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,
This year, the top singles players came out in force to play doubles. Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez were the defending champs and came back to defend. Roger Federer was teamed up with Stan Wawrinka for the first time in a tournament setting since they won the Olympics in 2008. Novak Djokovic paired up with
Federer seemed like he had an answer to his most pressing problem: Novak Djokovic. Down a set, unable to play consistent enough to rattle Djokovic, Federer needed a new idea. Commentators made an analogy between this match and last night's match between Wozniacki and Sharapova between a steady player and a hard hitter. Wozniacki made
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
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
Roger Federer struggled with his contemporaries before he became the dominant player that broke Sampras's record. Nalbandian, Hewitt, and Safin. Since then, Safin retired while Nalbandian and Hewitt struggle to stay relevant. Federer rarely has trouble playing players his age or older. And there are players in that age range that are pretty good, whether
It must be the 2012 Olympics. Singles players from countries that don't have strong tennis are often asked to play doubles. Federer credits his Olympic doubles win with Stan Wawrinka in 2008 to helping him win the US Open that year. Indian Wells has its strongest field, at least, with singles players. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic
