Indian Wells (2R): Federer and Nadal win comfortably

With a bug going around at Indian Wells, players are trying to stay healthy.  Federer apparently has some combination of a cold and flu, but it didn’t affect the results against rising talent, Denis Kudla, who he beat 64 61.  Kudla is a contemporary of Jack Sock (the two played as juniors).  This was his first match against a top ten player, and as expected, Federer won, though Kudla’s power in the first set kept him in the match until Federer figured it out in the second set and ran away with the match.  Up next for Federer is hard-serving Milos Raonic, perhaps the closest player to Pete Sampras in terms of a big-serving reasonably mobile guy.

Indian Wells also marks Rafael Nadal’s return to the pro tour, and he looked sharp against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.  As usual, whenever anyone plays Rafa, they have to start going for their shots because Rafa (especially in the last few years) is looking to attack early.  This doesn’t mean go for winners necessarily, but go for uncomfortable shots with weak replies.  Mayer did a little better in the second set, but it was still mostly a beatdown, 61 63.   Up next for Nadal is Granollers who beat Tommy Haas in three sets to reach this point.

Grigor Dmitrov is looking less like baby Federer all the time.  At least, Ernests Gulbis, the biggest talent that never was, managed to go deep in a Slam once and has upset Roger Federer before.  Dmitrov had to face world number 5 David Ferrer (brief interruption by Tsonga was number 5 for a week).  Ferrer is the best small man playing today, and he showed this with a 62 62 win.  Up next for Ferrer is Denis Istomin who struggled mightily with Juan Ignatio Chela to win in three sets.

del Potro had a comfortable win over Matosevic who reached his first final against Kevin Anderson in Delray Beach.  Up next for del Potro is Fernando Verdasco who handled Ryan Sweeting easily.  Verdasco is starting to play somewhat better after more than a year of not playing that well (ever since he overplayed the clay season one summer).

Nikolay Davydenko had a straightforward win over Bjorn Phau.  His play has become a lot steadier ever since he ditched Dunlop and went back to his Prince racquet.  He’ll face Thomaz Bellucci who upset Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.  Melzer recently won Memphis, but hasn’t played top ten tennis for about a year.

Neither Tsonga nor his next opponent, Stepanek, had much trouble with their opponents.  Michael Llodra retired against Tsonga after less than a set.  Xavier Malisse played the full match but won few games against Radek Stepanek.

David Nalbandian needed two close tiebreaks to upset the struggling Marin Cilic.  He’ll face Janko Tipsarevic who had a comparatively easier time against Gilles Muller.  Finally, Alexandr Dolgopolov had to struggle mightily against Belgian player, Steve Darcis, in three sets.  He’ll face Marcos Baghdatis who upset Feliciano Lopez.

The flu bug did hit Gael Monfils who had to withdraw before playing.  Bjorn Phau was the lucky beneficiary, though he lost to Davydenko who is probably happier playing Phau than Monfils.

Indian Wells: Murray upset in opening round for second year in a row

The last two years, Andy Murray went into a funk, after losing in the finals of the Australian Open.  In 2010, he lost to Federer in the finals, then skipped Marseille, lost in Dubai to Tipsarevic.  He did OK in Indian Wells, losing to Soderling in the quarterfinals, but lost early to Mardy Fish in Miami.  Little did Murray expect, at the time, that Mardy Fish would use his defeats of Murray to work his way to the top ten.

Last year, Murray did even worse.  He lost in an opener at Rotterdam to Baghdatis.  He also lost Indian Wells against Donald Young, and then in the opening round to Alex Bogomolov, Jr.  Both players went on to have their best year, though both seem to have faded some in 2012.  That’s what confidence will do for you.

This year, however, Murray had pushed Djokovic to five sets in Australia.  He had reached the finals of Dubai, upsetting Djokovic along the way.  It seemed this year, Murray’s mood was much better, especially with Lendl as coach.

His opponent, Garcia-Lopez, had let his rank slip some, down at 92.  The Spaniard’s never been among the best, even in his own country, as players like Nadal, Ferrer, Verdasco, Almagro, Lopez all played ahead of him.  He had upset Nadal before, but one could always chalk that up to Nadal’s post US Open funk.

This evening, Garcia-Lopez played really solid from the baseline, while Murray’s serve and his groundies were not in stellar form.  It’s not that Murray didn’t have his chances.  In both sets, he had 0-40 opportunities, but couldn’t crack them.  He also made twice as many errors as his opponent, and watched his first serve percentage plummet.  Murray appeared to be spinning his shots side to side, but Garcia-Lopez was not missing, and using his own variety to slice, and hit flatter.  Garcia-Lopez has a one-handed backhand, and it was effective.

Garcia-Lopez opened with a break in the second set, and Murray had to dig deep to avoid a second break but late in the second set, Garcia-Lopez broke a second time, and Murray was unable to mount a challenge to get a break.  Ultimately, Murray found it hard to be aggressive because he was making way too many errors, and so he was involved in long exchanges from the baseline where Garcia-Lopez hit very cleanly without many unforced errors.  Of the top four, Murray is the one that finds it hard to dominate off the ground unless he’s playing someone like Nadal or Djokovic where his mindset is to outhit them with pace, something he doesn’t seem to apply to the average player.

Garcia-Lopez wins 6-4, 6-2.

Earlier in the day, Djokovic, the top seed, had a comfortable win over Golubev in straight sets.  Kevin Anderson didn’t have to hit a ball in a walkover over Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Two Spaniards had upsets.  Andujar upset Florian Mayer in straight sets.  Ramos upset Gasquet in three sets.  Almagro beat Querrey in 3 sets, perhaps showing Querrey is starting to come back.  Giraldo upset Nishikori in straight sets.

Roddick and Berdych both needed 3 sets to reach the next round.  Harrison upset Troicki.  Wawrinka and Simon both needed 3 sets to garner their victories.  Isner beat Portugal’s Frederico Gil in straight sets.  Frenchmen struggled some.  Monaco beat Mahut in three sets.  Ebden beat Benneteau in three sets.  Fish won his match when his opponent, Seppi, retired in the second set.

Tomorrow, the bottom half plays, including Federer and Nadal.  del Potro is also playing tomorrow.

Delray Beach: Anderson claims second career title with victory over Matosevic

It was an improbable journey for both finalists at Delray Beach, as it often is.  Two years ago, Ernests Gulbis won the event over Ivo Karlovic, and spearheaded one of his best starts in his troubled career.  He would go on to beat Roger Federer and take a set off Nadal on clay which is some achievement.  This year’s finalists were Kevin Anderson and Marinko Matosevic.

Of the two, Kevin Anderson is the more famous, and that’s in relative terms.  You have to be quite the tennis enthusiast to know much about Anderson.  If you group the ultra-tall players that are playing successfully in the ATP, there would only be three players: Ivo Karlovic, perhaps 6’10″ or 6’11″, John Isner, an inch shorter, and Kevin Anderson, listed as 6’8″.

In the 1990′s, Mary Carillo created the phrase “big-babe tennis” to describe the play of Lindsay Davenport, Mary Pierce, Jennifer Capriati.  This phrase could easily apply to the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, etc.  She was referring to the new breed of tall, hard hitting players that was changing the landscape of women’s tennis.  These players didn’t move as well as their shorter, speedier counterparts, players like Graf of Sanchez, but sometimes pace beats steadiness.

You can apply a similar phrase “big-man tennis” to these three players.  Ivo has the best serve of the three.  Players as highly ranked as Tsonga can’t even see his serve.  It’s a testament to the skills of Federer and Nadal that they can see his serve well enough, or that they crush him on their own service games.  Isner has more variety and spin on his serve, but it is nearly as effective.  More importantly, Isner moves better than Karlovic.  Karlovic does a masterful job of hiding his speed deficiencies.  He has a huge forehand, and volleys exceptionally well for a guy his size.  In the past, he really had to get to net quickly, but with a huge wingspan, he was a hard guy to pass.  Isner is probably not as good a volleyer, but he is certainly quicker on court, though his speed is a liability overall, a liability strong enough to prevent him, in my mind, from reaching the top ten.  He’s working on the speed,  but he’ll never be Nadal or Djokovic.

Kevin Anderson almost serves as well and covers the court even better than Isner.  What they all share in common is a huge serve backed up by a big forehand.  ”Big man” tennis is about taking a weak return and going for a winner.  In the past, such players would serve and volley.  All three men practice putting away floaters of all sort because long rallies are bad for these men.

Anderson’s history is very similar to Isner’s.  Although Anderson is from South Africa, he played college tennis in the US for the University of Illinois while Isner played for the University of Georgia.  Indeed, Anderson met his to-be wife at Illinois.  He was on the tennis team, she on the golf team.  Anderson’s best early performance was a finalist in 2008  at the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas where he beat Llodra and Isner en route to a loss to Sam Querrey who won his first title.  Much like Isner, Anderson’s career has been a bit up and down as he developed his game for the tour.  Last year, Anderson won his first ATP tour title in front of his home crown in Johannesburg.

Anderson again toppled Isner en route to the title.  He also beat a hobbled Andy Roddick in an earlier round.  Roddick, undoubtedly, will be asked questions about his retirement.  Anderson’s victory over Isner was mostly about holding his nerve and serve.  The two pretty much employ the same strategy.  Anderson said there were times that all he was doing was walking from one side to receive to the other, but he had one good return game where he saw second serves, and that was enough for the break and the first set, and in the second, Isner got behind in the tiebreak, and it was enough for Anderson to clinch the win.

Anderson’s opponent in the final was a surprise, a Cinderella story.  Marinko Matosevic is from Australia.  Yes, Australia has become the haven for those leaving their home countries, whether it be Greek (a la Phillippousis) or from former Yugolavia (Tomic and Matosevic).  It’s starting to become clear that as Kenyans seemed meant for marathon running, the former Yugoslavia has produced great tennis players regardless of where they end up (Milos Raonic of Canada being another such player).  Matosevic is ranked 129, has never broken the top 100, is 26 years old, has been on the tour nearly 8 years, but is currently playing his best tennis.

Matosevic upset Karlovic, Gulbis, and Dudi Sela en route to the final, showing he can play big men as well as small ones.  He couldn’t topple the last big man in the tournament, however, despite a game effort.  In the end, Matosevic struggled on returns especially second serves.  He did well to fend off break points including a 0-40 hole in the second set.   He did so by hitting huge shots, often on the run.  Sometimes you wonder how a guy like Matosevic finds himself in triple figures in the rankings.  The guy can hit hard and seems accurate, but these days, it’s a matter of consistency.  In his match against Sela, he was up breaks in the third with a comfortable lead, but found himself in a tiebreak, fighting for the victory that eventually came.

Other notes

If it weren’t for that other king of clay, David Ferrer would surely be the king of clay.  There would be puns of “David and the Goliath” with this Spaniard beating players seemingly twice his height.  Ferrer reached the finals of Acapulco and easily handled Fernando Verdasco, 61 62.   With this win, Ferrer goes back to number 5 in the world, which he briefly relinquished to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Next week, two Masters 1000 in a row.  Indian Wells is a week and a half event, followed by Miami, another week and a half event.  The top players are all expected to return, in particular, Rafael Nadal, who has not played since the Australian Open.  Since then, Federer has won twice (Rotterdam, Dubai), Djokovic lost in the semis of Dubai, and Murray lost in the finals of Dubai.

Dubai: Federer wins Dubai title for fifth time beating Murray in straight sets

Well, you knew Federer had the edge after the first game.  Murray came into the match hoping to keep up a streak that has meant a winning record over Federer in the past few years.  With a new coach, Ivan Lendl, Murray had elevated his game.  He beat Novak Djokovic who, frankly, was not looking spectacularly sharp.  Last year, it wouldn’t have mattered.  80% Djokovic would have won.

In the meanwhile, Federer has looked unusually sharp since the Australian Open as evidenced by his victory against del Potro in Rotterdam.  He used a similar strategy to outwit Murray, trying to pressure him to the edges.  When Federer is on these days, he’s creating better angles than he ever has.  He’s steadier off that “vulnerable” backhand.  In this match, Federer was willing to play longer rallies, which usually means he’s in pretty good health.  You know something is bothering Federer if he shortens the points almost always.

Murray, by contrast, was struggling with keeping the ball in play.  Late in the first set, Murray was down 15-40, managed to tie it at deuce, but was unable to hold.  With that break, Federer was able to claim the first set.  Federer got an early break in the second set, but Murray managed to break back again, before Federer played another good game to break.  Murray tried to come back at 5-4 down, but Federer’s aggressive forehand was too much.

Murray basically played a shallow angle to Federer’s backhand, but Federer’s backhand didn’t buckle and this eventually allowed Federer to attack with his inside out forehand, including one to punctuate match point.

Federer wins, 75, 64.

We should see both players in Indian Wells along with Nadal and Djokovic.

Delray Beach and Acapulco: The lives of Roddick and Ferrer

While the big event is in Dubai, with three of the top four players in the field, there are, as always, other tournaments being played.  There have been a series of American tournaments played: at San Jose, then Memphis, and now in Delray Beach.  There’s also been tournaments in the rest of the Americas on clay: events in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and now, Mexico.

In particular, Andy Roddick has been playing the hardcourt events while David Ferrer has been playing on clay.  The two have had quite different careers.  Roddick, much like Hewitt, Safin, and Ferrero, had success when he was young.  He was seen as the guy that would replace Agassi and Sampras.  And while his big booming serve lead him to the US Open title and the rank of number 1, Roddick was soon overtaken by Roger Federer.  Roddick was seen as someone with a nice serve, a reasonably big forehand, but lacking the kind of talent of a Federer or Nadal or Djokovic.

Even so, Roddick was able to stay in the top ten.  His rivals struggled to stay there including Nalbandian, Hewitt, Safin, and Ferrero.  Safin was too erratic.  The rest didn’t have the serve Roddick did.  As Roddick grew older, he became more workmanlike, beating players by being steadier than they were, and using his serve to win a lot of free points on his own serve.  Roddick knew his chances were going to be few and far between to win Slams as he got older.  Nadal was quicker than him, and could hit impossible shots from impossible positions.  Murray had incredible scrambling abilities and was more willing to hit big shots to win big points.

His rivals struggled staying healthy.  Players like Tommy Haas, Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian often got hurt.  Even when they were healthy, they built their game based on the game styles of the 1990s.  If you look at modern players, they use the angles of the court so much better.  Watch Agassi and Sampras, and they did not hit the angles modern players employ all the time.  Furthermore, better athletes began playing the sport that moved faster, hit harder, and were physically stronger.  The only player of Roddick’s generation to keep up with all this is, well, Roger Federer.

Roddick, meanwhile, could credit hard work and that serve and being smart for winning tennis.  But, starting a few years ago, Roddick’s body began to betray him.  Whether it be injuries or mono or whatever, Roddick has struggled with injuries that have knocked him out of action for a few weeks at a time.

Even so, Roddick is a fighter.  This week, Roddick got deep into Delray Beach to reach the quarterfinals, but was unable to beat the tall South African, Kevin Anderson, who plays a style reminiscent of John Isner.  Both Isner and Anderson had played college tennis in the US. Last week, in Memphis, Roddick had been hurt and it contributed to an early loss to Memphis in the opening round to Xavier Malisse.  Even so, Roddick came to Delray Beach and did much better, but not to his usual standard.

By contrast, David Ferrer, who has never been number 1, who has never won a Slam, has been playing the best tennis of his life in the last 3 years.  It has helped that Ferrer is in excellent shape and hasn’t been injured as of late, and that his game has a point of view.  Think of him as Nadal-lite.  He’s fast enough to retrieve most balls, yet, he tries to work his game where he uses his forehand to attack your backhand.  Ferrer is currently the best short man in tennis, perhaps standing about 5’9″, a burly guy, who rarely loses to players ranked below him.

He just won an event in Buenos Aires, and he won earlier in the year in Auckland, taking the Almagro route of winning a lot of small events to stay in the top ten.  Yesterday, Giraldo gave Ferrer some trouble by going for big forehands and backhands, but Ferrer’s experience pulled him through again as he won in straight sets and will play his Davis Cup compatriot, Fernando Verdasco, who handily beat Stan Wawrinka in the semis.  Verdasco hit a peak in 2009, but has struggled after a good year of tennis, unable to gain consistency in his game, and being upset by Bernard Tomic in the Australian Open.

Speaking of Bernard Tomic, he’s been playing in the US the past few weeks, but has yet to replicate the success he had at the start of the year, where he looked like he might go deep in the Australian Open.

Roddick will try to push through Indian Wells and Miami before taking a break from clay which he does every year.

Meanwhile, Ferrer will switch surfaces and attempt to make it deep to Indian Wells and Miami.

Roddick has had the better career, but Ferrer is having the better sunset of his career at this moment.

Dubai (SF): Federer squeaks by del Potro–to meet Murray in the finals

This time, del Potro kept the match close.  In Rotterdam, Federer got out to a fast lead then had to hold in the second set to beat the resurgent Argentine.  In the semis, del Potro kept toe-to-toe with Federer.  Fed was actually doing a much better job of holding his serve, nary seeing a break point.  But del Potro kept fighting off break points.  So, the first set went to a tiebreak.  The second set didn’t differ much from the first set as both players held until a second set tiebreak.

del Potro must have felt his chances were good to force a third set.  He took both points on Federer’s serve.  Soon, he was up 6-2, match point.  But Federer won that point.  6-3.  Then, Federer won both his points on serve, 6-5.  Again, del Potro could serve it out.  But del Potro lost both points on serve, and was down 7-6.  Federer then served out the match 8-6 in the tiebreak to finish off the improbable tiebreak.

Federer faces Murray in the finals.  These two didn’t play each other all of 2011.  There were chances where they could have met.  Perhaps the best missed opportunity was in Paris Indoors last year.  Murray lost the Berdych in the quarterfinals, and it was Berdych that faced Federer in the quarterfinals.

Federer’s is still pushing to become number 1, despite all odds against it.  He’s one week short of tying Sampras’s record, a record he could have easily tied had he not had some bizarre losses from a few years ago.  Federer’s playing pretty well, too, especially his match over del Potro in Rotterdam.

Even so, Murray has played Federer quite well outside the Slams beating him in Toronto and Shanghai in 2010, but Federer did beat him in the year-end championship in 2010 in round-robin play.  Of the top 3, Murray probably feels most confident against Federer.  He feels he has the legs to compete against Federer and that Federer is the most inconsistent of the top 3 since he plays so aggressively.  Furthermore, Murray tends to play better in smaller events like Dubai than in Slams.

Having said that Federer’s started 2012 pretty well, all things considered.  He’s striking the ball well.  He’s not shanking like he did in 2009 and 2010.  I give the edge to Murray based on recent head-to-head and being an outdoor surface, however.

Dubai (SF): Murray upsets world number one, Novak Djokovic

The two kept even early on at 2-all.  But that was as far as it would go, as Murray went on fire the rest of the set.  Neither Murray nor Djokovic had played exceptionally well to get to this point.  Murray, in particular, had seemed a bit nervous in an effort to close his match against Tomas Berdych.  Djokovic hadn’t played an exceptionally difficult opponent either despite beating Tipsarevic, a top-ten player, in the previous round.

What kind of match might Murray play against Djokovic?  Historically, Murray has played Djokovic pretty close, the 2010 Australian Open final being something of an exception.  The two hardly played each other in 2010 and 2011.  In 2011, Murray met Djokovic in the semis of Rome and had a chance to serve out the match.  In Cincy, Murray won when Djokovic retired.  The two didn’t play each other the rest of 2011, partly due to Murray not playing so well after Shanghai and partly due to Djokovic not playing well at Basel onward.

The two met in the semifinals at Melbourne.  Murray started off sluggishly, and it looked bad for Murray.  But he fought back to level the match at two sets each.  He got down a break in the fifth, but managed to break back to tie it 5-all before losing his serve once again.

Murray’s strategy was to not create too many angles and keep the ball deep.  By playing shots with slight angles up the middle, Djokovic had little to work with.  When Djokovic opened up the court, Murray would then work the angles.  It didn’t help that Djokovic struggled to keep his shots in play as well.  Murray played aggressive on the return and secured  two breaks to take the first set, 6-2.

Murray also broke early in the second set, but when it came time to serve out the match, Murray was broken back.  However, at 6-5, Murray got up 15-40 on Djokovic’s serve and closed out the match.

This is good news for both Murray and Djokovic.  It’s good news for Murray for obvious reasons.  Having been mired at number 4 for years, Murray wants to believe he can beat a top 4 opponent, especially Djokovic.  It’s also good news for Djokovic.  Last year, the pressure of having to be undefeated appeared to wear Djokovic down.  With this year being an Olympic year, there’s less pressure to play well week-in and week-out.  Focus on the Slams and the Olympics.

In the other semis, Federer and del Potro are even with the first set tiebreak likely.

Dubai (QF): Dream semifinals as Federer plays del Potro and Murray takes on Djokovic

The fourth seed at Dubai is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and newly ranked number 5, ahead of David Ferrer.  With his upsets over Federer in 2011, everyone said Tsonga was going to be in the top 4, and of course, replace Andy Murray, since the top 3 seemed pretty solid.  This, despite the fact that Juan Martin del Potro was making a comeback.  This, despite the fact that Tsonga did not have a good record against the top 4 (though he did reasonably well against Djokovic).

So when Juan Martin del Potro faced Tsonga for the second time in less than a week, Tsonga was not exactly considered a favorite.  He had just lost to him in the semis of Marseille on home soil.  On the foreign soil of Dubai, Tsonga didn’t fare much better.  He lost 76. 62.

Andy Murray had perhaps the toughest match in the quarters having to play top tenner, Tomas Berdych.  Murray had lost to Berdych three times in a row, last year in the quarters of Paris, then the year before also in Paris, but at the French Open, and then not for a few years way back in Adelaide.  But he handled the tall Czech with a 63 75 win that wasn’t exactly easy.  Murray kept getting up a break and then losing it, and ended up needing 6 match points to win.

Roger Federer had an easier time with Mikhail Youzhny with a comfortable 63 64 win.

Much like two weeks ago when Federer met del Potro in the finals of Rotterdam, he is hoping to use superior hitting and make del Potro cover a lot of court. del Potro is looking to use his power and hope Fed is a little off his game.

Meanwhile, neither Djokovic nor Murray have played great tennis to reach this point. Will Lendl’s coaching make a difference yet?  Murray’s come the closest to staying even with Djokovic.  Is he ready to do it again?

Dubai: Djokovic wins over Stakhovsky despite lackluster play to reach quarterfinals

One wonders whether Djokovic will have a 2012 like he did in 2011.  It almost didn’t seem that way after an indifferent match against Russian, Sergiy Stakhovsky, who took a minibreak lead twice in the first set tiebreak, but gave up minibreaks as well to lose the first set.  Stakhovsky went up an early break to Djokovic, but Djokovic broke back twice to take the second set 6-3.  Up next for Djokovic is compatriot and number 2 Serb, Janko Tipsarevic.  Tipsarevic needed three sets to beat Italian Cipolla, but the two sets he won were lopsided.  Tipsarevic last played Djokovic in the year-end championship in London, which Tipsarevic won.  However, Djokovic was not his best then, so expect Djokovic to win.

Andy Murray had played sluggishly in his opening round against Michael Berrer, but cleaned up his play in the second round, beating Marco Chiudinelli 63 64.   Murray plays Berdych next.  The last time they player was in Paris where Murray lost to Berdych in the quarterinfals.  Berdych is a good test for Murray because he’s good enough to give Murray trouble.  It will be a good indicator of where Murray’s game is.  Berdych had an easy win 61, 62 over Lukas Lacko.

In the bottom half, del Potro will face Tsonga.  The two met in the semifinals of Marseille which del Potro won.  This event is outdoors (Marseille was indoors), so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.  Federer will face Youzhny who upset Mardy Fish.  Fish has not played well in 2012, except for his win over Wawrinka in Davis Cup.  Federer has never lost to Youzhny.

Dubai: Top seeds, Federer and Murray, advance

Dubai, an ATP 500 event, has become the single toughest tournament played this year since the Australian Open.  This year, in the top ten, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray are among the top seeds in this event.  This marks Djokovic’s return back to tour, as well as Andy Murray.  Federer, interestingly enough, decided to play Rotterdam, an event he hadn’t been at in 7 years.  He won that tournament over Juan Martin del Potro.  del Potro, meanwhile, has kept quite busy playing Rotterdam, then Marseille last week, beating Michael Llodra in the finals.

On Monday, Djokovic both won and lost.  The number one player, Novak Djokovic, did just fine with a straight set win over Stebe.  Marko Djokovic, Novak’s younger brother and recipient of a wildcard, most likely due to his brother getting his wish granted by tournament organizers, but whose ranking is deep in the triple digits, lost in straight sets to Andrey Golubev, preventing the unlikely Djokovic vs. Djokovic final.

To show how challenging the tournament has been, Roger Federer opened up his match against Michael Llodra, who was in the finals of Marseille last week.  Fed won 6-0, 7-6.

Murray had a tougher time.  Dealing with some sickness, Murray needed three sets to beat Berrer, the man that seemed destined to beat Murray when Murray twisted an ankle at the French Open.  Instead, Berrer became Mr. Nice Guy, and kept the ball deep, while Murray hit all out, and beat Berrer just as handily after the injury as before, despite being hobbled, and went on to have his best French Open yet, reaching the semifinals for the first time.

Murray beat Berrer, 63, 46, 64 after being broken numerous times in the second set, and being up in the second set as well.  He faces Swiss number 3, Marco Chiudinelli.

Somebody must have rubbed Fish the wrong way in the US.  While players like Isner are playing Memphis and Delray Beach,  Mardy Fish has chosen to play in Europe in Marseille and now in Dubai.  That, or the guarantee money was a bit too lucrative.

The top seeds in the top half are Djokovic, Tipsarevic, Murray, and Berdych while Federer, Tsonga, del Potro, and Fish are on the bottom half.