After a rain-filled yesterday, the matches today have been of extremely high class. Some highlights and thoughts: I am happy short Italian Fognini beat Monfils after that darkness debacle. They should have stopped at 4-4. You can’t play if you can’t see the ball. But Monfils got the crowd all wired up and they started booing at Fognini for every point he won. It was a weird match that ended with Fognini winning the 5th set 9-7 the next day. The Ukrainian junior Dolgopolov is a great talent and a very skilled clay court player. I am not that surprised …
Murray
The biggest clay tournament of the year is on and if day 1 wasn’t that exciting to be honest, day nr 2 is something completely different. Firstly we saw Roger Federer win quite easily against Peter Luczak. Federer wasn’t fedtastic, but he definitely was on cruise control and didn’t lose his serve once and only faced one break point. A good omen for things to come. Federer will definitely be in the semis, that is my gut feeling right now. Djokovic lost a set against Korolev and looked uninspired, but still managed to grind out the win in 4. Murray …
Well, it was the final we all wanted in the end, the first “Fedal” in one year. It was a good match, tight, not one of the best for sure, but entertaining. Federer looks like he has stepped up his game a level or even two since the horrible performances in Rome and Estoril. He can very well be a finalist at Roland Garros that starts on Sunday. But can be he beat Rafa? In my opinion, no. Rafa didn’t play his absolute best yesterday (neither did Roger) but he still manage to get the W by 6-4 7-6. He …
I am happy to announce that I was right in all my quarter-final bets/semi-final picks for the Madrid Masters. Federer managed to fight back after being a set behind against Gulbis. He looks more mentally ready now and seems to have that button he can switch on and off when a slam is drawing near. He is also lucky to play Ferrer in the semi. Ferrer is of course dangerous, he beat Murray, but he has 0-9 in head to head against the Fed express and you don’t see him change that stat in this match. Ferrer just doesn’t have …