Although Lukas Lacko had a 6-0 set against Nadal in Doha, Nadal chalked that up with being ill.  And that Lacko, who was aggressive against Nadal looked like a deer in headlights.  Lacko (pronounced Latch-ko, apparently), who looks like Shaggy from Scooby-Do, just looked dazed.  He didn’t appear to have much of a game plan.

Roger Federer appeared to treat this like a practice match.  He wasn’t trying to hit all out.  Looked like he was getting his strokes grooved, then occasionally going for the big shot.  I feel Roger uses smaller tournaments to try things out in live situations, then goes a bit more “conservative” in big occasions.  Obviously, not too conservative, as he needs to make big shots at the big moments.

Federer won the match easily, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.

Mardy Fish recovered to win his match in five sets after dropping the first two sets to Victor Hanescu.  I saw a headling that said something like “Querrey vows not to play scared” and that’s kinda how he played, lacking the will to control the points while Kubot (with his cheering section) was willing to be more aggressive.  Ryan Harrison lost in straight sets to Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino.

In a relatively big upset, Nikolay Davydenko lost to Florian Mayer in four sets.  He didn’t look so good playing Melzer yesterday and Mayer just came off a semifinal appearance in Sydney.  My impression that Davydenko didn’t look as solid in Doha as he did last year was born out.  This must mean that either Davydenko wasn’t feeling as well in Melbourne as Doha (which I think is the case) or that Nadal was just really feeling awful in Doha (which he may have been).  Still, drawing Mayer was not a great way for Davydenko to start off.

Frederico Gil of Portugal needed a 9-7 fifth set to beat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.

Roddick is winning easily so far over Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic.

Federer will play the winner of Yen-Hsun Lu and Gilles Simon.  Simon has been playing pretty well and won Sydney.  He might give Federer some trouble, but I think Federer is playing too well, should they meet.