Lopez seems like a poor man’s Verdasco.  He’s a lefty, but hits his a one-hander to Verdasco’s two-hander.  He has a big forehand, but probably not bigger than Verdasco.  He relies on the slice.  He might have a bigger serve than Verdasco, but not by much.  In any case, he had never beaten Roger Federer, but he came oh-so-close today.

Federer kept holding serve, but the breaks, they weren’t a coming.  Federer needed a marathon 15-13 tiebreak to win the first set.  He lost the second one quickly, 7-1, but then took another lengthy tiebreak, 9-7, to seal a 3-hour victory.

Federer will hope to get a reprieve from Xavier Malisse, a buddy of his who he’s beaten numerous times.  Malisse had an easy win over Yen-Hsun Lu who upset the said Verdasco, a finalist at Estoril against del Potro.

Speaking of del Potro, the tall Argentine had an easy win over similarly tall Croat, Marin Cilic.  With Nadal’s easy victory over Baghdatis, the two will butt heads in the third round in what promises to the most anticipated third round match.  Nadal will be favored, but del Potro is playing solid ball.  I think he’ll give Nadal a challenge, but not be able to secure the victory.

Florian Mayer, who lost to Davydenko in Munich, had to retire against Thomaz Bellucci in the the third set.  Indeed, except for del Potro and Djokovic, it seems many of last week’s finalists faded in Madrid, including Davydenko and Verdasco.

Djokovic had a comfortable win over tall Kevin Anderson 3 and 4.  Murray needed 3 sets to topple Simon, but took the third set 6-0.  Last time they met, Simon had an injury but continued to play the match.

Soderling beat Giraldo, Berdych beat Granollers, and Melzer lost in straights to Gimeno-Traver.