Whatever mental issues Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are facing, they don’t seem to affect Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal.  Roddick may not be as young as Isner nor Querrey, but he still moves quite well, and he played unseeded Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-1.  Fellow American, John Isner, did not fare as well.  He pushed Juan Carlos Ferrero to three sets, but still lost, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.  Isner’s biggest hurdle is getting the quality of his groundstrokes up to the level of some of the better players on tour, and that may take a bit of effort.  He doesn’t move nearly as well as most players, but he does play big shots, and can make life tough for his opponents.

Just as Querrey needs to beat players like Chardy (who is a tough player) to be regarded as a regular top 20 threat, Isner needs to do the same.  At this point, Ferrero, being the higher seed, was expected to win the match.

David Nalbandian needed a wildcard to appear at Miami.  With injuries derailing his game much of last year and even parts of this year, no one quite knew how he’d fare against Nadal.  Unlike, say, Henin or Clijsters, it’s much harder for men to come back and play surprising tennis.  Even so Nalbandian did take a set from Nadal in a tiebreak, 10 points to 8, but then succumbed to too much Nadal in the 2nd and 3rd sets, 6-2 and 6-2, which may have been due to fitness.

Speaking of Chardy, he went out to hard serving, Nicolas Almagro in three sets, 6-2, 6-7(9), 6-3.  Fellow Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, who lost to Andy Roddick in Indian Wells, lost to German, Benjamin Becker, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(1).

Thomaz Bellucci beat the guy that beat Murray, Olivier Rochus, 6-3, 6-4.

The remaining match of the day is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga playing Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Tomorrow, Fish plays Feliciano Lopez, Federer has an early match against Florent Serra, Fernando Gonzalez plays Juan Monaco, Verdasco plays veteran Melzer, Baghdatis plays Cilic.  Perhaps one of the most intriguing matches of the day is Wawrinka vs Youzhny in the battle of the one-handed backhands.  As of late, Youzhny has played better.

Nadal chose not to play doubles this week.  Marc Lopez chose to team up with Thomaz Bellucci, and actually won a doubles match (up until then, Lopez’s success hinged on teaming up with Nadal).