Perhaps the only guy that can relate to Tommy Haas is Taylor Dent. A back injury lead to surgery and nearly two years off the tour. Dent wondered at times whether it was worth the effort to come back.
But come back he did. After being off the tour from 2006 to early 2008, Dent returned back on the tour. While he hasn’t had the greatest results, he had a great match against Navarro hitting a stunning 121 winners.
He will face Andy Murray, the number 2 seed, and be a decided underdog, though not nearly the underdog that Jesse Witten was against Djokovic.
Today, the big hitters generally won. Tsonga beat compatriot, Julien Benneteau, in straight sets. Fernando Gonzalez beat Berdych in straight sets as well. Gael Monfils was leading when Acasuso retired in the third. Gilles Simon also retired, playing Juan Carlos Ferrero. Cilic had an easy win over Denis Iztomin of Uzbekistan.
Two of the top favorites completed matches today. Juan Martin del Potro looked like he was heading to a straight set win over Austrian, Daniel Koellerer, when he had a bit of an injury in the second set, and Koellerer won the second set. However, del Potro righted the ship and took sets 3 and 4 rather handily.
Rafael Nadal didn’t have a particularly good match. He was hampered a bit by an abdominal injury, which has bothered him before. Nevertheless, he got through his match in straight sets as well.
Results of Dent-Murray in a later post.
