The match should have been played earlier, but due to the weather, it was delayed til past 5 PM, the rain creating heavy conditions. Roger Federer was looking to right the ship. He had not played well since Australia. A loss to Marcos Baghdatis at Indian Wells. A loss to Tomas Berdych at Miami. Then,
Apparently, Djokovic wasn't feeling so good and wasn't sure he wanted to play Belgrade, but given that it's his home tournament, he felt obligated. The least likely Serbian to win today was therefore, Filip Krajikovic, 18 years old, reaching the semifinals. Good news for Americans. John Isner beat Richard Gasquet in 3 sets earlier. His
Federer appears to schedule a tournament like Estoril so he can build confidence playing decidedly weaker players. It may be the only tournament of the year Federer enters with a draw this weak. Federer played Doha, which is an ATP 250 event, but it typically draws stellar fields, such as Nadal and Davydenko, and, in
It still helps to have a big serve, even on clay. John Isner had a relatively routine win, 6-2, 6-4. Ouanna had a chance to break back at 4-2 down, but was unable to break. Isner had a chance for a double break, but didn't convert. Ouanna had a hard time returning serve which makes
Bjorn Phau is a rather ideal opponent for a struggling Federer. Federer lost to Ernests Gulbis and should have had a week to train. His level of play should look better than Gulbis, but it looks about the same. The scores tell you that Federer won 6-3, 6-4 which seems like a comfortable win. But
The clay court season starts with Monte Carlo and culminates at Madrid. Technically, there's one more clay tournament (in Nice, France) prior to the French, but the likelihood is no top seeds will play that tournament. There are three Masters 1000 (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid) with Monte Carlo considered an optional tournament (the other
Sam Querrey's quest to win a clay title came short as Juan Ignacio Chela, once ranked as high as 15 in the world (back in 2004), managed to turn back the clock and beat his younger opponent in three sets. Querrey took the first set 7-5, but Chela showed his clay court prowess and took
Sam Querrey is one match from his first claycourt title. His opponent was a bit of a surprise. Were it not for an incident that occurred a few weeks ago where Wayne Odesnik was found to have smuggled HGH into Australia and potentially faces a ban, no one might have cared that Odesnik was making
Miami marks the end of the first part of a 3 part hard court season. The second part occurs just after Wimbledon and is the US Open Series, and the third part is after the US Open which is a combination of hard courts and indoor tournaments (I wish it were all indoors, but apparently,
Some would say that Gulbis winning his first ATP title was a tall order. Mostly because his opponent was 6'10", Ivo Karlovic. Hoho! Ernests Gulbis has long been touted as a talented player, someone that might come through like Djokovic or Cilic or Murray. Indeed, Gulbis trained at the same center that Djokovic did. With
