Backtrack: If you haven’t read it yet, you should check out the piece I wrote yesterday afternoon about net-rushing, and the way we’ll someday be able to analyze the strategy. There’s some great stuff in the comments, as well.
Feeling small: It was a rough day in Houston yesterday for Benjamin Becker. The #5 seed lost his singles match to Ivo Karlovic, winning only eight return points. Becker is the only seed to fall in the first round, and Ivo was the only qualifier to reach the round of 16.
It didn’t get any easier for Becker in the doubles. Teaming with Igor Kunitsyn, he lost to John Isner and Sam Querrey in straight sets. At least in that match he got a few break points.
More from Houston: Of the nine first-round singles matches yesterday, only one went to three sets. That was the tilt between Carlos Berlocq and James Blake. Berlocq won a first-set tiebreak before Blake came charging back, eventually winning 6-7 6-3 6-4. The numbers from that match are positively bizarre. Blake made only 47% of first serves, and faced twenty break points. Berlocq only converted two of them.
Ryan Harrison had just as bad a day as Becker did. He lost in straights to Horacio Zeballos, then dropped his doubles match against … Zeballos. It will be interesting to see if Harrison is able to make any kind of statement on clay this year, as he won’t have the benefit of the wild cards he has received stateside.
Today’s schedule consists of the bottom half of the draw–four singles matches including Isner’s and Querrey’s. Querrey will face a rematch of his Delray Beach loss against Ryan Sweeting, while Isner confronts Zeballos. Karlovic should coast into the quarterfinals thanks to a matchup with Kunitsyn.
Getting interesting: I mentioned yesterday that the field is Casablanca isn’t very compelling. A trio of upsets already today have lowered the quality, but perhaps they have made the event more interesting.
In three singles matches so far today, the 2nd, 4th, and 6th seeds have all lost. #2 seed Marcos Baghdatis fell in three sets to 20-year-old Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov, and #4 seed Andrey Golubev lost to Pere Riba after bagelling Riba in the first set.
8th seed Victor Hanescu plays Michael Berrer in a little while, and given the way things have gone so far today, he should be very concerned.
We’ll check back in with the challengers tomorrow–see you then!