Last year, Andy Murray might have felt he was making progress on clay. Always his weakest surface since turning pro, Murray's problems were compounded this year by his loss in the finals of the Australian Open. While his straight set drubbing by Federer was not entirely unexpected, what was unexpected was how the loss affected
Today was a mix of first and second round action. In first round action, Victor Hanescu must be tired of seeing Stanislas Wawrinka. The two met in Casablanca last week with Wawrinka winning the title. Then, they meet in the first round of Monte Carlo. Wawrinka wins 6-2, 6-4 again. Horacio Zeballos was also deep
Monte Carlo is the first Masters 1000 tournament on clay. Several players are either injured or have elected not to play. Specifically Roger Federer (skipping), Juan Martin del Potro (injured), Nikolay Davydenko (injured), Andy Roddick (skipping). Indeed, no Americans appear to be in the draw. All the seeds moved on. Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded 9th,
Andy Roddick's path to winning a Masters 1000 has been a long. He recently reached the finals of Indian Wells, but lost to Ivan Ljubicic. Roddick won Cincinnati in 2006. All his Masters 1000 titles have been in North America. He beat Tomas Berdych without dropping serve, winning 7-5, 6-4, breaking Berdych once in each
Prior to Indian Wells, if you were to ask who the favorites to win Indian Wells and Miami, few would have said Andy Roddick. Of course, fewer still would have said Ivan Ljubicic who won Indian Wells. Most were predicting Roger Federer, with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, nearly as often, and perhaps Rafael Nadal
Well, this surely wasn't the final people were expecting. Head-to-head would have suggested a Nadal-Soderling final in a rematch of the fourth round where Nadal lost in Paris. Instead, Roddick upset Nadal and Berdych pummeled Soderling, winning 6-2, 6-2. Apparently, Berdych wasn't done winning after defeating Roger Federer. At least Fed can feel good about
I won't do point by point blogging, because that is completely distracting when it comes to actually watching the match. I'll do it game-by-game. Surprisingly this is the early match, rather than Soderling-Berdych. On the other hand, it is a Friday, so you can imagine someone skipping work to watch this, and still having Friday
The last two semifinalists were decided today. Robin Soderling again makes it to the semifinals as he did back in Indian Wells. He played a familiar opponent, Mikhail Youzhny, who he beat back in Rotterdam. Youzhny was unable to complete that match, but he did complete this one, losing 6-1, 6-4. Tomas Berdych had to
Unlike the surprise loss by Federer yesterday, both Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal won quarterfinal matches. Roddick has never played Nicolas Almagro, but apparently found easy work, winning 6-3, 6-3. Nadal appeared to have a tougher challenge in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga had a chance to break early, but wasn't able to do it while Nadal
I'm not much into predictions. I just use head to head matchups to see how things might be. So let's do this. Again, we'll be denied a Federer-Nadal matchup mostly because Fed is struggling. Berdych plays Verdasco next. Berdych has a 5-3 record, but they tend to go back and forth. The two met in
