With a bug going around at Indian Wells, players are trying to stay healthy.  Federer apparently has some combination of a cold and flu, but it didn’t affect the results against rising talent, Denis Kudla, who he beat 64 61.  Kudla is a contemporary of Jack Sock (the two played as juniors).  This was his first match against a top ten player, and as expected, Federer won, though Kudla’s power in the first set kept him in the match until Federer figured it out in the second set and ran away with the match.  Up next for Federer is hard-serving Milos Raonic, perhaps the closest player to Pete Sampras in terms of a big-serving reasonably mobile guy.

Indian Wells also marks Rafael Nadal’s return to the pro tour, and he looked sharp against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.  As usual, whenever anyone plays Rafa, they have to start going for their shots because Rafa (especially in the last few years) is looking to attack early.  This doesn’t mean go for winners necessarily, but go for uncomfortable shots with weak replies.  Mayer did a little better in the second set, but it was still mostly a beatdown, 61 63.   Up next for Nadal is Granollers who beat Tommy Haas in three sets to reach this point.

Grigor Dmitrov is looking less like baby Federer all the time.  At least, Ernests Gulbis, the biggest talent that never was, managed to go deep in a Slam once and has upset Roger Federer before.  Dmitrov had to face world number 5 David Ferrer (brief interruption by Tsonga was number 5 for a week).  Ferrer is the best small man playing today, and he showed this with a 62 62 win.  Up next for Ferrer is Denis Istomin who struggled mightily with Juan Ignatio Chela to win in three sets.

del Potro had a comfortable win over Matosevic who reached his first final against Kevin Anderson in Delray Beach.  Up next for del Potro is Fernando Verdasco who handled Ryan Sweeting easily.  Verdasco is starting to play somewhat better after more than a year of not playing that well (ever since he overplayed the clay season one summer).

Nikolay Davydenko had a straightforward win over Bjorn Phau.  His play has become a lot steadier ever since he ditched Dunlop and went back to his Prince racquet.  He’ll face Thomaz Bellucci who upset Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.  Melzer recently won Memphis, but hasn’t played top ten tennis for about a year.

Neither Tsonga nor his next opponent, Stepanek, had much trouble with their opponents.  Michael Llodra retired against Tsonga after less than a set.  Xavier Malisse played the full match but won few games against Radek Stepanek.

David Nalbandian needed two close tiebreaks to upset the struggling Marin Cilic.  He’ll face Janko Tipsarevic who had a comparatively easier time against Gilles Muller.  Finally, Alexandr Dolgopolov had to struggle mightily against Belgian player, Steve Darcis, in three sets.  He’ll face Marcos Baghdatis who upset Feliciano Lopez.

The flu bug did hit Gael Monfils who had to withdraw before playing.  Bjorn Phau was the lucky beneficiary, though he lost to Davydenko who is probably happier playing Phau than Monfils.