Tennis Paparazzi

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Two unseeded players, Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka and Korean Hyung-Taik Lee managed to secure a fourth-round placing after a two difficult second and third round battles against seeded players. Wawrinka and Hyung-Taik Lee will meet in the fourth round. Personally I would support the Korean because I am Asian!

World No.5 David Ferrer really put up a good play and eventually lose the match to the Korean Hyung-Taik Lee in 3-sets 6(5)-7, 7-6(5), 6(3)-7. The Swiss No.2 Wawrinka was not able to close the match in straight-set after taking the first set from No.18 seed Marcos Baghdatis but eventually won the match without losing a game in the third set 6-3, 6(1)-7, 6-0.

The match between Argentine countrymen No.16 seed Guillermo Canas and No.21 seed Juan Monaco was full of drama especially in the third set where there are 2 over-rules from the chair empire which the players disagree and argue for a while. It even affected the mood of Juan Monaco and indirectly contributed to his loss to Guillermo Canas. 

As the match progress, the more exciting it will become. In the fourth round, World No.2 Rafael Nadal sets up an encore match with World No.17 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga since the recent 2008 Australian Open where the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga upsets Nadal in straight 3-sets in the semi-final. Their career head-to-head statistics is 1-1 so this will be quite an exciting match to watch out for. No.8 seed Richard Gasquet will face No.9 seed James Blake for the third time in the Masters Series. Can the No.1 Frenchman extend the lead to 3-0?

World No.3 Novak Djokovic clash with Guillermo Canas for the second time. Canas dream of winning his first Masters Series shield was smashed by Serbian Novak Djokovic last year in Miami Masters Series Final. This is going to be a golden opportunity for Canas to prove that he can also defeat the World No.3 like the way he overcome the World No.1 last year in Miami.

There are still three Top 10 players who will played today, World No.1 Roger Federer vs Nicholas Mahut, World No.4 Nikolay Davydenko vs seond American left in the competition, Mardy Fish, and World No.7 David Nalbandian vs World No.29 Radek Stepanek.  
 

One major upset happens yesterday when the American best player, No.6 seed Andy Roddick falls in the second round of the draw. Tommy Haas was the man who played his best tennis for 84mins to upset big-server Roddick in straight-sets 6-4, 6-4 to secure a place in the third round. No.12 seed Fernando Gonzalez was stopped by Mario Ancic in the second round after battling for 138mins 3-set match 5-7, 6-3, 3-6.

There were also other seeded players who had close encounter to exit early in the competition. Top British Andy Murray had to close up his match against Austrian Jurgen Melzer in a 3-set match 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. No.7 seed David Nalbandian and No.15 seed Tommy Robredo managed to win in the third-set tie-break.

But it was no surprise for other seeded players to breeze through the second round. World No.1 Roger Federer who suffered a second round exit last year took 66mins to defeat his opponent Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight-sets 6-3, 6-2. Federer will play against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the third round. No.4 seed Nikolay Davydenko is the next top 10 player who safely advance to the third round after a straight-sets 6-2, 7-6(3) win over the American John Isner.

That completes all the matches in the Men’s Singles second round. I am expecting more actions in the third round when there are still eight Top 10 players still in the competition.

The defending champion, Rafael Nadal, started off his title defense overcoming Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo with a 6-3, 6-3 straight-sets win to advance to the third round.

Last year finalist, Novak Djokovic, made too many unforced errors in the second set but still managed to pull through with a straight-sets win over Andreas Seppi. 

Stanislas Wawrinka upset World No.10 Thomas Berdych with a 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 win. No.10 seed Thomas Berdych is the first Top 10 players to exit in the second round. The other Top 10 players, David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet and James Blake are still in the race to the championship.

No.17 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eases to the third round with a straight-sets win over Dudi Sela.

No.16 seed Guillermo Canas who beats World No.1 last year got past Jonas Bjorkman to advance to the third round. 

Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells is always the first Masters Series tournament for the year. All the players in the Top 20 South African Airways ATP Rankings will be featured in the 2008 Pacific Life Open.

World No.1 Roger Federer who had not won his first ATP title yet in 2008 is determined to win the title this year in order to defend his World No.1 ranking. World No.2 Rafael Nadal is only trailing Federer by 350 ATP ranking points will need to defend his title this year to stand a better chance of taking over Federer in the number 1 spot. Both players have not won their ATP title yet in year 2008. Who will emerge the winner?

The main draw for the men’s singles will be a very exciting and challenging journey for both World No.1 and No.2. Federer is looking at Djokovic and Andy Roddick who both started off their seasons with outstanding results. Guillermo Canas who surprisingly subdue the World No.1 Roger Federer in the first round of last year Pacific Life Open is also in the same half of the draw as Federer this year. Nadal is leading the other half of the draw that includes Tsonga who crashed him out in the 2008 Australian Open semi-finals in straight sets.

Djokovic will start off the order of play today against Andreas Seppi from Italy followed by Nadal against a qualifier named Santiago Giraldo.

Stay tuned on my blog for more updates of the 2008 Pacific Life Open.