Few expected Djokovic to lose to Ryan Harrison. Djokovic possesses the better backhand. He's steadier. He can handle Harrison's power. But, you never know. Sometimes you come out and aren't ready to play from point one. Harrison came out more eager, challenged a first serve by Djokovic early, and got a break through a combination
Everyone knew that Andy Murray was in a slump. He lost in the opening round of Indian Wells to Donald Young (Junior) and then lost in the opening round to Alex Bogomolov (Junior). In the pros, a win is a win. You don't care if Murray is slumping. Any win over a top pro is
Mardy Fish vs. Nikolay Davydenko seemed like a good match. Davydenko had nearly taken a set off of Djokovic and his game seemed to be getting back in order. Not so much, it turns out. Davydenko is still apparently nervous about his first serve so he spins it in to keep the percentage high. Fish
This is what you get with a Masters 1000 event. You can have a tough first match right off the bat, and even more if you are a top seed. Juan Martin del Potro has been on the comeback trail. He's ranked 19th in the world, but would be 11th if the rankings were only
Ivan Ljubicic must know how Mardy Fish feels. Three times Ljubicic reached a Masters finals, and three times he came up second. To be fair, Ljubicic played opponents like Federer and Nadal. Then, in 2010, Ljubicic had the tournament of his life in Indian Wells. He beat Nadal. He beat Djokovic. And in the finals,
This match was expected to be more competitive than the Djokovic-Monfils match. Of course, one could argue that it would have to be given Monfils only won 3 games. For a few games, it was pretty close. Tsonga was able to attack on his own serves, and the two stayed close to 4-all. Djokovic was
Mardy Fish used to lack enough speed and endurance to play much from the baseline. He would get to net. But the last few years, he's played more baseline. Weight loss has left Fish lean and mean and better able to play long points from the backcourt. But, against Tipsarevic, Fish came to net a
Djokovic had played somewhat shaky tennis in his first two rounds, beating Davydenko when Davydenko had 2 breaks, then a third before giving up the first set then disappearing in the second. Against Cilic, Djokovic again struggled a bit with trying to take control of the match, but did good enough to win. But it
If you were to take a bet as to who would make it deeper, Roger Federer or Stanislas Wawrinka, surely you would have said Roger Federer. Of course, Roger Federer had to play Tsonga, a former top tenner, where Wawrinka played Kevin Anderson who is hoping to be in the top ten. Roger Federer was
Sometimes you need a perfect storm to beat Rafael Nadal. Nadal had taken a few weeks off after Wimbledon, skipping the Davis Cup tie against the US to rest, recover, and figure out what he might do against the new number one, Novak Djokovic. Nadal often comes back a little rusty when he takes a
