{"id":142,"date":"2011-03-18T13:24:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T13:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2011-03-18T13:24:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T13:24:45","slug":"friday-topspin-dr-ivo-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/friday-topspin-dr-ivo-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Topspin: Dr. Ivo Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nadal through: <\/em>After Tommy Robredo<\/strong> withdrew, leaving Juan Martin del Potro<\/strong> with a place in the semis, that left only one men’s singles match on the slate at Indian Wells yesterday. \u00a0While Ivo Karlovic<\/strong> had never beaten Rafael Nadal<\/strong>, he had taken a set in every meeting. \u00a0Last night was no different.<\/p>\n

In fact, we were excruciatingly close to an upset. \u00a0It took a 9-7 third-set tiebreak to decide the match in the Spaniard’s favor. \u00a0Karlovic got that far by saving six of eight break points, while he converted the only one he earned, at 5-5 in the first set.<\/p>\n

What amazes me about one-dimensional servers like Karlovic and John Isner<\/strong> is how their overall serving numbers aren’t always that great. \u00a0Sure, they rack up the ace totals–Ivo hit 23 last night–but Nadal won 78% of first serve points yesterday against Karlovic’s 74%. \u00a0On all service points, Nadal won 80%, Karlovic 65%. \u00a0Of course, Rafa is responsible for some of that, but it’s not uncommon. \u00a0While the match turned on a single point or two, Nadal won 55% of total points, a figure you sometimes see in a 6-3, 6-3 match.<\/p>\n

All that said, the first set showed a more versatile and confident Karlovic that I’m accustomed to. \u00a0He still wouldn’t be inside the top 100 without the serve, but he as aggressive as ever getting to the net, and would follow up serves with strong forehands in both directions. \u00a0I still don’t particularly like watching him play, but it’s not hard to understand how he upset so many higher-ranked players this week.<\/p>\n

Two more: <\/em>After so many great matchups in the tournament, the quarters are something of a letdown. \u00a0Starting the session today is Novak Djokovic<\/strong> vs. Richard Gasquet<\/strong>. \u00a0Six months ago, I would’ve been excited about that, wondering if the Frenchman might be able to pull the upset. \u00a0The way Novak is playing this week, you wonder whether he’ll pull out another bagel.<\/p>\n

Later in the afternoon, Roger Federer<\/strong> looks to extend his dominance over doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka<\/strong>, who managed a three-set upset of Tomas Berdych<\/strong> two days ago. \u00a0Wawrinka has only beaten Federer on clay, and there’s no reason to expect today to be different.<\/p>\n

Sportsbooks give Gasquet about a 12% chance of advancing; Wawrinka a 22% shot. \u00a0My system<\/a> says the same for the Swiss, but is more optimistic for Gasquet, setting his number at 18%. \u00a0Then again, my system only uses results from before the tournament; it doesn’t know that Djokovic has only dropped six games in three matches thus far.<\/p>\n

Doubles: <\/em>The upsets continue, as the doubles specialists are all gone. \u00a0Alexandr Dolgopolov<\/strong> and Xavier Malisse<\/strong> defeated Bopanna\/Qureshi<\/strong> in a 10-8 super-tiebreak. \u00a0All four of their matches have gone to a super-tiebreak, and three have ended at 10-8. \u00a0(The other one finished at 10-7.) \u00a0They are in the final.<\/p>\n

The other finalist will be determined in what sounds more like an exhibition lineup than an ATP doubles semifinal: Federer\/Wawrinka vs. Nadal\/Lopez. \u00a0It will be interesting to see how the Swiss players perform; they’ll get some rest, but they’ll basically play two matches back-to-back. \u00a0Fortunately for those of us with subscriptions, tennistv.com will broadcast the match.<\/p>\n

See you tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nadal through: After Tommy Robredo withdrew, leaving Juan Martin del Potro with a place in the semis, that left only one men’s singles match on the slate at Indian Wells yesterday. \u00a0While Ivo Karlovic had never beaten Rafael Nadal, he had taken a set in every meeting. \u00a0Last night was no different. In fact, we … Continue reading Friday Topspin: Dr. Ivo Down<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-recaps","category-doubles","category-indian-wells"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}