Roddick wins for fourth round berth.

World’s No. 3, Andy Roddick of USA, booked a fourth round berth by beating O. Rochus of Belgium in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(5).

Next up Richard Gasquet, the 15th seed from France.

Blake moves into third round.

 

-With seeded players falling left, right and center, Blake, seeded 6th made no mistake by taking care of F. Serra from France 6-3, 7-6(2).

Murray dominates in win to move into fourth round.

 

Thirteenth seed from Great Britain, must be mighty pleased with his performance so far at the Pacific Life Open. He breezed past N. Mahut of France 6-1, 6-3 to move into the fourth round. Mahut beat Safin to get here. In fact, he gave Safin a bagel in the third set.

Murray’s last match against Moodie wasn’t a tough one either at 6-3, 6-3.

Canas out with loss to Moya.

 

After creating the biggest upset of the tournament and the year, Canas from Argentina tamely goes out to Carlos Moya in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Does that point to how bad a day, Federer was having or is there more to it?

More on Federer’s loss – Pacific Life Open.

 

Consider some of the following interesting tidbits:

-Newsflash: Federer is human!!!

-Canas was a lucky loser. Meaning that he lost the match, which would have qualified him for the tournament. He made it, because someone who qualified, pulled out. So its not, that he was on this hot run or something.

-Asked how he beat Federer, Canas said “I don’t know. Just I beat him. I don’t know how I do it”.

-Despite all his troubles, Federer still had two set points in the 10th game with Canas serving, and simply went for too much on the first one, netting a forehand after a great exchange.

-The whole match lasted for only 1 hour and 45 minutes.

-Canas, who had reached as high as No. 8 in the world, was suspended for 15 months after he tested positive for a banned diuretic at an event in Mexico in 2005. Federer’s comments on the suspension: “Everybody who gets caught always says, ‘I did’nt do anything’…”.

-Canas spent $700,000 on lawyers to get his suspension reduced to 15 months. Not a lot, considering, coming into this season, his career earnings were $3.8 million.

-Canas can clearly play – he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open twice and was the semifinalist here in 2005.

-Is this an aberration or sign of things to come from Federer? There is very little explanation, other than he was having a bad day. Lets hope so.
The rest of the field might not be hoping that. They would love to see a drop in Federer’s game – no matter what the reasons are. Will this loss let others appear mentally and psychologically stronger, when they square off against the World’s No. 1? Maybe Miami (the next event later this month) will have some answers.

Hewitt is next on first round exit parade.

 

Nineteenth seed and former World’s no. 1, Hewitt was sent packing in the first round, by Serbian Tipsarevic 7-6, 4-6, 2-6 on a day with a parade of first round exits, for the seeded players.

With Hewitt out, the only seed left in that part of the draw is D. Ferrer-no. 14.

Scheduled matches today (Monday, March 12).

Monday, March 12, 2007
STADIUM 1 start 11:00 am
ATP – P Mathieu (FRA) vs [10]D Nalbandian (ARG)
WTA – A Molik (AUS) vs [10]A Ivanovic (SRB)
WTA – [33]O Rochus (BEL) vs [3]A Roddick (USA)
ATP – [27]J Melzer (AUT) or J Benneteau (FRA) vs F Serra (FRA) or [6]J Blake (USA) – Possible Court Change

Not Before 7:00 PM
ATP – [32]F Verdasco (ESP) vs [2]R Nadal (ESP)
WTA – L Granville (USA) vs [4]N Petrova (RUS)

STADIUM 2 start 11:00 am
WTA – [17]M Bartoli (FRA) vs [9]D Safina (RUS)
ATP – N Mahut (FRA) vs [13]A Murray (GBR)
ATP – [26]R Soderling (SWE) vs [5]F Gonzalez (CHI) – Possible Court Change
WTA – E Likhovtseva (RUS) vs [2]S Kuznetsova (RUS)
ATP – J Acasuso (ARG) vs [22]J Ferrero (ESP)
ATP – [7] J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) vs A Fisher (AUS) / T Phillips (USA)

STADIUM 3 start 10:00 am
ATP – [15]R Gasquet (FRA) vs [18]J Nieminen (FIN)
WTA – [6]N Vaidisova (CZE) vs A Rolle (USA)
ATP – G Canas (ARG) vs C Moya (ESP)
ATP – [19]L Hewitt (AUS) or J Tipsarevic (SRB) vs [14]D Ferrer (ESP) – Possible Court Change
ATP – [4]N Davydenko (RUS) or S Querrey (USA) vs J Hernych (CZE) – Possible Court Change
WTA – [13]T Golovin (FRA) vs [21]S Stosur (AUS)

COURT 4 start 10:00 am
ATP – [12]N Djokovic (SRB) vs E Korolev (RUS)
ATP – G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs M Russell (USA)
ATP – [8]I Ljubicic (CRO) vs T Johansson (SWE)
ATP – [9]T Haas (GER) or [Q]M Llodra (FRA) vs [Q]T Gabashvili (RUS) – Possible Court Change
ATP – G Canas (ARG) / D Nalbandian (ARG) vs M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) – Possible Court Change
ATP – [6] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) vs N Djokovic (SRB) / R Soderling (SWE)

COURT 5 start 10:00 am
WTA – M Camerin (ITA) / G Dulko (ARG) vs [2] Z Yan (CHN) / J Zheng (CHN)
ATP – [1] J Bjorkman (SWE) / M Mirnyi (BLR) vs L Friedl (CZE) / P Pala (CZE)
WTA – E Laine (FIN) / V Uhlirova (CZE) vs [8] V King (USA) / S Peer (ISR)
WTA – [5] Y Chan (TPE) / C Chuang (TPE) vs I Benesova (CZE) / B Zahlavova Strycova (CZE)
ATP – O Rochus (BEL) / J Thomas (USA) vs [5] M Damm (CZE) / L Paes (IND) – After Suitable Rest

COURT 6 start 10:00 am
ATP – M Fish (USA) / P Goldstein (USA) vs [8] S Aspelin (SWE) / M Kohlmann (GER)
ATP – G Simon (FRA) vs [30]J Chela (ARG)
WTA – [33]S Bammer (AUT) vs [30]S Peng (CHN)
ATP – R Lindstedt (SWE) / J Nieminen (FIN) vs [2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA)
WTA – [16]A Sugiyama (JPN) vs [20]T Garbin (ITA)
ATP – [4] P Hanley (AUS) / K Ullyett (ZIM) vs A Calleri (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI) – After Suitable Rest

COURT 8 start
Not Before 1:00 PM
ATP – A Clement (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) vs F Cermak (CZE) / J Levinsky (CZE) – TBA
ATP – M Bhupathi (IND) / R Stepanek (CZE) vs J Benneteau (FRA) / R Gasquet (FRA) – TBA

Baghdatis out in the first round too.

 

Seventeen seed Marcos Baghdatis joined Federer by getting eliminated in the first round. He was taken out by 107 seed G. Garcia Lopez from Spain in straight sets 7-5, 7-5.

Baghdatis’s first serve let him down. He had the first serve percentage at a miserable 43% compared to 63% for his opponent.

Federer out of Pacific Life Open in the first round.

  

Top seed and World’s no. 1, has been eliminated in straight sets by lucky loser G. Canas from Argentina, 7-5, 6-2. in the first round. Showing a stunning array of shots and by capitalizing on his chances and break points, Canas has pulled out the biggest upset of the tournament.

Looking at the match stats, following numbers stand out:
-Federer won only 33% of break points, compared to a healthy 57% for Canas.
-Federer won only 36% of points on his second serve, compared to 67% for Canas.

The field is now wide open with the ‘King’ gone. Nadal and Roddick have to be licking their chops.

Federer looses the first set.

Federer looses the first set 7-5 against Canas from Argentina. It is very uncharacteristic for Roger to loose sets early in the tournament. Match is still in progress.

Sharapova moves into the fourth round.

Defending champion and top seed, Maria Sharapova moved into the fourth round, overcoming excessive heat and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 7-5, 6-2. She is on course to meet seventh seed Jankovic from Serbia in the quarter-finals.