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  • Miami day 3 round-up: bottom quarter

    3/29/08 9:34 AM | David Cox
    - Djokovic wasn't the only casualty on day 3, which saw seeds tumbling by the wayside left, right and centre

    X Malisse bt D Nalbandian (7) 6-1, 6-4

    Malisse is finally back in the big time ! After a torrid 18 months with wrist tendonitis, the Belgian looked back to his very best last night, powering the 7th seed off court quite emphatically. As you’d expect, Malisse has been up-down since his return in January but against Kohlschreiber in Indian Wells there were definite signs things were starting to come together and he was unlucky not to get that one. It all came together against Nalbandian, the only time Malisse faltered was when serving for it at 6-1, 5-3 but he wrapped it up, breaking for the 6th time in the next game.

    After the performances of last autumn, Nalbandian has been frankly disappointing this year. A couple of finals in minor South American events aside, he hasn’t been the contender in the big events we all thought he would. Can he bounce back and be a real threat to the top 3 on the clay ?


    F Santoro bt I Ljubicic (28) 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3

    The magician shows no signs of slowing up in his final season on tour, snaring another big name with his unique brand of trickery. The first set went against the run of play, Ljubicic had all the chances and led 3-1 in the breaker but a costly error at 4-4 allowed Santoro to serve it out. Ljubicic hit back and dominated the second and then went 2-0 up in the third. The errors returned to haunt him though and Santoro reeled off a number of games in succession to book a round 3 meeting with James Blake


    N Kiefer bt J Nieminen (25) 6-3, 6-2

    The former world no 4 has had a dire start to 2008, just 2 wins prior to Miami but a battling round 1 performance against Garcia-Lopez (he saved multiple match points to win in 3) seems to have sparked Kiefer into life. Every so often he rolls back the years and displays the shot-making prowess which saw him heralded as the new Becker back in 2000 and he bossed the match against an out-of-sorts Nieminen. A similar showing might give Rafa a few problems in the next round


    Carlos Moya was involved in a dramatic late night showdown with Nicholas Mahut 7-6 (12-10), 6-4. The Frenchman was left regretting 3 missed set points in the 1st set tiebreak. Moya now plays Paul-Henri Mathieu who bounced back to take out the dangerous Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

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