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3/13/09 3:09 PM | Ricky Dimon
With Roger Federer's baby announcement stealing headlines and all 32 seeded players enjoying first-round byes, on-the-court action at the Masters Series Indian Wells was overshadowed.
While no seeds were in action on Day 1 of main-draw play at the BNP Paribas Open, 16 first-round men's singles matches took place on Thursday. Let's take a look.
Do you like bagels?
1. Brendan Evans - The American won two matches earlier in the week to qualify for the main draw, and for a while it looked like his streak would continue against Sergiy Stakhovsky. Evans won the first set 6-2 before the Ukrainian took control. Stakhovsky forced a decisive third frame of play by capturing the second 6-3, and he did not lose another game the rest of the way. Yes, that means it was 6-0 in the third.
2. Florent Serra - Serra had actually been playing relatively well over the current U.S. hard-court swing, but his game disappeared on Thursday against Albert Montanes. Albert Montanes? On hard courts? In order to lose to Montanes on a hard court, a player has to beat himself. In order to get blown out 6-3, 6-0 by Montanes on a hard court, a player almost has to set a new standard for bad tennis. That's what Serra did, and a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing was the result.
A day to forget
Marcel Granollers won just three points against Steve Darcis on Thursday afternoon. Granted the match only lasted five games, but that's just not good. The Spaniard retired with a right shoulder injury after managing to lose five games in a mere 15 minutes. The final point total was Darcis 20, Granollers 3.
Revenge on their minds
1. Lleyton Hewitt - The Australian recorded a nice 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Jan Hernych to set up a clash with Fernando Gonzalez, who took out Hewitt in five sets in the first round of this year's Aussie Open. Hewitt, of course, has been sidelined with physical problems for much of the past two seasons, but Gonzalez has also missed recent time due to injuries. Seeing Hewitt get revenge in the Indian Wells second round would not be surprising.
2. Ernests Gulbis - Another rematch of a five-set Australian Open encounter is on the menu after Gulbis dispatched Kevin Kim 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday. The 20-year-old Latvian went down to Igor Andreev in the Melbourne second round after coming back from two sets down and leading 4-2 in the fifth. Another (yes, another!) Gulbis meltdown gave Andreev the last four games of that match. That collapse, and the fact that Gulbis has not gotten past the second round of an ATP event yet this season, could be weighing on the youngster's mind. If he can overcome any resulting mental blocks, Gulbis has every reason to get revenge on Andreev this time around.
Quote of the day
"He is having the time of his life right now. I had a great run, but for the moment, he is the best in the world." -- Roger Federer on Rafael Nadal.
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Amen, Roger.
Obvious, of course, but not to many of your fans.
chlorostoma , 3/13/09 5:14 PM