Right so now onto yet another post regarding the BNP Paribas Open from Indian Wells, which saw more seeds tumbled by the wayside, but there was some really good tennis on display from both the men's and ladies.
Starting with the men's we had Roger and Rafa out on court, and Rafa had the easier match no doubt as he took on his fellow Spaniard, Marcell Granollers, and dismissed him in 6-1, 6-4, which sees make safe passage into the 4th round. Roger however had a much tougher match on his hand, as he was up against the big serving (and big) Canadian, Milos Raonic, who gave Fed his first big test of the tournament, as the Swiss fella dropped the opening set in a tiebreak. However Roger came back into the match and took the 2nd set with ease, and the 3rd with a single break, and closed it out in 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Raonic clearly is a really talented new player, as he already has 3 ATP tour level titles to his name, so credit to him for pushing Roger so far, but as Rog said himself, his wealth of experince got him through this one. In other men's matches, the Ukranian Alexander Dolgopolov, battled past Marcos Baghdatis in a three set test, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. And Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also met with a stern test against the Czeck player Radek Stepanek, eventually winning 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. No. 9 seed, Juan Martin Del Potro also made it through against Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 6-2, 7-6. Although another big upset came with David Ferrer being knocked out by the Uzbekistanian player Dennis Istomin.
So this sets up some more potentially interesting matches for the remaining top seeds, as Roger is set to take on the Brazillian Thomaz Belluci, and Rafa will face the unpredictable Alexandr Dolgopolov. Tsonga will next also take on what could be a very interesting match up with David Nalbandian and big John Isner will face the Aussie player Matthew Ebden. And for Tomas Berdych, he will face his favourite player no doubt (ahem!) Nicolas Almagro, which should be very intruiging, as the last time they played, the match didn't finish on the best of circumstances. In their last match as a reminder at the Australian Open, Almagro accidentally played a shot which hit Berdych in the shoulder, and after the match Berdych refused to shake his hand, so I wonder if he will shake hands with him this time!
Sooooooooo onto the ladies (god this is like a news reel!), with a few more seeds tumbling out. The first of the match however was with Agnieszka Radwanska and the upcoming Asian-American player Jamie Hampton. Hampton played a really good match for the most part, as she had the game to outhit Radwanska, and took the 2nd set, however in 3rd set she succumb to cramps, and was forced to retire, trailing 0-3 in the third. In a potentially exciting encounter, the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka took the German Julia Goerges, who has been in form of late, however despite a strong start, Julia's fight soon dissolved, probably due to injury, and after the first set, despite an early break in the 2nd, she never found a way back in. This was a pretty disappointing result as the match had potential on paper, but Azarenka is the in form player just now, playing the best tennis of her career, and it very much looks like she will be set to go on a big unbeaten run just like Djokovic did last year, as she is now 20-0 this season. In other matches, Maria Sharapova breezed past the Italian Roberta Vinci, who only managed to take 3 games of the No.2 seed, as Maria crushed her in 6-2, 6-1. and Marion Bartoli also eased past Lucie Safarova in 6-1, 6-4. But the upset of the day came with Caroline Wozniacki, who clearly has not been playing her best of late, who fell to a new and improved Ana Ivanovic, in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, in just an 1 hour and 10 minutes.
And this is where I will say a bit more about Caroline Wozniacki, as she really has taken a bad tumble lately, and she has been handed a lot of tough defeats, and after her latest defeat she will drop to Number 6 in the rankings. And it would be hard to not feel sorry for her, as after her defeat to Ivanovic she was reportedly nearly in tears in the press conference, and I saw myself on TV how dispondent she looked when she walked off court, which is a real shame. This time last year she was playing terrific stuff, and she was the champion of this event, but a year on, her confidence really has taken a beating, as she has been struggling ever the since the latter half of last year. And the worrying signs continue with the former No.1, and I have to say I just knew that Caroline couldn't defend her title this year, and she herself has failed to win a title since August last year.
So it makes you wonder just what is behind this slump???? I think it could well be that the fire has gone out of her game, and I think to be honest her game has become really predictable, and quite often more than not, she is too passive in her play, and she needs to become more aggressive. And this is the real problem for her, as being a counterpuncher, she fails to hit through the aggressive opponents, which is why players such as Serena Williams, Clijsters, Kvitova, Azarenka, Georges and Ivanovic can blast her off the court with their power and pace. Andy Murray himself has had a few bad slumps, particularly in 2010 where he had his worst season, and yeah ok he's had another early exit in Indian Wells this year, but Andy's slumps only last at the most a few matches, whereas Caroline's slump has lasted well over the last 9 months! I also think that maybe she needs a change in coach as she has relied on her father too much, so perhaps she needs to mix things up a bit and hire someone else to train and re-think how to play her game, as right now too many players in the game can hit through her and day by day she is becoming more vulnerable. So until then I think Caroline will continue to struggle with her game, which is a pity to see such a talented player start to fall by the wayside.
Anywayyyyy that's quite enough for now, more to follow, as the rounds progress things are getting more interesting.
So that it.
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