One closer to 100 straight!

I think we'll be seeing a lot of Nadal pics here at TennisCast for the coming months. Hey everyone, M here. Nadal has added one more win to his now more than impressive straight clay court wins streak resting at 72. In todays Open SEAT Godo tournament in Barcelona Nadal defended his title for a second time by beating Guillermo Canas in a convincing 6-3, 6-4 display. The match lasted and hour and forty minutes and it was all Nadal from the start. The new clay court king posted the only break in the first set and the only break in the second. In the first set Nadal dominated with his 71% first serve percentage. He faced two break points but defended them nicely. He won 80% of his first serves compared to Canas' 61%. In the second set Nadal upped his serve performance and rose his first serve percentage to 80% and won 85% of those first serve. He did not face a single break point in the second. This is Nadal's third straight Barcelona final.

Nadal will not be in action this week as he will take a much needed rest before the second master series of the clay court swing. This week there two smaller tournaments in Estoril, Portugal and Munich, Germany. The highest seeds in each of those tournaments are Davydenko and Haas respectively. Nadal will be back in action along with 54 other ATP pro's on the 7th of May when action gets started in Rome. ATP Master Series TV will have all the action so make sure to check it out.

With this win we'll see one major change in the ATP 2007 race as Nadal will top Federer. Before this tournament began Nadal was a close second at 305 compared to Federer's 345 points, but that all changed when Nadal reached the finals at Barcelona where he could, if he won, recieve 50 points and thus have the chance to pass Federer. With his win he adds those 50 points and moves ever so closely over Federer in the Race at 355 to Federer's 345. It's a tight race for sure this year. Nadal will also receive 300 points for his overall ranking and move to over 5000 points, still a distant second to Federer's 7200. We'll be back next week with results from Estoril and Munich and with our pre-tournament analysis of Rome. See you guys soon. M out.

Oh, remember, Mario gets here this week so we'll be posting our second podcast pretty soon and weekly episodes will follow after that so check back soon.

Quarterfinals underway in Barcelona

Hey everyone M here. The singles quarterfinals are underway in Barcelona today. The first of the four matches is already complete with David Ferrer reaching the semis after beating David Nalbandian 7-6(5), 6-2. The spaniard didn't face a single break point and continues his strong season. The next match is set to begin within the hour with Nadal facing Starace. The two have only met once before back in 2005 in Buenos Aires where Nadal came on top in the round of 16 with a score of 6-1, 6-3. The match after Nadal's is a promising one with Fed Defeater Guillermo Canas duking it out against the number 2 seed Davydenko. This could be a close match if Davydenko plays like the number 4 player we all know. He has been struggling a little these past few weeks so we'll wait and see how he holds up against currently on fire Canas. The final match of the day will be between Oscar Hernandez from Spain and the number 15 seed Agustin Calleri. The two met earlier this year in the Acapulco round of 16 and played a solid three set match with Calleri moving through. We'll have all the results later today so make sure to check back soon.

Putting together the final 16

Ah...the final 16 are upon us at Indian Wells. The tournament is only now getting started. Hey everyone, Maurizio here with more results and analysis of third round action at the Pacific Life Open. We had some great matches yesterday that left us with some very interesting fourth round matches to look forward to so lets dive right into it.

Of course we can't continue further without mentioning the fact that TennisCast Idol Juan Carlos Ferrero survived his match against Acasuso. The former #1 needed three sets to move into his 4th round match and 6th encounter against Spain's current #1 Rafael Nadal. It all came down to the third set where Ferrero kept his first serve percentage at 70% while Acasuso brought his first serve percentage down to 38% helping Ferrero face more second serves and allowing the Spaniard to achieve the final break of the game at 4-4. It was a tight match the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes it took to complete but Ferrero came through and posted the 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 win. Ferrero, as mentioned above, will now face the trophy biting Rafael Nadal who is trying to win his first tournament since Roland Garros last year. Ferrero stopped him once at Cincinnati last year lets hope he can pull it off again this year. Nadal breezed through Fernando Verdasco, also of Spain, 6-4, 6-4.

Another fourth round match we'll really be looking forward to will be that between Tommy Haas and Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, a rematch of the Australian Open Semifinal where Gonzo obliterated Haas in straight sets. Haas posted up a bagel in his 6-0, 6-3 fifty six minute win over Gabasvilli. He should be well rested for his upcoming match against the Gonz. Gonzo, though, had a very different match. It took Fernando an hour and forty one minutes to dispose of Robin Soderling. There were no breaks in the first set and each had one in the second. Gonzo dominated both tiebreakers and won in straight sets, although the match was a lot tougher than what that makes it sound like, with a score of 7-6(4), 7-6(2).

The next fourth round match was posted when Davydenko and Murray won their respective third rounders. Their matches were eerily similar, with Davydenko's match lasting an hour and six minutes while Murrays lasted a minute less and their scores were identical if the sets were moved around. Davydenko defeated Hernych 6-3, 6-1 while Murray ousted Mahut 6-1, 6-3. All this could be a precursor to a great round of 16 matchup.

In an interesting turn around streak killer Canas was taken out by TennisCast hero Carlos Moya in a very routine match. It was almost as though Canas hadn't achieved anything special the day before. Moya saved 5 break points and broke twice, once in the first to serve it out and once in the second to serve out the match. It was nonetheless a lengthy match with plenty of great rallies from the two veteran players. Moya saving the break points and converting his two chances were key as the match was ridiculously close with Moya winning 51% of the total points. Moya will face David Ferrer in the round of 16. Ferrer needed two quick sets to finish Tipsarevic's run in the tournament and made five break points to help ease his way into the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-3 score.

Djokovic seems to have gotten a wonderful draw. His third round match was extremely routine and leaves him with plenty of energy for his next match. He disposed of young 19 year old Korolev 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour. If his level of play continues at this level he should find his next match relatively easy. He'll be facing Julien Benneteau who discarded James Blake 6-2, 7-6(1). Blake's hole-in-one before the tournament seemed to sink in all his luck and left him with none to spare for the tournament. Maybe he'll decide to play golf and sink a hole-in-one after he's one a tournament. Those four hours could have come in handy for practice. I think he'll stay in our Double Faultin' list for next week.

Roddick seemed back to the top of his game during the first set of his third round match against one of the Rochus brothers but faltered in the second, although he was still able to pull the win in two sets. In took Roddick 2 hours and 30 minutes to dispose of the small Rochus one. This was due to the fact that there were no breaks in the second set. The final score was 6-3, 7-6(5). Roddick's opponent will be none other than the better than Federer crafted one handed backhand Frenchy Richard Gasquet. Gasquet got past Jarkko Nieminen in three sets. It was a two hour match that featured 6 breaks in total each with three. With his 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win Gasquet will look to keep Andy Roddick sitting on our Double Faultin' list along with his friend James Blake.

Juan Ignacio Chela and Michael Russel also have a fourth round match forthcoming. Chela went through easily with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Gilles Simon. Russel broke through Guillermo Garcia Lopez of Spain with a 6-1, 7-5 win. Our last two players that make up our talented final 16 include hard fighting David Nalbandian and Nasdaq Finalist Ivan Ljubicic. Nalbandian seemed to forget he was looking to improve his ranking when he lost the first set 6-7(3) to Mathieu but quickly recovered and took the next two sets with relative easy 6-2, 6-0. If he could of played like that from the beginning the score sheet would look a lot more impressive. Ljubicic was in top form and seems ready to move through to the quarters as he dismantled Thomas Johansson 6-1, 6-4 in his third round match.

Round of 16 match action is set to start today at Indian Wells with Ljubicic vs Nalbandian at 1pm (pacific time) and continues with Ferrero vs Nadal (we'll keep a very close eye on this one), Chela vs. Russel and the night match between Gasquet and Roddick. Oh its a wonderful tournament we're getting this week. Make sure to come back later today as we analyze today's matches before they get going. ATP Master Series TV has the matches live so make sure to check them out. Also don't forget that ESPN2 begins coverage tomorrow at 11am eastern time. This is Maurizio from TennisCast wishing everyone out there a good day...go ahead and cheer for Ferrero we know you want to.

Second Round action brings in tide of upsets

Maurizio here with TennisCast results and analysis. Oh do we have a busy month ahead of us or what!? With two masters series tournaments back to back we're gonna have our heads full in results and analysis. Yesterday's matches were no exception whatsoever. We have a lot cover so lets dive straight into it.

Obviously the first thing we have to talk about is Federer's loss...who saw this coming? Honestly, did anyone out there predict this? I mean, I could have said that he was gonna lose somewhere down the tournament but I was thinking semis or even in the final but in the second round??? Well...I know what the problem was, at least in my case. I underestimated what veteran Canas can bring to the court. I think people, I include myself in there, focused more on Cana's past, his suspension, rather than his current results. The man already has a win this year (d. Ferrero) in Brazil and by beating Federer he marks his 11th win in 13 matches. The guy is playing top ten tennis and no one seemed to notice that. He's a heavy contender for this tournament now with a good draw on his side. He faces Moya next. The veteran Spaniard won his second round match against Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-4. Moya and Canas have only played once before and that was back in 2002 Roland Garros so that won't help us disect anything (Canas won in 5 sets). One is safe to assume that after this win Canas will have insurmountable confidence...although Federer's loss will at the same time give hope to everyone else still playing. Canas should survive his round of 16 match against either Tipsarevic, who beat Hewitt in a lengthy three set match 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, or #14 seed Ferrer who got past Peruvian #1 Luis Horna in a routine 6-3, 6-1 win. His next big upset could come against Blake, who moved through to the third round by downing F.Serra 6-3, 7-6(2), if the American can get past, presumably, Djokovic later on. Djokovic got past currently Double Faultin' player of the week Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-4, though we won't count this loss against him. Canas is now only the 11th player to beat the current #1 since he took over back in early 2004. Congratulations from TennisCast Guillermo.

I warned you guys we had a lot to go through. Federer's loss was not the only upset though, albeit the biggest. There were three other upsets yesterday that we're actually sad to report. Well maybe just two of them. Our favorite Russian player Marat Safin suffered his demise at the hands of Nicolas Mahut. With his dominating first serve Mahut allowed Safin only 5 points on his first serve and upset the former Australian open champ 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Another favorite Spaniard, and top ten seed, was also upset yesterday. Tommy Robredo lost to Gilles Simon. This is the second time the two have played and the French player evened up the score with his 6-7(0), 6-3, 6-0 win. The final upset was dealt against Marcos Baghdatis of Australian Open fame. He was taken out of the tournament early by Guillermo Garcia Lopez in a tight two setter with a score of 7-5, 7-5. Speaking of Australian Open fame, Gonzo (Fernando Gonzalez) continued his impressive year with an entry into the third round after downing Frank Dancevic of Canada 7-6(6), 1-6, 7-5. His next opponent will be Robin Soderling. These two actually have a decent history with 5 matches, 3 in favor to Soderling. Interesting to note, though, that Gonzo has won the last two and is of course the higher seed in the tournament...although we know that doesn't mean a clear victory. If the Gonz can get past this small obstacle he could potentially set up a clash against ¨I'm injured I can't continue the match¨ quote favorite, Tommy Haas who flew into the third round by posting an easy 6-4, 6-1 win over Michael Llodra. Gonzo is up 2-0, with his last win against Tommy coming at the Australian Open Semifinals where he absolutely destroyed Haas in three easy sets. Haas will be looking for sweet revenge...and Gonzo, well...for further humiliation of the German.

A couple of Veterans went down yesterday sending the average tennis player age down about 6 years. Okay that was exagerating. If Fish is old (26 years old) then Bjorkman must be ancient. The two lost to formidable players. Juan Ignacio Chela handed Bjorkman a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 loss while Paul Henri Mathieu battled hard against Fish and barely survived with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5). Other winners included introverts Davydenko and Ljubicic and also Gilbert coached Andy Murray.

We'll see how the tournament shapes up with the absence of Federer. Someone will take advantage and everyone should have a moral boost added to their arsenal(if this were Wimbledon Roddick would be delighted). Come back soon for the results of Monday's action and later this week for a full analysis on the last 16 remaining, along with our guesses for the winners. TennisCast out.