Miami marks the end of the first part of a 3 part hard court season.  The second part occurs just after Wimbledon and is the US Open Series, and the third part is after the US Open which is a combination of hard courts and indoor tournaments (I wish it were all indoors, but apparently, some places in Asia are warm enough to hold tournaments outdoors).

Now is the switch to clay.  This week’s tournaments are small.  Both Houston and Casablanca (in Morocco) are holding ATP 250 events which are the smallest of the official ATP events that count to match records.  You can earn points in Challenger and Futures which apparently contribute to rankings as well as opportunities to reach the ATP 250.

The Houston event was a bit surprising.  Last year, Lleyton Hewitt came to play so he could earn enough points to avoid qualifying for the more important clay events.  He beat Wayne Odesnik in the finals.  Odesnik was recently accused of smuggling human growth hormone (HGH) into Australia.  Many thought he wouldn’t play for a while, but he has appeared in Houston and has won two matches, clearly showing that whatever he’s accused of isn’t bothering him from playing well.

Sam Querrey and John Isner both showed up to play.  Neither are particularly good at clay.  Due to an injury by Hewitt, his ranking is below Querrey and Isner.  He needed a wildcard because he didn’t apply for the tournament early enough.  However, his ranking is high enough that he is seeded fourth behind Isner, Querrey, and top seeded Fernando Gonzalez.

Querrey and Isner had their matches delayed because of rain.  The score updates appear to have a problem  Isner appears to have lost in a third set tiebreak to Xavier Malisse, but it’s not fully clear this has happened.  Sam Querrey won his match against Kavcic, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.

Lleyton Hewitt had an unusual match against Somdev Devvarman.  Devvarman actually failed to qualify, but due to someone withdrawing, he was the highest ranked player not to make it through qualifying and got into the main draw.  He took the first set easily over Hewitt, 6-1, but then lost the second set, 6-0.  Hewitt then took a tiebreak in the third, in a tight seesaw match with the two time NCAA men’s champ.

Casablanca is in 2nd round matches.  Wawrinka won a 3 set match over qualifier Klizan.  Wildcard El Amrani won in three sets over Hajek.  Gasquet had an easy straight set win over Golubev.  Hanescu needed a tight three set win over qualifier, Nieminen.  Niemninen used to have a higher ranking and is the best player to come out of Finland, but apparently needed to qualify.

Next week, the first Masters 1000 event of the year is played on clay at Monte Carlo.  Federer and Murray were scheduled to skip this tournament but Murray recently requested and received a wildcard.  Murray made the semis last year losing to Nadal.  del Potro withdrew from this tournament making it unclear when he would finally come back.  Dayvdenko is still recovering from a broken left wrist, and may only make a last minute appearance at the French Open.