Gilles Simon knows that they way he's likely to win is to grind out long points. He's quick, he's steady, and occasionally, he can hit a hard shot. It's possible to overpower Simon, which seems to be the right way to play him, but as David Ferrer found out, power can lead to errors. It's
James Blake is a stubborn man. Blake kept his old racquets strung at some ridiculously high tension for years even when he didn't have a contract, even when the racquet was no longer being made. Blake's style is to be aggressive. In a way, he's like Roger Federer. He wants to attack the ball early,
Infuriating. David Ferrer is number 6 in the world and the best short man in the game. He plays a form of Nadal-lite. He lacks Nadal's heavy strokes or his raw athleticism, but when he plays well, he can pressure you and beat players much bigger than him. And yet Gilles Simon is one infuriating
Verdasco must get a lot of heartache playing Nadal. He's never beaten him in 11 attempts, and for a while, he was struggling to win sets. But if Verdasco had a chance to upset Nadal, today was it. Nadal had burned his fingers at a dinner handling a hot plate. He had lost to Dodig
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
