Rafa i Fed in same half...
Nole and Muzza in same quarter...

*rubs hands in glee*

does murray have home court advantage in miami? he would need it...

Rafa's quarter is vicious this time. Chardy, Berankis, Dolgopolov and Berdych are all in his way to the quarters.

croc ;) Sod's out with a sore toe, I hear. Wonder who stamped on it.........:)

cheryl, I'm surprised you consider Chardy a threat to Rafa! Or for that matter Bernakis, or even Sasha. Rafa the tennis bully will bring his big-match experience and roll over all of them. I'd be quite excited to see Sasha and Rafa play though!

I don't think they're going to beat Rafa, but Berankis and Dolgopolov aren't who he'd have picked for his early rounds if he could have chosen.

if not Sasha, he'd have simon/ cilic/ raonic/ gasq...all tough opponents. and he could trade TBird for Muzza, Roddick, or Ferrer (who he can't have in his quarter all the time). i think he's got a pretty fair deal, and i don't think he'll break a sweat getting to the semis...

Murray/Sod have the toughest draw, and then Rafa, then Nole and finally Fed. That said, I quite easily expect Nadal and Fed to reach the semis, and Nole to reach the quarters. Murray as well, but I don't know if he's out of his short tern slump yet..

Cheryl, when was the last time Berdych took a set off Rafa?

Murray/Sod have the toughest draw, and then Rafa, then Nole and finally Fed. That said, I quite easily expect Nadal and Fed to reach the semis, and Nole to reach the quarters. Murray as well, but I don't know if he's out of his short tern slump yet..

Rafa has a beyond easy draw again. Aand chardy is going to lose to nishikori.

mriiidula is Nole v Andy tougher than Nadal v Federer in the SF?

What does everybody feel about Ivo being excluded from Miami? I know you'll be glad your favorite player doesn't have to face him but I don't think it's fair he's not there.

He played great last week and they wouldn't even give him a wildcard to the qualifying rounds. He would have been deserving of a wildcard to the main draw even but to not give him one to qualify seems really bad.

His ranking dropped due to injury so shouldn't he have a protected ranking to get into an event like this? Does anybody have any information regarding this? The directors of this tournament have done tennis a disservice imo.

Nadline, djokovic-Murray would be a quarter not a semi. Semis are naturally harder than quarters. Besides, I said Nadal has a harder draw than Nole.

Numero - karlovic is IN miami and he has a good draw.

Nole vs Murray will be interesting. If Murray plays well enough to reach the QF, I won't be surprised that he'll be the one who ends Nole's winning streak! Murray when his game is on, can give Nole all sorts of troubles. Rafa can beat all those youngsters, he had beaten Dolgo, Raonic in the past; Rafa vs Fed, of course Rafa will win. Howcome Roddick always ends up in Fed's quarter/half?

stu, 3/21/11 8:55 PM,

I agree with your assessment in this post. There is really nowhere to hide these days with the draw. If it wasn't Dolgo or Berdych then it could have been some of the ones you mentioned. Dolpo can be very tricky to play because you never quite know what he is going to do. However, Rafa did play him last year in one of the clay court Masters tournaments, so he knows what to expect.

I think this is a reasonable draw for Rafa. I will take Ricky's word for it that Chardy will lose to Nishikori, since he seems to be on a roll these days! :)

My bad Ricky. Heard some incorrect information apparently.

Having lost to the Djoker 3 times already this season, I think Fed would relish a challenge against Nadal on a hard court for a change. I'm wondering how much pounding he is able to withstand. He is still way better than the rest of the ATP tour that he frequently finds himself in the semi-finals where he comes up against the best 2 players at the moment.

can anyone tell in which half does del potro lies?

axius,

Delpotro is in Sod's part of the draw.

Once again Federer has the easiest Quarter. I think because of his viewer drawing ability, the tournament directors always give him an easy Quarter so they will have good viewership till at least the semi finals.

When all is said and done, Rafa can beat any and everyone when his game is on, so whoever is in his draw all I hope for is that he is firing on all cylinders.

Yes, Miriiidula, I should have said Murray/Djokovic in the Qtrs.

Gosh, I can't believe Troicki is again playing Novak...I guess, Victor won't bother to unpack his stuff this time as he will be heading home soon...well, the bookmakers in Serbia will become rich over this one...people bet on how many games Victor will take this time...:)

I am feeling like predicting unpredictable right now...I have a crystal ball and I see the following quarters: Raonic vs. Delpo, Murray vs. Nole (this one just had to be, I can?t see any other combination possible :) Murd-(Fed)-erer vs. Cilic and Rafa vs. Almagro...:) ha, isn?t this brave of me? :)) Anyone else having ?visions?...:)

natashao - i was feeling very much in the predicting mood so i did the bracket challemge for miami :P and i see the quarters as Nadal-Berdych, Federer-Roddick, Ferrer-Fish, and Djokovic-Murray ;)

yeah, I figured there must be some upsets....for me Ferrer and Roddick may be the victims...and Berdy, well I picked him to be beaten by Almagro because the Spaniard always has one good hard court tournament and this may be the one if he serves well..of course, Almagro will stop his great run at the quarterfinals...:) and for Nole vs. Murray...well that quarterfinal is almost as predetermined...:)

How long to you guys see Fed remaining at No. 3? It must be really tough for him to swallow that pill!

I think Rog'll remain 3 till Wimbledon, he'll rise after that. He needs to remain REAL hot though if he has to sneak to top spot

Novak has reached a higher level of play at this moment. If he remains like this, I am sure he will reach No 1. Nadal probably can defend all his title in clay but Wimbledon n UO chancea are 50-50... I predict Nadal Djoko will be 1 and 2 for so long.... Fed might be up to 2 but just for a while... defending titles when u are already 30s is really really tough...

I say Rafa can defend his FO and Wimbledon titles this year. To think that Nole can sweep across the hard, clay and grass season playing the way he's playing now is a bit unrealistic. Not even Fed can do that, in 2005-2006. Fed always lost some clay court matches during that period. Rafa in 2008 and 2010, also started slowly during the first part of the hard court season before running away in the clay and grass court seasons. I seriously doubt Nole can outdo both Fed's and Rafa's achievements in their 2005-2006 and 2008,2010 seasons respectively. The most likely scenario is for Nole to do just fine during the clay and grass seasons and come back strong during the second half of the hard court season. If he can do as well then, he'll have a good chance of winning the USO for the first time. Of course Fed and Rafa will have something to say, maybe Murray and Delpo too.

I am not yet ready to make any definitive statements about anyone taking the #1 ranking from Rafa. I know that the thinking is that Rafa has thousands of points to defend from last year, but he has shown that he is more than capable of doing it.

I am in agreement with lucky here about the unlikely scenario of Nole sweeping hard, clay and grass. It's not like Rafa is going to disappear and Murray should at least make a strong effort on grass at Wimbledon. Delpo is getting back into form but may not be strong enough to do a lot of damage at the slams. However, he could certainly get some good results in the Masters clay court tournaments. Also Fed is still in the mix. He had some dreadful results for him last year at this time. Even though he is not at his best, he has shown that he can go deep in the tournaments. He can play on clay and we all know his record on grass.

For Rafa the clay season will be the point where we know how he'll end this year. If he does as well this year as he's done over the years on clay then his fans will breathe a sigh of relief.

Long breaks don't suit Rafa's game yet playing continously doesn't suit his style so he has to work out a happy medium. The long break after the AO hurt his game although that was partly due to his thigh injury.

Actually normal break won't hurt Rafa's game, as during the break he's free to practice whenever he wants. It's the injury breaks that hurt his game, as he can't go to the practice court when he's still recovering from injury.

I think this year's clay season won't be as bad as say 2009 and 2010, as there's a one week break between Barcelona and Madrid. Rafa didn't play that many matches this year, compared to say sane period, 2005-2009. He should be still fresh and ready for the clay season. Furthermore, no knee treatment to worry about and no emotonal burdens anymore this clay and grass season, so Rafa should be fit and healthy and well prepared for the clay and grass season.