Berdych served as spoiler at Wimbledon when he beat Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He was hoping to do it again against Nadal. Initially, it didn't seem like it would go that direction with Nadal dominating the first set with a 6-2 win. Nadal's focus dropped some as Berdych also played more aggressive tennis and
Still the early rounds going on. Nadal, who rarely loses to fellow Spaniards (although he did lose to Lopez at Queen's last year and to Garcia-Lopez in Bangkok--something about that Lopez name, I guess) faced fellow lefty, Feliciano Lopez. This was a routine 6-3, 6-3 win. Federer had a tougher match, requiring a 6-4, 7-6
Last year, about this time, Roddick was having the best three weeks he's had since, oh, say, Wimbledon. Despite the usual suspects of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray playing both Indian Wells and Miami, all of them were upset somewhat early. Roddick manage to slip through the draw and reach the finals of Indian Wells,
There were some records that were going to be broken at some point. On the one hand, Rafa had done very well at Indian Wells in odd years, winning in 2009 and 2007. He had also been 5-0 over Djokovic in finals, a fact that apparently he didn't know this head-to-head result when it was
del Potro's return back to tour has been nothing short of incredible. But, despite a title win at Delray Beach, del Potro had not beaten a top ten player. He has played two in 2011. He lost to Andy Roddick in Memphis in the semis, and lost to Fernando Verdasco in San Jose. Few expected
Ah, sometimes you want to play tennis so bad, that you hope a mini-excursion out will still leave you enough tennis to watch. Except, alas, a 4 hour excursion left me missing both the Federer win over Wawrinka, then the rest of what must have been only an hour, followed by a doubles match that
March 16 was a great day for tennis fans at Indian Wells. All the men played fourth round matches. March 17? St. Patrick's Day? Not so good. Two matches were skipped, one men, one women. On the men's side, Tommy Robredo had sustained an injury while beating Sam Querrey. He said he was unable to
It's the dream matchup everyone wanted. Well, almost. Nadal plays doubles irregularly, but typically a bit more often than Roger Federer. With the Olympics a year away, it seems many a top pro is using Indian Wells to practice their doubles skills. Amazingly, Rafael Nadal and partner Marc Lopez are defending champs defeating then number
If you have to pick one day to visit Indian Wells to watch the men's matches, today is the day. All of the men play today with the culmination of Rafael Nadal playing upstart Somdev Devvarman and Roger Federer playing upstart Ryan Harrison. For those of you who say Ivo Karlovic is all serve, understand
For a few years, Devvarman was at the top of the game. The college game, that is. The star player at the University of Virginia, Devvarman reached the finals of the NCAA Division 1 Men's Championship, and won it two years in a row including a win over John Isner. Since then, Devvarman has been
