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  • Nadal in talented Indian Wells quarter

    3/11/09 6:16 AM | Ricky Dimon
    Nadal in talented Indian Wells quarter Rafael Nadal is a heavy favorite to advance out of his quarter of the Masters Series Indian Wells draw, but his path to the semifinals is littered with danger.

    It's safe to say that Rafael Nadal's quarter of the BNP Paribas Open draw is not as difficult as it could be, but it's far from easy at the same time.

    The theme of the top section--aside from Nadal--is extremely talented players who sometimes put it all together, and other times do nothing of the sort. Nadal should be able to cruise into the fourth round of this first Masters Series event of the season in Indian Wells (unless Dmitry Tursunov catches fire out of nowhere). At that point, however, the world No. 1 will almost certainly run into either Tomas Berdych or David Nalbandian. Berdych is 3-4 against Nadal and Nalbandian is 2-0, but Indian Wells is probably not where those records will be improved upon. The surface suits Nadal (as well as a hard court can suit Nadal, that is), plus Nalbandian is more of a threat indoors and Berdych likes much faster hard courts. Furthermore, Nadal is simply in much better form than both Berdych and Nalbandian at the moment.

    Streaky players like Nalbandian and Berdych are also plentiful in the other half of the top quarter. Sixth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro was consistently incredible last summer (four straight ATP titles followed by his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open), but it's not yet known if he has gotten over his humiliating loss to Roger Federer in January's Australian Open quarters. Gael Monfils finally put all of his talent together throughout the latter stages of 2008 and he has continued to play well this year. The No. 9 seed could meet Del Potro in the Indian Wells fourth round. To do that, however, Monfils might have to get past the mercurial Marat Safin in round three. Safin, of course, is the essence of a hot and cold player. In what he insists is his last season on tour, Safin has mostly been cold, but he can still come up with dominant stuff when you least expect it.

    The first-round match to watch in this quarter is Mikhail Youzhny vs. Viktor Troicki. Youzhny is slowly but surely recovering from a horrific 2008 campaign, while Troicki started to make a name for himself last year. The winner faces Berdych, who is always ripe for an upset with such a fragile mental game.

    Four of the five wild cards in the entire draw are in the bottom half of this quarter, so look for one (or more) to capitalize on a great Masters Series opportunity. If John Isner gets past Christophe Rochus in his opener, he would take on Monfils, whom he upset in a third-set tiebreaker at the 2007 Legg Mason Classic.

    Prediction: Fourth round - Nadal over Berdych and Del Potro over Monfils. Quarterfinals - Nadal over Del Potro.

    While dangerous opponents for Nadal lurk in this section, another knee injury development is probably the only thing that can prevent the favorite from reaching the semis. Unfortunately for everyone else in the top quarter of the Indian Wells draw, Nadal showed no signs of knee trouble last weekend in two Davis Cup singles blowouts of Janko Tipsarevic and Novak Djokovic.



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Comments

I agree. Everyone on the tour is secretly saying "I hope Nadal busts his knee really bad"...

fuzz , 3/11/09 1:23 PM


I'd second that. Vamos Verdasco.

chr18 , 3/11/09 2:32 PM


every player that dont wanna be challenged by the best gonna think that agree.... normally the other players wanan the mates stay healthy but you know always are some jealous and people that envy things...

omardenia , 3/11/09 3:51 PM


to be expected! after all, nadal is the most FEARED player on the tour!

memi , 3/11/09 9:56 PM


PRESENTLY, nobody wants RAFA on the other side of the court. They'd probably prefer to face the Bryan bros. on the other side than to play RAFA at this point in time.

agf25agf , 3/11/09 11:34 PM


Hope Rafa mistakenly used a samurai sword instead of his yellow Babolat and then chopped his head while performing his infamous helicopter finish.

torres9 , 3/12/09 10:38 AM


WOW!.... DESPERATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE!
BAD>> BAD WISH!

agf25agf , 3/12/09 10:56 AM



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