CAMELOT FANTASIES

Men's doubles draw

Favorites #1 Bryan brothers are in the top half, and the #2 seeds Peya/Soares are in the bottom half.

8 out of the top 10 seeded Singles players are playing doubles at Indian Wells.

Top Half
#6 Del Potro/Cilic

#9 Tsonga/Mahut

Bottom Half
#2 Djokovic/Krainovic

#3 Wawrinka/#7 Federer

#5 Andy Murray, OBE /Marray

#8 Gasquet/Erlich

#10 Raonic/Gulbis

Only the #1 seed Rafael Nadal and #4 Tomas Berdych are not playing doubles.  I guess Marc Lopez couldn't convince Rafa to play, and Stepanek is playing with Paes instead of Berdych

The Swiss, French, British, and Italian pairs may be looking to get some matches in for the all important Davis Cup QF preparations (Apr 4-6).

Other notable normal singles player pairings:

Isner/Querrey
Fognini/Seppi
Verdasco/Marrero
Janowicz/Kohlschreiber
Robredo/Feli Lopez
Simon/Chardy

Respectfully,
masterclass

order of play for Saturday is here:



http://www.atpworldtour.com/Scores/schedule.aspx?EventId=404

Juan Martin del Potro has withdrawn prior to his first scheduled singles match. 
Not sure why he didn't withdraw prior to the IW draw as he just withdrew in Dubai due to his left wrist injury.

Now a lucky loser, Brit and world #160, James Ward, replaces del Potro in the 6th seed slot in the Djokovic quarter, will inherit the del Potro bye, and will play Feliciano Lopez in the 2nd round.

#9 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the highest remaining seed in the Djokovic quarter.

Respectfully,
masterclass

order of play for Monday:


looks like Federer has double duty: both singles and doubles.


http://www.atpworldtour.com/Scores/schedule.aspx?EventId=404

Agreed general hercules, and the upsets continue with a vengeance in the bottom half of the draw with Novak as the chief beneficiary in his QF where a guaranteed unseeded player will be on one side of the net.

Bet on the clay court retrieving type players or players that love a high bounce - balls are bouncing high on the IW "blue clay" as usual in the desert sun.

Attacking players are having to risk too much and are spraying unforced errors left, right, into the net and over the baseline in an effort to win a point instead of playing not to lose a point.  Only chance for these kind of players is if an unlikely desert cold front storm arrives that drops the temps like it did a couple of years ago.

#6 Del Potro withdrew.
Bautista-Agut beat #4 Berdych
Benneteau beat #9 Tsonga
Thiem beat #21 Gilles Simon
Lu beat #22 Kohlschreiber
Kukushkin beat #25 Pospisil
Nieminen beat #26 F. Mayer
Gonzalez beat #31 Dodig

So who is left in the Djokovic half of the draw?

#8 Gasquet now heads the 3rd quarter (formerly #4 Berdych's), and he will play #30 Verdasco next.  I wouldn't count Verdasco out.

The winner of that match will play the winner of unseeded Lu and #12 John Isner.   Isner should take that, he loves the high bounce into his 6'9" frame, and his kick second serve bites and takes off like a rocket on the gritty court.

In the other 1/8,  #15 Dimitrov and #20 Gulbis will face off and the winner of that match will play one of the unseeded players, Nieminen or Bautista-Agut.

In Djokovic's quarter, the top 1/8 will showcase 4 unseeded players.  Lopez vs Kukuskin and Thiem vs. Benneteau.
Djokovic's 1/8th will have #16 Robredo vs. the in-form #24 Cilic and the winner will play the winner of unseeded Gonzalez vs. Djokovic.

I would like to see Isner vs Dimitrov in the 3rd QF.
Djokovic's 4th round vs Robredo or Cilic will likely be his toughest match of the tournament till the semifinals.

Much like at the AO, I think the winner of the depleted bottom half will half the best chance to win the tournament.
The top half guys will be fighting hard just to make the final and the last man standing will probably be out of gas.
But you never know.  The top half could open up for a player and it might get easier.

Respectfully,
masterclass

del potro knew he had that wrist issue. I wonder why he chose to play both singles and doubles to begin with.

He must have entered much earlier and decided to wait until the very last minute to pull out. He must have wanted to see how his wrist was feeling at that point of time. 

Agreed general hercules, and the upsets continue with a vengeance in the bottom half of the draw with Novak as the chief beneficiary in his QF where a guaranteed unseeded player will be on one side of the net.

Bet on the clay court retrieving type players or players that love a high bounce - balls are bouncing high on the IW "blue clay" as usual in the desert sun.

Attacking players are having to risk too much and are spraying unforced errors left, right, into the net and over the baseline in an effort to win a point instead of playing not to lose a point.  Only chance for these kind of players is if an unlikely desert cold front storm arrives that drops the temps like it did a couple of years ago.

#6 Del Potro withdrew.
Bautista-Agut beat #4 Berdych
Benneteau beat #9 Tsonga
Thiem beat #21 Gilles Simon
Lu beat #22 Kohlschreiber
Kukushkin beat #25 Pospisil
Nieminen beat #26 F. Mayer
Gonzalez beat #31 Dodig

So who is left in the Djokovic half of the draw?

#8 Gasquet now heads the 3rd quarter (formerly #4 Berdych's), and he will play #30 Verdasco next.  I wouldn't count Verdasco out.

The winner of that match will play the winner of unseeded Lu and #12 John Isner.   Isner should take that, he loves the high bounce into his 6'9" frame, and his kick second serve bites and takes off like a rocket on the gritty court.

In the other 1/8,  #15 Dimitrov and #20 Gulbis will face off and the winner of that match will play one of the unseeded players, Nieminen or Bautista-Agut.

In Djokovic's quarter, the top 1/8 will showcase 4 unseeded players.  Lopez vs Kukuskin and Thiem vs. Benneteau.
Djokovic's 1/8th will have #16 Robredo vs. the in-form #24 Cilic and the winner will play the winner of unseeded Gonzalez vs. Djokovic.

I would like to see Isner vs Dimitrov in the 3rd QF.
Djokovic's 4th round vs Robredo or Cilic will likely be his toughest match of the tournament till the semifinals.

Much like at the AO, I think the winner of the depleted bottom half will half the best chance to win the tournament.
The top half guys will be fighting hard just to make the final and the last man standing will probably be out of gas.
But you never know.  The top half could open up for a player and it might get easier.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Good stuff, masterclass. That list of who's gone is scary.

This has been a tournament riddled with upsets.

I am afraid its is going to be an early exit in Miami also at this current rate.

I know what he said in his interview: he is full of ****.


he said his back is ok but that the problem was the backhand the forehand. bullshit.

the problem is the bloody back. it is keeping from doing his thing out there on the court.

the guy can barely serve at the moment. the hard courts are not really helping right now with the back issue that wont go away.


that back should have healed and gotten stronger by know. that is my biggest worry.

I don't really give a damn about indian wells and Miami masters titles for him right now.

my worry is the back, the clay season, and RG. he really cant afford to falter on clay.


he nearly lost to andujar and should have in Rio. he was not playing well at all.


rafa and his camp need to make some quick adjustments now to minimize the damage and get healthy fast. that means getting off the hard courts ASAP.