It’s pretty impressive when a guy who is as injured as Juan Carlos Ferrero can come back and play this well.  Ferrero will be off for months, come back, and win a tournament, before fading away.  Fortunately for him, he’s playing well.  Gael Monfils was his creative self, diving all over to get miracle shots (including the one pictured where he hit a lob with a shot underneath his legs).

However, he was subjected to long rallies against Ferrero.  Monfils was trying to be more aggressive, but there was only minor differences between the two.  Ferrero took the first set in a tiebreak, then Monfils the next two, and Ferrero took the last two with a break each in the fourth and fifth set.

Roger Federer faced no such problems with the diminutive Dudi Sela who goes to show why it’s tough for a small guy to compete.  Sela just couldn’t keep up with the power of Federer, in particular, he was not able to put many serves into play.  Federer won 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 without dropping serve.

A capsule summary of other matches

  • Tomas Berdych had a tight first set against Fabio Fognini before clamping down and taking sets 2 and 3 at love.
  • Tsonga played the son of famous pole vaulter, Sergey Bubka (also of the same name), in straight sets.
  • Marcel Granollers, the lowest seed still in the tournament, beat Kukushkin in straight sets.
  • Tall Kevin Anderson, unseeded, had a easy win over 29th seed, Michael Llodra.
  • Janko Tipsarevic, the 20th seed, needed four sets to beat Philipp Petzschner.
  • Frequently injured Tommy Haas beat Alejandro Falla in straight sets
  • 27th seed Marin Cilic made easy work of Bernard Tomic dropping only 3 games (they played 5 sets in the 2010 Australian Open)
  • 23rd seed Radek Stepanek retired with an injury to his shoulder in the third set to Juan Monaco

Currently, the following matches are being played

  • Davydenko has won the first two sets against Potito Starace
  • Verdasco has taken the initial set over Ilhan of Turkey
  • Ivo Karlovic took the initial set over Gasquet
  • Mardy Fish has a 4-0 lead over Jaziri of Tunisia who is playing his first Slam main draw ever
  • Dolgopolov is up 2 sets to none over Italian Cipolla

To be played tonight, Djokovic takes on Berlocq of Argentina.