Andy is waiting until tomorrow to decide whether to pull out of the FO or not because of his injured ankle.

Yeh that is a tough decision because there are still a lot of matches to be played.
I think he has more of a chance at wimbledon this year so we will see what he prioritises with this decision.

with murray out söderling has a straight path to the final.

Yes, I agree, realistically Andy only has an outside chance of RG whereas his chance at Wimbledon is much better. So, if his ankle is at all wonky, I'd rather he pulled out now.
croc, Rafa???? Anyway, in my bracket I've got Sod going out to Simon...;)

No need to argue with croc, he is just an attention seeker.

i think murray will be okay. I watched his 'twisted' ankle and it doesn't look so bad. I think it was more of the mental shock of what could have happened.

Really hope murray is able to play. He has the easiest draw of the tournament and would be good to see him play into the Semi Finals after all of his hard work.

He'll probably get it strapped and iced; should be fine for Monday.

i had murray as an outside fav to win rg. too bad now with his injury.
söderling is such a bad arrogant guy, playing against simon and 14000 frenchmen in the crowd will only give him a huge kick. i don't see him going down there.
furthermore, söderling always beats the world number one at rg. he has a very good chance to smack nadal this year again with the fast balls.

I must agree with croc, although I know he is Rafa heater...Murray does have a pretty good chance unless he is injured...and for Sod he is also right, that arrogant guy will be stronger with the crowd against him...though this same crowd will be cheering for him so heartily against Rafa...and with Rafa?s current level of play and his lost confidence Sod will have his chances...Rafa is so much better than Sod, he plays way better tennis, it's even impossible to compare these two...But Rafa?s spirit is down, he does not believe in himself and I just can?t stand him being like that...his interviews show he is vulnerable and he will soon need some confidence injection...

But guys, Sod's not playing well at the mo?

sod isn't the same bracket as any of the top 4, or delpo either when he gets back on top of his game. i don't know about simon beating sod, deuce, although I'd be glad if he did, but rafa should dismantle sod in 3 or at the very most 4 (if sod wins a tie break or a very close set).

I was hearing muzz was feeling a lot more positive out on the practice court today.

That's the last thing we need is for Rafa to have a cakewalk to the final. Come on Murray......:-)

that's good if murray's injury is not so bad.

clearly nadal plays better tennis than söderling eight days a week. but it's about winning matches, not about playing better tennis. nadal needs to be aggressive and confident to win this week. söderling is playing better tennis every match.

Rafa's draw was full of projected tough opponents in every round. But I said somewhere that if Rafa gets a break with one of his projected opponents not turning up, then it would be a propitious sign ( like Rafa, I have my superstitions and beliefs). As Davy did not turn up, I feel more positive about Rafa for the rest of the tournament. If he gets past Soderling, he wil probably win this tournament even if he meets Nole in the final.

federer djokovic have draws tougher than nadal and murray has very little chance even if he is 100% and nadal also had a tough draw but it seems as the title is djokovic 's to lose with nadal having equal chances as djokovic and federer having a rare rare chance soderling will lose against nadal most probably

isfand, r u serious? Federer's draw tougher than Nadals's? It is not even tough, let alone tougher.

isner is not a clay couter while lopez is (if that match went 5 sets that doesnot make the draw difficult) ferrer is as difficult as soderling and djokovic is tougher than murray

Nole will win all 4 slams like Rod Laver in 2011 though its a painfull reality to swallow the inevitable is looming. he is getting more dangerous with every match. only injury can stop him now. i see him having wrist and knee injuries sometime in his career coz the human body has a limit guys!!

Injuries for nole? No more than any of the other top guys, I wouldn't think. Winning tournaments means he can cherry pick the ones he enters (as fed has demonstrated - the reason he won so many slams is because he managed to stay so remarkably injury free).
Winning matches doesn't necessarily equate to playing more - eg Nole's played no more matches than rafa this clay season and if anything looks fresher than him. And muzz has just demonstrated that injury can happen to the guys that aren't winning tournaments (as they push hard to win) as the guys that are.

Alex-
You are wrong. Rafa has played one tournament more than djokovic

isfand, r u serious? Federer's draw tougher than Nadals's? It is not even tough, let alone tougher.
holdserve
, 5/29/11 5:36 PM

holdserve, it's tough. we all know it. Most people here thinking that fed was going out in the first round, against lopez. I agree though, rafa had it *tought* against the 227th player, Veic. So yeah. he's got it tough.

I think you need to look at the draw more closely holdserve.

It all works itself out, rafa had a walkover last tournament with delpo and an extra day's rest, same has happened for novak. Rafa didn't win then, doesn't mean having an extra day is beneficial. It could work the other way, losing the rhythm of the game for instance. Anyway, they are professional athletes and they will be able to deal with it.

isfand - Lopez is NOT a clay-courter. Lopez is terrible on clay. He's a much better hard-courter.

THANK YOU CHERYL!!!! I am so sick of fedfans moaning about how horrible it was for fed to have to face feli on clay in 1st round. Everyone else seem to know that feli's game is more suited to HC, but I guess it made them feel like a win over feli would be so unexpected.

isabeau -

I didn't say rafa HADN'T played more tournaments than rafa - grab your specs and read again what I said:)

But thanks for pointing out that rafa has actually played MORE matches than nole - you make my point even stronger. i.e. nole is no more likely than any of the other top guys to fall through injury or fatigue, perhaps even less likely.

Moving on from rafa, I'd say that playing 40 and winning 40 is a lot better for your health than playing 40 and winning 30;)

The other guys shouldn't count on nole derailing any time soon. Not that anyone would want that to happen would want anything happen, rog247;)

As a muzz fan, I'm actually enjoying what he's doing, tearing up the record books in a way that fed and rafa haven't managed to - after their 5 year hegemony, it's very refreshing, much though I admire rafa and fed (in that order).

f4t - They said that because Feli was so close to beating Roger in Madrid. But Madrid plays like a hardcourt...not surprising he did well there.

Because the match was so close at madrid, which is a CLAY COURT, it was obvious that people were going to surmise that Lopez *could* cause federer a problem. He didn't. Fed played with his usual style and grace. In fact, this year's RG is playing more like a HARD court than a CLAY court, faster, along with the balls being different. So with RG being more like a HARD court this year, it was safe to say that Lopez being a better hard court player (thanks to Cheryl), then clearly, he was more of a threat!

muzz looking pretty rubbish. hope this is not going to be a pathetic affair.
"murray looking pretty upset ... but that's not unusual" :)
Come on muzz, if you've decided to play, why not gee yourself up and make a go of it?

Hooray, muzz just won a point!

if muzz ain't gonna go for it, he needs to just get off the court now and start getting ready for wimbledon ... if it's not too late for that already.

dreadful, dreadful isn't it alex? Like Nadline did the other day, I have now left behind-the-sofa and am in the kitchen :(
U'll have to cheer for me :(

Such a pity, he had a straight run to the SFs too. Surely he'll pack it in after the bagel. At least he gave it a try.

Such a pity, he had a straight run to the SFs too. Surely he'll pack it in after the bagel. At least he gave it a try.

Such a pity, he had a straight run to the SFs too. Surely he'll pack it in after the bagel. At least he gave it a try.

come back, deuce, something's happening.

Come back deuce and bring your goodies in here. Your man has picked up his pace.

Just peeping round the door and scuttling back to behind the sofa...OMG dare we.....?
Cold beer in fridge..just got the cheese straws....here u r guys...

cold beer and cheese straws... not bad... but what about the other goodies you had for us last week?

lopez is quite decent on clay its not only hard courts where he performs and isner has clay as his least favourite surface and isner is currently 39 and lopez 41 so isner was not more tough than lopez

Oh dear, back in the kitchen :( 2 stressed to bake chlorostama

The tragedy of andy murray is that he's losing this because of his mind not his body.

the way it's going for Andy today I won't expect any baking nor other goodies, alas

Well, Andy has third set, if he can win fourth I bet I'll be doing some celebratory baking tomorrow ;)

do you think you could put some temazepam in my pancakes please?

Hey deuce, I think Andy is handicapped by his ankle. If he does manage to pull this out, I think Chela would be a pushover for him.
His ankle would probably be fine by Friday.
Please Andy, hang in there.

could someone shoot that infuriating pigeon please? it's bad enough watching muzz without it.

well, well, muzz breaks in the 4th!

Oh alex another bloody roller coaster, you've got to laugh....yes, a BIG valium cake for tomorrow :)

muzz first on in longlen tomorrow afternoon.
hope he has a good testy practice before and doesn't come on stiff like today.

About time for Murray to show some stones!

Fed has a cupcake quarter, period. Even if deluded Fed fans want to insist that it was so tough because Feli in RG is like Djoko in Melbourne!
Anyway, look at Fed's prodigious luck! Ferrer had more chance than Monfils of beating Fed but it is the Frenchman who gets through. Hope Monfils gets sufficiently inspired by the crowd to beat Federer instead of playing the clown.

federer's draw was toughest if someone can manage to remove his biased spectacles nadal also played veic instead of davydenko in round 3 and someone now can tell me that veic is a much better player than davydenko had nadal not beaten him he would have won the RG ..... lol