David Ferrer shows that his defeat of Andy Murray was not simply a slumping Murray (Murray’s main problems were first serve percentage and applying pressure on returns–his groundies were in pretty good shape, but just not enough to handle Ferrer). Playing against Tsonga for the first time, the speedy Spaniard beat Tsonga, 6-4, 6-1.
Rafael Nadal had a bit of a challenge against Stanislas Wawrinka who used a big serve and big shots to stay even early on, but Nadal broke late to 6-4, then rolled in the 2nd set, 6-1. Nadal is simply used to overwhelming his opponents with his heavy balls waiting for the weak ball and pouncing. He can often pounce on shots that look rather neutral such as hitting a shot that goes down the line back up the line, or up the middle to a sharp angle either direction.
Nadal has also become very aware when his opponents are in trouble and come in for a sneak volley. He did that to great success against Wawrinka. When groundies keep your opponents back 10 feet behind the baseline, you just have to get that volley over the net to have a winner.
Gulbis continued his winning ways. He won the first set against Lopez in a close tiebreak, 8-6 in the tiebreak, but then won the second set rather quickly, 6-1.
Gulbis has a (slim) chance to pull the rare double: beating Nadal and Federer in the same tournament, as he faces Nadal in the semis. Meanwhile, the other two slots are Spaniards, with Ferrer meeting Verdasco again (they met last week in Barcelona where Ferrer fell to Verdasco).
And Fed? He finally lost his doubles match. Sam Querrey and John Isner beat Federer and Allegro.
Federer will head to Estoril with a weak field. Monfils and Ljubicic are seeded 2 and 3. The top ranked Spaniard is Albert Montanes, thus, no Nadal, Verdasco, Ferrer, Ferrero, etc.
This tournament has already brought out a few stories. First, Nadal is back and playing great clay court tennis and becomes the favorite at Roland Garros. Federer’s form is still iffy as is Murray’s. Verdasco continues to be the second strongest player on clay (Ferrer might be 3) behind Rafa. Djokovic continues to get better compared to his debacle in Indian Wells and Miami. Finally, Gulbis might be finally fulfilling some of the talent people saw in him 2 years ago.
Gulbis will hope to serve big to control his serves and then use his groundies to keep Nadal confounded. It seems unlikely he can do this, but Nadal has yet to face a really big server that can also play with him off the ground. Gulbis is likely to drop shot a lot.
