Just before the Clay

With the clay court season about to start, I felt it was time to provide a roundup of the first 3rd of the 2010 season. What really struck me was the fact that not one tournament was won by a “favourite”. Hmmm… The Australian Open. Well that had to be the best right. But among the others, a Davydenko here, a Lubicic there, but no real big name wins. The only 2 that really matter were The Sony Ericsson Open and Dubai Tennis championships.

Dubai produced some great matches. Dubai actually missed Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal this year, but had its fair share of big names. Murray exited early. Second round. The match went to 3 sets, but Murray never looked like he had the match in control. Youzhny was provided an easier passage that he would have hoped for because of the loss. He stepped up his game when it mattered and reached the final to face off against Djokovic. The road for Djokovic was not that easy. He was a set down in the 3rd round, quarters and semis before going the full distance to win against Mikhail Youzhny. He became only the second player in the tournament’s history to win back to back titles. The first had to be the Fed, of course.

Before we go off to Miami, let’s take a look at what happened in Indian Wells. A star studded line up. All the top seeds were present. Roger Federer lost in the 3rd round to Marcos Baghdatis in 3. Even the previous match against Hanescu was not convincing by any means. Murray fell to Soderling in the quarters and Davydenko lost to Lubicic early on. The real stunner came in the semi finals. Rafael Nadal was up a set and then lost to eventual champion Lubicic. The 3rd set went to a tie break, but Nadal could not get going as he won just one point. The final was closely fought between Lubicic and Andy Roddick who was bidding to win the only US title he hasn’t won and Lubicic denied him in two tie breakers. Hard luck Roddick. Maybe next time.

Miami… Federer fell again, but this time in the 4th round to Tomas Berdych. Berdych had a giant killing run in the tournament by taking out Federer, Verdasco and Soderling before reaching the finals. Nadal went really close this time but lost in the semi finals to Andy Roddick. The biggest shock I should say were Andy Murray and the Djoker. Murray in the second round in straight sets to Mardy Fish and the Djoker to Olivier Rochus in 3. Nothing more to add about this. All this time Roddick was playing serene tennis and met the giant killer in the final. There was not giant killing from Berdych this time as Roddick took the title in straight sets.

As we move along to the clay court season with Monte Carlo coming up, I noticed that Federer was not on the list. Rafael Nadal is the defending champion (well he has been for the past 5 years now) and favourite to win. Then we have Barcelona, Rome and Madrid, finally culminating in Roland Garros. Let us see if we have a semblance of order restored in the tennis world.