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  • Indian Wells 3rd Quarter - Day 1 Review

    3/14/08 8:28 AM | David Cox
    - There were no real upsets on day 1, but a number of players were made to work a lot harder than expected to earn a second-round berth.

    Stanislas Wawrinka eventually ground down wildcard Jesse Levine 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 despite a ranking difference of around 130 places between the two! Wawrinka didn’t serve that well, struggling in the swirling winds which evened things out between the two. After an early exchange of breaks in the deciding set, the Swiss eventually secured the crucial one and set up an interesting second round tie with Berdych.

    The evergreen Jonas Bjorkman took out Italy’s Filippo Volandri 6-3, 7-6. With Bjorkman rushing the net at every opportunity, Volandri struggled to adjust to the speed with which the balls were skidding off the surface and didn’t really get into the match until set 2. The match looked set for a 3rd when Bjorkman went 1-3 down in the 'breaker but he reeled off three straight points before setting up match point with an ace, taking it 7-5.

    Michael Llodra’s North American hardcourt struggles continued with a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Hyung-Taik Lee. The Frenchman was in such blistering form Down Under and then indoors and was expected to be a threat to the seeds in the desert. However, his usually massive serve never really got going, managing just one ace and a returner of Lee’s class took full advantage. The Korean really targeted the Llodra second serve, conceding just 2 points on it in set 1. A rout looked likely when he went 3-0 up in the second but Llodra battled back to *3-4 only to drop serve once more.

    Xavier Malisse was in fine form, demonstrating the shotmaking which made him such a force in the tennis world in the final two sets against Florent Serra; winning 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0. Malisse’s serving was somewhat inconsistent at first, just 49% 1st serves in set 1. He stepped up a gear for the remainder of the match, Serra helping to let him back in it with just 31% 1st serves finding their mark in the second. Malisse smashed 14 aces in total and plays Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday.

    Robin Haase recovered from an early scare against Dusan Vemic, coming through 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Olivier Rochus defeated the mercurial Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-4. Both men like to play their tennis in an unorthodox way and this one was all about angles, dropshots, and working the opponent around the court rather than bludgeoning power.

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Did you know that... Tomas Berdych and tennisplayer Lucie Safarova is one of today's top couples.

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Did you know that... Michael Llodra is famous among other ATP players for his practical jokes.

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