Did Rafa pull out of the singles? Wasn't he supposed to play today in Sao Paulo?
Tomorrow. He has a doubles match with Nalbandian today. Speaking of Nalby, hopefully he can make a run here because he has 315 points to defend between now and IW and I can't see him getting to a Masters QF again. Don't want to see him finish his career with a really poor ranking, but he's already down to 93.
Tomorrow. He has a doubles match with Nalbandian today.
These 250 events confuse me. Do they only have 5 rounds instead of 6? Last week, Rafa had his second round match on Wednesday (had the first round bye). Then he had Thursday off. Usually, the players who would reach the final play 5 straight days from Wednesday-Sunday.
Also, on 250s, with a couple exceptions where the draw is larger, all the 250s have draws of 28 or more usually 32 players entered in the tournament (in the case of 28, the first four seeds have byes in the opening round). I think I remember reading that somewhere.
Gulbis gives Del Potro a match in the first set, but loses in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. Tough draw for Ernests, who did beat #50 Haase in the first round, a good result these days.
Roger his casual, elegant self against de Bakker in an easy first set. Second set looks to be more of the same as Federer is up 3-1 and still cruising. No problems the rest of the way. Frequent lovely displays of touch today from Roger, 6-3, 6-4.
Russell didn't offer much opposition. Even in the closer second set, the issue never seemed in doubt.
I was watching on the tourney's feed which also had play by play written commentary included. The difference in speed on serves was about 30 mph. The only thing Russell has over Raonic is big biceps!
Benneteau beats Federer to go to the Semis in Rotterdam. Roger didn't play so well, he was all over the place in the first set. Second set Benneteau was hitting a lot of balls deep into the court, did a great job forcing Fed into errors. For those keeping track that's 410 points Fed has just dropped.
One of the SF's there is Dimitrov vs. Del Potro which I'm really looking forward to.
6-4 Raonic in the first set. That's one of the best sets I've seen him play. He is very confident right now.
6-2 second set for a straight sets win. Very impressive improvements on his returns and on his backhand and movement. Serve was dominant as usual, I think 15 aces.
