Didn’t expect this.  Robin Soderling didn’t have a particularly good Indian Wells.  He lost to Phillipp Kohlschreiber in the 3rd round.  This was one indication that Soderling wasn’t on top of his game and that del Potro would have a good shot of beating Soderling.

Before del Potro was injured, he used to play Soderling well.  Soderling, at the time, was so fresh off his Nadal upset and still working his way up the ranks that one could understand if he wasn’t ready to challenge del Potro.  But after Delpo got injured, Soderling continued to play solid tennis ultimately reaching the world number 4 ahead of Andy Murray, where he’s been for a while.

But who expected del Potro to dominate Soderling.  The score, a lopsided 6-3, 6-2.  Is Delpo that good already?  Is Soderling having a bad spell?  Last year, Soderling didn’t start the year well, losing in early rounds in January.  But it seems Delpo is coming back and is headed to the top ten.  He’ll have a handful of weeks to get his rank up to get seeded, otherwise, he may have a tough early round encounter at the French.  It’s hard to tell who should be more fearful if this happens, Delpo or his opponent.

Spaniard Marcel Granollers beat Llodra in 3 sets.  Mardy Fish upset red-hot Gasquet, a quarterfinalist last week at Indian Wells.

Joining Fish in the next round, fellow American John Isner beat another American, Russian-born Alex Bogomolov (who upset Murray in the 2nd round), 6-2, 7-6.  Fellow tall-guy, Kevin Anderson, had an easy win over Pablo Andujar, 6-2, 6-3.

David Ferrer shut down Somdev Devvarman, 6-4, 6-2.

Troicki took the first set over Sam Querrey, 7-6 in the tiebreak despite an opportunity to break.  They are even in the second set.

James Blake and Novak Djokovic play the late match this evening.