First Weekend at Indian Wells

Any day that starts with Nadal and Verdasco on the practice courts together promises to be a good day in my book. The second round of the men’s draw had a strong start on Saturday.
John Isner started off against Federico Gil, and the first set seemed to be wrought with errors. Isner pulled out the first set, but really took control in the second, which seemed to be just the opposite for Richard Gasquet.
Unlike Isner, Gasquet started off strong. He took the first set from Albert Ramos at 6-3 and went up a break in the second. Even with this break, he seemed frustrated with his level of play and was talking to himself for at the half of the second set. He finally had reason to when he failed to successfully serve out the match. From then on, Gasquet lost concentration and Ramos took total control, ending the third set quickly.
The trouble for the seeds seemed like it might continue when Andy Roddick began his match against Lukasz Kubot. Roddick was off his game in his first set, losing 4-6. He fought back in the second set, though, and took the match to a tiebreak. The crowd definitely played into Roddick’s favor as he lifted him game and ended up winning the match.
Meanwhile, Feliciano Lopez was playing four-square tennis on the practice court. They were extremely animated about sticking to rules, particularly Lopez, who was extremely vocal whenever someone questioned his plays. I may not have taken Spanish recently, but I’m pretty sure that I would not want to argue with Feli over this game.
Next up on my agenda was Sam Querry and Nico Almagro. Sam started off well but Almagro came up with all the answers in the second and third set. Sam seemed tight in the third, which certainly contributed to his downfall, but Alamagro definitely played well. Even Sam’s SAMurai supporters couldn’t pull him through the match.
Maria Kirilenko had a frustrating first set against Begu. She was forced into a tiebreaker even though she started well at 4-0. The second set was also close, and Kirilenko ended up winning it 7-6, 6-4, but I forced my way into Stadium 2 during the second half of this match to watch Ryan Harrison
Harrison played Victor Troicki, and it was a great match to watch. I had some questions about how high Harrison could reach last year, but he’s seemed to really step up his game this year. The first set was closely contested but Harrison played strong to pull out a great second set. I can’t wait to see what sort of impact he makes on the ATP this year.
The night ended with Andy Murray and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. I can’t say I love the bright orange outfit, and it didn’t seem to do much for Murray’s success. Garcia-Lopez is a good player, but I was shocked to see the fourth seed bounced out so quickly. Hopefully Murray will get it together ahead of Miami in another week.
Sunday saw the start of the other half of the men’s draw. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer headlined the day with Nadal starting early on the practice courts. He’s been around closer to 10 AM these past few days, which feels very different than the usual later afternoon practice.
Juan Martin del Potro returned to take on Marinko Matosevic of Australia. Del Potro seems to be in fine form. I look forward to watching him on Tuesday just as I do with Rafael Nadal, who played a strong match.
I was expecting a much closer match with David Ferrer and Grigor Dimitrov. I expected Grigor to come out stronger, but David proved his worth as a returner. He successfully fought back to gain control of the match and managed to hold out.
Gasquet and Hanley managed to pull out a win in doubles, and unsurprisingly, Roger Federer successfully dealt with Kudla. I appreciated Kudla’s apparent revival of the Lleyton Hewitt hairstyle of the early 2000’s and late 1990’s. Still, Denis hasn’t quite hit Hewitt level as Federer easily saw him off.
It was a great weekend for tennis, and the next week in Indian Wells certainly promises a great deal. Keep checking back to Tennis Grandstand for more coverage this week of the tournament!
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