Wednesday Topspin: Young Sneaks In

Miami draw is set: All 96 players, including 12 qualifiers, are placed.  Matches begin with the first round of the bottom half of the draw in a couple of hours.

One of the few surprises out of qualifying was another strong effort from Donald Young.  Unseeded, he advanced into the main draw by beating Frank Dancevic, 6-1 1-6 7-5.  Young faces Denis Istomin today, setting up a possible second-rounder with Novak Djokovic.

Young is one of five Americans who made it through qualifying. Robert Kendrick, Michael Russell, and Ryan Sweeting were all seeded in the top 12, and they won the matches they were supposed to win.  Alex Bogomolov scored a minor upset with his three-setter over Simone Bolleli.  The only U.S. player to lose yesterday was Tim Smyczek, who put up another strong effort in forcing Olivier Rochus to a third set.

Rochus, you may recall, had a big tournament in Miami last year, beating Richard Gasquet in the first round and then shocking Djokovic in the second.  He’s coming off a challenger victory last week, and is in a relatively weak section of the draw.  He’ll open the tournament tomorrow against Blaz Kavcic; if he wins, he’ll face Marcos Baghdatis, and the winner of that contest is seeded for a third-rounder with Mikhail Youzhny.

The big picture: As was the case in Indian Wells last week, all the action was in one half of the draw.  This week, the bottom half is by far the more fluid of the two.  The top half seeds Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for a semifinal matchup, and with the possible exceptions of Ivo Karlovic and Tomas Berdych in Nadal’s quarter and Andy Roddick in Roger’s, there isn’t much in their way.

The bottom half, despite featuring Djokovic, is much less likely to go as planned.  Juan Martin del Potro opens the tournament today against Ricardo Mello; if he wins, he faces Philipp Kohlschreiber (again!).  The winner of that match gets a third-rounder with Robin Soderling.  To say the least, this is not the draw Soderling would’ve hoped for.

Also in Soderling’s quarter are Gasquet, David Ferrer, and Milos Raonic.

Djokovic doesn’t have quite as hard going, at least until a possible quarterfinal with Andy Murray.  Other possibilities there are John Isner and Fernando Verdasco.

In a few hours, I’ll run predictions on the draw and post my forecast for the tournament.

A dozen Americans: There are a total of 12 U.S. players in the draw: the five qualifiers, the familiar four seeds, plus three wild cards in Ryan Harrison, James Blake, and Jack Sock.  Blake faces Russell today, while Harrison opens against Rainer Schuettler for a chance to face Gilles Simon.  Given the draw, I have a hard time seeing Ryan match his success from last week–both players are smart counterpunchers who will be able to outlast the youngster.

Sock, the youngest player in the draw, is the one who has been granted a big opportunity.  He faces Carlos Berlocq, a clay court specialist whose challenger-level success has gotten him inside the top 75.  Here’s an amazing bit of trivia: Berlocq hasn’t won an ATP main draw match on hard courts in five years.  The kicker: That last win was a 6-0 6-0 drubbing of a 16-year-old American wild card … in Miami.  That time, it was Donald Young.  Blake avenged Young’s loss by double-bagelling Berlocq in the following round.

New wild card: Turns out Raonic didn’t need his wild card after all; a last-minute withdrawal got him in to the tournament the old-fashioned way.  He’s the 31st seed, set to face Ferrer in the third round.  Karlovic was granted the newly-available ticket in, and he’ll face Florian Mayer tomorrow for a shot at Albert Montanes.

Enjoy the tennis, and remember to check back later today for my complete draw forecast!

Hard Court Singles Rankings, 3/21/11

About two weeks ago, I introduced my ranking system.  Much of the rationale is explained here.  The important thing to keep in mind is that the system is designed to be predictive–that is, it values the things that tend to correctly forecast the outcome of matches.

Since then, I’ve made a few tweaks under the hood.  For the most part, the changes don’t affect the rankings, they just adjust the differences between players to better reflect surface-specific skills.

Still, Roger Federer is hanging on at the top, though it’s so close that it should be considered virtually a tie.  My algorithm to predict the outcome of individual matches also takes head-to-head results into account, and given Novak Djokovic’s recent dominance, that algorithm now gives Djokovic the slight edge in a battle with Federer.

The real value, here, is a little further down the list, as this system is much better than the ATP rankings at measuring the skill level of players who are scoring big upsets and enjoying recent success.  To wit, Ivo Karlovic is up to #33 here, in part thanks to his giant-killing run last week.  Also, my system places Ryan Harrison at #71 and Donald Young at #82 for similar reasons.

I intended for this to be a top 100, but #101 is Somdev Devvarman, notable due to his string of upsets, which moved him all the way up from #147.

1   Roger Federer          8191 
2   Novak Djokovic         8076 
3   Andy Murray            4749 
4   Rafael Nadal           4654 
5   Robin Soderling        4205 
6   Juan Martin del Potro  4047 
7   Nikolay Davydenko      2853 
8   David Ferrer           2772 
9   Stanislas Wawrinka     2660 
10  Andy Roddick           2494 
11  Tomas Berdych          2268 
12  Gael Monfils           2088 
13  Marcos Baghdatis       1879 
14  Mardy Fish             1838 
15  Marin Cilic            1666 
16  Fernando Verdasco      1603 
17  Jurgen Melzer          1565 
18  David Nalbandian       1547 
19  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga     1475 
20  Ivan Ljubicic          1449 

21  Michael Llodra         1385 
22  Richard Gasquet        1367 
23  Florian Mayer          1335 
24  Milos Raonic           1308 
25  Mikhail Youzhny        1276 
26  Gilles Simon           1235 
27  Nicolas Almagro        1209 
28  Alexander Dolgopolov   1124 
29  Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 1038 
30  Philipp Kohlschreiber  1030 
31  Viktor Troicki         1020 
32  Juan Monaco            1011 
33  Ivo Karlovic            994 
34  Radek Stepanek          989 
35  Albert Montanes         974 
36  Tommy Robredo           885 
37  Samuel Querrey          840 
38  Lleyton Hewitt          835 
39  John Isner              834 
40  Ernests Gulbis          782 

41  Jeremy Chardy           780 
42  Feliciano Lopez         765 
43  Janko Tipsarevic        728 
44  Julien Benneteau        695 
45  Kei Nishikori           666 
46  Xavier Malisse          634 
47  Jarkko Nieminen         624 
48  Dmitry Tursunov         603 
49  Fernando Gonzalez       597 
50  Juan Carlos Ferrero     596 
51  Thomaz Bellucci         586 
52  Andrei Goloubev         513 
53  Andreas Seppi           484 
54  Benjamin Becker         482 
55  Michael Berrer          465 
56  Thiemo de Bakker        453 
57  Juan Ignacio Chela      450 
58  Olivier Rochus          444 
59  Pablo Cuevas            441 
60  Igor Andreev            430 

61  Fabio Fognini           427 
62  Philipp Petzschner      423 
63  Santiago Giraldo        417 
64  James Blake             416 
65  Sergey Stakhovsky       399 
66  Ivan Dodig              384 
67  Denis Istomin           382 
68  Michael Zverev          369 
69  Robin Haase             364 
70  Arnaud Clement          364 
71  Ryan Harrison           360 
72  Daniel Gimeno           350 
73  Marcel Granollers       346 
74  Leonardo Mayer          343 
75  Robby Ginepri           338 
76  Paul-Henri Mathieu      335 
77  Lukasz Kubot            332 
78  Daniel Brands           330 
79  Alejandro Falla         327 
80  Mikhail Kukushkin       320 

81  Dudi Sela               309 
82  Donald Young            304 
83  Victor Hanescu          296 
84  Teimuraz Gabashvili     295 
85  Grigor Dimitrov         280 
86  Florent Serra           277 
87  Lukas Lacko             276 
88  Horacio Zeballos        276 
89  Ryan Sweeting           273 
90  Adrian Mannarino        272 
91  Yen-Hsun Lu             271 
92  Kevin Anderson          269 
93  Rainer Schuettler       267 
94  Edouard Roger-Vasselin  266 
95  Richard Berankis        266 
96  Bernard Tomic           263 
97  Marco Chiudinelli       261 
98  Nicolas Mahut           261 
99  Simon Greul             259 
100 Frederico Gil           258 
101 Somdev K. Dev Varman    258

Tuesday Topspin: Qualifying for Miami

Back at it: Only a day after the tournament wrapped up in Indian Wells, the qualifying tournament in Miami is underway.  All 24 first-round matches took place yesterday, setting up the 12 qualifying battles for today.

A few Americans took advantage of the home soil to post good results.  Tim Smyczek, who qualified last week and took Philipp Kohlschreiber to a third-set tiebreak, knocked off another higher-ranked player, beating Dudi Sela 6-1 6-4.  Donald Young, himself coming off the biggest win of his career in Indian Wells, advanced past Arnaud Clement in three sets.

Less impressive were the youngsters wild-carded into qualifying.  Jordan Cox won only two games against Marinko Matosevic, and Alexander Domijan lost 6-2 6-3 to Julian Reister.

The upset of the day might have been Daniel Munoz-de la Nava’s 6-2 6-2 victory over Horacio Zeballos.  Munoz-de la Nava plays almost all of his matches on clay, and while Zeballos also spends plenty of time on clay, his game is more suited to faster surfaces.  I saw Zeballos at U.S. Open qualifying a couple of years ago, when he first broke through into the top 100.  It’s been disappointing that he hasn’t broken through since then–there’s no question he’s got the raw talent to do so.

Finally, Grigor Dimitrov got past Rik de Voest in a tight match, 6-4 7-6(2).  Dimitrov was in Europe playing challengers until this week, so it will be interesting to see if he can be a factor on the bigger stage.

Meteoric Milos: Milos Raonic rose to #34 in the ATP rankings with his third-round showing in California.  Assuming that Miami uses current rankings to determine seeds, it makes for some remarkable trivia.  When the Miami field was first determined, the tournament used the rankings of Feb. 7, where Raonic was #84.  That wasn’t good enough to make the cut–if he hadn’t been given a wild card, he would have been playing qualifying yesterday.

While the entry list is ranked far in advance, seedings are not.  And after the withdrawals of David Nalbandian, Gael Monfils, and Tommy Robredo, that makes Raonic the 31st-highest ranked player in the main draw.  That should give him a seed, despite not having the ranking to make the main draw just six weeks ago.

In the challengers: Cedrik-Marcel Stebe just keeps rolling.  At the Pingguo challenger, Stebe advanced to the second round by defeating Alexander Kudryavtsev, 7-5 in the third set.  Kudryavtsev was the 4th seed, ranked at a career high of #132.  Next he’ll face Harri Heliovaara of Finland; after that, it’s a possible quarterfinal matchup with Uladzimir Ignatik, who beat Stebe in last week’s semifinals.

Not all young stars were so lucky: Evgeny Donskoy, the Russian who has had so much success of clay of late, fell in the first round in Marrakech yesterday to Martin Klizan.  Klizan, a promising young player in his own right--he’s the 17th-ranked player under the age of 23–advanced to the second round easily, 6-2 6-2.

See you tomorrow!

Prospect Rankings, 3/21/11

Some of the ATP’s top young stars have put up great results in the last two weeks, so I figured it’s time to revisit the prospect rankings.  You can see the lists from two weeks ago here.

18 AND UNDER
130 Ryan Harrison           USA   5/7/92 
180 Bernard Tomic           AUS 10/21/92 
334 Facundo Arguello        ARG   8/4/92 
397 Diego Schwartzman       ARG  8/16/92 
436 Benjamin Mitchell       AUS 11/30/92 
447 David Souto             VEN  3/26/92 
462 Denis Kudla             USA  8/17/92 
490 Alexander Rumyantsev    RUS  8/16/92 
499 Yuki Bhambri            IND   7/4/92 
512 Tiago Fernandes         BRA  1/29/93 
543 Jason Kubler            AUS  5/19/93 
551 Agustin Velotti         ARG  5/24/92 
565 Carlos Boluda           ESP  1/22/93 
595 Jack Sock               USA  9/24/92 
610 Yasutaka Uchiyama       JPN   8/5/92 
628 Suk-Young Jeong         KOR  4/12/93 
657 Roberto Carballes-Baena ESP  3/23/93 
673 Micke Kontinen          FIN 12/18/92 
678 Stanislav Poplavskiy    UKR   4/2/92 
695 Robert Rumler           CZE  12/1/93 

20 AND UNDER
34  Milos Raonic        CAN 12/27/90 
70  Grigor Dimitrov     BUL  5/16/91 
75  Richard Berankis    LTU  6/21/90 
130 Ryan Harrison       USA   5/7/92 
138 Federico del Bonis  ARG  10/5/90 
168 Jerzy Janowicz      POL 11/13/90 
176 Vladimir Ignatik    BLR  7/14/90 
180 Bernard Tomic       AUS 10/21/92 
200 Evgeny Donskoy      RUS   5/9/90 
216 Marius Copil        ROU 10/17/90 
226 Andrey Kuznetsov    RUS  2/22/91 
227 David Goffin        BEL  7/12/90 
234 Cedrik-Marcel Stebe GER  10/9/90 
242 Filip Krajinovic    SRB  2/27/92 
257 Alexander Lobkov    RUS  10/7/90 
263 Jonathan Eysseric   FRA  5/27/90 
271 Gastao Elias        POR 11/24/90 
272 Pablo Carreno       ESP  7/12/91 
277 Ilya Belyaev        RUS   8/9/90 
290 Daniel Cox          GBR  9/28/90 

22 AND UNDER
20  Marin Cilic           CRO  9/28/88 
23  Alexander Dolgopolov  UKR  11/7/88 
31  Ernests Gulbis        LAT  8/30/88 
34  Milos Raonic          CAN 12/27/90 
51  Juan Martin del Potro ARG  9/23/88 
52  Thiemo de Bakker      NED  9/19/88 
60  Adrian Mannarino      FRA  6/29/88 
62  Kei Nishikori         JPN 12/29/89 
70  Grigor Dimitrov       BUL  5/16/91 
74  Pere Riba             ESP   4/7/88 
75  Richard Berankis      LTU  6/21/90 
124 Benoit Paire          FRA   5/8/89 
125 Joao Souza            BRA  5/27/88 
128 Donald Young          USA  7/23/89 
130 Ryan Harrison         USA   5/7/92 
138 Federico del Bonis    ARG  10/5/90 
164 Martin Klizan         SVK  7/11/89 
168 Jerzy Janowicz        POL 11/13/90 
169 Tatsuma Ito           JPN  5/18/88 
174 Thomas Schoorel       NED   4/8/89

Monday Topspin: Djokovic Keeps Winning

Another day at the office: Novak Djokovic is still undefeated in 2011.  For the second time, he earned a championship the hard way, beating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the same tournament.  He wins the Indian Wells crown for the second time as well, and his victory moves him into the #2 spot in the ATP rankings.

Nadal may not be playing his best tennis, but the first set, at least, was absolutely gripping.  Both players are so athletic and skilled on the defense that many rallies made them look like counterpunchers, except both guys were hitting the ball too hard for that.  In the first set and the beginning of the second, Djokovic appeared to suffer the same lapse that lost him a set against Federer.  But as in the semifinal, he came back in plenty of time.

It was Nadal whose racquet ultimately let him down.  The biggest difference between the Rafa of last September and the Rafa of right now is his serve.  In the sets he lost, the first serve percentage was dreadful: 25% in the second and 45% in the third.  Even when it was going in, it was hardly a weapon.  Nadal’s return game alone is good enough to beat most people, but not Djokovic, certainly not right now.

In Miami, Djokovic can pad his lead over Federer, but #2 remains in play.  Last year, Djokovic lost in the 2nd round to Olivier Rochus, while Federer fell in the 4th to Tomas Berdych.  To take back #2, Federer needs to win the tournament, and even then, he’ll need Novak to lose in the semis or earlier.

Federer at #3 makes every tournament draw a little more interesting: There’s the possibility of a Nadal-Federer semifinal.  If not, Federer could line up to face Djokovic is the semi.  The latter is a familiar sight, and it’s still an exciting one.

New rankings: With Indian Wells on the board along with two weeks worth of challengers, there is an enormous amount of movement.  The biggest winner is Djokovic, moving one spot closer to #1.  Both Juan Martin del Potro and Ivo Karlovic made big strides in their comebacks: Delpo jumped 39 spots to #51, and Karlovic is up 86 places to 153.

Four players reached a new career high thanks to their performances in California: Milos Raonic gained three more places to #34, Somdev Devvarman goes up to #73, Ryan Sweeting breaks into the top 100 at #91, and Ryan Harrison advances 22 spots to #130.

Several players made triple-digit jumps as well.  Cedrik-Marcel Stebe moves into the top 250, landing at #234 after challenger semifinal appearances in two consecutive weeks.  Amer Delic, a former top-60 player returning from injury, gains 141 places to #303 after his championship in Sarajevo.  Rohan Bopanna, on the strength of qualifying for Indian Wells, jumps 119 spots to #510, and Wayne Odesnik, winner at USA F7 two weeks ago, lands at #538, an 135-place improvement.

Challenger results: Yesterday I reported on the final in Guangzhou, which leaves us four more challengers to touch on.  In Le Gosier, Olivier Rochus triumphed over countryman Stephane Robert.  It’s a bigger accomplishment than the usual victory at that level: Le Gosier is at one of the highest rungs of prize money ($100,000), and the draw was full of top-100 players who made early exits from Indian Wells.

In fact, while Rochus won the title and advanced back into the top 100, Robert could be said to have had the better week.  En route to the final, he defeated Dustin Brown, Pablo Andujar, Marsel Ilhan, and top seed Jarkko Nieminen.  As if that wasn’t enough, he teamed with Riccardo Ghedin to win the doubles–over Rochus and Arnaud Clement.

At an indoor tourney in Rimouski, Canada, the field wasn’t nearly as strong.  The title match was plenty exciting, as Fritz Wolmarans defeated Bobby Reynolds in a third-set tiebreak.

The San Jose challenger, in Costa Rica, attracted plenty of South American talent, despite its hard courts.  Returning to the winner’s circle was Ecuador’s Giovanni Lapentti, who won in straight sets over Igor Kunitsyn.

Finally, a clay court challenger took place in Rabat, where the Czech Ivo Minar won the title, getting past Peter Luczak in the final.  The surprise performance of the week belongs to the unheralded Tunisian Malek Jaziri, who entered on a wild card.  His second and third round opponents were a wild card and a qualifier, respectively, but to get there, he had to defeat fourth-seed Jaroslav Pospisil in his opening match.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the fields in the coming week.  See you then!

Sunday Topspin: A Nadal-Djokovic Final

1 and 2: It’s only fitting that the new world #2 takes on the world #1 in the Indian Wells final today.  Let’s see how they got there.

Rafael Nadal‘s semifinal went more or less as expected.  It was close, about as tight as a 6-4, 6-4 match can be, but once Nadal went up a break in the first, the result was never really in doubt.  Juan Martin del Potro is close to his pre-injury form, but he didn’t show quite the confidence necessary to boss Nadal around the court the way that he does at his best.

The semi may well have been Nadal’s best win since the tour finals last November.  The highest-ranked player Nadal has beaten this year is Marin Cilic, and del Potro is at a higher level than that right now.  Given the weak draw and the less-than-convincing wins over Somdev Devvarman and Ivo Karlovic, a straight-setter yesterday was the best possible outcome for Rafa.

The other semifinal, the battle for #2, was oddly inconsistent.  Roger Federer‘s service game was below his usual standard which, combined with Novak Djokovic‘s rock-solid return game, meant that Federer was constantly stuck in ground battles that he isn’t terribly well suited to win.  Djokovic’s steady, deep groundstrokes expose holes in Roger’s game that few other players can, forcing errors that make the Swiss look like he barely belongs on the same court.

Yet Federer won the second set, and he seemed on the brink of taking control of the third before his service game completely collapsed.  It’s a big win for Djokovic–his third in a row over Federer–and it puts him back at his career-high ranking of #2.

The final matchup: Rafa is probably the better overall player; Novak might have the edge on hard courts, and he definitely is the hot player right now.

Yet the last two times these two guys faced each other on hard courts–the only two head-to-head encounters in the last 15 months–Nadal won, on big stages in London and New York.  Djokovic leads the hard-court head-to-head 7-6, and the two players have split a pair of matches at Indian Wells.

The sportsbook line gives Djokovic the slight edge, suggesting he has a 54% chance of winning.  My system concurs, favoring the Serb at 53.5%.

Doubles: I don’t really know what to say about a championship for Xavier Malisse and Alexandr Dolgopolov in the most loaded doubles draw in recent memory.  They won every single match in a super-tiebreak of 10-7 or 10-8, and had to beat either a top-10 singles player or a top-10 doubles team in all five rounds.

Oddly enough, they aren’t slated to team up in Miami: Malisse is on the entry list with Jamie Murray.  And Murray’s brother, his partner this past week, is apparently planning to join forces with Djokovic.  We aren’t likely to see a doubles draw in Miami quite like this week’s, but it is nonetheless shaping up to make for another event full of surprises.

Challengers: A couple of times recently, I’ve mentioned the young German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who qualified in Kyoto last week, reached the semifinals, then made it to the semis again this week at the challenger in Guangzhou.  He lost to Uladzimir Ignatik, another promising young player, who went on to win the tournament.  Ignatik, from Belarus, is only 20 years of age, and the win yesterday will inch him further inside the top 200.

Both Stebe and Ignatik will play the challenger in Pingguo next week.  Ignatik is seeded eighth and will play a first-round matchup with a qualifier, while Stebe drew Guangzhou finalist Alexander Kudryavtsev, the fourth seed.

The Indian Wells final is on the card after the women’s final, not before 1 P.M. local.  I’ll be watching!

Saturday Topspin: Slam Winner Semifinals

Bored and quartered: Who would’ve guessed that Rafael Nadal vs. Ivo Karlovic would make for the most exciting men’s quarterfinal at Indian Wells?  Both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were impressive yesterday, but they didn’t have to be.  Richard Gasquet put together a few strings of solid play, including the first few games of the match, but couldn’t keep up with the Serb.  Stanislas Wawrinka looked like he lost his match before he came on court.

The story of the tournament thus far (and perhaps the entire season) has been Djokovic’s dominance.  Gasquet was quoted yesterday saying that Novak’s return game is better than Federer’s or Nadal’s.  He may be right, and it’s an understandable thing to say for a guy who just had his service games demolished.

Gasquet didn’t even win half of his service points yesterday, and he lost nearly half of his first serve points.  Djokovic had 12 break points (of which he converted five) which, if anything, seems low considering how ineffective the Frenchman was on his serve.

Much has been written about Djokovic’s string of bagels.  Though Gasquet managed to win games in each set, the Serb may still be setting records for the Indian Wells event.  Reader Jovan emailed me the following:

Losing a total of 12 games over the first four matches has never been done before.  Up to now the best has been 14, done by Jimmy Connors in 1976 and Eliot Teltscher in 1982.  Connors went on to win the tourney without dropping a set,  Teltscher lost in the semi.

Wow.  For comparison’s sake, Nadal lost 14 games in the Karlovic match alone.

Marquee matchups: The positive outcome of a predictable set of quarterfinals is a blockbuster pair of semis.  Today we start with Nadal vs. Juan Martin del Potro and then watch the battle for #2: Federer vs. Djokovic.

It’s been a tough road for del Potro, even with the free pass through the quarterfinals.  Nadal will be his toughest test yet.  Nadal is a better hard-court player than he was two years ago, when del Potro won their last three contests, including a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 drubbing at the U.S. Open.  Oddly enough, the last time the Spainard won a head-to-head matchup was two years ago at Indian Wells.

Sportsbooks give Nadal a comfortable edge: about a 67% chance of winning.  My system is less optimistic for the world #1, at 55%, in part because of that head-to-head record.  Nadal always seems able to raise his game, but his struggles against Karlovic and Somdev Devvarman make me think that my 55/45 odds are more accurate than anything higher.

The other semifinal is equally difficult to pick.  It would be easy to point to Djokovic’s dominance this week, along with his two recent wins against Federer, and pick him for the win.  But before Australia and Dubai, Federer came out on top in Shanghai, Basel, and at the World Tour Finals.  Roger also brings a different game than anything the Serb has seen this week, as he’ll attack far more than a player like Gasquet.

The betting lines suggest that Djokovic has a 60% chance of winning.  My algorithm says Federer is the favorite, with a 55% shot.  But I admit, I’d have a hard time wagering real money against Novak right now.

I think that wraps things up for today.  If your schedule doesn’t allow you to watch the semifinals today, I suggest you rearrange your schedule.

Friday Topspin: Dr. Ivo Down

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.  While Ivo Karlovic had never beaten Rafael Nadal, he had taken a set in every meeting.  Last night was no different.

In fact, we were excruciatingly close to an upset.  It took a 9-7 third-set tiebreak to decide the match in the Spaniard’s favor.  Karlovic 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.

What amazes me about one-dimensional servers like Karlovic and John Isner is how their overall serving numbers aren’t always that great.  Sure, they rack up the ace totals–Ivo hit 23 last night–but Nadal won 78% of first serve points yesterday against Karlovic’s 74%.  On all service points, Nadal won 80%, Karlovic 65%.  Of course, Rafa is responsible for some of that, but it’s not uncommon.  While 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.

All that said, the first set showed a more versatile and confident Karlovic that I’m accustomed to.  He 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.  I 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.

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

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

Sportsbooks give Gasquet about a 12% chance of advancing; Wawrinka a 22% shot.  My system says the same for the Swiss, but is more optimistic for Gasquet, setting his number at 18%.  Then 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.

Doubles: The upsets continue, as the doubles specialists are all gone.  Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse defeated Bopanna/Qureshi in a 10-8 super-tiebreak.  All four of their matches have gone to a super-tiebreak, and three have ended at 10-8.  (The other one finished at 10-7.)  They are in the final.

The other finalist will be determined in what sounds more like an exhibition lineup than an ATP doubles semifinal: Federer/Wawrinka vs. Nadal/Lopez.  It 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.  Fortunately for those of us with subscriptions, tennistv.com will broadcast the match.

See you tomorrow!

Thursday Topspin: Delpo Rolling

Straight sets: For the second day in a row, eight men’s matches resulted in only one third set.  Thankfully, yesterday’s contests were generally much tighter than Tuesday’s.  Nobody felt that more keenly than Juan Martin del Potro.

Delpo, playing Philipp Kohlschreiber, was out of sorts for much of the first set, apparently dealing with a stomach issue.   He stayed on the defense, trading protracted holds with the German into a tiebreak.  A brilliant down-the-line backhand flick on the first point of the tiebreak seemed to be all he needed–his energy came back, and he only lost a single point in the breaker.

Kohlschreiber took his time recovering, dropping to 1-4 before breaking back and evening the score.  The German made it to another tiebreak, which in its way, had a chance of deciding the match.  Kohl was obviously in better shape for a third set after more than two hours of play.  He ran out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak, and proceeded to lose five match points before falling 9-7.  Ouch.

Today, del Potro draws Tommy Robredo, who had a surprisingly easy time with Sam Querrey, beating him 6-1, 6-3.  Here’s a shocker from the sportsbooks: Delpo is more heavily favored over Robredo than Rafael Nadal over Ivo Karlovic.  The difference is slight, as both are given a roughly 85% chance of winning.

The other half: Four quarterfinalists get the day off today.  Richard Gasquet pulled an upset, downing Andy Roddick in straight sets, and he’ll meet Novak Djokovic.  The tour should be terrified right now: Djokovic beat Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-1.  A drubbing of Ernests Gulbis–that you can understand.  But while the Serbs are close friends, there’s no explanation for such a lopsided victory over Troicki except for the obvious one: Novak is playing unbelievable tennis right now.

The final quarter will be all Swiss, between Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.  (First, they play their quarterfinal doubles match, for a chance to face–of all people–Nadal and Marc Lopez.)  Wawrinka snuck through against Tomas Berdych in the one three-setter of the day, while Federer was pushed to a first-set breaker by Ryan Harrison.

Clearly, a Djokovic-Federer semi is very much in the cards, and for the first time in my life, I might have to pick the Serb.

Also in doubles: The pairing of Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse recorded another win yesterday, this time over the Murray brothers.  Today, they face Bopanna/Qureshi.  Dolgo and Malisse have won all three of their matches in a champion’s tiebreak: 10-8, 10-7, and 10-8.

Up and coming: Watch out for the 20-year-old Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.  Quick recap: He started the year winning two consecutive futures events in Turkey, then qualified for the Kyoto challenger last week.  In Kyoto, he reached the final before losing to Dominik Meffert.

That effort got him into the main draw of the Guangzhou challenger, where he recorded a big win over Lucas Lacko in the second round and then a revenge victory over Meffert in the quarters.  Today, Stebe plays Uladzamir Ignatik for a spot in a second consecutive final.  Since the Kyoto results haven’t gone on the computer yet and Stebe has few points to defend, look for him to make a massive leap in the rankings next week.

Pim Pim’s brief return: After Joachim Johansson‘s impressive performance in Davis Cup, it was exciting to see him in the draw at Switzerland F1.  He beat Mate Pavic in the first round, but has withdrawn, presumably with injury.  Too bad.

Another comeback: Here’s another name you might know: Crazy Dani, Daniel Koellerer.  The Austrian has also struggled with injury, and he’s the third seed this week at Turkey F9.  He’s through to the second round, and perhaps more remarkably, he’s through to the semifinals in doubles with his countryman Michael Linzer.

See you tomorrow!

Wednesday Topspin: Harrison d. Raonic

7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4: The battle of the young guns lived up to its billing, and more.  Ryan Harrison came out swinging, attacking Milos Raonic‘s serve as if he hadn’t heard about the record-setting ace totals.  Raonic proved as unflappable as ever, firing off 140 mph serves and huge forehands on break points.

In the end, Harrison came out on top.  He played the Canadian as aggressively as anyone has this year, and it paid off.  On the Raonic second serve, which guys like Fernando Verdasco couldn’t handle, Harrison charged in and crushed backhands from well inside the baseline.  The American’s game isn’t fully developed, but his attitude surely is.

There was certainly no question that these two guys have earned the big stage.  With the exception of some clunky forehands from Raonic, the level of play was extremely high, and especially for the Canadian, the level went up on the big points.  It was hard not to think that we were watching two future top-10 players.

If there was only one revelation from the match, it was Harrison’s return game.  He wasn’t just aggressive on the second serves, he whacked away at everything he could get a racquet on.  He broke serve three times, and just as importantly, took the first set tiebreak 7-1.  In other words, he did what just about every Raonic opponent in 2011 couldn’t do–a favorable comparison with a lot of good players.

Today, Harrison gets to play Roger Federer for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Breaking big serves: The bottom half of the draw has continued to proceed according to plan.  Of the eight spots in the round of 16, the seeded player has six of them; the seventh went to Harrison, and the eighth is Richard Gasquet‘s, earned after a stellar performance upsetting Jurgen Melzer.

Gasquet will face Andy Roddick, who also put on a good show last night, breaking John Isner‘s serve three times and winning more than 80% of points on his own delivery.  It’s a solid outing from Roddick, who has struggled with Isner in the past.

Two guys who didn’t struggle at all were Federer and Novak Djokovic.  Djokovic started the day with a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing of Ernests Gulbis, and Federer repeated the act, crushing Juan Ignacio Chela 6-0, 6-2 in under an hour.  Think these guys are looking ahead to the semifinal?  At the least, both should advance easily to the quarters; Federer draws Harrison, while Djokovic plays Viktor Troicki.

Round of 16: Yesterday’s players don’t get a day off, as the entire round of 16 is scheduled for today.  Here’s quick rundown of the matchups:

  • Sam Querrey vs. Tommy Robredo: The surface seems to favor the American, but Querrey has hardly been untouchable lately.
  • Troicki vs. Djokovic: Troicki has pushed Novak in the past, but I see this one coming out about 6-4, 6-4.
  • Roddick vs. Gasquet: Potential to be the match of the day.  Roddick has to be favored, but definite upset potential here.
  • Rafael Nadal vs. Somdev Devvarman: Nadal’s third straight opponent out of qualifying.  Devvarman is playing great tennis and might give Nadal a few things to think about in the first set.
  • Federer vs. Harrison: Big day for the American, regardless of how badly Fed beats him.
  • Phillip Kohlschreiber vs. Juan Martin del Potro: Kohl benefitted from Robin Soderling‘s injury; Delpo should have an easy time getting through this one.
  • Tomas Berdych vs. Stanislas Wawrinka: Another one with a chance to be the match of the day.  The Swiss has been playing well, so we could see an upset.
  • Albert Montanes vs. Ivo Karlovic: Seriously, this is in the round of 16?

Doubles: If that isn’t enough, how about the Murray brothers against Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse?  The Dog/Malisse pairing is hardly a familiar sight on the tour, but they took out the Bryan brothers yesterday, 10-7 in the champion’s tiebreak.

There’s an equally star-studded doubles match this afternoon, between Qureshi/Bopanna (who beat Paes/Bhupathi yesterday) and Djokovic/Troicki.  Nadal/Lopez advanced to the semis yesterday, and it looks like Federer will be back on the doubles court tomorrow.

Doubles matches aren’t nearly as predictable as singles, especially with all of the top singles players in the draw.  But how about this: Four of the eight seeded teams didn’t make it out of the first round.  The other four seeded teams lost in the second round.  So we have eight teams in the quarterfinals, none of which were seeded coming into the tournament.  Crazy.

Enjoy the tennis!