent win over the veteran Grosjean.

The first evening match between two players known more for their mental instability than much else was an interesting one. Xavier Malisse opened strongly against Robby Ginepri. Malisse was content hanging behind the baseline and hitting down the middle of the court just waiting for Ginepri to make errors - and Ginepri obliged. The roles reversed a bit in the next two sets - Ginepri started hitting high moonballs and Malisse started missing a lot more. Malisse had countless (ok, 13) opportunities to break in the 2nd and 3rd sets but largely blew them, missing many returns and other balls.

Though Malisse broke for 4all to level the third set, he dropped serve immediately and wasted his final two break points in the final game of the match as Ginepri went on to take the win. Ginepri spoke on court after the match and expressed his pleasure with the win, adding that matches like these when he's not playing his best are better for him than when he's on fire.

In the final match of the day, Lleyton Hewitt took on Marat Safin, who looked a step slow throughout. It went from bad to worse for him as he just kept missing balls (31 unforced errors in all) and getting more and more frustrated. Hewitt played well, for him; he did what he had to do: he made returns, kept the ball in play, and served pretty well himself. Unbelievably, Safin only won 45% of his own service points. After the match, Hewitt spoke on TV about working hard with Andre Agassi, Darren Cahill, and Agassi's famous supertrainer Gil Reyes before the tournament. Clearly, arriving in Las Vegas a week in advance and putting in the hard work seems to have worked as Hewitt looked sharp despite his opponent's abysmal play.

Here are the full results from Monday's play in Las Vegas:

Singles - First Round
[4] G Canas (ARG) d T Johansson (SWE) 63 76(3)
[8] N Kiefer (GER) d B Becker (GER) 64 63
E Korolev (RUS) d S Roitman (ARG) 64 46 63
S Querrey (USA) d S Grosjean (FRA) 62 46 76(8) - saved 1 match point
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d X Malisse (BEL) 26 63 64
[2] L Hewitt (AUS) d [WC] M Safin (RUS) 62 61

Doubles - First Round
[3] J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d N Kiefer (GER) / J Melzer (AUT) 67(6) 64 10-5
L Arnold Ker (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI) d A Fisher (AUS) / P Starace (ITA) 63 36 10-7

Week 10 Preview: Dubai and Las Vegas

2008-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

Dubai

What can we really say about this tournament except that money talks. When you have 8 of the top 10 players and a cutoff of 57, this tournament is almost tougher than a Masters Draw, in the sense that the top seeds can face people at the top of the game in the first round. This is no more obvious than at the very top of the draw, where #1 seed and record four-time champion Roger Federer has to open against none other than Andy Murray, ranked #12. With so many fascinating early matchups in this draw, it would take us all day to really do it justice. But here's a more realistic preview. The toughest opponent in Federer's quarter is arguably Murray. Should he get past that, he would likely face friend and compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka or #5 seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. Of course, it's Federer, so it's hard to see him losing before the semifinals, at least. This is Federer's first competition since losing in the Australian Open semifinals, and he said today that he is rested, ready to go, and that the break has been good for him.

The second quarter is highlighted by #4 seed David Ferrer against Tommy Haas. Haas had a good run in Dubai last year, making the semifinals before losing to Federer. But considering the bad losses Haas has had since coming back to the tour a few weeks ago in Delray Beach, we see Ferrer winning this one comfortably. This quarter is chock full of solid players who, should they find some form, could produce some upsets; Jarkko Nieminen, Feliciano Lopez, Janko Tipsarevic, and Olivier Rochus are all capable of showing up on the big stages against the very top players. #8 seed Tomas Berdych opens against Gael Monfils, playing his first match since last September, when he retired due to injury.

Things get no easier in the bottom half. #7 seed Richard Gasquet opens against Dmitry Tursunov. Though Gasquet might be the favorite on paper, he is 0-2 against Tursunov, including a loss in their most recent meeting earlier this year in Sydney. Another interesting match in this quarter is last year's runner-up Mikhail Youzhny against 2002 Dubai champion Fabrice Santoro. Should Youzhny make it through that match, we would likely see an intriguing second round between Youzhny and #3 seed Novak Djokovic. Though this quarter is an excellent one, Djokovic should advance to the semifinal if he has fully recovered from the flu that plagued him during Davis Cup.

And to the final quarter of the draw, where things get no easier. Making a rare appearance overseas when there is a US tournament to pick from, #6 seed Andy Roddick makes his debut in Dubai against 2001 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero. Roddick, however, is 3-0 against Ferrero, all matches on outdoor hardcourt, and should fancy his chances if he is not too jetlagged after the long trip from Memphis. This section contains local wildcard Mahmoud Nader, who isn't worth mentioning except that he's so obscure that he doesn't have a ranking and is not even mentioned on the ITF website. Rounding out the draw is #2 Rafael Nadal, who has a tough opener in Philipp Kohlschreiber. A Roddick/Nadal quarterfinal should be in the cards, and we can hope that should that match come to fruition that Roddick would play better than in their match at Indian Wells last year, which was played under similar conditions.

Las Vegas

In stark contrast to Dubai, Las Vegas's Tennis Channel Open lacks major starpower but still has a respectable field that includes three top 20 players. And the draw still holds plenty of interesting matches. Right at the top of the draw, #1 seed Fernando Gonzalez, returning after a short injury layoff, will look for revenge against Dudi Sela, who beat Gonzalez last year in Israel in a memorable Davis Cup playoff tie. Surely, the loss still stings for Gonzalez and he will be looking forward to the chance for revenge. Also in this section is American wild card John Isner and #6 seed Michael Llodra, who has already won two titles this year. A quarterfinal between Gonzalez and Llodra would be an interesting contrast in style.

The stronger 2nd quarter of the draw is headed by #3 seed Marcos Baghdatis, who has a tricky opening meeting with always-entertaining Vince Spadea. Right below them is an interesting matchup between two players trying to rebuild their form and ranking - wild card entry Robby Ginepri and Xavier Malisse. Rising star Ernests Gulbis is in this section and Robin Soderling, coming off his two consecutive indoor final appearances, will try to take his sky-high serve toss outdoors to windy Las Vegas.

In the bottom half, the third quarter contains several players who came from the Latin American claycourt swing who will try to get their hardcourt feet before the two masters events coming up. Potito Starace will take on fellow claycourter Carlos Berlocq, and #4 seed Guillermo Canas has an interesting opener against Thomas Johansson.

The bottom quarter has undoubtedly the most interesting first round match of the event - and quite a shame considering the relatively weak field - between defending champion and #2 seed Lleyton Hewitt and last year's semifinalist (he lost to Hewitt then) Marat Safin. Also in this section, #8 seed Nicolas Kiefer plays only his second event of the year, and the highest ranked American in the draw - Sam Querrey - will try to make an impact.

Tournament Update: Semifinal and Final Action in Acapulco, Memphis, and Zagreb

2008-03-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

Acapulco

Friday's semifinals went as expected in Acapulco. David Nalbandian (pictured right, click for larger) advanced to his second consecutive final and notched his 10th straight victory with a straight set victory over Luis Horna. After squeaking through a 7-5 first set, he ran away with it 6-1 in the second.

In the second semifinal, Nicolas Almagro (pictured left, click for la won a very tight encounter with Jose Acasuso 7-5 in the third set. Almagro recovered from being an early break down in the third set and closed the match on his third break/match point opportunity. Despite not feeling like he played as well as in his quarterfinal match, Almagro was still pleased with his victory and said he was looking forward to the opportunity to face Nalbandian in the final.

So on Saturday night, Almagro and Nalbandian took the court to face off for the Acapulco title. We don't have much to say about the first set because Nalbandian was woeful and it was like a really good claycourt lesson from Almagro. Nalbandian steadied himself in the second set, and both men had chances on the other players' serve. Fittingly, the set ended up in a tiebreaker, where Nalbandian was pretty much just awful. Several errors later and Almagro sealed the title in two sets. With the title, Almagro picks up his second title of the year and will rise to #25 in the rankings - a career-high. Plus, check out this awesome picture (click for larger!).

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Oliver Marach and Michal Mertinak defeated Agustin Calleri and Luis Horna in a super tiebreak to capture their second ATP title together. The match was an interesting one that contained many momentum swings.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Singles - Semifinals
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d L Horna (PER) 75 61
[6] N Almagro (ESP) d J Acasuso (ARG) 64 36 75

Doubles - Semifinals
[2] O Marach (AUT) / M Mertinak (SVK) d N Massu (CHI) / P Starace (ITA) 75 63
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) vs [4] J Acasuso (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG)

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Singles - Final
[6] N Almagro (ESP) d [1] D Nalbandian (ARG) 61 76(1)

Doubles - Final
[2] O Marach (AUT) / M Mertinak (SVK) d A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) 62 67(3) 10-7

Memphis

In the day's first semifinal, Jonas Bjorkman tried to extend his surprising run, this time against Steve Darcis (pictured right, click for larger). Things started out well for Bjorkman, who won the first set, but Darcis was able to turn it around and won the next two sets pretty easily. This is Darcis's second ATP final

In the second semifinal, Robin Soderling (pictured left below, click for larger) advanced to his second final in a row (and 7th overall) after overcoming Radek Stepanek in two sets. Soderling saved all four of the break points he faced, meaning he has not been broken all week in Memphis in 35 service games.

Soderling brought a 2-4 record into Sunday's final in the hopes of improving it. In the first set, Darcis, playing well throughout, took an early lead and held on throughout the whole set, saving the only break point he faced, to win it 6-3. The second set proved to be a much tighter affair; Soderling was able to raise his serving, which by all accounts kept him in the match as Darcis was the better player from the baseline. Both players held relatively easily throughout, and neither man held a break point, so a tiebreak was the only way the set could have been decided. Although Soderling twice had a minibreak lead, Darcis won it 7 points to 5 to claim his second career title in his second final.

For Soderling, he loses his second final in a row - this one must be a particularly disappointing one, considering the devastating form he had been in all week, having not lost his set. Unfortunately for Soderling, it is not the first final he has lost as the big favorite. For Darcis, he will rise into the top 50 next week and become the #1 Belgian player.

In the doubles final, Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi, one of those new-for-2008 pairings of top doubles players, claimed their first title as a team with a win over the Ratiwatana twins.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Singles - Semifinals

[8] R Soderling (SWE) d [4] R Stepanek (CZE) 76(2) 63
S Darcis (BEL) d J Bjorkman (SWE) 46 61 64

Doubles - Semifinals

[1] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d C Haggard (RSA) / J Melzer (AUT) 76(9) 62
S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d [4] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) 36 63 15-13 (Match Tie-break)

Zagreb

In the first semifinal on Friday in Zagreb, the home crowd was treated to an all-Croatian battle between the country's two biggest stars. This time, Ivan Ljubicic (pictured right, click for larger) came out on top over Mario Ancic in a straight-set victory to advance to his third consecutive Zagreb final (won in 2006, runner-up last year).

In the other semifinal, Sergiy Stakhovsky (pictured left, click for larger), playing in his very first ATP semifinal, continued his stunning run as a lucky loser with a 6-4 6-4 win over Simone Bolelli to be the first lucky loser to make a final since 1999.

In today's final, Stakhovsky capped off his stunning week as a lucky loser by beating #1 seed Ljubicic in straight sets. the 22-year old Stakhovsky becomes the fifth lucky loser to win an ATP title, and the first since 1991. Outside the top 200 before the week started, Stakhovsky will see a large ranking burst with this victory.

Considering it was the young Ukrainian's first ATP Final (and first ATP event of the year!) and that he was playing a hometown favorite, #1 seed, and former top three player, Stakhovsky kept his cool and was very successful on his serve despite having a low percentage (in the second set, he only got 40% of his first serves in but only lost nine points on his serve in the set). Stakhovsky's win in Zagreb adds to an already surprising year on the ATP tour after wins from Kei Nishikori in Delray Beach and Michael Llodra in the full field of Rotterdam. After the match, Stakhovsky mused about how surprised he was by his mental fortitude all week and that it helped to be a lucky loser because he had so little pressure in each of his matches. Likewise, Ljubicic gave all the credit to his opponent, saying he played "unvelievable."

In the doubles final, top seeds Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr defeated Christopher Kas and Rogier Wassen in a super tiebreak to claim their first ATP title together as a team. It was a very close encounter.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Singles - Final
[LL] S Stakhovsky (UKR) d [1] I Ljubicic (CRO) 75 64

Doubles - Final
[1] P Hanley (AUS) / J Kerr (AUS) d [2] C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) 63 36 10-8

Challenger Winners

And of course, our weekly Challenger Circuit Roundup. In Cherbourg, France, #1 seed Thierry Ascione lived up to his top seeding with a tight straight sets win over Kristian Pless, and Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau took the doubles. In Santiago, Chile Thomaz Bellucci beat Eduardo Schwank, who teamed with Mariano Hood to claim the doubles title. And in Wolfsburg, Germany, Louk Sorensen beat Farrukh Dustov in the singles while Carsten Ball and Isaz Van Der Merwe took the doubles.

Tournament Update: 2nd Round & Quarterfinal Action in Acapulco, Memphis, and Zagreb

2008-03-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Acapulco

Wednesday saw the full second round get played in Acapulco. It was not a kind day to the seeds as numbers 2 through 5 all lost. #2 seed Carlos Moya looked lost in a routine loss to Nicolas Massu. Not quite as big of an upset, but Luis Horna upended #3 seed Juan Monaco in straight sets. Clearly, Monaco is still looking for his rhythm. Another not-so-upset was Jose Acasuso's come-from-behind victory over #4 seed Guillermo Canas, who is also still trying to find his form after a lengthy injury layoff. #5 seed Juan Ignacio Chela will drop a few spots in the rankings as he lost in the second round after winning last year. Other seeds David Nalbandian, Nicolas Almagro (pictured right, click for larger), and Potito Starace won, as expected, by routine straight-set scorelines. The final upset of the second round came from qualifier Marcel Granollers-Pujol, who upset Albert Montanes in straight sets.

To Thursday's quarterfinals, then, where all four favorites reigned victorious. Nalbandian (pictured left, click for larger) had no trouble with Starace, and Acasuso (pictured right below, click for larger) ended the run of qualifier Granollers-Pujol. The closest quarterfinal to pick, at least on paper, was that between Horna and Agustin Calleri. Horna (pictured leftbelow, click for larger) ended up the victor after coming back from losing the first set. In the last quarterfinal, Almagro continued his good claycourt form with a hard-fought three-set win over Nicolas Massu, who is trying to revive his career after having an abysmal last few months.

Here are all the results from the second round and quarterfinals in Acapulco:

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d S Ventura (ESP) 62 63
N Massu (CHI) d [2] C Moya (ESP) 64 62
L Horna (PER) d [3] J Monaco (ARG) 76(4) 63
J Acasuso (ARG) d [4] G Canas (ARG) 46 62 62
A Calleri (ARG) d [5] J Chela (ARG) 76(4) 26 61
[6] N Almagro (ESP) d F Volandri (ITA) 63 63
[8] P Starace (ITA) d P Luczak (AUS) 63 63
[Q] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) d A Montanes (ESP) 62 76(6)

Doubles - First Round
[1] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) d C Berlocq (ARG) / O Patience (FRA) 63 64
[4] J Acasuso (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) d P Cuevas (URU) / N Lapentti (ECU) 76(5) 76(4)
[2] O Marach (AUT) / M Mertinak (SVK) d J Brzezicki (ARG) / P Luczak (AUS) 64 61
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d [WC] B Echagaray (MEX) / S Gonzalez (MEX) 62 62

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d [8] P Starace (ITA) 63 63
J Acasuso (ARG) d [Q] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) 76(2) 63
L Horna (PER) d A Calleri (ARG) 64 36 63
[6] N Almagro (ESP) d N Massu (CHI) 46 63 63

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[2] O Marach (AUT) / M Mertinak (SVK) d F Fognini (ITA) / F Volandri (ITA) 61 64
[4] J Acasuso (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) d O Hernandez (ESP) / S Roitman (ARG) 62 64
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d [1] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) 64 62
N Massu (CHI) / P Starace (ITA) d M Gonzalez (ARG) / J Monaco (ARG) 63 61

Memphis

Memphis, being the only tournament of the three this week with a Sunday final, is a day behind the other two events. However, some second round matches were played Wednesday, the most notably being Benjamin Becker (pictured right, click for larger) against Tommy Haas. Despite the fact that Haas won the first set and Becker's results have been poor lately, Becker proved the stronger player at the end and snatched the victory 7-5 in the third. Also on Wednesday, Radek Stepanek fought through a back injury and a break down in the third set to overcome Florent Serra.

On Thursday, the rest of the second round matches were played. Jonas Bjorkman (pictured left, click for larger), perhaps trying to have one last hurrah in singles, had a tough time against #5 seed Sam Querrey. He broke at 1-1 in the first and kept holding easily during the whole first set. In the second set, Querrey started to serve better. He started holding easily and got a break at 5-4 to take the second set. Looked like the third set was going to be like the second, with Querrey having easy holds and Bjorkman having trouble with his own serve. However, They went to a tiebreak and Bjorkman got two points off Querrey's second serve and closed the match for the upset.

Aussie Chris Guccione (pictured right below, click for larger) surprised lots of people beating Thomas Johansson in straight sets without having to play any tiebreaks. The Australian had 100% first serves points won and lost only seven points on his service games. Guccione also had 15 aces against 4 from Johansson, who scored 18 against Safin in the previous round. The Swede had only 43% of first serves in, which surely contributed to his trouble. Guccione advanced to his first quarterfinal outside Australia.

In stark contrast to their battle last week in San Jose, Andy Roddick beat Mardy Fish in straight sets. An interesting stat: Fish only had 42% first serves in and said after the match that he did not play as well as he had the previous week. Donald Young started off well against Alejandro Falla, winning the first set 6-1. It was the same score in the second, this time for Falla. Everything was looking good for Falla in the third set at 3-3 when he had 3 break points, but he was unable to break and lost the three next games and the match. This is Young's first ATP-level quarterfinal.

Friday's quarterfinal matches had a little bit of everything. In the most one-sided match of the day, Steve Darcis (pictured left, click for larger) crushed Becker back to reality with a 6-1 6-0 victory. Bjorkman's match against Young saw a battle of the ages, with Bjorkman taking on an opponent almost half his age. In a see-saw affair that saw Bjorkman playing his second third-set tiebreak in a row, Bjorkman saved a match point to advance to his first singles semifinal in quite some time.

In the night matches, Andy Roddick had to fight through break points all throughout the first set to reach a tiebreaker against Robin Soderling (pictured right, click for larger). But he blew an early lead by missing a few balls and missed out on a set point in the first set tiebreak to drop it to in-form Robin Soderling. Soderling then ran away with the third behind two breaks to close the match. Roddick's loss was a blow to the tournament in more ways than one: it is only the second time since 2001 that the semifinals will not feature an American player. For Soderling, who had double the groundstroke winners of Roddick, says he loves the courts in Memphis and has never played a bad match there (he made the final in 2006), his hot streak on the indoor courts continues and it's hard to see anyone but him holding up the trophy on Sunday. In the final quarterfinal match, Stepanek brushed off any injury concerns with a straight-set win over Chris Guccione.

Here are all the results from the second round and quarterfinals in Memphis:

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

WTA Doubles - Quarterfinals

C Gullickson (USA) / S Perry (USA) vs [3] L Davenport (USA) / L Raymond (USA)
S Arvidsson (SWE) / M Czink (HUN) d M Ani (EST) / S Bremond (FRA) 64 75

ATP Singles - Second Round

B Becker (GER) d [3] T Haas (GER) 36 62 75
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d F Serra (FRA) 76(6) 26 75
S Darcis (BEL) d [7] J Melzer (AUT) 63 76(4)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Singles - Second Round

[1-WC] A Roddick (USA) d M Fish (USA) 64 62
J Bjorkman (SWE) d [5] S Querrey (USA) 64 46 76(4)
C Guccione (AUS) d [6] T Johansson (SWE) 63 64
[8] R Soderling (SWE) d V Hanescu (ROU) 62 61
D Young (USA) d A Falla (COL) 61 16 63

Doubles - Quarterfinals

[1] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Thomas (USA) 63 62
C Haggard (RSA) / J Melzer (AUT) d T Johansson (SWE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 76(3) 36 10-6 (Match Tie-break)
[4] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d S Querrey (USA) / V Spadea (USA) 61 64

Friday, February 29, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals

[8] R Soderling (SWE) d [1] [WC] A Roddick (USA) 76(6) 63
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d C Guccione (AUS) 76(4) 61
S Darcis (BEL) d B Becker (GER) 61 60
J Bjorkman (SWE) d D Young (USA) 16 62 76(6) - Saved 1 M.P.

Doubles - Quarterfinals

S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) 64 75

Zagreb

Like in Acapulco, Wednesday saw the full second round get played. Ivan Lubicic (pictured right, click for larger) defeated Lovro Zovko 64 76 in an all-Croatian match and Mario Ancic had to do very little to beat Denis Gremelmayr. Janko Tipsarevic had to fight through and won in 3 tight sets against another Croatian Roko Karanusic. Two seeds did lose in the second round. Gilles Simon lost to Robin Haase in straight sets and Marin Cilic disappointed the home crowd, who had perhaps expected an all Croatian final, when he lost lost to Simone Bolelli in straight sets. Belgian Olivier Rochus, who seems ot have put his shoulder problems behind him, advanced to his first quarterfinal of the season with a straight-sets win over Stefan Koubek. Lucky Loser Sergiy Stakhovsky kept up his surprising run with a three-set victory over Viktor Troicki.

Thursday's quarterfinals started with another upset for Stakhovsky (pictured left, click for larger), who beat Tipsarevic in three sets to make the semifinals as a lucky loser. Ljubicic had some trouble against Gabashvili, dropping the second set in a tiebreak, but he recovered well to advance to the semifinals. Mario Ancic also continued his solid run after returning from illness and injury with a solid three-set win over Haase, and Bolelli continued his surprising run indoors with a straigh-set win over Rochus.

Here are all the results from the second round and quarterfinals in Zagreb:

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Singles - Second Round
O Rochus (BEL) d S Koubek (AUT) 62 64
T Gabashvili (RUS) d R de Voest (RSA) 75 61
[8] J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [WC] R Karanusic (CRO) 63 67(4) 64
[LL] S Stakhovsky (UKR) d 76(7) 36 64
R Haase (NED) d [3] G Simon (FRA) 62 64
M Ancic (CRO) d D Gremelmayr (GER) 63 62
[1] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [WC] L Zovko (CRO) 64 76(3)
S Bolelli (ITA) d [5] M Cilic (CRO) 64 63

Doubles - First Round
J Smit (NED) / M Van Haasteren (NED) d T Gabashvili (RUS) / G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 67(9) 75 10-4
[4] Y Allegro (SUI) / A Peya (AUT) d J Auckland (GBR) / D Gremelmayr (GER) 67(4) 61 10-4

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] P Hanley (AUS) / J Kerr (AUS) d M Berrer (GER) / F Mayer (GER) w/o (Mayer - back)
J Cerretani (USA) / F Polasek (SVK) d R de Voest (RSA) / R Hutchins (GBR) 75 76(1)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[LL] S Stakhovsky (UKR) d [8] J Tipsarevic (SRB) 36 64 62
[1] I Ljubicic (CRO) d T Gabashvili (RUS) 62 67(5) 63
M Ancic (CRO) d R Haase (NED) 63 36 63
S Bolelli (ITA) d O Rochus (BEL) 76(5) 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[4] Y Allegro (SUI) / A Peya (AUT) d I Karlovic (CRO) / L Zovko (CRO) 64 63
[2] C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) d J Smit (NED) / M Van Haasteren (NED) 64 76(3)

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] P Hanley (AUS) / J Kerr (AUS) d J Cerretani (USA) / F Polasek (SVK) 63 62

Tournament Update: First Round Action in Acapulco, Memphis, and Zagreb

2008-02-27T21:43:00.000-08:00

We've all been a little busy this week, so here's our take on all the action from the first round of play this week! We'll be back tomorrow to recap the complete second round!

Acapulco

Monday's play only saw four of the sixteen first round matches played. Seed Nicolas Almagro kept up his good form with an easy win, and #3 seed Juan Monaco got his first win after coming back from the ankle injury and beat Brzezicki in 3 tough sets. The only upset was Albert Montanes's (pictured right, click for larger) straight-set win over #7 seed Igor Andreev. This reaffirms his poor start to the year, especially considering he had come into the match with a 4-0 head to head against Montanes.

Since only four matches were played on Monday, that left 12 matches for Tuesday in a very busy day in Acapulco! The good news is that every single one of them turned out the way we'd have expected! In fact, every seed in action on Tuesday for their first round matches won, mostly easily. The only real drama of the day was Guillermo Canas's (pictured left, click for larger) marathon 3-hour win over Carlos Berlocq. Canas was broken when he served for the match at 5-3 in the third set, but managed to eke it out 6-4. Good news for defending champ Juan Ignacio Chela: he had a solid straight-sets win over the in-form Pablo Cuevas. Solid Argentine Agustin Calleri (pictured below right) sent the best local hope Bruno Echagaray packing in a routine match.

Here are the full first round results from Acapulco:

Monday, February 25, 2008

Singles - First Round
[3] J Monaco (ARG) d J Brzezicki (ARG) 63 26 63
[6] N Almagro (ESP) d J Vanek (CZE) 61 62
A Montanes (ESP) d [7] I Andreev (RUS) 76(4) 63
[Q] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) d [WC] B Rodriguez (MEX) 63 63

Doubles - First Round
F Fognini (ITA) / F Volandri (ITA) d A Fisher (AUS) / S Huss (AUS) 62 36 12-10

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Singles - First Round
[4] G Canas (ARG) d C Berlocq (ARG) 64 67(5) 64
[5] J Chela (ARG) d [Q] P Cuevas (URU) 76(4) 64
[8] P Starace (ITA) d [Q] N Lapentti (ECU) 64 62
P Luczak (AUS) d S Roitman (ARG) 63 64
L Horna (PER) d F Fognini (ITA) 64 75
J Acasuso (ARG) d O Hernandez (ESP) 64 60
N Massu (CHI) d M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 63 64
A Calleri (ARG) d [WC] B Echagaray (MEX) 64 61
F Volandri (ITA) d [Q] I Minar (CZE) 64 75
S Ventura (ESP) d [WC] C Ramirez (MEX) 63 61
[2] C Moya (ESP) d W Eschauer (AUT) 64 64
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d B Pashanski (SRB) 62 75

Doubles - First Round
O Hernandez (ESP) / S Roitman (ARG) d A Montanes (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 64 75
N Massu (CHI) / P Starace (ITA) d [3] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) 64 75
M Gonzalez (ARG) / J Monaco (ARG) d [WC] L Arnold Ker (ARG) / C Moya (ESP) 64 67(2) 10-4

Memphis

The opening day of play in Memphis saw few surprises. Jonas Bjorkman notched his first win of the year with a comprehensive victory over Paul Capdeville. The day's only real drama came from Jurgen Melzer (pictured right, click for larger), who came back from the brink of defeat against John Isner to take the victory in a third set tiebreak. For Isner, who was sick with the flu and almost didn't play the match, it is the second loss in a row where he had a match point. It was a nice comeback from Melzer, who let a 6-4 lead in the first set tiebreak slip away and came back from a minibreak down in the third set tiebreak. Defending champion and #3 seed Tommy Haas avenged his loss to Diego Hartfield two weeks ago in Delray Beach with a routine win this time. An interesting stat from Monday is that in Chris Guccione's straight-sets win over Robert Kendrick in two tiebreaks, Kendrick actually won more points in each set, despite losing them.

Tuesday began with the unfortunate loss of #2 seed James Blake before the first ball was struck. Citing a sore knee, Blake pulled out and will return for Indian Wells in mid-March. That left Donald Young to play lucky loser Sam Warburg, and Young took full advantage of the opportunity to notch the win. Tuesday's play saw few upsets, but some drama. Mardy Fish recovered from losing the first set in a tiebreak against Bobby Reynolds and Sam Querrey (pictured left, click for larger) was within two points of defeat with his opponent Michael Russell serving for the match at 5-3 30-15. Russell was struggling at the end of the match with a shoulder injury and Querrey was able to come back from the brink of defeat to win the final four games of the match.

Thomas Johansson (pictured right, click for larger) beat Marat Safin, playing for the first time since the Australian Open because of injury, in two tiebreak sets. Johansson was down a break in the second but managed to close it out in two sets. Last week's San Jose finalist Radek Stepanek got off to a solid start with a routine win over qualifier Jesse Levine.

Wednesday saw the final two matches of the first round. Robin Soderling, fresh off the plane from Rotterdam, had no trouble beating qualifier Frederic Niemeyer and in the last match, Andy Roddick (pictured left, click for larger) did not face a break point in a straight-sets win against Gilles Muller, who served 12 aces in the second set and had a 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker before Roddick closed out the match.

Here are all the results from the first round of play in Memphis:

Monday, February 25, 2008

Singles - First Round

[3] T Haas (GER) d D Hartfield (ARG) 63 62
[7] J Melzer (AUT) d [WC] J Isner (USA) 67(8) 63 76(4) - Saved 1 M.P.
C Guccione (AUS) d R Kendrick (USA) 76(6) 76(5)
F Serra (FRA) vs M Daniel (BRA) 61 62
A Falla (COL) d D Sela (ISR) 64 62
J Bjorkman (SWE) d P Capdeville (CHI) 63 61

Doubles - First Round

T Johansson (SWE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) d [3] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) 16 64 10-7 (Match Tie-break)
S Querrey (USA) / V Spadea (USA) d R Ram (USA) / B Reynolds (USA) 36 60 12-10 (Match Tie-break) - Saved 4 M.P.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Singles - First Round

[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d [Q] J Levine (USA) 61 64
[5] S Querrey (USA) d M Russell (USA) 36 63 75
[6] T Johansson (SWE) d [WC] M Safin (RUS) 76(5) 76(2)
V Hanescu (ROU) d Y Lu (TPE) 63 2-1 Ret. (illness)
S Darcis (BEL) d V Spadea (USA) 75 46 76(4)
M Fish (USA) d [Q] B Reynolds (USA) 67(3) 64 62
D Young (USA) d [LL] S Warburg (USA) 64 64
B Becker (GER) d K Vliegen (BEL) 75 76(1)

Doubles - First Round

S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d [2] J Bjorkman (SWE) / K Ullyett (ZIM) 36 76(4) 11-9 (Match Tie-break)
C Haggard (RSA) / J Melzer (AUT) d [WC] A Kuznetsov (USA) / R Sweeting (USA) 67(5) 64 12-10 (Match Tie-break)
I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Thomas (USA) d R Bopanna (IND) / D Sela (ISR) 75 64

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Singles - Second Round

B Becker (GER) d [3] T Haas (GER) 36 62 75
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d F Serra (FRA) 76(6) 26 75
S Darcis (BEL) d [7] J Melzer (AUT) 63 76(4)

Doubles - First Round

[1] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d [WC] J Isner (USA) / D Young (USA) 64 62
[4] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d M Safin (RUS) / R Stepanek (CZE) W/O (Stepanek-back; still in singles)
S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) d E Butorac (USA) / T Perry (AUS) 76(2) 36 10-7 (Match Tie-break)

Zagreb

Like in Acapulco, only four matches were played in Zagreb on Monday. The only real drama was Stefan Koubek's surprisingly difficult win over local Franco Skugor. He had to recover from losing the first set and save two match points in the second set before running away with a bagel in the third set.

This left for a very busy day Tuesday. Leading the charge were the local Croatians. #1 seed and local hero Ivan Ljubicic opened against tough youngster Ernests Gulbis, but didn't drop serve in his straight sets win. Marin Cilic and Mario Ancic both won their opening round matches, Ancic in an "upset" of Nicolas Mahut in two tight tiebreaks. Other Croatians Roko Karanusic (pictured left, click for larger) and Lovro Zovko (pictured right below, click for larger), who notched an upset over last week's Challenger winner Marc Gicquel. The news wasn't so good for the last Croatian, #2 seed Ivo Karlovic, who was surprisingly upset by lucky loser Sergiy Stakhovsky.

The only other upset of note was Rik de Voest's victory over #7 seed and in-form Andreas Seppi. This is a surprising upset considering de Voest has done nothing on the tour for some time, and Seppi had shown such great form last week in beating Lleyon Hewitt and Rafael Nadal.

Here are Tuesday's results from Zagreb:

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Singles - First Round
T Gabashvili (RUS) d F Mayer (GER) 76(6) 60
[WC] R Karanusic (CRO) d [Q] B Kavcic (SLO) 67(9) 64 64
R de Voest (RSA) d [7] A Seppi (ITA) 64 76(3)
[WC] L Zovko (CRO) d M Gicquel (FRA) 63 75
V Troicki (SRB) d [Q] G Bastl (SUI) 63 76(3)
[LL] S Stakhovsky (UKR) d [2] I Karlovic (CRO) 46 76(5) 62
[3] G Simon (FRA) d [Q] P Cervenak (SVK) 76(2) 61
R Haase (NED) d M Berrer (GER) 64 63
[1] I Ljubicic (CRO) d E Gulbis (LAT) 63 76(7)
D Gremelmayr (GER) d [Q] S de Chaunac (FRA) 67(2) 61 64
M Ancic (CRO) d [6] N Mahut (FRA) 76(3) 76(6)
[5] M Cilic (CRO) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 62 62

Doubles - First Round
R de Voest (RSA) / R Hutchins (GBR) d [WC] I Dodig (CRO) / F Skugor (CRO) 64 64
[1] P Hanley (AUS) / J Kerr (AUS) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) / V Troicki (SRB) 67(4) 62 10-6

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] P Hanley (AUS) / J Kerr (AUS) d M Berrer (GER) / F Mayer (GER) w/o (Mayer - back)

Week 9 Preview: Acapulco, Memphis, Zagreb

2008-02-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

Acapulco

The South American clay swing makes a stop in North America this week, as the claycourters of the tour convene in Acapulco, Mexico in the mini-tour's biggest event, offering 250 points to the winner. In the first quarter of the draw, this week's Buenos Aires champion and #1 David Nalbandian looks to have a pretty decent draw to the semifinals. But he could face in-form Santiago Ventura in the second round and sometimes-dangerous Potito Starace in the quarterfinals.

The second quarter of the draw is full of good clay courters. Juan Monaco will try to have a better week than last week, when he lost in the first round in his return to the tour after an ankle injury. But in the second round he could face either former champion Luis Horna or Fabio Fognini in one of the most interesting first round matches of the draw. Both are solid claycourters and are in good form, so this could be a really exciting match. Also in this section is #5 seed Juan Ignacio Chela who will try to build on the momentum he started last week in making the semis at Buenos Aires, especially since he is defending champion and has many points at stake if he loses early.

To the bottom of the draw, where things don't get any easier. The third quarter is also full of claycouters. Igor Andreev has a tough opening against Alberto Montanes, who gave him a tough match last week in Buenos Aires, and #4 seed Guillermo Canas makes his first appearance of 2008 after injuries hampered him at the end of 2007. He faces a tough opener in Carlos Berlocq, and in the second round would face the winner of another tough match between Buenos Aires finalist Jose Acasuso and Oscar Hernandez.

The final quarter of the draw could be the worst of all. Nicolas Almagro should ease into the second round where he could face Filippo Volandri, who has recently had some good results. #2 seed and defending finalist Carlos Moya opens against Werner Eschauer, and should win that to face either Nicolas Massu or Martin Vasallo Arguello.

Who will come out of this draw as Acapulco champion is really anyone's guess with a field this strong and this many points and prize dollars up for grabs!

Memphis

Being an International Series Gold event, this tournament offers more points, more money, and thus a better field, than the two previous US events we've looked at. The tournament got an additional boost on Wednesday when 2002 champion, defending finalist, and most popular player by far, Andy Roddick took a late wildcard. Whether adding this event fresh off his San Jose title today will affect Roddick's plans for Dubai remains to be seen, but we are glad to see he decided to play this event which supported him at the start of his career and where he has had success and done a lot of good work with the hospital that the event benefits.

And now to the draw, headed by Roddick at the top and James Blake at the bottom. Roddick will open against Gilles Muller, famous for beating Roddick in three tiebreaks in the first round of the 2005 US Open. Roddick won their last match easily, but Muller's big lefty serve might pose problems for Roddick. Roddick could also face Mardy Fish a rematch of their San Jose quarterfinal in the second round. And should Roddick pass these tests, he will likely face a red-hot Robin Soderling, fresh off his runs in Marseille in Rotterdam across the Pond. If he isn't too affected by the jet lag and amount of matches he's been playing, Soderling's level would pose a threat to Roddick or anyone else, and that could be a cracking quarterfinal match.

The second quarter of the draw also contains some intriguing matches. Headed by Radek Stepanek, fresh off his run to the final in San Jose, the quarter also contains one of the most interesting first round matches of the entire week between Thomas Johansson and Marat Safin, which is a rematch of the 2002 Australian Open final and will be a battle of the backhands.

To the bottom half, where the only intrigue of the third quarter is the rematch from Delray Beach's first round where Diego Hartfield stopped Tommy Haas. Look for Haas to gain revenge this week. If Haas keeps regaining his form, look for him to make the quarters where he could face John Isner (who has beaten him in two very tight matches) or Jurgen Melzer - those two face off in an interesting first round match.

And the last quarter of the draw, where the most interesting match is that between #2 seed James Blake and hyped youngster Donald Young. Look for Blake to show Young he still has a long way to go before he can really compete with the big boys. If #5 seed Sam Querrey can keep his head and make it through his first two matches, an interesting quarterfinal with Blake could loom.

Zagreb

The weaker hardcourt event this week, Zagreb has no players inside the top 20. But local fans will be happy that the top two seets are both Croatians: Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic. Ivan Ljubicic will have to find his form early as he opens against rising star Ernests Gulbis, who has already achieved some good wins in his young career. Andreas Seppi, who had excellent wins against Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal last week in Rotterdam, is in this section and if his form is still at the same level, he could give Ljubicic some trouble in the quarters.

In the second quarter, Robin Haase and Michael Berrer will face off in a rematch of their Rotterdam match, and Croatia's hope Mario Ancic opens in an interesting match against Nicolas Mahut in a clash of big servers.

To the bottom of the draw where #5 seed and Croatia's hope for the future Marin Cilic will open against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez who interestingly chose to make the long trip to Zagreb from San Jose, where he made the semifinals and could be exhausted. Also look out for Stefan Koubek in this quarter; he's gotten off to a good start in 2008. Finally, #4 seed Fabrice Santoro faces an interesting match with fellow talented ATP Tour shorty favorite Olivier Rochus, who has been battling pretty serious shoulder problems.

In the fourth quarter of the draw, Ivo Karlovic might have to face his Rotterdam conqueror and tourney champion Michael Llodra in the second round. Also lurking as a dangerous opponent in this section is #8 seed Janko Tipsarevic, who has started 2008 with excellent results.

Here's to another exciting week on the ATP Tour!

Daily Roundup: Sunday, February 24

2008-02-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

In today's all-Argentine final, Jose Acasuso got off to a good start against David Nalbandian (pictured right, click for larger). Acasuso broke twice in the first set and took it 6-3. The second set was a much tighter affair; the players traded breaks with Nalbandian holding the early lead, but he could not keep it up, Acasuso got back into the set, and it went to a tiebreak. Acasuso was up 3-1 in the tiebreak and could taste the victory, but he fell apart and Nalbandian, like he has done so many times, snatched the set. Acasuso had a couple of break chances early in the third set but could not convert, but at 3all, Nalbandian converted his first break chance of the set when Acasuso doublefaulted, and he held on to win. After the match, Acasuso, who was the favorite of the majority of the crowd, was crying at the disappointment and the emotions of the tough months he had faced recently with his form. Both players agreed that Buenos Aires is their favorite tournament to play because it's the only time they get to play a tournament at home.

For Nalbandian, it was his first title at home and after the match, he expressed his happiness and how pleased he was to win this title for the first time.

In the doubles final, Agustin Calleri and Luis Horna (pictured left, click for larger) teamed up to take the title over Eschauer and Luczak. It's the first title for Calleri and Horna together. Both agreed it was nice to play with fellow friends and that they hope to play together again soon.

Singles - Final
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d J Acasuso (ARG) 36 76(5) 64

Doubles - Final
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d W Eschauer (AUT) / P Luczak (AUS) 60 67(6) 10-2

Rotterdam

The interesting matchup between Michael Llodra and Robin Soderling (both pictured right, click for larger) did not disappoint. In an exciting match, the first set could not have been tighter; neither man even had a break point and the set went to a tiebreak, which Soderling won. But Llodra came right back in the second, breaking early. He would lose that break but would get another and took the second set 6-3. Much like the first, the players barely got a sniff on the other's serve in the third set. Llodra faced no break points and Soderling saved the only break point he faced. So, the set and thus the title, came down to a final-set tiebreak. At 3-4, Soderling doublefaulted and Llodra held out to win his second title of the year and third title overall.

Llodra was thrilled with the win; he called it his biggest title and one of the best matches he's ever played and attributed his success to staying relaxed on his serve. Soderling admitted that it was one of those matches that comes down to a few points here and there and that Llodra deserved the win because he played better on those big points. Showing his class in victory, Llodra gave credit to Soderling for his quick comeback after missing six months with a serious injury and said he expects to see Soderling much higher in the rankings. In fact, this finals run will earn Soderling 17 spots in the rankings as he edges back towards to the top 50.

In the "all-singles" doubles final, the team of Tomas Berdych and Dmitry Tursunov (pictured left, click for larger) edged out a win over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Mikhail Youzhny. It's Berdych and Tursunov's first title as a team and Berdych's first overall (Tursunov's third).

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Singles - Final
M Llodra (FRA) d R Soderling (SWE) 67(3) 63 76(4)

Doubles - Final
T Berdych (CZE) / D Tursunov (RUS) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) / M Youzhny (RUS) 75 36 10-7

San Jose

Andy Roddick (pictured right, click for larger) looked for his third San Jose title today against Radek Stepanek, and he got it. Despite making all of his first serves in the opening game, Stepanek was broken to love. Roddick held on fairly easily for the rest of the set to take it 6-4. The second set was a bit tighter; both men had looks on the other's serve early on but could not convert. Stepanek continued approaching to Roddick's backhand, which appeared to start breaking down near the end of the set. Stepanek kept approaching, and Roddick's defensive play often failed him on the return. However, he served well and kept himself in the match that way, and he also made the occasional passing shot. At 5all in the second, Stepanek approached on an ill-advised shot to Roddick's forehand, and he smacked the winner for the break and held out easily to win. While a better player probably would have taken advantage of Roddick's lack of aggression, he did enough to get the job done today and take his 24th career singles title and 3rd in San Jose. Roddick did not face a break point throughout the whole match and ended each set with an ace. Roddick also improved his head-to-head over Stepanek to a perfect 4-0.

After the match, Roddick said he was happy to build on his form over the course of the week after coming in to the tournament low on match play and that this tournament was more important than it usually is for him because he needed it to get his way back on track. Stepanek gave Roddick credit for not allowing him to really get in the match, noting that usually he is the one who throws his opponents off their rhythm but that Roddick simply did not allow him to do that today. Roddick hopes to be able to build on this week as the season continues and Roddick has many points to defend in the coming weeks with his Memphis final and Indian Wells semifinal. With several players hot on his heels, he will need to play well in the coming weeks if he wants to remain in the top ten.

In the doubles final, Bob and Mike Bryan's woes in finals continue as they fall to 0-3 on the year with another close loss, this time a 7-6 7-5 win from David Martin and Scott Lipsky, who had some good wins during the week. The Bryans will rue the many missed break opportunities in the second set and have to go back to the drawing board to figure out why they have been unable to win any of the three close finals they have played so far this year.

Singles - Final
[1] A Roddick (USA) d [4] R Stepanek (CZE) 64 75

Doubles - Final
S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) d [1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) 76(4) 75

Challenger Circuit

Only one Challenger event to talk about this week, in Besancon France. Out of a fairly strong field that featured five top 100 players, #2 seed Marc Gicquel beat Alexander Peya (both players pictured right, click for larger) to take the singles title, and Philipp Petzschner and Peya teamed up for the doubles title.

Daily Roundup: Saturday, February 23

2008-02-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

The weather was windy for the day's first semifinal, so it is no surprise that it was an error-filled contest from both players. Filippo Volandri started off well against Jose Acasuso (pictured right, click for larger), taking the first set 6-4. Despite Volandri's weak serve, Acasuso couldn't do much with it and was playing very poor tennis for about a set and a half. Volandri went up a break in the second set and finally, Acasuso started making returns and got the upper hand, taking the second set 6-4. Like the second set, Volandri again went up an early break in the third and again could not hold on, despite the amazing fact that he made 100% of his first serves in the third set.

We don't have much to talk about from the second semifinal. David Nalbandian (pictured left, click for larger) ended Juan Ignacio Chela's first good run of the year with an easy routine win. So, it will be an all-Argentine final in Buenos Aires, which should make the home crowd happy.

Singles - Semifinals
J Acasuso (ARG) d [8] F Volandri (ITA) 46 64 64
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d [4] J Chela (ARG) 61 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d [2] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) 75 62

Doubles - Semifinals
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d [WC] J Acasuso (ARG) / M Hood (ARG) 63 16 10-8

Rotterdam

In the first semifinal, serve-volleyers Michael Llodra (pictured right, click for larger) and Ivo Karlovic played a tightly-contested match. Despite the barrage of aces from Karlovic, Llodra was able to break serve at the end of the first set and went on to take the second set in a tiebreaker after saving his only break (and set) point of the match at 5-6. With this win, Llodra advances to his second final of the year and ties his win total from all of last year (at 13), and it's only February!

In the second semifinal, Robin Soderling (pictured left, click for larger) put on a tennis clinic against Gilles Simon. Serving great, attacking, and hitting down the line winners from all parts of the court, Soderling looked simply unstoppable by the end of the match, when it looked as if every ball he touched was turning into gold. Sealing the deal with an impressive backhand down the line in the corner, Soderling advances to the final and proves that he is completely back from his injury and finding his best form on the indoor courts that have brought most of his previous successes.

Tomorrow's final between two in-form players who play very different styles should be a riveting one.

In doubles, the singles pairing of Berdych/Tursunov upset Erlich and Ram, who had won 9 matches in a row dating back to the Australian Open.

Singles - Semifinals
M Llodra (FRA) d I Karlovic (CRO) 75 76(4)
R Soderling (SWE) d G Simon (FRA) 62 61

Doubles - Semifinals
P Kohlschreiber (GER) / M Youzhny (RUS) d [2] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) 76(5) 75
T Berdych (CZE) / D Tursunov (RUS) d [3] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) 75 46 10-7

San Jose

In today's first semifinal, Radek Stepanek (pictured right, click for larger) took on resurgent Robby Ginepri. The first set couldn't have been closer; neither player even faced a break point. In the tiebreaker, Stepanek raced out to a 4-1 lead but Ginepri brought it back to 5all and won the next two points to sneak out the set. He then had two break points on Stepanek's serve, which would've put victory within reach. But Ginepri was unable to convert, and Stepanek went on to finally break himself to take the set 6-4. Stepanek then broke early in the third. Ginepri had a point to break right back but was unable to convert and then dropped his serve again. Stepanek raced out to a 5-1 lead and broke again to take the match 6-1 in the third to advance to the final, his 7th, where he will try to win his third singles title and look to improve on his 2-4 record in finals.

In the second semifinal, Andy Roddick (pictured left, click for larger) played Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his sixth consecutive semifinal in San Jose (look at his impressive tournament history here). Both men had won tight first set tiebreaks in their quarterfinal matches, and tonight would be no different. Both men held relatively easily throughout (Roddick had to claw out of 15-30 a few times and Garcia-Lopez had to save a break point at 3-4), but Roddick raised his level in the tiebreak and ran away with it 7-2 after winning a long rally punctuated by a rare backhand down-the-line passing shot winner. Perhaps deflated after fighting so hard in the first set and still losing it, Garcia-Lopez quickly went down 0-40 to open the second, but dug back to deuce and had a game point, only to end up dropping serve on Roddick's fourth break point. Roddick saved his own break point serving at 2-1 in the second, and pretty much ran away with it after that. Garcia-Lopez tried to make one last gasp, saving 0-40 and a 4th ad-out match point serving at 1-5, but Roddick finally converted his 5th match point in the game for a 7-6 6-1 victory. An interesting stat of the match is that Garcia-Lopez actually did better on his second serve than Roddick winning 57% of his second serve points to Roddick's 47%. But in the end it didn't matter as Roddick moved on to his 3rd San Jose final and his first final since July of last year. He will take a 3-0 head-to-head into the match against Stepanek tomorrow.

In the doubles final, world #1 Bryan twins will try to turn around their 0-2 record in 2008 Finals tomorrow. It could have been a fun and fascinating all-twins doubles final, but the Ratiwatana twins fell in the semifinals today.

Singles - Semifinals
[1] A Roddick (USA) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 76(2) 61
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d [WC] R Ginepri (USA) 67(5) 64 61

Doubles - Semifinals
S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) d S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) 76(3) 64
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d S Darcis (BEL) / K Vliegen (BEL) 62 76(2)

Tournament Updates: Buenos Aires, Rotterdam, and San Jose

2008-02-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

Yesterday's end to the second round brought few surprises in Buenos Aires. Sixth seed Igor Andreev (pictured right, click for larger) started off really well against Jiri Vanek, winning a 6-1 first set. But of course, it wasn't as easy as Andreev himself thought it would be. He was bagelled in the second set but ended up winning the third 64. In another important match, Agustin Calleri (pictured left, click for larger) played against Luis Horna. They've played a lot of matches against each other, plus they pair for doubles in some tournaments. It was the third match between them this year already, and Calleri won 3-6 6-2 6-2 to score the second win in 2008 against one for Horna. Calleri now leads their head-to-head 5-3 (7-3 counting the challengers).

In today's quarterfinal matches, Jose Acasuso (pictured left below, click for larger) beat Igor Andreev to be the first Argentine in the semifinals. Filippo Volandri (pictured right below, click for larger) also advanced to the semifinals beating Agustin Calleri in straight sets 6-4 6-4. Believe it or not, Volandri wasn't broken at all during the match, despite the fact that Calleri had 11 chances to break and scored 9 aces in the match. Like David Nalbandian has done so many times, he escaped narrowly from defeat with a tight three-set win over Potito Starace. In the third set, Nalbandian led 4-1 with two breaks and looked like he would go on to win easily. However, at 5-2, he had difficulty serving out the match and Starace broke back then held easily. Serving for the match again at 5-4, Nalbandian faced a break point, but he saved it and held on for the victory. In the day's final quarterfinal match, Juan Ignacio Chela ended Nicolas Almagro's 7-match winning streak when the Spaniard retired in the second set due to a groin injury.

Here are all the results from Thursday and Friday's play in Buenos Aires:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[6] I Andreev (RUS) d J Vanek (CZE) 61 06 64
[8] F Volandri (ITA) d S Roitman (ARG) 75 75
J Acasuso (ARG) d [Q] D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 63 64
A Calleri (ARG) d L Horna (PER) 36 62 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
W Eschauer (AUT) / P Luczak (AUS) d J Brzezicki (ARG) / S Ventura (ESP) 64 36 10-8 (Match TB)
A Montanes (ESP) / R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) d O Hernandez (ESP) / S Roitman (ARG) 63 64

Friday, February 22, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
J Acasuso (ARG) d [6] I Andreev (RUS) 36 61 63
[8] F Volandri (ITA) d A Calleri (ARG) 64 64
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d [7] P Starace (ITA) 46 76(5) 64
[4] J Chela (ARG) d [5] N Almagro (ESP) 63 21 ret. (groin)

Doubles - Quarterfinals
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) vs [2] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) - postponed till Saturday
[WC] J Acasuso (ARG) / M Hood (ARG) d [WC] L Arnold Ker (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) 64 76(9)

Doubles - Semifinals
W Eschauer (AUT) / P Luczak (AUS) d A Montanes (ESP) / R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 46 63 12-10 (Match TB)

Rotterdam

To say Thursday's second round wasn't a happy day for the seeds in Rotterdam would be a huge understatement. In fact, all the seeds left in the draw lost, most notably world number two and top seed Rafael Nadal. He lost to Italian Andreas Seppi (pictured right, click for larger) in three sets in a truly shocking upset. Nadal started really well, winning the first set 6-3, but he couldn't keep his level and lost the other two 63 and 64. It was Seppi's first win over Nadal in three matches. Second seed Nicolay Davydenko lost to Michael Llodra (pictured left, click for larger). The Russian had a 4-0 head-to-head record against the Frenchmen, having never even lost a set before. Llodra had a solid display and won 63 75, coming back from 0-40 when serving for match.

The upsets just kept coming. Third seed David Ferrer was beaten by qualifier Mischa Zverev (pictured right, click for larger) 6-2 7-5; Ferrer had few chances to come back into the match. Fifth seed Tomas Berdych also said goodbye to Rotterdam after losing to Ivo Karlovic 6-4 6-4. We're not used to seeing Karlovic beating guys like Berdych without tiebreaks. We can't forget to mention Berdych didn't have any break points in the whole match.

Local hero Robin Haase had a hard time against Michael Berrer, and needed three sets to go through to the quarterfinals. Even though Haase was the favorite after beating Andy Murray, he lost a 4-1 advantage in the third set and got to broke again at 4-3 with good returns and passing shots and closed the match 5-7 6-3 6-3. Robin Soderling showed his old good form continued beating Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 6-4 6-1. At 4-all in the first set, Soderling saved a 0-40 and held to end up winning the set in the next game. After that, Verdasco fell apart and won just one game until the end of the match.

In today's quarterfinal action, Ivo Karlovic (pictured left, click for larger) ended Mischa Zverev's run with a shockingly easy 6-3 6-1. Karlovic hitting 15 aces and putting 79% of his first serves in. Some wonder who can stop him... so do we! Playing at home didn't help Robin Haase to score his third win over Michael Llodra; they played twice last year and Haase won both matches. Llodra won in two tight tie breaks, and there were no breaks of serve in the whole match. The semifinal between Llodra and Karlovic should be interesting because both have awesome serves and come to net quite a lot. Robin Soderling (pictured right below, click for larger) reached the semifinals after beating Andreas Seppi in a routine straight-set win, who's beaten top seed Rafael Nadal in the previous round. Soderling wasn't broken in the whole match.

Here are all the results from Thursday and Friday's play in Rotterdam:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[Q] M Zverev (GER) d [3] D Ferrer (ESP) 62 75
M Llodra (FRA) d [2] N Davydenko (RUS) 63 75
I Karlovic (CRO) d [5] T Berdych (CZE) 64 64
A Seppi (ITA) d [1] R Nadal (ESP) 36 63 64
[WC] R Haase (NED) d M Berrer (GER) 57 63 63
R Soderling (SWE) d F Verdasco (ESP) 64 61

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[2] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) d R Nadal (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) w/o (Robredo - back)
P Kohlschreiber (GER) / M Youzhny (RUS) d M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 76(6) 76(5)

Friday, February 22, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
I Karlovic (CRO) d [Q] M Zverev (GER) 63 61
M Llodra (FRA) d [WC] R Haase (NED) 76(5) 76(5)
R Soderling (SWE) d A Seppi (ITA) 63 62
G Simon (FRA) d [Q] T Gabashvili (RUS) 63 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[3] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d J Benneteau (FRA) / N Mahut (FRA) 62 57 10-6 (Match TB)
T Berdych (CZE) / D Tursunov (RUS) d [WC] R Haase (NED) / P Wessels (NED) 61 64

San Jose

The only real upset of Thursday's 2nd round play in San Jose was John Isner's (pictured right, click for larger) come-from-behind win over #2 seed Tommy Haas, who is still looking for his old form after a shoulder injury. Isner saved three match points at 3-6 in the second set tiebreak to win it 8 points to 6, then broke to start the third set and went on to win from there. In the night session, James Blake (pictured left, click for larger) showed young rising American Jesse Levine what it's like to play a top player. Levine should be proud of his effort as he had chances to break Blake's serve and lost in a fairly tight match only dropping his own serve once in each of the two sets.

In the final match of the day, Andy Roddick (pictured right below, click for larger)showed new sensation Kei Nishikori what it's like to play a top 10 player on tour with a routine straight-sets win. In a match Roddick claimed was one of the best he's played in the past six months, he apparently played better than he had been and, encouragingly for his fans, said he was willing to do whatever it took to get a win. Perhaps he was sparred by an emotional match where he allegedly got into the youngster's face a little bit, but this is nothing new for Roddick, who set up a quarterfinal clash with his buddy Mardy Fish, who also won his second round match.

Today's quarterfinal play brought some more drama. #4 seed Radek Stepanek continued quietly moving through the draw with a straight sets win over Yen-Husn Lu. Undoubtedly the drama of the whole day of play, let alone in San Jose, came from Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and John Isner, who battled a three hour match that contained 7 break points but NO breaks of serve, won ultimately in the end by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Playing in only his second ATP quarterfinal (his first being his fantastic run to the Washington DC Final last summer), Isner had a match point with Garcia-Lopez serving at 5-6 in the third set, but Isner could not convert and we went to a third set tiebreaker. In the tiebreak, Isner got down early but looked like he was going to duplicate his miraculous comeback of the previous day when, serving at 6*-4 in the third set tiebreak, Garcia-Lopez double-faulted. In all, Isner would save several more match points before finally succumbing at 13-11 in the tiebreak with a missed half-volley. In all, Isner himself had four match points. All too common with matches like these, Isner actually won four more points in the match overall. This one will hurt for a while...

In first of the two all-American night quarterfinal matches between four friends, the Robby Ginepri-James Blake match got off to a rocky start with three breaks of serve and quickly turned into a shocker. Ginepri (pictured left, click for larger) would go on to win the set 6-2, something he was unable to do when the men met last week in Delray Beach (when Ginepri held a 4-2 lead in each set but managed to lose them both). In fact, Blake only held serve once in the opening set. He got off to a better start in the second, holding for a 2-1 lead, but managed to drop the last 5 games of the match for an even 6-2 6-2 scoreline in Ginepri's favor. Blake, surely contributing to this abysmal scoreline, was broken 5 times. It is Ginepri's second semifinal in a row and his first top ten win in who knows how long.

In the late match between Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, the first set was as tight as could be. Both men had opportunities on serve (Roddick dug out of 0-40 and Fish saved 15-30 three times in a row at the end of the set), and Fish had many minibreak leads in the tiebreak, including 6*-4, but Roddick pulled it out 1-6. Then, misfiring on his serve and developing a poor petulant attitude that plagues him, Roddick fell apart, and Fish took full advantage, taking the second set 6-1 in a flash. To start the third set Roddick again dug out of 15-40 and was pumped, but Fish was the one holding serve much more easily at the start of the third, but Roddick finally saw his first break point at 3-2, but was unable to convert. The two kept holding easily until 6-5, when Roddick finally put a couple returns in play and played a good return game to break and take it 7-6(6) 1-6 7-5. A tough loss for Fish, who has never beaten Roddick outright (his one victory was a retirement in 2003); he doubled Roddick in the ace department (28 to 14) and won one more point in the match overall.

Here are all the results from Thursday and Friday's play in San Jose:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Singles - Second Round
Y Lu (TPE) d [LL] W Odesnik (USA) 64 64
M Fish (USA) d [Q] D Gremelmayr (GER) 67(4) 63 63
J Isner (USA) d [3] T Haas (GER) 46 76(6) 63
[2] J Blake (USA) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 63 64
[1] A Roddick (USA) d K Nishikori (JPN) 62 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals
S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d V Hanescu (ROU) / R Hutchins (GBR) 76(9) 75
S Darcis (BEL) / K Vliegen (BEL) d [3] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) 64 36 10-6

riday, February 22, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d J Isner (USA) 76(4) 67(1) 76(11)
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d [2] J Blake (USA) 62 62
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d Y Lu (TPE) 62 76(5)
[1] A Roddick (USA) d M Fish (USA) 76(6) 16 75

Doubles - Quarterfinals
S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) d [2] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) 26 76(5) 10-8

Tournament Updates: Mid-Week play in Buenos Aires, Rotterdam, and San Jose

2008-02-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

Tuesday

Juan Ignacio Chela (pictured right, click for larger) finally won a match after so many early losses in tournaments. He beat Santiago Ventura, who looked really tired by the end of the match. Brasil Open runner-up Carlos Moya said goodbye to Argentina quickly after losing to Jose Acasuso, who hadn't won many matches this year either. Though, last week's winner in Brasil Nicolas Almagro won two tight tie breaks against Martin Vassalo Arguello to go through to the next round. In a clash between Argentines, Agustin Calleri beat #2 Juan Monaco in three sets. Monaco is coming back after his ankle injury that forced him to pull out of the Vina del Mar singles final.

Wednesday

In today's action, Nicolas Almagro beat Oscar Hernandez in three tight sets. David Nalbandian (pictured left, click for larger) recovered from the loss of the 2nd set to beat Fabio Fognini, who has been in good claycourt form lately. Potito Starace continued his come back after his ban for gambling, and Juan Ignacio Chela managed to win two matches in a row for the first time this season to make the quarterfinals, and Nicolas Almagro extended his win streak.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Singles - First Round
J Acasuso (ARG) d [3] C Moya (ESP) 62 64
[4] J Chela (ARG) d S Ventura (ESP) 57 63 62
[5] N Almagro (ESP) d M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 76(5) 76(2)
[6] I Andreev (RUS) d A Montanes (ESP) 63 67(8) 76(4)
[8] F Volandri (ITA) d N Massu (CHI) 64 62
J Brzezicki (ARG) d N Lapentti (ECU) 63 62
[Q] T Bellucci (BRA) d W Eschauer (AUT) 64 64
O Hernandez (ESP) d [LL] E Prodon (FRA) 64 63
F Fognini (ITA) d [WC] E Schwank (ARG) 62 61
[Q] D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) d [Q] R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 26 61 62
S Roitman (ARG) d [Q] I Minar (CZE) 4-0 Ret. (right abductor)
A Calleri (ARG) d [2] J Monaco (ARG) 64 26 63

Doubles - First Round
A Montanes (ESP) / R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) d C Berlocq (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) 63 60

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d F Fognini (ITA) 76(5) 46 63
[4] J Chela (ARG) d [Q] T Bellucci (BRA) 64 64
[5] N Almagro (ESP) d O Hernandez (ESP) 62 26 63
[7] P Starace (ITA) d J Brzezicki (ARG) 63 63

Doubles - First Round
[WC] L Arnold Ker (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) d [4] P Cuevas (URU) / B Dabul (ARG) 62 63
A Calleri (ARG) / L Horna (PER) d M Gonzalez (ARG) / M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) 76(4) 64
O Hernandez (ESP) / S Roitman (ARG) d *[alt] P Andujar (ARG) / D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 64 36 10-7
W Eschauer (AUT) / P Luczak (AUS) d **[alt] J Aranguren (ARG)/ D Junqueira (ARG) 46 63 15-13

*[alt] P Andujar (ARG) / D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) replaced [1] M Garcia (ARG) / M Melo (BRA) - Garcia (hepatitis)
**[alt] J Aranguren (ARG)/ D Junqueira (ARG) replaced N Almagro (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) - Almagro (dehydration)

Rotterdam

Tuesday

In one of the day's upsets, Robin Soderling (pictured right, click for larger) beat Marcos Baghdatis in a really tight match that could've gone either way. Each set was won with only one service break for the winner. Soderling closed the match when Baghdatis was serving 30-0 and lost the last with silly mistakes. In another upset, Nicolas Mahut (pictured left, click for larger) beat Tommy Robredo, proving once again he's in terrible form to start 2008. Both David Ferrer and Nicolay Davydenko won their first match with routine straight sets wins. Raemon Sluiter said goodbye to the tennis court after losing to Michael Llodra in straight sets. It was a close second set, but the Frenchman ended up winning. Sluiter's best ranking was 46, and was a finalist of three tournaments in the Netherlands (Amsterdam 2000, Rotterdam/Amersfoort 2003). He was a different kind of player with a two-handed forehand. You'll be missed, Raemon!

Wednesday

Wednesday was clearly a day of upsets in Rotterdam. In the biggest of them all, local wildcard Robin Haase (pictured left, click for larger) beat last week's Marseille winner Andy Murray in straight sets. Haase wasn't broken at all for the whole match and faced only a break point. Murray, though, saved 7 break points in the first set but it wasn't enough. After the match, Murray said it's not a huge tournament so it's acceptable to lose... No comment about that. In another upset, Jarkko Nieminen lost in two easy sets to Fernando Verdasco. It was Nieminen's second first round loss in a row (lost to Soderling last week in Marseille).

But the upsets did not stop there! After serving for the third set today (and having a match point), Lleyton Hewitt lost in the third set tiebreak to Andreas Seppi (pictured right, click for larger). We can't forget to mention he was up 2-0 in that tie break as well... After winning a challenger last week, Ivan Ljubicic unsurprisingly lost to Tomas Berdych in straight sets. Due to this loss, Ljubicic will lose all of his finalist points from last year and drop a significant number of ranking spots. Rafael Nadal (pictured below left, click for larger) beat Dmitry Tursunov in a routine straight sets and in an exciting final match of the day, Gilles Simon beat Janko Tipsarevic in two tight tiebreaks.

Here are the full results from Tuesday and Wednesday's play in Rotterdam

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[2] N Davydenko (RUS) d [Q] J Hernych (CZE) 63 63
[3] D Ferrer (ESP) d S Bolelli (ITA) 64 75
N Mahut (FRA) d T Robredo (ESP) 75 64
G Simon (FRA) d F Lopez (ESP) 63 64
R Soderling (SWE) d [8] [WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) 63 36 64
M Llodra (FRA) d [WC] R Sluiter (NED) 61 76(6)

Doubles - First Round
P Kohlschreiber (GER) / M Youzhny (RUS) d [4] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) 75 64
J Benneteau (FRA) / N Mahut (FRA) d P Hanley (AUS) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 64 61
[WC] R Haase (NED) / P Wessels (NED) d [1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) 64 36 12-10

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Singles - First Round
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d D Tursunov (RUS) 64 64
[5] T Berdych (CZE) d I Ljubicic (CRO) 63 63
[WC] R Haase (NED) d [6] A Murray (GBR) 75 63
A Seppi (ITA) d L Hewitt (AUS) 36 76(4) 76(4) - Saved 1 M.P.
F Verdasco (ESP) d J Nieminen (FIN) 62 62

Singles - Second Round
[Q] T Gabashvili (RUS) d N Mahut (FRA) 62 76(7)
G Simon (FRA) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 76(4) 76(4)

Doubles - First Round
[2] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) d [WC] J Huta Galung (NED) / M Middelkoop (NED) 63 75
[3] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) d J Coetzee (RSA) / W Moodie (RSA) 63 76(5)

San Jose

Tuesday

Nothing really too exciting to talk about with Tuesday's play in San Jose. The only real upset was Qualifier Denis Gremelmayr's three-set defeat over #7 Sam Querrey, whose trouble in close matches and whose inconsistent play continues. James Blake (pictured right, click for larger) apparently recovered from his shocking Delray Beach final loss with a quick debut win in San Jose, and all of the other favorites won their first round matches too.

Wednesday

Wednesday saw the completion of the first round and the start of the 2nd round. High off his amazing win in Delray Beach, Kei Nishikori (pictured left, click for larger) continued his run with a win over Diego Hartfield in a see-saw battle that saw many breaks of serve. Andy Roddick (pictured below right, click for larger) won the first set 6-3 in only 22 minutes but somehow managed to lose seven straight points in the second set tiebreaker to go from 3-0 to 3-7; his suckage clearly continues, but somehow he managed to win 7-6 in the third despite not even coming close to facing a break point throughout the entire match. He now has to play the red-hot Nishikori. In the late match, Tommy Haas played Robert Kendrick and Haas was able to fight through the match in 3 sets.

In the second-round matches, Robby Ginepri continued his slow climb back to the top 100 with a win over Kristof Vliegen and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez scored a mild upset over Benjamin Becker (considering the surface) with a come from behind 3-set victory.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Singles - First Round
[Q] D Gremelmayr (GER) d [7] S Querrey (USA) 57 76(1) 63
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d [LL] J Witten (USA) 62 57 64
B Becker (GER) d M Daniel (BRA) 61 30 ret. (groin)
M Fish (USA) d [Q] T Smyczek (USA) 63 64
[2] J Blake (USA)[Q] d S Warburg (USA) 63 61
Y Lu (TPE) d [WC] M Mirnyi (BLR) 76(4) 57 62

Doubles - First Round
[2] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d J Levinsky (CZE) / R Stepanek (CZE) 62 63
S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d [4] E Butorac (USA) / T Perry (AUS) 76(4) 64
V Hanescu (ROU) / R Hutchins (GBR) d R Kendrick (USA) / S Querrey (USA) 76(8) 64
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d C Haggard (RSA) / B Reynolds (USA) 63 76(4)
[WC] J Isner (USA) / D Young (USA) d M Fish (USA) / J Melzer (AUT) 64 64

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Singles - First Round
K Nishikori (JPN) d D Hartfield (ARG) 75 63
[1] A Roddick (USA) d [LL] C Guccione (AUS) 63 67(3) 76(5)
[3] T Haas (GER) vs R Kendrick (USA) 63 46 62

Singles - Second Round
G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d B Becker (GER) 36 76(3) 64
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d B Reynolds (USA) 75 76(5)
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d [8] K Vliegen (BEL) 62 63

Doubles - First Round
[3] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK) 64 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [WC] J Isner (USA) / D Young (USA) 63 46 10-5

Daily Roundup: Monday, February 18

2008-02-19T07:05:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

In Buenos Aires, only four main draw matches were played, and there's not really a whole lot to say about any of them. David Nalbandian beat peter Luczak in straight sets. Potito Starace won his first match after coming back from his ban, beating Boris Pashanski and Jiri Vanek beat Argentine Carlos Berlocq in the only real upset of the day.

Here are the results from Monday's play in Buenos Aires:

Singles - First Round
[1] D Nalbandian (ARG) d P Luczak (AUS) 63 63
[7] P Starace (ITA) d B Pashanski (SRB) 61 36 64
J Vanek (CZE) d C Berlocq (ARG) 64 75
L Horna (PER) d [WC] M Gonzalez (ARG) 64 64

Doubles - First Round
[2] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) d F Fognini (ITA) / F Volandri (ITA) 63 36 10-6
J Brzezicki (ARG) / S Ventura (ESP) d [3] O Marach (AUT) / M Mertinak (SVK) 64 64
[WC] J Acasuso (ARG) / M Hood (ARG) d L Azzaro (ITA) / P Starace (ITA) 63 64

Rotterdam

Only five matches were played on Monday in Rotterdam, but they still provided a couple of upsets. In the biggest upset of them all, Janko Tipsarevic beat 2007 champion Makhail Youzhny in straight sets. The Serbian played a really good first set tie break, giving no chance to his opponent. He even wasted 2 set points before the tie break. In the second set, Tipsarevic got an early break in the first game and managed to hold his own serve; he saved six break points, two of them when he was serving for match. To prove that the match was really tough, Youzhny only won two fewer points than Tipsarevic in the whole match. After the loss, Youzhny loses 250 points in the entry ranking and will likely fall out of the top 10. It was hard to believe the Serbian would beat Youzhny because he missed Davis Cup and retired in the first set of a challenger last week.

Though it was the biggest, this wasn't the only upset today. Qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili (pictured above right, click for larger) beat seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets. Gabashvili was dominant during the whole match and surprisingly, wasn't broken at all. Many people expected a Youzhny vs Ferrero quarterfinal clash, but it was not to be... In the matches between Germans, qualifier Mischa Zverev upset Philipp Kohlscrheiber and Michael Berrer won. In the surprisingly-lopsided match between the tallest and the one of the smallest on tour, Ivo Karlovic beat Olivier Rochus 61 62 (pictured left, click for larger). This result shows Rochus cannot find his old form after the shoulder problems he has been facing recently.

Here are the full results from Monday's play in Rotterdam:

Singles - First Round
[Q] T Gabashvili (RUS) d [7] J Ferrero (ESP) 75 61
I Karlovic (CRO) d O Rochus (BEL) 61 62
M Berrer (GER) d [Q] M Bachinger (GER) 63 62
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [4] M Youzhny (RUS) 76(3) 64
[Q] M Zverev (GER) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) 75 75

Doubles - First Round
M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d J Kerr (AUS) / D Skoch (CZE) 64 63
T Berdych (CZE) / D Tursunov (RUS) d C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) 62 64
R Nadal (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) d F Lopez (ESP) / F Verdasco (ESP) 76(2) 75

San Jose

In today's only real upset in San Jose, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez outlasted #6 seed Jurgen Melzer - who once beat Andre Agassi at this event - in a match that lasted over two and a half hours and included two tiebreakers. Wild card Jesse Levine scored a solid win over tough competitor Steve Darcis.

Perhaps the day's biggest event in San Jose was Pete Sampras's first exhibition match in the US in some time. He played Tommy Haas in a match delayed by the length of the day's matches. Sampras won 6-4 6-2 and appears to have served very well. Though Haas is just coming back from another shoulder injury, this can't be good news for him (of course, it's also just as possible that with the length of the day session, the tournament director kindly asked the guys to keep the friendly match to two sets;)).

In the late matches, Donald Young got a small reprieve when Hyung-Taik Lee pulled out, which allowed him to play Lucky loser Wayne Odesnik instead... but he failed to take advantage of his luck and lost in three sets. In the final, very late, match of the day, John Isner brushed off concerns of a serious stress fracture in his foot with a solid win over Florent Serra.

Singles - First Round
[4] R Stepanek (CZE) d P Capdeville (CHI) 76(2) 61
G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d [6] J Melzer (AUT) 62 67(5) 76(6) - saved 1 M.P.
[8] K Vliegen (BEL) d V Hanescu (ROU) 64 76(4)
B Reynolds (USA) d [Q] B Dorsch (GER) 75 64
[WC] J Levine (USA) d S Darcis (BEL) 63 26 64
[LL] W Odesnik (USA) d D Young (USA) 61 57 64
J Isner (USA) d F Serra (FRA) 76(5) 64

*[LL] W Odesnik (USA) replaced [5] H Lee (KOR) - back

Doubles - First Round
S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Thomas (USA) 46 63 12-10
S Darcis (BEL) / K Vliegen (BEL) d [WC] J Gambill (USA) / S Warburg (USA) 26 76(8) 10-7 - saved 1 M.P.

Week 8 Preview: Buenos Aires, Rotterdam, San Jose

2008-02-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

Buenos Aires

The South American claycourt swing heads to Buenos Aires this week and all the usual suspects are there to try to win this title. Three of the top four seeds are hometown players looking to claim their first title of the year - #4 seed Juan Ignacio Chela especially will be looking to turn around an abysmal start to the year but faces a very tough opener in Santiago Ventura. We will have to wait and see if this is one of the weeks #1 seed David Nalbandian decides to care about tennis (though we'd like to think he'd care at his home tournament), and it is #2 seed Juan Monaco's first tournament back after a pretty serious ankle injury that dashed his hopes for a title two weeks ago at Vina del Mar; he also faces a tough opener in Agustin Calleri. Also joining the party and poised to make deep runs are this week's Brasil Open finalists Nicolas Almagro and Carlos Moya, depending on how they rebound physically. Filled with claycourters and possible upsets, it's really impossible to know how this one might turn out.

Rotterdam

Despite losing world #3 Novak Djokovic before the draw was made, this tournament is clearly still the strongest of the week, as it boasts half of the world's top ten (in fact, all eight seeds are in the top 20) and 125 ranking points more than Buenos Aires or San Jose. This means there are no easy draws, evidenced by the fact that #1 seed Rafael Nadal must open against tough Dmitry Tursunov right away in the first round and a potential second round with Lleyton Hewitt. In the very same first quarter of the draw, Marcos Baghdatis faces no easy task in first round opponent and indoor monster Robin Soderling.

Headed by #4 seed and defending champion Mikhail Youzhny and #7 Juan Carlos Ferrero, this quarter is easily the weakest of the four, and Youzhny is the obvious favorite to make it through to the semis from this section, but Ferrero should not be counted out either. This quarter is not without dangerous floaters, though. Gilles Simon or Feliciano Lopez could make for a tricky second round match for Youzhny, and while not his favorite surface, the fact that Tommy Robredo is ranked 19 in the world and is unseeded just shows just how strong this draw is.

The third quarter of the draw is where things really get interesting. Fresh off his uh, challenger win this week, last year's finalist Ivan Ljubicic sees himself unseeded and thus will have his hands full - very full - with #5 seed Tomas Berdych in the first round. Right next to them in the draw is perhaps the funniest-looking match on the ATP tour with pint-sized Olivier Rochus taking on the giant Ivo Karlovic. #3 Ferrer's draw to the quarterfinals appears to be a fairly smooth one, but he cannot overlook Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.

In the final quarter of the draw, #6 seed Andy Murray, fresh off his Marseille win, should make it through to the quarterfinals, where he'd also be favored against #2 seed Nikolay Davydenko. Also lurking in this quarter is Michael Llodra, who could be a formidable player indoors if he gets his serve-volley game working, and local players Robin Haase and Raemon Sluiter, who announced that he is making this Rotterdam event his last ATP appearance.

San Jose

What can we really say except that this is Roddick's tournament to lose (which means he probably will). Stopped by Andy Murray the past two years in the semifinals and champion the two years after that, Murray's decision to play the European indoor swing, as well as Ivo Karlovic's, conbined with the absence of Fernando Gonzalez, leaves this tournament Roddick's for the taking. Whether he will take it, we will have to wait and see. He faces lucky loser Chris Guccione, a late replacement Vince Spadea, in the first round and could face Delray Beach champ Kei Nishikori in what would be a most intriguing second round. At the bottom of the draw, James Blake will have to rebound quickly from the disappointment of losing the Delray Beach final and could face Robby Ginepri again, if Ginepri makes it there (he opens in a rematch of last week's match against Michael Russell).

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this event is something not even related to the tournament draw at all. Tomorrow night, Pete Sampras will play an exhibition against Tommy Haas and the following night, the entire US Davis Cup team will be present with the trophy itself, which is making a stop in San Jose, for a nice celebration.

Daily Roundup: Sunday, February 17

2008-02-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

Costa do Sauipe

In Brasil, an exciting matchup between Nicolas Almagro (pictured right, click for larger) and Carlos Moya did not disappoint. Almagro lost his first service game of the match but evened it up. The two men stayed on serve throughout the rest of the set and it went to a tiebreaker, which Almagro took behind solid play and some silly errors from Moya. Not to be defeated that easily, Moya took advantage of a decrease in Almagro's level and he stormed back and took the second set 6-3 with two breaks of serve, which allowed him to open the third set on his own serve.

In the third set, Almagro had an early break point opportunity in the first game but was unable to convert. The set continued on serve with mostly easy holds until Almagro finally broke through at 4all, but was unable to hold in the next game in part due to an unlucky string breakage at 30-15. Not deflated by his inability to close the match out the first time, Almagro immediately broke Moya again and served for the match again at 6-5. Down 0-30, it appeared as though this final would head to a deciding tiebreak, but Almagro was able to steady himself to take the next four points and the title, his third.

And here's a picture from the doubles final yesterday!

Delray Beach

In the total stunner of the week, 18 year old qualifier Kei Nishikori (pictured left below, click for larger), who trains at the Bollitteri Academy in Florida, came back after a nervous and rocky first set to beat #1 seed James Blake 3-6 6-1 6-4. Playing beautiful all-court, controlled yet attacking tennis relying heavily on smart and impressive shot selection, Nishikori came out strong and was able to hang with Blake until 3-4 in the first, after which he dropped the last three games of the set. Surprisingly, Nishikori did not let this deflate him and he steadied his nerves and raised his already-impressive level to storm out to a 5-0 lead in the second set. He served it out in style and showed no nerves to take the set 6-1.

After saving break points in his first service game of the set, Nishikori took the early advantage in the third to go up 2*-1. His level was most impressive, considering this was his eighth match since last Saturday and the fact that he is 10 years younger than Blake and playing in his first ATP final and only 6th ATP tournament overall. In fact, Nishikori lost in the qualifying of the Dallas Challenger a couple weeks ago. What a turnaround! Using his all-court play and smart shot selections, Nishikori was hitting winners from everywhere and taking Blake's time away. Looking calm and cool as a cucumber, Nishikori never appeared to be riddled with the nerves many young players in their first big moments have to overcome, and he served out the match calmly and routinely to love to produce an absolutely stunning result. Nishikori becomes the first Japanese title-winner on the tour since 1992.

After the match in two interviews on-court, the youngster was so happy and amazed at his accomplishment that he was without words. With his variety-filled game and unassuming personality, we'd like to say a new star was born today. Whether young Nishikori will be able to keep this level up now that the world has taken notice remains to be seen, but he certainly earned many new fans today and has much to be proud of and savor from this victory! Of course, he doesn't have too long to savor because his Delray Beach success assured him a Special Exemption entry into next week's event in San Jose.

In the doubles final, new-for-2008 pairing Max Mirnyi and Jamie Murray played top tennis to take their first doubles title as a team over Bob and Mike Bryan in an exciting super tiebreak. The Bryans fall to 0-2 in finals this year, losing both in very tight encounters. The match was entertaining and exciting throughout, but the Bryans will rue early break chances that went unconverted in the first set and an overall flat appearance on their returns.

Marseille

Andy Murray (pictured right, click for larger) took his second title of the year with a straight-sets win over Mario Ancic, who must be proud of his progress this week in his quest to return to the tour and hopefully stay healthy - making the final, his first since late 2006, will get his ranking back into the top 100 next week.

Both players agreed that the final was played at a high level and that it was high quality tennis, but Murray felt his confidence and solid play on the big points is what allowed him to take the match in the end. Ancic agreed that Murray is clearly showing himself to be one of the top players in the world, but he rued his missed opportunities when he was up a break in the second set. Murray is now an impressive 10-1 on the year, with his only loss coming in the first round of the Australian Open. We guess his decision to let his brother and country hang out to dry last weekend in Buenos Aires worked out well for him....

In the doubles final, the team of Czech doubles specialists Damm and Vizner beat Allegro/Coetzee in two tough sets for the title.

Challenger Circuit Roundup

Time to round up the week's challenger winners. This week there were two fairly decent-sized events. In East London, South Africa, World #24 and #1 seeded wildcard entrant Ivan Ljubicic won a tournament he never should've been allowed to play in the first place, while top doubles players Bjorkman and Ullyett teamed up to take the doubles title. In Belgrade, Serbia, Roko Karanusic took a hard-fought title and Cipolla/Economidis took the doubles.

Tournament Update: Quarters and Semis in Costa do Sauipe, Delray Beach, and Marseille

2008-02-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

Costa do Sauipe

Quarterfinals

Fabio Fogninistarted the day against Ivo Minar. Starting off controlling the match well, Minar had the upper hand and took the first set, which went to a tiebreaker. Minar was looking solid until 2all in the second set, when Fognini broke; after that, Minar was barely able to hold serve and saw the trainer after the second set. So, Fognini stormed on to his first ATP semifinal. Next, Filipo Volandri played Nicolas Almagro (pictured right below, click for larger) . There's not really much exciting to talk about, so we'll say Almagro did enough to win.

On the other half of the draw, Eduardo Schwank, playing in his first ATP-level quarterfinal, took on Nicolas Lapentti. Lapentti was able to break Schwank to open the match, but that seemed to wake Schwank up, who then played a hell of a set and won it 6-1. Then, with Schwank up 1-0 in the second set, it started to rain. When they resumed play, it appeared Schwank lost his focus and certainly his momentum, and Lapentti took advantage and found a way to stay in the match, winning the second set. The third set was a tight encounter, and Schwank held three match points, all saved by excellent play from Lapentti, who was able to force the match to a deciding third-set tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Lapentti's experience won through and he converted his first match point. After the match, speaking impressive Portuguese to Brasilian TV, Lapentti he said he was really happy to win and it was fantastic to play somewhere that isn't his country and have the crowd supporting him and that he was able to come back because knew Schwank couldn't be that good for the whole match.

In the final quarterfinal, Carlos Moya took on Oscar Hernandez. Moya won the first set easily, but Hernandez really picked up his game in the second set and won it. Moya tried everything he could but had no answers for Hernandez's Kingly play. He was doing everything right: hitting winning dropshots, groundstrokes, you name it. Hernandez built a 4-1 TWO break lead in the third but could not close it out. He would also have 0-30 on Moya's serve at 5all and missed an easy shot, and so, Moya won it 7-5 in the third. Unfortunately for hometown hero Guga Kuerten, his two best friends on tour, Moya and Lapentti, would have to play in the semifinals and not the finals.

Semifinals

In the first of today's semifinals, Almagro clobbered first time semifinalist Fognini. The score was 6-1 6-1, what more can we really say? The match's only real drama came from a point where both men were up at net and Fognini, who was already losing badly, tried to hit Almagro in the body and Almagro got mad. You know it's bad when this is the most exciting thing from a whole match.

In the second semifinal, Moya (pictured left, click for larger) took on Lapentti in a see-saw encounter. In the first set, Moya played well while Lapentti may have still been sleeping; in the second set it was the reverse. Finally by the third set, both players were playing well at the same time. Lapentti went up a break at 4*-3 but Moya was able to break right back immediately, after which both men held for a tiebreak, the only way this match could fairly be determined after all the momentum shifts. In the tiebreaker, Moya got the early minibreak but Lapentti recovered to 5-4* only to see Moya hit an unbelievable forehand to take two match points and finally seal it 7 to 5. The final between Moya and Almagro should be an exciting one.

In the doubles final, local stars who are fast rising up the doubles ranking, Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa took their second ATP doubles title. After the Spaniards got off to a good start, the Brasilian crowd helped lift Melo and Sa to victory in the super tiebreaker. After the match, talking to an exuberant and rowdy Brasilian crowd, Sa thanked the crowd and said that the pressure at home was unbelievable but that it was a great moment for them. Melo added that today after winning they are 100 times better players than before the tourney began.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[1] C Moya (ESP) d O Hernandez (ESP) 63 36 75
[2] N Almagro (ESP) d [5] F Volandri (ITA) 75 26 61
F Fognini (ITA) d I Minar (CZE) 67(2) 62 63
N Lapentti (ECU) d [Q] E Schwank (ARG) 16 64 76(4) (Saved 3 match points)

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d [WC] T Bellucci (BRA) / M Daniel (BRA) 64 62
A Montanes (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) d F Fognini (ITA) / F Volandri (ITA) 60 62

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Singles - Semifinals
[1] C Moya (ESP) d N Lapentti (ECU) 62 36 76(5)
[2] N Almagro (ESP) d F Fognini (ITA) 61 61

Doubles - Final
[1] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d A Montanes (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) 46 62 10-7

Delray Beach

Quarterfinals

Six of the eight quarterfinalists were Americans - this last happened at the Memphis tournament in 2003. Mostly routine matches in yesterday's quarterfinal matches in Delray Beach. Youngster Sam Querrey beat aging Vince Spadea in straight sets to set up his trip to the semifinals, his second on the ATP level. 18 year old qualifier and rising star Kei Nishikori continued his great run with a routine win over Bobby Reynolds to advance to his very first ATP semifinal in only his 6th ATP Tournament.

In the evening's quarterfinals, Mardy Fish made life impossibly difficult for himself against Robby Ginepri by only serving 41% for the match. For the life of us, we can't understand why he cannot increase his average first serve percentage. But, the win is a good one for Ginepri, who toughed out the three-setter and advanced to his first semifinal since Indianapolis in July 2006. In the evening's final match, although James Blake (pictured right, click for larger) appears to have won with a routine scoreline, he actually dropped serve 3 times and faced 10 break points against Igor Kunitsyn.

Semifinals

With three of four semifinalists Americans, the tournament looked to be a successful one for the Red, White, and Blue. The first semifinal was the match of the youngsters, Sam Querrey and Kei Nishikori (pictured left, click for larger), which went the distance. Apparently fending off all of the nerves one might expect a young player to have in his first ATP Semifinal, Nishikori got off to an excellent start, but not to be beaten easily, Querrey stormed back and took the second set easily. Unfortunately for Querrey, though, he was unable to keep up his solid play when it mattered and each time he had a lead in the third set he revered to a losing passive game style. In the tiebreaker, Querrey got out to an early lead and built up a 6-3 lead, but made a very poor forehand error on his own serve at 6-5 to hand all the advantage back. He would hold another match point at 7-6 on Nishikori's serve but was unable to get the return in play. Nishikori, again showing no signs of the nerves one might expect him to have, took Querrey's second serve at 8-7 and absolutely punished it to seal the win and make his first ATP final, a very impressive feat as an 18 year old qualifier.

In the second semifinal, the two American veterans Blake and Ginepri faced off in a deja vu-inducing match. Playing solid baseline tennis and opening up the court with angles off both sides, Ginepri took advantage of a slow start from Blake and broke serve in the opening game. He was able to hang on until 4-2* and he lost the next four games and the set with a rash of errors. Following almost the exact same pattern of the first set, Ginepri broke at 1all and held on again until 4-2* when he again lost the last four games of the set. It was a scratchy inconsistent performance from Blake and neither man was able to get a volley in court; after the match Blake joked that he'd have to hit the practice court and said that despite knowing nothing about his opponent in the final, he expects a tough match from the surprising youngster. This is Blake's second consecutive final after losing last year in a rain-delayed Monday final. Also, the #1 seed has never won this event, so Blake is looking to make Delray Beach history.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[1] J Blake (USA) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) 62 64
[3] S Querrey (USA) d [6] V Spadea (USA) 62 64
[Q] K Nishikori (JPN) d B Reynolds (USA) 62 64
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d [8] M Fish (USA) 61 46 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d A Qureshi (PAK) / B Reynolds (USA) 64 64
[2] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d V Hanescu (ROU) / R Hutchins (GBR) 36 64 10-5
S Huss (AUS) / A Kuznetsov (USA) d R Kendrick (USA) / S Querrey (USA) 76(5) 64

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Singles - Semifinals
[1] J Blake (USA) vs [WC] R Ginepri (USA) 64 64
[Q] N Nishikori d [3] S Querrey (USA) 46 62 76(7) - Saved 4 M.P.

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) 75 46 10-5
S Huss (AUS) / A Kuznetsov (USA) vs [2] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR)

Marseille

Quarterfinals

Some interesting results in Friday's quarterfinals in Marseille. Andy Murray (pictured below right, click for larger) continued his strong run with a tight but straight-sets win over tough Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. In a match between more Frenchmen, #8 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu ended the run of defending champion Gilles Simon in another straight-set match.

In the other half, the matches were more interesting. In the match between comeback guys, Mario Ancic continued his surprising run with a tight three set win against Robin Soderling. While Ancic won, Soderilng should take heart that he made a solid comeback after quite a long break from the tour. In the only real "upset" of the day - at least as far as ranking - Marcos Baghdatis eked through a tight first set against Mikhail Youzhny and then went on to win it in straights.

Semifinals

In the first semifinal, Murray beat Mathieu in a surprisingly easy match. He advances to his second final of the year, after winning the Doha title already. After the match, Murray explained that he was pleased with the way he is hitting the ball and would like to continue serving better.

In the other, more interesting semifinal, Ancic continued his surprising run through the field, this time upsetting last year's finalist in a result that was just as surprisingly easy. Calling his run this week "like a dream," Ancic was understandably thrilled with his run to the finals and his form throughout the week, and he said he appreciated the nice thoughts from the many players who sent him text messages and wished him well in his return. Murray added that his run to the final was impressive and Ancic recognized that it will be a tough match tomorrow.

Ancic does hold a 1-0 advantage in the head-to-head.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[4] A Murray (GBR) d N Mahut (FRA) 75 76(5)
[8] P Mathieu (FRA) d G Simon (FRA) 63 64
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d R Soderling (SWE) 63 67(4) 62
[6] M Baghdatis (CYP) d [3] M Youzhny (RUS) 76(2) 63

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) d M Cilic (CRO) / G Simon (FRA) 63 64
[3] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) d M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 63 64

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Singles - Semifinals
[4] A Murray (GBR) d [8] P Mathieu (FRA) 62 62
(WC) M Ancic (CRO) d [6] M Baghdatis (CYP) 64 62

Doubles - Semifinals
[3] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) d [1] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) 46 76(5) 10-8
Y Allegro (SUI) / J Coetzee (RSA) d J Benneteau (FRA) / P Mathieu (FRA) 75 57 10-6

Tournament Update: 2nd Round Play in Costa do Sauipe, Delray Beach, and Marseille

2008-02-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

Costa do Sauipe

Wednesday's start of second round play brought a day of mild upsets in Brasil. First up, Albert Montanes got a good start over Fabio Fognini (pictured left, click for larger) and had the early break but could not maintain it and played even worse than he normally does to lose. Next up, "King" Oscar Hernandez (pictured right below, click for larger) fought through a tight tussle with Sergio Roitman to cause another slight upset. Rounding out the upsets was perhaps the biggest of all considering the surface - Ivo Minar took out Carlos Berlocq in two routine sets.

The only truly expected result of the day almost wasn't. After bizarrely dropping the first set, Carlos Moya raised his level and stormed back against Olivier Patience and only dropped one game in the next two sets.

In today's action, all four favorites won with overwhelmingly routine scorelines Nicolas Almagro beat Boris Pashanski in a routine straight sets win. After that, Filippo Volandri (pictured below left, click for larger) beat Argentine Guillermo Coria with a comfortable score, thanks to Coria's 7 double faults and copious unforced errors. Though we must admit the Italian played pretty well and is going to play an interesting quarterfinal match against Almagro.

Here are the full results from Second Round play in Brasil:

Wednesday, February 13

Singles - Second Round
[1] C Moya (ESP) d O Patience (FRA) 57 61 60
F Fognini (ITA) d [8] A Montanes (ESP) 75 63
I Minar (CZE) d C Berlocq (ARG) 63 64
O Hernandez (ESP) d S Roitman (ARG)63 26 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals
F Fognini (ITA) / F Volandri (ITA) d [4] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) / R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 64 26 10-7

Doubles - First Round
[1] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d L Azzaro (ITA) / P Starace (ITA) 63 76(8)
[WC] T Bellucci (BRA) / M Daniel (BRA) d [3] M Garcia (ARG) / O Marach (AUT) 64 62
A Montanes (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) d C Berlocq (ARG) / G Coria (ARG) 26 76(4) 10-7

Thursday, February 14

Singles - Second Round
[2] N Almagro (ESP) d B Pashanski (SRB) 62 63
[5] F Volandri (ITA) d G Coria (ARG) 61 62
N Lapentti (ECU) d [Q] S Decoud (ARG) 61 62
[Q] E Schwank (ARG) d P Luczak (AUS) 62 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
[1] M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d L Arnold Ker (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) 61 76(5)
A Montanes (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) d [2] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) 62 26 10-8
[WC] T Bellucci (BRA) / M Daniel (BRA) d N Almagro (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 62 63

Delray Beach

Not too much to say here about Wednesday's play, as rain ravaged the schedule once again. Play did not even begin until around 5pm local time, when James Blake was able to get through a tight match against Robert Kendrick and #5 seed Florian Mayer retired in the 2nd set against youngster Kei Nishikori. The day's most absolutely hilarious match came thanks to Donald Young and Amer Delic. Young raced out to a 5-0 lead in the blink of an eye and then almost just as face, Delic raced back to a 5all tie, after saving 2 set points in the 4-5 game. He would go on to save four in the tiebreak, only to come back from 3-6 down to win it 9 points to 7. That's classic, even for WTA proportions. Delic went on to recover from an early break in the second set to win it in straights and Donald Young may be in a bit of trouble for chucking his racquet after he dropped the first set. Apparently his throw could've hit someone and that generally incurs a pretty severe automatic fine.

Today's play was fairly tame by comparison. In another all-American clash, Robby Ginepri (pictured right, click for larger) took on Michael Russell. Russell was a break up in the first set and even served for it, but then Ginepri setepped up and won it 75. Russell won the second set but then Ginepri easily won the third. This is Ginepri's first quarterfinal since Lyon in October 2006. Today, Amer Delic was not able to fashion another magical comeback and, after winning the first set, lost to Japanese up-and-comer Kei Nishikori. Delic's real downfall was that he failed to convert any of his twelve break points.

In doubles, World #1s the Bryan twins wrapped up a straight sets first-round win just before midnight

Here are all of the results from the second round in Delray Beach:

Wednesday, February 13

Singles - First Round
[1] J Blake (USA) d R Kendrick (USA) 75 75
[3] S Querrey (USA) d Y Schukin (RUS) 61 64
[6] V Spadea (USA) d D Gremelmayr (GER) 63 64
[Q] K Nishikori (JPN) d [5] F Mayer (GER) 60 43 ret. (left leg)
D Young (USA) vs [Q] A Delic (USA) 76(7) 63

Doubles - First Round
[2] M Mirnyi (BLR) / J Murray (GBR) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) / F Serra (FRA) 36 76(5) 11-9
M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) d [3] E Butorac (USA) / T Perry (AUS) 16 75 10-5
S Huss (AUS) / A Kuznetsov (USA) d [4] I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Thomas (USA) 46 76(8) 10-8
R Kendrick (USA) / S Querrey (USA) d [WC] J Blake (USA) / K Jones (USA) 63 75

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[3] S Querrey (USA) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 64 57 64
[WC] R Ginepri (USA) d M Russell (USA) 75 46 62
B Reynolds (USA) d D Hartfield (ARG) 75 26 76(3)
[8] M Fish (USA) d I Navarro (ESP) 26 75 63
[Q] K Nishikori (JPN) d [Q] A Delic (USA) 67(7) 64 62
I Kunitsyn (RUS) d [LL] M Mirnyi (BLR) 76(4) 63
[1] J Blake (USA) vs P Capdeville (CHI) 61 64
[6] V Spadea (USA) vs G Muller (LUX) 75 46 63

Doubles - Quarterfinals
M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) d S Lipsky (USA) / D Martin (USA) 63 64

Doubles - First Round
V Hanescu (ROU) / R Hutchins (GBR) d B Becker (GER) / J Levinsky (CZE) 63 64
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs [WC] H Armando (USA) / X Malisse (BEL) 63 76(3)
A Qureshi (PAK) / B Reynolds (USA) d A Delic (USA) / R Ram (USA) 61 67(3) 10-5

Marseille

More upsets abound in Marseille on Wednesday as the first round was completed. The top 3 seeds, including Richard Gasquet (pictured left, click for larger) all made fairly easy winning starts to the tournament, as did last year's champ Gilles Simon. But recent sensation Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was not so lucky and lost in straight sets to Mario Ancic (pictured right below, click for larger). Playing his first match of the year after being injured and then forced to withdraw from the Australian events with a bad stomach bug, Ancic was surprisingly able to keep his cool during the tight moments late in each set to upset the hyped Frenchman.

On Thursday, although most of the seeds won their quarterfinal matches, several struggled. Paul-Henri Mathieu overcame crafty Michael Llodra in two tiebreaks and Andy Murray, who was winning the first set 3-0 against Stanislas Wawrinka, went on to lose it 6-3. Murray was losing the second set 1-3 but recovered and forced the tie-break and won it. After that, it was an easy third set for him. Mario Ancic continued his successful return to the tour.

However, the tournament's top two seeds were not so lucky. First, defending champ Gilles Simon did not lose serve in an impressive three-set win over Novak Djokovic. Then, #2 seed and home favorite Richard Gasquet was upset by Robin Soderling in a notable upset considering it was only Soderling's second match after a long serious injury break.

Here are all of the results from second round play in Marseille:

Wednesday, February 13

Singles - Second Round
N Mahut (FRA) d [5] J Ferrero (ESP) 57 64 76(1)

Singles - First Round
[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d [Q] I Dodig (CRO) 61 64
[2] R Gasquet (FRA) d S Bolelli (ITA) 63 63
[3] M Youzhny (RUS) d M Cilic (CRO) 64 76(3)
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d [7] J Tsonga (FRA) 75 76(3)
G Simon (FRA) d [WC] D Guez (FRA) 62 64
[WC] M Llodra (FRA) d A Seppi (ITA) 62 76(5)
I Karlovic (CRO) d F Lopez (ESP) 67(6) 75 76(4)

Doubles - First Round
[1] S Aspelin (SWE) / J Knowle (AUT) d M Baghdatis (CYP) / M Gicquel (FRA) 61 61
R Lindstedt (SWE) / J Nieminen (FIN) d J Kerr (AUS) / D Skoch (CZE) 64 26 10-6
J Benneteau (FRA) / P Mathieu (FRA) d [LL] S de Chaunac (FRA) / D Guez (FRA) 63 64
Y Allegro (SUI) / J Coetzee (RSA) d P Hanley (AUS) / D Nestor (CAN) 62 76(5)

Note: [4] A Clement (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) replaced by [LL] D Guez (FRA) / S de Chaunac (FRA) - (Clement left ankle)

Thursday, February 14

Singles - Second Round
G Simon (FRA) d [1] N Djokovic (SRB) 62 67(6) 63
R Soderling (SWE) d [2] R Gasquet (FRA) 46 63 62
[3] M Youzhny (RUS) d J Benneteau (FRA) 75 63
[4] A Murray (GBR) d S Wawrinka (SUI) 36 76(5) 61
[6] M Baghdatis (CYP) d I Karlovic (CRO) 64 64
[8] P Mathieu (FRA) d [WC] M Llodra (FRA) 76(4) 76(5)
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d [Q] T Gabashvili (RUS) 63 62

Doubles - Quarterfinals
Y Allegro (SUI) / J Coetzee (RSA) d S Bolelli (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) 64 64
J Benneteau (FRA) / P Mathieu (FRA) d R Lindstedt (SWE) / J Nieminen (FIN) W/O (Nieminen - fever)

Doubles - First Round
[3] M Damm (CZE) / P Vizner (CZE) d C Kas (GER) / R Wassen (NED) 76(2) 64

Brasil's Greatest Champion Guga Kuerten Says Goodbye to His Home Fans

2008-02-13T15:44:00.000-08:00

To be honest, I didn’t think it would be this hard to watch Guga’s last match in Brasil last night at the Brasil Open. But it was, it really was. He walked on court with a well known Portuguese song in the background, and he was crying. After the match, he explained he was standing there waiting to get on court and all the memories came to his mind all of a sudden and they made him cry. Anyway, he played a really good first set and got the break in the third game, though couldn’t hold in his next service game. But the crowd was still there, screaming and motivating him from the very first point. Too bad he played a bad game at 5-6, and from there on there’s not much to say. He asked for the trainer after the set was over and couldn’t keep the same high level as in the first set, unfortunately.

Before the match, Guga had lots to say. He explained how hard he is working and that he spends all day at the gym and does everything he can possibly do within his physical limits. He added that retiring is not exactly what he wanted to do, but he thought about it all and talked to his coach and family and they all realized it was the best decision, it's the right time to stop, and everything must finish sometime. Always a class act, he wanted to thank everyone and make sure they know that he's satisfied with everything that's happened to him tennis-wise during all these years and that he will try to appreciate everything in these last months on tour. Although he always kept trying as hard as he could to win and improve, he did admit that his injury helped him calm down a little more and enjoy the moment and that being at this event one last time and seeing everyone support him was the biggest gift of all. He also wanted to thank his fellow players for supporting him and encouraging him and being his friends.

He explained how the tournaments he has chosen for his little farewell tour are not ones he necessarily thinks he will win or even do well in, but the ones that meant the most to him and where he really wanted to say goodbye; he just wants to enjoy these moments one last time and that to increase the moments he has, he will play as much as he can, including doubles. Guga also clarified that he would like to play the Olympics this summer in Beijing, but because he'd need a wildcard, he said he will ask the ITF to see if it would be possible.

Before the match, he was also asked what he thought he has done for tennis in Brasil. He said he didn't know, that it was tough to know, but that he lives for tennis, loves the sport, and it has been why he would wake up every day. As a brazilian tennis fan, I can say he leaves great memories to every one of us. We will never forget about his fighting spirit and all he did to try to get rid of his injury. I'm sure if he didn't love tennis as much as he does, he would have given up a long time ago. But no, he's a real champion and real champions fight until the end.

Here is a translation of what he said after the match…

Journalist: Guga, today you got on court crying. Are you just realizing it’s getting closer to say goodbye? Guga: Yeah, slowly. I was waiting there to get on court and started to think about stuff, and I got all emotional. But it’s cool to have everyone supporting me and I also trying to give my best, I think my whole career can prove you that. I’m a really emotional guy and it’s good because I carry it all with me and the emotion comes when I’m not expecting it sometimes. In the first set, I tried to fight and surprise him but then my body got to its limit and I couldn’t take it anymore. I also want to say I’m sorry to everyone, It’s not that I want to stop playing, but I just can’t do it anymore. Journalist: What are you going to remember about all these years? Guga: Just good stuff. Tennis just remembers me about good stuff, like now. Remembering about all the happy moments and emotional ones all the time. I think they are priceless and the emotion will always be here with me.

Now I wanna talk to the crowd…

Well, for me this is more difficult than winning Roland Garros… A lot of unexpected stuff going on, a lot of emotion… Before getting on court, all of a sudden a lot of memories about tennis came to my mind. And as the days pass by the more I realize tennis means my life. I loved this sport, lived with a lot of intensity all the years I could, played my best. I lived even with more intensity the years when I had the most difficulties. And today I’m leaving here really happy, satisfied and really proud of all the support I got from you guys. In my biggest dreams, Roland Garros and Wimbledon would always come up to my mind, but all the respect and everyone coming here to watch me play never came up to my mind, we never think it’s going to happen. I wanna also thank my family, who are always important by my side, my girlfriend who’s been supporting me a lot and, of course, the man who is, in my opinion, more genius than I am, Larri who was the man of my life. So, I wanna thank you guys, it’s not that I don’t wanna play anymore and I wanna say I’m sorry about that, but I can’t take this anymore. Thank you guys!

Nothing else to say. Tennis and all your fans will miss you, Guga. :(

And if you'd like to watch any of these videos of Guga speaking in his native Portuguese, there are several at the tournament website and here is the speech he gave after the match, which really transcends languages.

Daily Roundup: Tuesday, February 12

2008-02-12T20:26:00.001-08:00

All the important news from the first round of play in this week's three events!

Costa do Sauipe

In the last match on Monday, Carlos Moya had some trouble beating Santiago Ventura and had to go three sets to get the job done. Today, third seed Igor Andreev's poor start to 2008 continued when he lost badly to qualifier Eduardo Schwank (pictured right, click for larger), who played a solid match. Looks like the Russian just plays well when he thinks he should... Second seed Nicolas Almagro beat Nicolas Massu in straight sets. Surprisingly, Massu didn't look interested in winning the match. After his awful loss in Davis Cup to Jamie Baker, Agustin Calleri lost again, this time to Sergio Roitman in two easy sets. Potito Starace came back from his ban and lost to Ivo Minar in three sets. One of the biggest upsets of the day was Sebastien Decoud's win over countryman Jose Acasuso. It was Decoud's first win on the ATP tour.

But the biggest story today is that Guillermo Coria (pictured left, click for larger) won his first match after quite a long time. His last official win was against Calleri in Amersfoort Quarterfinals in 2006. He beat qualifier Francisco Aldi in straight sets, the second one having an unbelievable eleven breaks of serve and 18 double faults. Despite the hilarity of the stats, the win was an important one for Coria, who called it the "happiest day" of his career. okayyyyyy.

Tuesday also saw Gustavo Kuerten play his last match in his home country. Guga fought valiantly against Carlos Berlocq, playing him very tight in the first set and even having an early break. Unfortunately, after losing the first, he had to see the trainer and simply was unable to keep competing at that high level. But come back tomorrow for a special piece about Guga and his last matches in Brasil. Such a special player deserves special attention, and we will bring it to you tomorrow!

Here are the full results from Tuesday's play in Costa do Sauipe:

Singles - First Round
[2] N Almagro (ESP) d N Massu (CHI) 63 62
[Q] E Schwank (ARG) d [3] I Andreev (RUS) 63 62
I Minar (CZE) d [4] P Starace (ITA) 64 46 62
[5] F Volandri (ITA) d [Q] D Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 62 64
S Roitman (ARG) d [6] A Calleri (ARG) 63 62
[Q] S Decoud (ARG) d [7] J Acasuso (ARG) 63 16 76(3)
G Coria (ARG) d [Q] F Aldi (ITA) 64 75
P Luczak (AUS) d [WC] M Daniel (BRA) 75 64
O Patience (FRA) d J Brzezicki (ARG) 63 75
C Berlocq (ARG) d [WC] G Kuerten (BRA) 75 61
O Hernandez (ESP) d P Cuevas (URU) 76(5) 64

Doubles - First Round
[2] F Cermak (CZE) / L Friedl (CZE) d J Brzezicki (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) 36 63 10-8
N Almagro (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) d O Hernandez (ESP) / S Roitman (ARG) 63 64
[4] M Granollers-Pujol (ESP) / R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) d P Luczak (AUS) / B Pashanski (SRB) 63 62
L Arnold Ker (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) d N Devilder (FRA) / O Patience (FRA) 64 61

Delray Beach

In Delray Beach, the opening day provided that the tournament will have a new champion this year as both former champions in the field, Xavier Malisse and Tommy Haas, lost on Monday night. After his loss to Diego Hartfield (pictured right, click for larger) in his first match of 2008, Haas commented that his shoulder was okay but he was feeling weak - his serve had trouble getting over 110mph, but it is good news that he is not in pain. Malisse's downfall is that he was only able to convert 2 of 17 break points. He admitted afterwards that he just played badly and had no confidence and that the windy conditions made it even more difficult.

In today's wind and rain-affected results, Gilles Muller beat rising American Jesse Levine in two tight sets. This marks Muller's first ATP-level win since last year at Wimbledon. Michael Russell took advantage of Dudi Sela's late withdrawal and beat lucky loser Alex Bogomolov Jr. losing only a single game. Mardy Fish somehow finished a match without double faulting or facing a break point, an astounding feat regardless of who his opponent was. At press time, three matches were left unfinished and several others were postponed as rain moved into Delray Beach again.

Here are the full results from Tuesday's play in Delray Beach:

Singles - First Round
[8] M Fish (USA) d [Q] M Crugnola (ITA) 61 75
M Russell (USA) d [LL] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) 61 60
G Muller (LUX) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 75 76(4)
I Kunitsyn (RUS) d B Becker (GER) 63 76(1)
[LL] M Mirnyi (BLR) d [Q] L Gregorc (SLO) 76(5) 62
[1] J Blake (USA) vs R Kendrick (USA) 32 - postponed due to rain
Y Schukin (RUS) vs [3] S Querrey (USA) 16 13 - postponed due to rain
[6] V Spadea (USA) vs D Gremelmayr (GER) 30 - postponed due to rain
D Young (USA) vs [Q] A Delic (USA) - postponed due to rain

[LL] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) replaced [4] D Sela (ISR) - personal
**[LL] M Mirnyi (BLR) replaced [7] V Hanescu (ROU) - illness

Doubles - First Round
[3] E Butorac (USA) / T Perry (AUS) vs M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) - postponed due to rain
[Alt]S Huss (AUS) / A Kuznetsov (USA) vs [4] I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Thomas (USA) - postponed due to rain

**[Alt]S Huss (AUS) / A Kuznetsov (USA) replaced D Sela (ISR) / P Capdeville (CHI)

Marseille

In Marsellie, Monday only saw two main draw matches, one of which had a notable result. Robin Soderling made a successful return to the ATP Tour after an extended injury break with a hard-fought three-set win over Jarkko Nieminen.

The big guns hit the court today and lived up to expectations, Led by top seed Andy Murray (pictured left, click for larger), all seeds in action won, including Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat Hyung-Taik Lee, and Marcos Baghdatis, who beat former tournament champion Arnaud Clement. Perhaps not so much an upset but a disappointment for the local French crowd, Stanislas Wawrinka beat Grosjean in three tough sets, and the aging Frenchman's poor results sadly continue.

Here are the full results from Tuesday's play in Marseille:

Singles - First Round
[4] A Murray (GBR) d [Q] J Huta Galung (NED) 64 64
[5] J Ferrero (ESP) d H Lee (KOR) 64 61
[6] M Baghdatis (CYP) d A Clement (FRA) 63 64
J Benneteau (FRA) d A Pavel (ROU) 62 10 ret. (lower back)
N Mahut (FRA) d [Q] M Elgin (RUS) 63 63
[Q] T Gabashvili (RUS) d M Berrer (GER) 76(5) 64
S Wawrinka (SUI) d S Grosjean (FRA) 36 64 64

Doubles - First Round
M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d I Karlovic (CRO) / L Zovko (CRO) 75 64
S Bolelli (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) d [WC] C Haggard (RSA) / N Mahut (FRA) 46 63 10-8

Week 7 Preview: Costa do Sauipe, Delray Beach, Marseille

2008-02-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Costa do Sauipe (Brasil Open)

As expected, the only ATP tournament played in Brazil is full of clay court specialists. Carlos Moya comes back to play there after missing it last year; he is the top seed. He has an interesting first round match against Santiago Ventura, but he's the favorite to go through to the second round. Agustin Calleri is in his quarter and that should be a great match if both get that far, though the Argentine would have to beat tough guys like Sergio Rotiman and Pablo Cuevas. In the second quarter, Igor Andreev is by far the biggest favorite even though Jose Acasuso's in the same section. Two Brazilians are also in that same quarter with tough first round matches. Marcos Daniel faces Peter Luczak, who's played a semifinal at the Brasil Open before and Bellucci faces Nicolas Lapentti.

In the third quarter, Potito Starace's back after his ban for betting on tennis matches. In the same quarter, we'd have to mention both Fabio Fognini and Gustavo Kuerten, who will open against Carlos Berlocq. In the last quarter, the favorites are second seed Nicolas Almagro, who has a good draw, and Filippo Volandri; both of these players really good on clay. Nicolas Massu and Guillermo Coria are both in this quarter as well.

This year's tournament should be really interesting, considering it will be the last time the three-time Roland Garros Champion Gustavo Kuerten plays the tournament in his own country. It's also important to remember that the tournament might be played in another city (São Paulo) in 2009, so it might be the last year for the event in Costa do Sauipe. Also, none of last year's semifinalists are playing at ths year's event.

Delray Beach

While Delray Beach is typically the week right after the Australian Open, it was pushed back two weeks this year and instead follows the First Round Davis Cup ties; in fact, the draw is full of players who will be arriving from all corners of the globe.

Headliner and top seed James Blake is already on his way from Austria and will arrive home in Florida to see quite an easy draw. He opens against compatriot Robert Kendrick, but despite the inevitable jetlag, it's hard to see him not coming through this section of the draw.

In the second quarter, although Dudi Sela is the highest-ranked player and #4 seed, he will be coming off a disappointing Davis Cup tie in Israel and faces potentially formidable competition in Robby Ginepri (if he's healthy from the neck/back problems that plagued him during the Australian season) and #8 seed Mardy Fish (if he brings his brain down to Delray Beach).

The third quarter of the draw is led by American seeds Sam Querrey and Vince Spadea. It's likely that the two will play each other in the Quarterfinals.

The fourth quarter is probably the most interesting. Tommy Haas is the #2 seed and makes his first appearance of 2008 after missing the entire Australian season due to his recovery from another shoulder injury. Whether he is 100% fit to play and fully recovered remains to be seen. If he wins, he could face another interesting story in defending champion Xavier Malisse, still coming back from injury after missing most of last year, who has had great success in Delray Beach in years' past - it is where he was finally able to claim his first ATP Title in 2005 after a dismal record in finals. Malisse has also played two other finals in Delray and has won the doubles title. Florian Mayer will be coming from Davis Cup duties in Germany, giving rising American Donald Young a chance to finally make a splash in an ATP tournament.

Marseille

Marseille is by far the strongest event of the week, featuring more prize money and a field that includes three top 10 players in Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet, and new top 10er Mikhail Youzhny, all coming off of Davis Cup play this weekend.

Novak Djokovic heads the draw but his fitness is in question after retiring in today's Davis Cup match. If Djokovic is fit, he should make the quarters where he would face the always tough Paul-Henri Mathieu in a very intriguing match. This little section also contains tough Frenchmen Michael Llodra, Marc Gicquel, and defending champion Gilles Simon. In the second quarter, Andy Murray returns after leaving his country high and dry in Argentina due to a "knee injury." Also in this quarter, 2007 Brazil Open runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero makes an interesting decision to play indoors instead of in Brasil on his beloved clay, and more tough Frenchmen including Nicolas Mahut and Sebastien Grosjean could be dangerous.

The third quarter of the draw is full of good players and potential title threats. Defending finalist Marcos Baghdatis, whose coach stepped down last week, faces a difficult second round match between either Ivo Karlovic and Feliciano Lopez, which should be an exciting encounter (not). Should Baghdatis make it through to the quarterfinals, he will likely face Youzhny in a rematch of an excellent quarterfinal match at this event last year. However, Youzhny has a tough opener in rising Croatian Marin Cilic, who has posted excellent results this year.

The stars of the fourth quarter are France's top 2 players - Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who will be looking to meet in the quarterfinals, which would be an interesting rematch of their Australian Open Round of 16 match and quite a big deal in France. But first, Tsonga must get past Mario Ancic, a former top player who is trying to come back from various ilnesses and injuries. Also in this quarter, Robin Soderling returns to the tour after an extended injury break. Soderling will open against tough Fin Jarkko Nieminen, a semifinalist here last year.

Davis Cup Roundup: First Round Day 3, February 10

2008-02-10T16:13:00.000-08:00

Russia vs Serbia

As we expected, Novak Djokovic attempted to play for Serbia to keep their hopes alive. Despite Djokovic not being 100% fit, Nikolay Davydenko (pictured right, click for larger) played even worse and Djokovic was able to build a 2 sets lead and had 3-0 double break in the third set. Davydenko lifted his level of play in the third set, hitting 17 of his 26 winners in this set alone, but Djokovic still had 4*-3 40-0 when he threw in two double faults to give up all advantage. Davydenko was able to eke out the third set and Djokovic retired, exhausted and dizzy, thus handing the tie to the Russians. In the final meaningless dead rubber, Viktor Troicki, who acquitted himself so well in Friday's match against Davydenko, produced a three-set upset of Dmitry Tursunov to leave the final score of the tie at 3-2.

Israel vs Sweden

In the first match between Dudi Sela and Thomas Johansson (pictured left, click for larger), Sela was trying to produce one more great result for his country and Thomas Johansson was trying to keep his team alive. The first set was a long and difficult one, with each player having multiple break points that neither could convert. Finally, Sela broke and served for the set at 5-3 but was broken to love. After an hour and a half or so of play and a see-saw tiebreaker, Johansson was able to eke out the first set. After an easy second set, Johansson built up a 3-0 double break in the third set but lost four games in a row. After saving a 0-40 game serving at 3-4, Johansson was able to break Sela in the 11th game of the set and serve it out easily for a tough straight sets win. Johansson was thus able to keep Sweden alive and send the weekend's only tie to a live fifth rubber, much to the dismay of the boisterous Israeli crowd.

So to the weekend's only live fifth rubber in World Group play, which pitted Jonas Bjorkman (pictured right, click for larger) against Harel Levy. Levy got off to a tremendous start (probably more accurate to say Bjorkman got off to an abysmal one) by bageling Bjorkman, but Bjorkman came storming back, saved some break points in the second set and won it despite losing more points. In the fourth set, Levy had an early break and barely managed to hold onto his serve until serving for the set at 5-4 when Bjorkman finally reclaimed the break on a Levy doublefault and ultimately won a tight tiebreaker in the fourth. So, Bjorkman was able to complete Sweden's stunning comeback ending in a 3-2 victory. And their prize is going to Argentina for the quarters....

Germany vs Korea

The only other live tie on Sunday saw Germany trying to wrap up a victory over Korea. Philipp Kohlschreiber (pictured left, click for larger) played Hyung-Taik Lee in the first match. Kohlschreiber got off to an excellent start, handing Lee a bagel, and then got a little lazy in the second set, which Lee won after saving some break points when he tried to close it out. Kohlschreiber recovered and managed to take the next two sets, including a difficult and tight fourth set, to wrap up a 4-set win and Germany's victory. In the final dead rubber, unknown Woong-Sun Jun upset Michael Berrer in three sets to finish the tie with a 3-2 score for the Germans.

Other Ties

No real need to talk in-depth about the ties that were completed yesterday after the doubles. In the Czech Republic, Belgians Steve Darcis and unknown Ruben Bemelmans were able to restore a bit of pride for Belgium, winning both the dead rubbers (the 2nd when Pavel Vizner retired), for a final score of 3-2 for the Czechs. Argentina ended up with a 4-1 victory after Jamie Baker somehow beat good claycourter Agustin Calleri in straight sets. So at least Great Britain can leave with a bit of pride after an otherwise painful weekend. In Peru, Spain completed its 5-1 whitewash over Peru with two straight-sets wins today. France also completed its 5-0 win over Romania with two wins from Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement.

Finally, the US ended up with a 4-1 victory in Austria. While America's top two stars curiously and inexplicably left Vienna early Sunday morning to head back to the US, twin doubles stars Bob and Mike Bryan were left to complete the dead rubbers. Though Mike had not played a singles match in years and was in his Davis Cup singles debut, he acquitted himself quite well against Stefan Koubek until he suffered a hamstring strain and retired early in the 2nd set. In perhaps the most laughable result of the day, Bob Bryan (pictured above right, click for larger) slip-slided around the clay using his aggressive serve and forehand and wonderful volleys to beat Werner Eschauer in three sets (including a bagel in the first).

Zonal Group I Ties

Of course, this weekend saw many of the Zonal groups play. While the higher-ranked countries there have byes, a few notable countries were playing for the right to move to April's 2nd round (with the winners there given a chance to play in September's World Group playoffs against the World Group 1st round losers from this weekend - yes, we know it's confusing). Anyway, in the Europe/Africa Zone, both Macedonia and Switzerland wrapped up their ties with comfortable victories. In the America's Zone I, Canada wrapped up an easy victory over Mexico, despite playing without top player Frank Dancevic, and will play undesirable foe Chile in April.

In the tightest tie in zonal play, Colombia and Uruguay competed for the right to play Brasil in April. In a rain-affected tie, Uruguayan Cuevas played a heroic 10 sets on Saturday to give his team a 2-1 lead, including the doubles match ending at 8-6 in the fifth. Understandably, this monumental effort took a lot out of Cuevas, and he lost in three easy sets on Sunday to Alejandro Falla, who was able to send the tie to a live fifth rubber, won by Colombia's Santiago Giraldo, unfortunately leaving Cuevas's herculean effort all for naught. Finally, in the Asia/Oceania Zone I play, Australia wrapped up an easy 4-1 win over Chinese Taipei behind two wins from Lleyton Hewitt, Japan wrapped up a 5-0 victory over the Philippines, and Thailand and India each wrapped up 3-2 victories.

World Group Quarterfinal Preview

So, the Quarterfinals are now set. At the top of the draw, Russia will have the home advantage over the Czech Republic, which should be an interesting tie assuming both countries' top players show up. The Czech Republic has solid players in Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek and a clear advantage in doubles with specialists Vizner and Dlouhy, but the Russians can never be underestimated, especially at home. Surface could be key for this tie. Next, Sweden will be the next victims of an Argentine home tie, which will surely be on clay. Argentina has not lost a home tie since 1998, and it's hard to see Sweden breaking that streak, no matter who plays for each team.

The bottom half of the World Group draw features two very interesting quarterfinals. Spain will head to Germany, which could be a close tie especially if Tommy Haas is healthy and able to play. Look for the Germans to lay down a fast court. Spain will hope that its top two players in Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer show up to play; both stayed home for the first round tie. Finally, the US faces the toughest home tie as they will host France at the already-decided venue indoors in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which held an excellent quarterfinal tie last year. We imagine the Americans will lay down a very quick low-bouncing court, probably one that plays similar to the US Open. With an excellent doubles team and two singles players having fantastic 2008 seasons, France will pose a formidable threat, particularly because their preferred surfaces are the same as the Americans so picking a favorable surface will be difficult for the defending champions, so they will have to rely on their top stars' excellent home records and the crowd to pull through instead of any surface advantage if they hope to advance to the semifinals.

Challenger Circuit

By the way, there was one fairly decent-sized Challenger event this week in Bergamo, Italy, and it was a good one for hometown player Andreas Seppi, who picked up the singles title with a good win over Julien Benneteau and the doubles title with Countryman Bolelli.

Davis Cup Roundup: First Round Day 2 Doubles Action, February 9

2008-02-09T17:33:00.002-08:00

Russia vs. Serbia

The doubles was a must-win match for the Serbians to stay alive, so despite neither player being 100%, Serbia fielded its best possible team in Novak Djokovic and top doubles player Nenad Zimonjic (pictured right, click for larger). On the Russian side, Mikhail Youzhny replaced Marat Safin and paired up with Dmitry Tursunov. For the first two sets, the Serbians were in control of the match, but it got much tougher in the third set as the affects of their virus caught up to Djokovic and Zimonjic - after the match Zimonjic would say they were just trying to "survive" during the third set. In fact, the Russian served for that set at 6*-5, but they didn't and the Serbians went on to win the tiebreaker, allowing their team to try to fight back on Sunday. After the match, Djokovic said he did feel somewhat better but not 100% and did not know if he would be able to come out on Sunday to play Davydenko.

Czech Republic vs Belgium

With their top two singles players, Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek (pictured left, click for larger), back on court today for doubles, the Czech Republic clinched its spot in the World Group Quarterfinals with a marathon 5-set win that spanned almost 4 and a half hours. In a see-saw affair, the Czechs served for the first set but ultimately lost it in a tiebreaker. It was an interesting move by the Czechs to stick with their singles players instead of Dlouhy and Vizner, two excellent doubles players on the team. Down a set and a break to the Belgians Kristof Vliegen and Olivier Rochus, the Czechs made a fine comeback, taking the second set also in a tiebreaker. The match continued this back and forth progression through the fifth set, where the Belgians let slip an early break point only to lose it 6-4 in the end, sending the Czechs through to the Quarters.

Argentina vs Great Britain

The only real news we have here is that Great Britain finally made a set close, really close! The British team of Ross Hutchins and doubles specialist Jamie Murray were able to push David Nalbandian and Jose Acasuso (pictured right, click for larger) to a 13-11 second set tiebreaker. They even had at least one set point in that tiebreaker to give themselves their first set of the whole tie but were unable to convert. Of course then they were bageled in the third, but at least Britain made one set close... So, the Argentines breeze through to the quarterfinals

Israel vs Sweden

Coming off their historical first Grand Slam title, it was up to Israelis Erlich and Ram (pictured left, click for larger) to give Israel an all-important advantage going into Sunday's singles tie, and they did not disappoint their home crowd. Starting off well and getting out to an early 3-0 lead, the Israelis were in control from the start. Excellent doubles in their own right, Sweden's Aspelin and Lindstedt were able to keep the match close despite the straight-sets score. So Israel will head into tomorrow's reverse singles with a 2-1 advantage and two very interesting matches on Sunday with Sela facing Thomas Johansson first up.

Germany vs Korea

Not a whole lot to say here as Korea interestingly did not play its top player Hyung-Taik Lee and instead played two relative unknowns in Jun and An. The German pairing of Philipps - Kohlschreiber and Petzschner (pictured right, click for larger) - easily dispatched the Korean team, giving the Germans a 2-1 lead going into tomorrow. The first reverse singles match will pit Kohlschreiber against Lee, which should be an interesting encounter.

Peru vs Spain

After pulling out of yesterday's opening singles match with an injury, Peru's only notable player, Luis Horna, managed to suit up for the doubles. Playing with Ivan Miranda, however, the team was still outclassed by a stronger Spanish team - Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez (pictured left, click for larger) - two singles players who still have excellent doubles prowess. Although the match was a straight-setter for the Spaniards, the third set was tight and went to a tiebreaker, which the Spaniards ultimately won. With the win, Spain wrapped up its victory and sails through to the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Peru can still be satisfied that it got to play in the World Group at all in the first place, and it now will look to a World Group Playoff match in September, where it will have to play for the right to be in the World Group next year.

Romania vs France

Hoping to keep themselves alive and also hoping to repeat their surprise upset of the same French team - Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra (pictured right, click for larger) - in the same round in Davis Cup play, Mergea and Tecau started slowly, losing serve in the opening game and blowing a 30-0 lead at 4*-5 in the second to lose the first two sets. but fought bravely to come back and win the next two to send the match to a deciding fifth set. In the third set, the Romanians were able to save some crucial break points to force a tiebreaker. And at 5all in the tiebreaker, Llodra, who was the better player of the two throughout the match, gave his partner the chances to end the match on his serve but he missed a volley and allowed the Romanians back into it. Looking like they had all the momentum, the R0manians had a chance to break early in the fifth but were unable to convert and from then on the French eased to victory and to a 3-0 sweep to the Quarterfinals where they will play away in the US.

Austria vs USA

And to the bottom of the draw, which actually provided the first team to move through to the quarterfinals after the Bryan twins (pictured left, click for larger) put on a dazzling display of doubles tennis to easily win what was, on paper, a difficult matchup for them, to sen the US team to the quarterfinals. Getting off to a flawless start, the Bryans took the opening set 6-1 behind some incredible volleying and returning. As the match wore on, it became more and more apparent that Melzer was still feeling the effects of his marathon against Roddick yesterday; the Bryans noticed this and started targeting him more and more to the point where, by the end of the second set, he could barely make a volley. After the match, the Austrians fully admitted they were simply beaten by two guys playing amazing tennis. And so, what more is there to say?

So, like they have done so many other times, the Bryans wrapped up their match easily in the third set and assured the defending champion Americans a place in the Quarterfinals, which will be held at home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The fact that the US wrapped up the tie today brings extra good news. Word from fans at the tie is that Roddick tweaked his knee at least once on the holey clay surface yesterday and that he was limping today on the sidelines; apparently, Blake was experiencing some back trouble as well. Luckily with the tie wrapped up, both of the Bryans can come out and play in their place tomorrow for the best-of-three set dead rubbers. And of course, hopefully Roddick and Blake aren't hurt too badly.