For a set, Novak Djokovic was cruising against Philipp Kohlschreiber, up 6-3, with Kohlschreiber making errors.  But then, his game left him.  He couldn’t get his serves in.  He was spraying shot.  And suddenly he lost the second set, 6-2, and then was down 3-0 in the third with a point to be down two breaks.

Djokovic manage to claw his way back, just going for his shots, and the score was 3-all.  At 4-5, it looked bad again.  Djokovic was serving 0-40, triple match point, and looking to an early exit.  He made two aggressive approaches to the net, and eventually saved the game, at 5-all.  Kohlschreiber took the next game and Djokovic pushed it to a tiebreak.

In the tiebreak, Djokovic took an early lead and never relinquished it winning the tiebreak 7-3.  Djokovic seemed too fatigued to yell as he sometimes does when he wins.  It was a half-hearted effort, knowing he had escaped from a tight situation.  Djokovic will need to find his serve if he is to have a chance of winning this tournament.  He found just enough resolve to get him through to the fourth round.

In the only other match completed today, Juan Monaco, the #21 seed from Argentina beat the #11 seed, Juan Carlos Ferrero in three sets.  Ferrero had been on a streak of three finals in three consecutive tournaments, but all three were played on clay.  Although he had an easy second round match, he wasn’t ready for Monaco’s game.

Djokovic will play the winner of qualifier Dabul of Argentina and veteran Ljubicic of Croatia.  Monaco will play the winner of Garcia-Lopez of Spain and Bellucci of Brazil.

Rafael Nadal is up next to play Mario Ancic.  Ancic contracted mononucleosis in 2008 and has only been able to play intermittently since then.  Ancic has a law degree in Croatia and was doing some legal work in Croatia during his time off.  Ancic was best known for upsetting Roger Federer many years ago when Federer had done no scouting of Ancic, expecting a baseliner and surprised to discover a serve-and-volleyer.  Even so, Ancic is only 25 years old.

Nadal has apparently added insoles to his shoes to provide additional support as he tries to find solutions to his knee problems.  Nadal is the defending champ.  Last year, he handily beat Andy Murray in what amounted to be a windstorm in extremely breezy conditions.  The last time the two met was in Monte Carlo in 2008, a match he won, 6-0, 6-3.