Small final events are not usually big deals to the mighty Roger Federer. But considering that Federer has failed to reach any finals so far, then reaching Estoril clay court tournament is pretty significant. Federer had a couple of scares and dropped a couple of sets against much weaker opponents, but he can’t expect to win his first title by playing tentatively against the rejuvenated Davydenko. I personally see a three set win for Federer on the cards, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Davydenko won it and completed a 1-2 win in a month.

It was one of those days for Roger. Having 6 break points in the first set but going 0/6 on those. Add 50% break point conversion for Rochus and we had the real possibility of Federer losing again in the first round. But Federer bounced back to spank Rochus in the next two sets and advance. Rochus is a very good player however. For those of you who may not remember, he had 2 match points against Roger at Halle last year, which would’ve ended Roger’s streak on Grass. Roger won that in a third set tie-breaker, but Rochus showed that his game can trouble Roger. But the happiest man on the earth should be Nadal right now as the No. 2 clay courter in the world is playing below par for a few months now.