Clay part 2 the revenge

The Mutua Madrid Open is well under way now for the WTA/ATP tour season, and already there has been some really good matches and a couple of upsets.  Andrea Petkovic already has made an early exit as has Agnieszka Radwanska today as well, and now Marion Bartoli has been defeated by a Russian player Anastasia Pavlyunchenkova in a crushing result of 7-5, 6-1, which was the exact reverse defeat Andy Murray suffered in Miami against Alex Bogomolov (i.e. 6-1, 7-5).  Its like Marion took some of Andy Murray's losing juice, hopefully Andy has got well rid of it since!! 

On the men's side of things also some upsets have taken place, Andy Roddick has gone out, as has Mardy Fish who lost out to John Isner.  On the doubles Andy and Jamie Murray have already gone out in the first round as they lost to the pairing of Granollers and Lopez in 6-2 6-2.  I just hope Andy's singles game is on better form tomorrow as he is due to play Gilles Simon again, thankfully he has won 5 of their previous 6 meetings, but who knows how the pendulum may swing?  Andy appears to be still in good spirits after his very good campaign at Monte-Carlo last month, hopefully things will remain good for him.  But the other top players start their campaign tomorrow too, as Rafa, Djokovic and Federer are all on court tomorrow too, so as things progress they will get much tougher.  But with Andy's recent form it should make for another exciting tournament to watch.  But it makes me think, can Novak Djokovic beat Rafa?  Yesterday I was starting to think he really could, he already has won 5 titles this year and has an unceasing winning streak of 27 matches this year along (29 in total including 2 from last year).  He has also said he feels a big confidence playing against Rafa now, even on clay that form could be a serious danger for Rafa.  Another point was when they both met 2 years ago in Madrid at the semi-finals where Djokovic pushed Nadal to the absolute limit of his ability in an exhaustive amazing 4 hour match, where Nadal just won by a gnats hair and no more in 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(9).  We can at least hope if they do meet in the final, and they most likely will, that it will be another epic match of those proportions or at least similar to their Miami match last month.

So tomorrow will be an interesting day for the Madrid Open and it should see some exciting games.  More to follow....