Predictable: If Saturday was a day of upsets, Sunday put things back to normal. In the top half of the draw, only 10 of 16 seeds survived to the third round. In the bottom half matches, played yesterday, 14 seeds got through.
And of the two upsets, one wasn’t really a surprise. Milos Raonic boomed another ten aces and converted both of his break point opportunities to beat Mardy Fish in straight sets. Raonic served himself out of trouble over and over again; Fish couldn’t do anything with eight break chances of his own.
In the other upset, you have to tip your cap to Ryan Harrison. After a tough match with Jeremy Chardy, he dealt a straight-set defeat to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, a Spainard who has had plenty of success on hard courts. As in the Raonic match, it was all about converting the break points–Harrison turned 5 of 7 to his favor, while GGL managed only 4 of 11. In the topsy-turvy match, there were five breaks of serve en route to Harrison’s 6-3 first set.
The two upsets set up quite the show for Tuesday: Raonic and Harrison, the two youngest guys left in the draw, go head to head. The winner of that match probably sees Roger Federer in the fourth round.
Speaking of: Federer won a squeaker over Igor Andreev, 7-5, 7-6(4). Andreev has always given the Swiss his share of problems, and yesterday was no different. I watched most of the match, and came away thinking Federer is playing just fine; the close score says more about a great performance from the Russian than any weakness on the part of the 2-seed.
Next up, Federer draws Juan Ignacio Chela, which you have to assume will be easier for Roger than yesterday’s was.
Andy Roddick also had a work a bit harder than expected in his match against James Blake. Blake is hardly in top form, but he showed flashes of brilliance, including one cross-court forehand winner clocked at 102 mph. Blake was all smiles at the end of the match, which makes me think he recognized his own solid performance.
For his part, Roddick gets another all-American battle on Tuesday, when he will take on John Isner.
Today: There are eight men’s singles matches, comprising the third round in the top half of the draw, including Rafael Nadal (against Ryan Sweeting) and Robin Soderling (taking on Phillip Kohlschreiber). For all that, the two highlights of the day are the matches with the lowest seeds.
Juan Martin del Potro attempts to continue his comeback against Alexandr Dolgopolov, a man who also has something to prove. It should be fascinating to watch Delpo try to boss Dolgopolov around the court, only to find that the Ukrainian has a whole lot of answers.
Competing for a likely shot at Nadal, Xavier Malisse and Somdev Devvarman make up my other highlight of the day. Devvarman may be playing as well as he ever has, and it’s always fun to watch someone as fast as he is. Malisse is a proven giant-killer, having taken out Jo-Wilfried Tsonga two days ago, but he doesn’t always perform as well against guys at his own level.
Elsewhere: There are no new rankings until Indian Wells is over, but there are a handful of tournament winners worth noting. German qualifier Cedrik-Marcel Stebe lost in the final of the Kyoto challenger to Dominik Meffert, which still represents a huge step forward for the 20-year-old. The Germans dominated that event, representing six of the eight places in the quarterfinals and both finalists.
The young Russian Evgeny Donskoy continues his winning ways on clay; a couple of weeks ago he took the challenger title in Casablanca; yesterday, he beat Simone Vagnozzi to triumph at Spain F7. It’s not quite as prestigious, nor are there as many ranking points to be had, but Vagnozzi is a credible opponent, and Donskoy continues to establish his reputation as a force to watch on slow surfaces.
Finally, at the challenger in Sarajevo, Amer Delic took the title after Karol Beck withdrew. Playing at home, Delic made a huge step in his return from injury; it was his first tournament win at any level since May of 2008. The Bosnian once broke into the top 60 and reached the third round of the Australian Open, so as long as he can stay healthy, we’ll probably be seeing him at higher levels soon.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at some of the fields in this weeks challenger- and futures-level events. In the meantime, enjoy the tennis!