Nalbandian is in full form today again late season as he completely outplayed a red hot Murray to reach the semis of Paris masters. The first set was tight but Nalbandian won it in the tie-break and had a chance to completely steamroll Murray in the 2nd set. Credit to Murray as he fought back and made it a bit competitive but he lost the 2nd set 6-3 in the end.

Federer was scheduled to face Blake today with the winner facing the winner of Tsonga-Roddick match. But Federer has pulled a muscle in his back and is out of the tournament. Blake needs to reach the final to get to the Masters Cup. He may have to go through his friend to do that.

Madrid masters officially started today with the No. 1 player in the world in action. Nadal was facing a potentially dangerous opponent in Gulbis and was kept on his heels for 3 sets, but he came through with a late break to wint 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Blake wasn’t that lucky however as he fell to Giles Simon after taking the first set. Blake was on fire in the first set but went away in the last two sets for yet another loss to Giles Simon this year. Blake has had a season to forget this year, and things don’t seem to be getting better any time soon as he now doesn’t control his destiny to Shanghai.

Federer and Djokovic will be in action tomorrow.

It’s official. Blake will not let us to see him play against Nadal on clay. I think the result really is a foregone conclusion as far as playing Nadal is concerned on his favorite clay. But it would’ve nice to see if James could keep it close with him. James had a few good wins on clay in the past couple of years, including his win over Almagro. But now Roddick and Querrey will have to try to get 2 points from their 4 matches.

I do think that James was dropped by McEnroe rather than him pulling out by himself. James form has been questionable and he seems to have not gotten over his Olympics and U.S. Open experience. After all, he has nothing to show for the U.S. hard courts season, so he may as well take some time off and recharge his battery for a push for that Masters Cup spot.

So much for Blake getting a revenge on Nadal. The so lopsided record that took Blake 3 years to create against Nadal is not so impressive now after 2 defeats in a row for Blake in less than 10 days. Nadal lost the first set 6-3, but after that it was all him as he won 12 of the next 16 games to win 6-3, 6-1 and qualify for the semis of Miami masters.

Well, what do you know? Blake played a horrible first set after leading 4-1 and that cost him. Nadal was clearly better in the third set as for some reason Blake was not as aggressive as before. Nevertheless, it was a great match, and it would be great to see Nadal go against Djokovic now. I think what did it for Nadal was his aggressive approach against Blake’s second serves. Fourth time is a charm, ain’t it?

Blake had quite some fun time with Gasquet, beating him 4 and 2 to reach the quarters of Pacific Life Open. His opponent? Nadal. Nadal dodged a bullet today when he came back from 2-5 in the final set to beat Tsonga, but in Blake he faces someone who reads and matches up with his game perfectly. Nadal is certainly capable of beating Blake, but Blake is more than capable of blitzing Nadal like he did Gasquet today. Expect a three setter…