Indian Wells – 2R

Andy Murray [5] after reaching the Australian Open final last year where was beaten in straight sets by Federer, couldn’t back on the right track in the following few months. This year is even worse, after (in some sense) a humiliating defeat in the Australian Open final, he lost very quickly his opening match in Rotterdam (to Baghdatis) and now at Indian Wells suffers the third straight sets loss, to a player whom should have outplayed with ease – Donald Young [143]. The 21-year-old Young, before this weak, hadn’t beaten a player from the Top 30! His biggest scalp came also in Indian Wells, three years ago when he ousted F.Lopez, No. 32 at the time. Young: “It’s by far the biggest win of my career. I’ve had chances before but this is the first I’ve come through and didn’t let my nerves get the better of me.” The other main contenders to the title (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Soderling) won their matches easily, albeit Federer was two points away from losing both sets against Igor Andreev, even though was keeping the match under control throughout. Soderling, in turn, found himself at *5:6 in the 2nd set against Michael Berrer, despite a 4:1 lead with a double break.
Nikolay Davydenko‘s slump continues. The Russian fell in the ranking 34 places in the last five months (from 6 to 42)! He almost can’t win a tie-break during the last 12 months and paradoxically before that, he had a career best tie-break streak (17-1), since Australian Open ’10 it’s been 5-22! Yesterday against Stanislas Wawrinka [14], he was leading 5:3* in the 2nd set and was two points away from winning the encounter at *5:5 in the tie-break, Wawrinka won 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, taking the last three games of the match. Also dramatic matches won Juan Ignacio Chela (4-6, 3:5*, 15-30 against P.Petzschner), Ernests Gulbis (saved a match point on serve in the 2nd set tie-break against YH.Lu) and Philipp Kohlschreiber, who unexpectedly had a very difficult match against T.Smyczek, won from a triple match point down in the 12th game of the final set. The defending champion Ivan Ljubicic [16] had the worst possible draw in the second round and lost 7-5, 4-6, 2-6 to Juan Martin del Potro [90], who seems to back to his 2009 form. Ljubicic: “It’s not an easy draw, of course. He’s a great player, and it was a great match. It was great entertainment for the crowd. We had some great points. I came up short in the end.” Del Potro’s first three set match after 14 consecutive two-setters!