Now there’s a name we haven’t heard in a while.  James Blake was once a top ten player, someone who came back from scoliosis (affecting his spine) where had to wear a back brace for most of a day, then from shingles and the death of his father.  His ranking has since dropped, and he hasn’t been a familiar face in the main draw.

The Indian Wells organizers must have felt Blake was in better shape.  Well known for avoiding any kind of medication, Blake had not been 100%, and without meds, a bit slow to heal.  Blake beat qualifier Chris Guccione of Australia in the first round, but that meant facing his good buddy, Andy Roddick.  This was a closer match that one might have expected.  Blake is flashy, but he hasn’t had a lot of great victories.  Even so, Roddick only won 6-3, 7-5 and is probably happy with the win.

Earlier in the day, John Isner played Ricardo Mello of Brazil.  Isner broke early and won the first set, 6-3.  He was pushed to a tiebreak in the second set, which he handled easily.

Nikolay Davydenko, who saw his career come back to life at the end of 2009, saw it derailed in 2010 when he broke his wrist.  He returned around Wimbledon, but hasn’t been the same player since.  A player of Davydenko’s stature has to work much harder than, say, del Potro.  Key to del Potro’s return was getting his serve humming again.  While Davydenko improved his serve, it’s not been a weapon since he returned, which means he needs to work hard to hold his serve.  He’s got great angles off the ground, but he needs a few free points on serve.

Davydenko won the first set over the higher ranked Stan Wawrinka and was up a break, but Wawrinka broke back in the second set, and took it in a tiebreak.  The two played even in the third set when Davydenko played a poor game and got broken.  Although he had a chance to break back, Wawrinka managed to hold serve and win the match.  The key was Wawrinka’s ability to play aggressively on his backhand and use it as a weapon.  It was a tough match for both players, with Davydenko showing signs he could have won the match.

Last night, Nadal had very little trouble beating Rik de Voest of South Africa.  Everyone talks about how much Nadal fights, but the fact of the matter is that Lleyton Hewitt also fights.  And Hewitt doesn’t win matches while Nadal does.  So it’s important to point out that Nadal hits the heaviest ball in tennis with speed and precision and he doesn’t miss much.  On top of that, when the match gets close, Nadal is able to elevate his game and win close matches.  Nadal’s ability to fight is on top of his groundstrokes which are almost a half level better than nearly everyone else on tour.  His mental toughness is key–it allows Nadal to be Nadal instead of say, Fernando Verdasco, but don’t discount the fact that he has plenty of weapons.  If he hit like Hewitt, all that mental toughness would do him no good as players would dictate their game.

The good news is Nadal looks pretty solid in his first outing since a weak effort in the semis against David Ferrer when he appeared injured.

In a surprise, Devvarman beat Baghdatis.  Apparently, Baghdatis claimed he has an ingrown nail which was causing him issues.  In any case, a solid win for Devvarman who plays the X-man next, Xavier Malisse, who beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  Federer gave him a compliment at the Aussie Open calling Malisse his childhood idol (of sorts).

Ryan Harrison is scheduled to play Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.  It took him three sets to beat Jeremy Chardy who has had a poor year outside of his decent play in Davis Cup.  Milos Raonic will play Mardy Fish in a rematch of the Memphis semis, won by Raonic.  Fish had been coming off an illness, and wasn’t on top of his game.  He’ll hope to do better against the Canadian upstart.  Federer will play Igor Andreev, a guy who has historically given him trouble, even if he hasn’t exactly beaten Federer.  This is Federer’s first match since losing to Djokovic in the Dubai final.

This evening, Djokovic opens up play against Andrey Golubev, of Kazakhstan.  Golubev spear-headed an upset of Croatia in Davis Cup last week.  This won’t be an easy match, but Djokovic is playing pretty hot these days.