Tennis

Nadal did not play the AO last year and Djokovic won it, so, as far as ranking is concerned, Nadal is even more firmly at the top of the pile. By winning, Wawrinka shoots up to world N?3 which will make for some unusual seeding in the upcoming tournaments.

Some stats: Wawrinka is the first player since Bruguera at the French in 1993 to win a Grand Slam title by defeating the world N?2 and world N?1. He is the first player outside the Big Four to win a Grand Slam title since Del Potro at the US Open in 2009 (the one before that was Safin in 2005). Nadal aimed to win a 14th Grand Slam title to tie Sampras.


I hope this final will not be remembered as a match Nadal lost because he was injured. I would even go as far as saying that Nadal only won a set because he was injured. When he was fit, he was behind by a set and a break and that was with a Wawrinka that had an abysmal first serve percentage, but was winning almost all of the rallies. Not only that, but the swiss managed to avoid almost all very long rallies and as a result bagged the first set in barely above 30min, so there was no sign at all that he might become too tired to keep the quality of his aggressive play style.

On a side note, Federer better play some Davis Cup this year. The draw is wide open: Serbia without Djokovic in the first round to then play Belgium or Kazakhstan. In semi it's GB (single player team), Argentina (single player team), Italy (Fognini ranked 14 and Seppi ranked 25) or the USA that can field Isner + Querrey + Bryan brothers which is a pretty tough team to beat... providing Isner is fit. Without Isner, the US still has a shot against single player teams thanks to the Bryans.... Anyway, if both Top 10'er play, only Spain can field a team that is stronger than Switzerland on paper. Now watch a Wawrinka-Chiudinelli team lose to Tipsarevic-Lajovic next week-end in Serbia...

In a surprising twist, Federer decided to play in Serbia this week-end for the davis cup tie! Since the dates seem to also fall nicely during the season (2nd round in Europe at the start of the european clay season, semi probably against the US after the US Open), there is a good chance Federer will play all ties.

Day 1 of the first round of Davis Cup:

Czech Republic vs Netherlands: 1-1
Robin Haase managed managed to beat Stepanek in five sets. Maybe it opened a tiny window of opportunity as the double might be competitive and as the dutch N?2, Sijsling, can play some good tennis.

Canada vs Japan: 1-1
Canada has to do without Raonic and with a Pospisil a bit injured. Since Dancevic made surprisingly light work of Soeda, winning the double could result in a very open battle of the N?2s (I am not saying ther are shit!).

Spain vs Germany: 0-2
No Nadal, no Ferrer, no Almagro, no Robredo... that might be a bit too much, even against Germany with an injured Haas. Kohlschreiber dismantled Bautista Agut (I guess no one told him the spaniard just did a good AO), and Mayer outlasted Lopez. Spain can still win this as they have a very good double pair in Verdasco + Marrero and both reverse single are pretty open.

France vs Australia: 2-0
With France fielding its best players, Australia needed something a bit special and nothing special happened on Day 1, Gasquet and Tsonga winning cleanly against rising star Kyrgios (expect to see a lot of him in a not so distant future) and veteran Hewitt.

Great Britain vs USA: 2-0
As Isner is injured, it's Querrey and Young who have the task to win two of the four singles match while the Bryan brothers win the double. On paper, that's very much doable as british N?2, James Ward, is 175th at the atp. Well... Davis Cup and all, Ward played better and better as the match went on and Querrey's serve was less and less efficient. End result: a surprising upset that put the US team in a very tough situation as Querrey will have to digest this loss and come back in two days to beat Murray. Stranger things have happened, but, as it stands, Great Britain is now the heavy favorite.

Argentina vs Italy: 1-1
Argentina is playing without Del Potro, but Berlocq and Monaco at home are not too easy to beat. Combine that with Seppi and Fognini not being exactly the most reliable players and that could be a long week-end.

Kazakhstan vs Belgium: 2-0
The kazakh team is made out of russians that had no shot at playing Davis Cup for Russia... or so they thought, because in this day and age they very well could! Anyway, as Belgium no longer has a player in the Top 100, beating them is not too tough. It should be noted that this first day saw an epic battle of the underachiever: Golubev, who, from all accounts, plays absolutely brilliantly on the practice courts (we're talking Top 10 level of talent), but does not compete well at all and Goffin, who reached the round of 16 at the French a couple years ago and did pretty much nothing noteworthy since then. Anyway, Goffin had five match points and lost.

Switzerland vs Serbia: 2-0
Serbia without Djokovic (resting), Tipsarevic (injured?) and Troicki (suspended) is not exactly a strong tream. Davis Cup is Davis Cup, so you can always have a James Ward who suddenly plays well above his level, but it did not happen today. Federer and Wawrinka won their match without playing stellar tennis, but it did the job.

DC: R1D2

Czech Republic vs Netherlands: 2-1
Four tight sets were needed for the Czech to bag a point that could prove decisive. Haase will have to beat Berdych to keep the dutch hopes alive.

Canada vs Japan: 1-2
On home turf, Japan relied on Nishikori to win the double. Dancevic will have the tough task to try and beat Nishikori.

Spain vs Germany: 0-3
Haas and Kohlschreiber teamed up today and sealed the deal against Verdasco and Marrero in four very tight sets (three breakers and a 6-3). Here goes the favorite on paper.

France vs Australia: 3-0
France decided to go all-in and use their two singles players to the play the double. It sounded at first like a poor bet as veterans Guccione and Hewitt won the first set and had a big lead in the second, slightly opening a door for a very unlikely turnaround (the aussies winning the double and then both singles against nervy and tired opponents). The frenchmen wanted none of that and managed to win the second set and the other two after that.

Great Britain vs USA: 2-1
Not played as I write this post... let's assume the Bryans will win.
EDIT 1: Murray is resting while Fleming and Inglot (both 20ish in double) face the Bryans.
EDIT 2: The Bryans did win, but the problem stays the same: Querrey must beat Murray.

Argentina vs Italy: 1-2
The double is currently in play and is at 1 set each, breaker in the third.... and now Italia leads two sets to one.
EDIT: Italia won in four sets, puting them in a very good position to win the tie.

Kazakhstan vs Belgium: 2-1
Belgium scored the point of hope and need a perfect sunday to go through.

Switzerland vs Serbia: 3-0
Switzerland decided to rest its two stars so it was up to veteran journeymen Chiudinelli and Lammer to face double specialist Zimonjic and youngster Karjinovic. The match was very close during three sets, but winning the third set breaker boosted the swiss duo and clipped the wings of the serbians, leading to a convincing 6-2. Karmic payback for Chiudinelli who often played great matches ending in cruel losses, most notably the 7 hours double match played with Wawrinka against Berdych and Rosol a year ago that ended 24-22 in the fifth... a match in which Chiudinelli was often the best player on court.

For Switzerland, this week-end showed the pro and cons to have two very good single players on the team: the pro is that they can win two points on day one, the con is that it's likely they will go deep in the events that are just before the ties and as a result will arrive tired. This was a bit of an exceptional case though with the previous event being on the other side of the world and with Wawrinka having to deal with the emotions and media frenzy related to his win. I hope Federer and Wawrinka will try to play some double together on tour and maybe even use a bit of their personal wealth to help Chiudinelli and Lammer travel to some events to hone their (already more than honorable) double skills.


EDIT 1: Italia won the double and GB decided to rest Murray for the double against the US.

EDIT 2: The Bryan brothers won the double.

Raonic is not taking part in the tie and Pospisil is in Japan but injured. If he made the trip while injured, I assume it's because they had some hope that he would be fit to play at some point, so maybe he'll play Nishikori tomorrow. With Raonic, Pospisil and double specialist Nestor, Canada has a good team on paper but... when the first is not playing and the second is injured, they are not left with much. Nestor is 41, but both Pospisil and Raonic are very young so they should be competitive for a while.

As for Murray vs Querrey, it should be noted that the US at home chose to play on clay, partly because it's Murray's weaker surface and partly because both Isner and Querrey enjoy the slower surface to execute their big forehands. What I am trying to say here is that, for Querrey, playing Murray in the US and on clay is probably the most favorable conditions he is ever going to get. Obviously an upset is still a very long shot, but it's not totally inconceivable. The big question mind for me is what lies between Querrey's ears: he somewhat crumbled mentally against Ward as the heavy favorite and with the burden of being the team's leader (Ward catching fire did not help), so will he be more comfortable as the underdog? Will he play more freely with his back against the wall? Or will he also deal poorly with this situation?


EDIT: Fun fact: Japan has a 5/5 perfect record against Canada in Davis Cup... or more exactly in International Lawn Tennis Challenge, since these wins happened in 1923, 1924, 1927, 1928 and 1938!

DC: R1D3

Czech Republic beat the Netherlands.
Berdych did what Berdych does in Davis Cup: win.

Japan beat Canada.
Nishikori was the heavy favorite against Dancevic, but the Canadian had to retire, maybe paying a toll for a third match in three days.

Great Britain beat the USA.
A valiant effort by Querrey who pushed the two first sets to breakers (wining one) and had chances to reel back a nervous Murray at the end of the third, but the world N?6 managed to close it (not without a double fault and a broken string!).

Italy beat Argentina.
Fognini won both his single matches and took part in the double to earn Italy three points.

Kazakhstan beat Belgium
Goffin managed to outlast Kukushkin to force a final decisive match and Golubev raised to the occasion and crushed Bemelmans.



So we have the quarter finals:

Czech Republic vs Japan
location: decided by coin toss since they never faced each other since 1970.

With Japan being a one man team, they don't have much of a shot at beating the Czech Republic unless scheduling conflict or injuries messes their composition. That could be the case if the tie end up being played in Japan BUT Berdych and Stepanek just loooooooove Davis Cup, so I suspect they are ready to make the trip if they have to even if that could mess with their personal career.


France vs Germany
location: France

A lot of players to choose from in both teams, so it will really goes down to composition, health and form of the moment. France can field two top 10ers in Tsonga and Gasquet, but guys like Haas, Kohlschreiber and Mayer can beat anyone on their day... it should be entertaining.


Great Britain vs Italy
location: Italy

Obviously, GB is Murray dependent, but their luck is that Italy does not have a super strong double team, so they don't have to rely on Ward playing out of his skin, they "only" need to win the double and have Murray win both his singles... that could very well happen... unless Murray decides that their chances to go all the way through are so slim that ensuring a spot in World Group for next year is good enough. That's the first round 1 win in World Group for GB in almost 30 years though, so he might as well try to see where this leads.


Kazakhstan vs Switzerland
location: Switzerland

Switzerland played Kazakhstan for a promotion/relegation match in 2010 and without Federer they were already down 3-0 after the double. 2014's Wawrinka is a lot better than 2010's Wawrinka, but still: without double specialists and without a strong N?3, Switzerland can very well lose again if Federer does not play. With the tie being at home and right before the european clay season, there is good hope he will play since he made the effort to come play a Djokovic-less Serbia.


Next episode at the start of April!

Teaser for round two: Federer announced he will play the tie against Kazakhstan! Now let's just hope both him and Wawrinka will be fit and that they'll not choose a clay court, because the last time they built one, the bounces were so unreliable it became impossible to play rallies.

Just a brief update on this strange part of the year (between the AO and the Masters 1000 of Indian Wells and Miami) that is a mix of indoor in Europe, clay in South America and a little outdoor hard in Duba?. The two surprisingly hot players are Cilic (won in Zagreb beating Haas in the final, reached the final of Rotterdam and losing to Berdych but convincingly beating Tsonga and Murray on the way and won Delray Beach beating Isner and Anderson) and Gulbis (beat Dimitrov and Del Potro in Rotterdam before losing to Berdych, won in Marseille beating Gasquet and Tsonga). That not the first time these two guys have a hot streak going on... let's hope this time it lasts!

You notice Berych got mentioned twice in there because he really made a beastly start of the year, reaching the semi in the Australian Open and winning the 500 that is Rotterdam. The beastly part though comes from that fact that he played 157 service games in 2014 and lost only 5 of those! That makes him the tougher guy to break on the ATP tour in 2014

Fun Fact 1: Gulbis played his 5th final today and bagged a 5th title! Undeafeated in finals is a pretty nice stat to have!

Fun Fact 2: The other day, the Tsonga vs Struff in Marseille match got interupted because of a flying creature... not a bird, not a big insect..a BAT! That was different!

Another week on the ATP before Indian Wells and there are some ups and downs:

The big UP is Federer in Dubai who managed to beat Djokovic in the semi and Berdych in the final to claim the title. More than beating two opponents that had his number as of late, more than winning it's biggest title since Cinci a year and a half ago, it's the manner in which it was won that is worthy of notice: not necessarily by playing extremely well (though he did at times), but by competing very well, by mixing things up, going to the net more, and by fighting relentlessly. He lost the first set against both Djokovic and Berdych, he was even a break down against the czech in the second set, but he found a way to victory, something he probably would not have done last year. Another UP is Dolgopolov who managed to reach the final of Rio last week (beating Almagro, Fognini and Ferrer) and the semi in Acapulco this week.

The DOWNS are Ferrer (groin injury), Haas (shoulder injury) and Murray (who struggled in Mexico until Dimitrov beat him in a tight match).

A question mark is Nadal, who after getting injured during the Australian Open final did not exactly breeze through a fairly easy draw in Rio (by his standards of course). The most notable hicup was a 12-10 victory in the breaker of the deciding set against Andujar. The underdog used a very aggressive game plan, but, still, it's a little perplexing. I guess there are worse problems to have than winning tournaments without convincing the critics!

On a side note, Karlovic clawed back 100 ranks since the same time last year, going from 150ish back to 50ish.

Indian Wells draw: not before Tuesday.

Indian Wells draw is out. Nadal, Wawrinka, Murray and Federer are in the top half, Djokovic, Berdych, Del Potro and Gasquet in the bottom half.

Amusingly, Dimitrov and Gulbis are likely to face each other for a third time in a month. It's 1-1 for now.

Seed watch:

- Both Nadal and Murray lost their opening set (to Stepanek and Rosol respectively) but both managed to pull through.

- Smooth sailing for Federer against Mathieu... until the swiss had to serve for the match and then he played three poor games in a row against a galvanized frenchman. Federer ended up winning the tie-break of the 2nd set and, with it, the match.

- Wawrinka had a tough draw for his first match: ace machine Karlovic. The Australian Open champion kept his cool, secured his service games and took his opportunities on the return games. 6-3 7-5.

- 18th seed Janowicz lead 5-2 in the third against counter-punching colombian Falla... but he got realled back in, forced into a breaker and lost it! He has the dubious honor to be one of the two seeds to have lost so far, the other being Andujar (32nd seed) who lost to youngster Vesely (at 20 year old, that must be one of the youngest player to reach the round of 32 of a Master 1000 in a while).

- Djokovic, Berdych and Del Potro play today.

Seed watch, bottom half.

- Del Potro, still hindered by his left wrist decided not to play.

- Berdych, one of the sharpest player on tour at the moment played a sub-par match, but sadly for him it happened when facing a player full of confidence, the spaniard Bautista-Agut.

- Crowd favorite Tsonga managed to save 8 of the 12 break points he had to defend against compatriot Benneteau, not good enough when you create only three opportunities for yourself and convert just the one.

- Bad for the german seeds as Mayer had to retire in his match against Nieminen and Kohlschreiber got surprisingly dismantled 6-2 6-2 by Lu (a player who is a bit of an enigma to me, because he does not have big weapons so stagnates around the top 50, yet manages to score impressive wins from time to time).

- Dodig lost to clutch master Gonzalez from Colombia: the guy won back to back matches in 3rd set breakers! Never saw the guy play or even heard of the guy. He was ranked 91 at the start of the tournament.

- Pospisil meekly lost to Kukushkin 6-0 6-2.

- Simon could not recover after losing the first set breaker to Thiem. As a result, the young austrian is the 2nd 20 year old to reach the round of 32!

- After a tight first set against Hanescu, it was smooth sailing for Djokovic. Even smoother for Gasquet that had to face a sick Gabashvili who ultimately retired. They are the only two top-10er remaining in the bottom half of the draw...

Monday report top half of the draw:

- The shock of the day was the victory of Dolgopolov over Nadal. From the get go we knew it could be a strange match as it started by 4 breaks of serve! A few years back before the US Open, Nadal tweaked his service motion to be more aggressive with it and it had a very significant impact on his results, especially on hard court. Since his injury in the AO final, worried about his back, he second guesses his motion somewhat, does not commit fully to the shot and as a result is less effective on serve. That gives more room to his opponents to start the rallies on even ground and try to implement the anti-Nadal plan. That plan (neutralizing on the backhand side to attack the forehand) is one that suits Dolgopolov well as he can generate a lot of pace on his ground strokes, especially when he lunges into his backand cross court. Dolgopolov spiced these patern of play with some specialties of his how, giving a lot of volume to his shots with a lot of top spin playing to the Nadal backhand. You would think that it would give Nadal time to run around his backhand and start dominating with his forehand, but with a gritty court surface that helps spins he would have to play his forehands too far back and to the side of the court.

For all his tactical mastery, Dolgopolv remained Dolgopolov, alternating between the brilliant with the grotesque, and Nadal remained Nadal, fighting, fighting and fighting some more. When deep in the third Dolgopolov served for the match and played a shocker of a game (2 double faults, 2 forehands sailing long for a break to love), we though it would break him psychologically, but he still managed to reach the tie break. When Nadal changed side at 4-2 in that breaker, we thought Dolgopolov would fold, but he clawed his way back. When he got a match point on his serve, thanks to an uncharacteristic forehand error by Nadal (though not so uncharacteristic for the night), and he served what him and the whole stadium thought to be an ace that ended up being 1 millimeter out, we thought it would be too much to handle, but he served his second and played a brilliant aggressive point for the biggest win of his career against the World N?1 and defending champion.


- Dolgopolov will play Fognini in the next round. The italian edged past Monfils in the most absurd ending to a third set you will ever see. Both players were so nervous that they played atrociously to the point it was laughable.


-Raonic cleanly beat Falla and will meet Murray next. Murray, who had a sluggish start against a very much in form and eager Vesely and had to go the distance.


- Wawrinka looked like a heavyweight pitted against a featherweight when playing Seppi. It rained bombs in a very impressive 6-0 6-2 victory. Anderson might punch back in the next round.


- Federer continues his 2006 memorial tour: after veteran Mathieu he played veteran Tursunov (in a match made very close by the russian's heavy hitting and the swiss' lapses of concentration) and next he will face veteran Haas who had a good win over Nishikori. That could lead to Wawrinka and then Murray, all guys that he faced in 2006! He better be careful against Murray if he reaches that stage though, because he lost to him back then!


Side note: Because of it is spread on more days, the Master 1000 of Indian Wells see a number of single players also play the double, much to the chagrin of double specialist I might add. Tsonga/Mahut ousted the 7th seed Nestor/Zimonjic, Isner/Querrey beat 8th seed Kubot/Lindstedt and Wawrinka/Federer edged past 6th seed Bopanna/Qureshi. Djokovic, Murray, Del Potro and Gasquet were also involved but lost.

Tuesday report: Bottom half of the draw.

- Gasquet served for the opening set against Verdasco but got reeled back in, forced into a tie-breaker and lost it. And then vanished. Good-bye 8th seed!

- Isner managed to win two sets by breaking his opponent! At this rate he'll soon be playing tennis!

- The 3rd act of the Dimitrov vs Gulbis rivalry was a bit strange. All Dimitrov in the first set, all Gulbis in the second and the third was extraordinarily tight with both players having opportunities. In the end, Gulbis prevailed in a match I would certainly have lost two years ago. He (somewhat) kept his cool, managed his forehand well enough and, most importantly, competed well. A dash of luck also did not hurt as deep in the third he pulled the most improbable of lunge volleys that ended in a dead net cord to prevent him from going 0-30 down on his serve. Good-bye 15th seed!

- Bautista-Agut confirmed his good win over Berdych by beating veteran lefty Nieminen in a very hard fought battle (won 8-6 in the third set tie-break). Nothing extraordinarily flashy in the spaniard's game, but he executes his no-non-sense approach to the game very well: aggressive to safe spots, quick to close the net when he sees his opponent in trouble and keeping good length with enough to spin to be secure above the net. Textbook.

- Lopez made the most of his favorable draw (both seeds of this section were injured) and prevailed over Kukushkin.

- Benneteau found himself in a tough old battle again Thiem, 12 years his junior. Unless he has injury problems or has a mental breakdown of some sort, Thiem and his very complete offensive game are destined to great things. Yesterday though he was just a tiny bit too irregular and made a little too many error in shot selection to beat the experienced competitor that is Benneteau.

- Cilic continues to surf the wave of confidence that made him win a lot of matches this year already and cleanly beat Robredo. Good-bye 16th seed!

- Djokovic was dancing on the belly of Gonzalez in a first set won 6-1. The columbian journeyman managed to relax a little and fight hard in the second to stay close to Djokovic. At this point it really felt like delaying the inevitable, as he took 5 minutes to hold his serves and Djokovic just the one. I went to the Gulbis match for a while and, lo and behold, in my absence Gonzalez managed to convert a single break point to win the 2nd set 6-3! Maybe Gonzalez tightened a little realizing an upset was after all not impossible, maybe Djokovic realized that he had to seriously raise his level to not risk a close third set, but once thing is certain: 6-1 for the World N?2 in the third.


Let's check this round of 16:

Dolgopolov(28) vsFognini(13): Will the Ukrainian be hungover from his giant slaying or, on the contrary, galvanized by it? In any case, that should be a very entertaining match as there is never a dull moment when these two take the court, between the crazy shots of the ukrainian and the roller-coaster play style and theatrics of the italian!

Murray(5) vsRaonic(10): One of only three matches where both top seeds reached the round of 16. Murray has been pretty unconvincing so far, but Raonic has also been pretty mediocre in his return games (not a single break point against Roger-Vasselin in 17 return games!). I guess it will go down to the form of the day in the Raonic serve vs Murray return battle.

Wawrinka(3) vsAnderson(17): The AO winner (it needs to be repeated over and over because it has not sunk in just yet) played brilliantly in his first two matches. Here he will face a third kind of challenge with Anderson's heavy hitting from the baseline. This should be interesting because the south african is playing very well and winning a lot of matches in 2014. Note that this is also a match where both top seeds reached the round of 16 as Anderson ended up being the only seed in his part of the draw.

Federer(7) vsHaas(11): That should be good. Both are fit and playing reasonably well at the moment. Also, in the last three matches Haas won one and went the distance twice so it's pretty open I would say.

Isner(12) vsVerdasco(30): The key will be the ability (or inability) of Verdasco to keep his cool and play clean service games. If he does that, it's very unlikely he will get broken with the weapon that a lefty serve is against a mediocre returner. If Isner gets under his skin by serving well and having some success with his big forehands, the american, a fierce competitor, will find a way.

Gulbis(20) vsBautista-Agut: There is no doubt that Gulbis plays his best tennis against top guys on big courts. One of the staple of his 2013 come-back though is his abbility to still play well against lower ranked players on court 854. He proved that this week already by beating senseless the unfortunate portuguese Sousa. Bautista-Agut is another class of player though so it could be a very stern test for the latvian.

LopezvsBenneteau: Two unseeded players, but also two experienced veteran that certainly know how to play tennis. I don't know how this will turn out, but it's worth noting that they are both members of the 30+ club, a club that has 34 members in the ATP Top 100 which is the most it ever has since the creation of the rankings! (5 of the R16 players at Indian Wells are 30+)

Djokovic(2) vsCilic(24): With seeds falling left right and center, Djokovic became, on paper, the overwhelming favorite in the bottom half of the draw and the favorite for the title. The thing is he did not play particularly well so far while his less prestigious opponents have. An early exit against Cilic could very well happen if the paper favorite does not transform into an actual favorite.


All 8 matches are played today by the way starting at 11 am PDT (Raonic vs Murray and Dolgopolov vs Fognini) and lasting through the afternoon and night (8:30 pm PDT for Djokovic vs Cilic).

Quarter finals!

Dolgopolov(28) confirmed his won over Nadal by a clean win over Fognini.
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Raonic(10) rallied back from a set down and then an early break down in the third to beat Murray, mostly by being very aggressive on the scot's second serves.

I am curious to see how this one will play out. Maybe the variations in Dolgopolov's game will allow him to throw a wrench into Raonic simple but effective mechanic.


Anderson(17) forced Wawrinka into a tie-break in the first set and dominated it from start to finnish, not putting a foot wrong. On the other hand the swiss had some erratic shots and served at a very low percentage of firsts. He was apparently bothered by a lower back issue that got looked after before the 2nd set. A bit dejected by the situation, Wawrinka found himself a break down immediately in the 2nd set and even faced break points for a double break that would have sealed the match. Deflated, the AO champion asked for a little crowd support and unsurprisingly got plenty, somehow this put some wind in his sails and also tightened Anderson who played a poor set from there, losing it 6-4. The charade did not last though. In the 3rd Anderson refocused and Wawrinka cooled down, so it was all Anderson.
vs
Federer(7) and Haas fought in a highly entertaining match where both demonstrated the athletic abilities and the quality of their shot making. Sadly for the german, most of the key points were won by Federer, which resulted in a pretty straight forward 6-4 6-4.

Anderson being a bit of a sub-Berdych, I expect Federer to be able to drag him out of his comfort zone. A key will be the quality of the swiss' returns though: too many poor returns will mean he will have to wait for Anderson to provide him with an opening which will not necessarily happen before Federer himself plays a loose game.


Isner(12) as expected, had a lot of trouble breaking the Verdasco serve, but, as often, the opposite was also true. Isner won the first set breaker, was unable to save a solitary break point in the second and, as pressure was rising, managed to find a way in the third to clinch a decisive break.
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Gulbis(20), also as expected, turned his match into a roller coaster, complaining about the noise, complaining about Bautista-Agut rushing between serves, complaining about Bautista-Agut complaining about his complaining, which resulted in a number of colorful situations (when in a net exchange the tape helped the spaniard to stay in a point and ultimately win it without apologizing for his good fortune, Gulbis brought out the slow clap 'Bravo! Bravo! Such talented player!'). As if things were not bizarre enough, Gulbis started cramping in the middle of the third set! Luckily for him, it's Bautista-Agut's brain that started cramping at that point, making him stray away from his very clear and clean gameplan. 7/6(0!) 4/6 6/2 in the end.

I remember vividly the final Gulbis played against big serving Karlovic in Delray Beach in 2010. The croatian would serve his regular bombs with their ridiculous angles, but Gulbis, time and time again would reply with return winners! On that day, Gulbis broke Karlovic 4 times in 9 return games. Will he be able to do something similar to the Isner serve today? We shall see. The two met twice in 2013 and each won a match. Unsurprisingly, Isner's win came in the form of a 7/6 7/6...


Benneteauprove a tad to solid for Lopez in the duel of the unseeded veterans.
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Djokovic(2) once again played with fire. Cilic sailed through the first set 6-1 but then the tables were turned and he became the one unable to create opportunities on the return. 6-2 6-3 for Djokovic in the second and third sets.

Benneteau has his fair share of giant slaying in his career, but I would say that, unless Djokovic helps him significantly, I fear that Indian Well' court surface is too slow to allow the frenchman to get the free points he needs on his serve.



We had a new Grand Slam champion at the Australian Open, but I have a feeling we could have a new Masters 1000 champion this week. Let's just hope it will not be Raonic, Isner or Anderson, but someone who actually plays Tennis.


PS: Wawrinka still played in double with Federer after their single matches and managed to upset the 4th seed (Paes / Stepanek). They'll face the 2nd seed (Peya / Soares) in the semi final. The other semi will see the Bryan brothers (1st seed) pinned against Isner and Querrey, that's an entire Davis Cup team on a single court right there!

Thursday report: quarters of the top half.

- Raonic started his semi very poorly. Not hitting enough first serve, not finding the court with just about any ground strokes: terribad. So Dolgopolov ran away with it and never looked back. By the end of the first set things were little better for the canadian, and early in the second he managed to string some good returns and some good forehands to break Dolgopolov. The ukrainian barely avoided a double break and then turn the knob to 11: super returns, super passing shots, jaw dropping backhands down the line. You name it, he did it. 6-3 6-4 Dolgopolov

- Anderson arrived to his quarter full of confidence on the back of a lot of wins. After his last match in press conference, he said something to the tune of 'if I execute my game plan well, I have a shot against anybody.' Let's just say he'll have nightmare about this one because he did not play poorly, but he was still proved woefully inadequate. Federer dropped a total of 9 points in 9 service games and from 5-5 in the first it was pedal to the metal kind of stuff, breaking Anderson to love, jerking him around the court, lethally half-volleying any decent shot by the south african, drawing him to the net to pass him or just decisively attack the net himself. A clinic. 7-5 6-1 Federer, who sent a strong message to the rest of the draw.

With this win Federer should move from 8 to 5 in the rankings. Should he win the title, he could even be back in the top 4.