Domination: The top four remaining seeds at Miami–Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and David Ferrer–had an easy time of it yesterday. None had to face a fellow member of the top 20; Nadal was the only one of the four who played a seed.
Amazingly, Djokovic dropped the most games. Playing his friend Viktor Troicki, Novak’s 6-0 6-1 victim at Indian Wells, he lost five games, coming through 6-3 6-2. Olivier Rochus took four games from Federer, while Nadal and Ferrer both got past their opponents with a score of 6-1 6-2.
Squeakers: Tomas Berdych, the next seed in line, also drew an unseeded opponent: Florian Mayer. But the Czech’s route to the quarters was not nearly so easy. He breezed through the first set, winning 6-3, before the rain halted play. Back on court, Berdych suddenly couldn’t land a first serve, making only 42% in the second set. Mayer capitalized, evening the tally, then neither player took command en route to a third-set tiebreak.
Mayer played some excellent tennis at times, and he had his chances–Berdych double faulted five times in the final set, yet never allowed even a break point. Berdych makes it look so easy, and the German just didn’t have the weaponry to hold him off.
Every bit as tight was yesterday’s first match, between Mardy Fish and Juan Martin del Potro. Neither player was at their best; it seemed that Delpo had a tough time getting in a rhythm against Fish’s less-than-elite groundstrokes. Ultimately, it took two very long sets, in which Fish triumphed, 7-5 7-6(5). That puts Fish one match away from becoming the top-ranked American. He’ll have to beat Ferrer to do so.
Quarters: We’re left with eight men to decide among. The first two quarterfinal contests are scheduled for today; the first is Fish-Ferrer, and the night match is between Djokovic and Kevin Anderson, who got past John Isner in straight sets yesterday. Tomorrow, Federer faces Gilles Simon, and Nadal plays Berdych.
Fish-Ferrer may be the only pairing in the quarters that makes for a close match. Oddsmakers certainly think so: They give Mardy a 36% chance of reaching the semis, while the other three matches are at least 85/15 splits.
Challengers: It’s already a bizarre week in Barletta, a clay-court challenger with the strongest field of the three events this week at that level. Of the top six seeds, only one–third seed Filippo Volandri–survived to the second round. Fabio Fognini and Pere Riba, the two top seeds, both lost three-setters.
An equally notable but less surprising loser is 43-year-old former #1 Thomas Muster, who fell to Martin Fischer today, 6-0 6-3.
Another strong field is contesting the challenger in Barranquilla, Colombia, another clay court event, where the top seeds are Teymuraz Gabashvili and Horacio Zeballos. The draw looks a lot like many of the other South American events of the last couple months, with one exception: Wayne Odesnik came through qualifying for a spot in the main draw.
This is Odesnik’s first challenger-level event since his drug suspension. The qualifying draw was reasonably competitive, as he had to beat three top-500 players, including Marcel Felder. His first-round opponent is Juan Pablo Brzezicki, the first top-200 guy he’s faced since Houston, almost exactly one year ago.
See you tomorrow!