Today was the first day that the seeds played.  There were few upsets on the day, but the most notable one was Marin Cilic losing tamely to Garcia-Lopez, 7-6(1), 6-0.  Yes, he was bageled in the second set.

Gilles Simon was the other seed that feel, losing to qualifier Brian Dabul of Argentina.  Simon had one great half year, the second half of 2008, then a so-so 2009 which saw his ranking drop to around 20.  It seems Simon is still not back to playing the kind of tennis that had him in the top 10.

Fernando Verdasco had an easy win over Ramon Delgado.  Verdasco had been seen playing with a Yonex in San Jose, but is currently playing with a blacked out Technifibre, his old racquet.

Nikolay Davydenko showed he was still capable of handling rising talents.  Davydenko’s perhaps the highest ranked player not to have a decent contract.  He recently signed a deal with Dunlop that would cover clothing and racquet.  While Davydenko trotted out with his new Dunlop clothes, he was still using his old Prince racquet.  Dunlop has not had a player this highly ranked in a while.  Blake left Dunlop for Wilson.

Davydenko won over Ernests Gulbis, 6-4, 6-4.  He has had some wrist issues, but seems to prefer playing through this rather than taking time off the tour.  At his age, and at the level of play he’s playing now, he may figure it’s worth dealing with any pain.

Today marked the return of Rafael Nadal.  Nadal didn’t look particularly sharp beating veteran Scheuttler.  He was up two breaks on Schuettler in the first set, but Schuettler earned one break back and played aggressive throughout the second set.  Still, Nadal managed to get the break he needed.

Davis cup duo, John Isner and Sam Querrey played in the evening.  Isner had the somewhat easier match playing tall Kevin Anderson.  Although the two are similar in height, Isner just has a bigger game.  He hits a bigger serve and has a bigger forehand.  Anderson tried picking on the Isner backhand, but it wasn’t enough.

Querrey played Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy.  He had an early break in the first set and won it 6-3.  He had a very late break in the second set, won it 6-4.  Querrey plays Isner in the next round.  The last time they played one another was in the Memphis finals won by Querrey.

Juan Carlos Ferrero made a smooth transition to the hard courts beating Koellerer, 3 and love.  Ljubicic beat wildcard, Ryan Harrison, 6-2, 7-6(2).  Harrison said he didn’t play the big points well and will be playing Miami in a little over a week (presumably, he got a wildcard there too).

In the late match, Djokovic looked to be cruising to an easy win over Mardy Fish, with a 6-1 first set.  A combination of Djokovic not serving well and Fish playing patient tennis lead to a big turn around as Fish took the second set, 6-0.  However, in the third set, Fish tried to play more aggressively and thus missed more often, and lost his serve twice.

Normally Fish tries to play pretty aggressively, but he began spinning the ball high and not providing much pace or angle, and this seemed to bother Djokovic, causing him to make more errors than usual.  However, the strategy didn’t quite work in the third set, and Djokovic took the third, 6-2.

Of the top seeds, perhaps Davydenko looks like he’s in the best form.  Djokovic looks solid enough, but then had a mental lapse, which he seems to do from time to time.  Nadal didn’t look particularly good, but he generally wins against players ranked out of the top 10.  He doesn’t look as sharp as he did in Doha, but this is pretty early on.

The one big surprise is Marin Cilic losing early.

Tsonga, Murray, and Federer play tomorrow.