As expected, this was an amazing match. Both guys came to play, but Murray was a bit better in returning, and that made the difference. Murray had lots of chances to win it earlier but finally broke through in the 11th game of the third set to break serve and served it out easily to win the match. I can’t wait for a rematch with Nadal!

Update: Nadal could not come through against Gilles Simon and fell 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 to bow out of one of his favorite tournaments. Gilles Simon looked as if he was going to pass out after the 2nd set but he hung on and now faces a fresh Murray in the final. Not looking good for him.

Two intriguing matchups for today. Murray vs. Federer should be very interesting. I personally believe that Murray has a better chance of winning this as it’s a best of 3 sets match. I’ll take Murray in 3. But wouldn’t be surprised if ninja Federer showed up.

Nadal vs. Simon is a mismatch on the paper. Simon gets a lot of balls back, but that won’t work against Nadal and his punishing strokes. It’ll be probably 3 and 4 for Nadal.

What are you picks? Andy or Roger? Rafa or Gilles?

Madrid Masters continued yesterday, and Federer got out of a potentially tricky match with Stepanek unscathed by winning the 2nd set tie-break just when Radek was finding his feet. Federer vs. Tsonga is the match tennis fans wanted to see, and that is going to happen now.

Roddick had no trouble with Robredo as he utterly dominated the spaniard. Djokovic almost lost it to Hanescu though. Hanescu played the match of his life and had Novak on the ropes for about 2 sets before failing to clinch it in the 2nd set tie-break and having to retire in the 3rd set.

Next up is Gasquet vs. Nadal, Murray vs. Cilic, and Del Potro vs. Nalbandian.

It seems we won’t be seeing the top guys in action anytime soon. No offense to Roddick, Ferrer, and other guys, but Federer and Nadal are very careful about their schedules. For Federer much more is on the line as he will need to win the two masters series to have any chance of overtaking Nadal this year. For Nadal, he has a huge lead over Federer, and a decent showing in both Masters Series will lock the year-end No. 1 position for him. But it’s great that these guys are saving themselves for bigger tournaments so we can enjoy seeing these guys in action for a longer period of time.

So much for people counting out Roger to win another slam. Sure. It wasn’t easy. Tough matches against Andreev, and Djokovic, but Roger pulled it off by beating the hottest player on the tour right now (Murray) in straight sets 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. Murray had his chances in the 2nd set and arguably should’ve won it as Roger had a backhand wide that was missed by the umpire. Murray didn’t challenge and that was the turning point as Roger never looked back from that point on.

Murray should take a lot of pride in what he has done. He beat the best player in the world in a dominating fashion right after beating the most in-form player in the world in Del Potro. He just didn’t have it in the final. Whether it was fatigue, bad strategy, or injury, Murray was not able to mount a real challenge in his first grand slam final.

Congratulations Roger for your 13th major. Sampras’ record is oh so close now.

The new rankings for men’s tennis are out, and for the first time in about 5 years, Nadal is leading the ranking. He is leading it by a whopping 770 points! Nadal has 6700, and Federer has 5930. Djokovic is back at 5105. The interesting fact is the gap between Nadal and Federer is almost the same as the one between Federer and Djokovic. At this rate, I don’t believe Federer has any chance of winning the No. 1 back this year, but he can certainly be caught by Djokovic if he stumbles at the U.S. Open. Nadal has had one of the best years one can have, and he is surely going to challenge big time for the U.S. Open title. So he can push his advantage to more than a 1000 points if he wins the U.S. Open. The question at this point is, who gets Djokovic time time around being that Nadal has gotten him a lot when he was No. 2.

Nadal has finally done it. He beat Nicholas Lapentti in straight sets and now will assume the No. 1 position on August 18th, the latest. But he might actually do it as soon as Sunday if he beats Djokovic tomorrow.

I like both Nadal and Federer. Both are great players, but it wouldn’t really be fare to Nadal if he did not achieve the No. 1 position. I am sure Djokovic and Federer will push Nadal in the coming year for the spot and the battle will be much closer than the last 4 years, but for now, Nadal is No. 1 and he has a good chance of finishing the year as No. 1.

The more important issue at hand is the Nadal Djokovic match tomorrow. The No. 2 and 1 favorites for the U.S. Open will face each other tomorrow in a match that could determine who will lift the U.S. Open trophy. Nadal has a unique chance of pulling a Grand Slam if he wins the U.S. Open and backs that up in Australia. But hard courts are Djokovic’s court, and unlike Federer I don’t expect Novak to relinquish his title as the best hard court player in the world.

Tennis has never been so exciting in the past 5 years. Congratulations Rafa!

Add Karlovic to list of Federer killers. Karlovic handed Federer yet another loss this year in the third set tie-break to pave the way for Nadal to clinch No. 1 position this week. Federer was playing fine but he made mistakes on bigger points, and this match alone shows that Federer’s reign at the top is finally over. At least for now. With the way Nadal played last night, losing only 1 game to Serra, you can expect Nadal to at least reach the semis. If he wins this tournament however, he will be No. 1 next week. But even if he doesn’t achieve it next week, it’s all really a formality as he will be No. 1 either by the end of the Olympics or by August 18th. A new era of tennis is finally upon us.

They say confidence does you so much good on a tennis court. Federer was all but confident last night when he basically pulled off a Houdini and even with that needed a major choke job from Robby Ginepri to escape to the third round and a matchup with the mighty Karlovic. So much for Federer trying to get his hard court season back on track.

The forehand is awful. The backhand is more vulnerable than ever, and the serve deserts him everytime he gets to most important parts of a set. He served for the first set against Ginepri twice and got broken twice. Then shanked his way through the tie-break. The second set, Federer was the better player. But once they got to 5-5, it seemed Federer forgot how to play tennis and dropped his serve to allow Ginepri to serve for the match. Thankfully Ginepri chocked like always, so there was no surprise. The third set was a bluh as Ginepri couldn’t find his game and the heat got to him. The way Federer played, I wouldn’t be surprised if Karlovic beats him.

Roddick was struck by a disaster yesterday. He came to court and seemed fine but then sit down and withdrew with back and neck pain. Even more odd that Phillip still had to play a lucky loser in the 2nd round after Roddick came to the court. Roddick blamed it on a rough night sleep, but regardless of that, he has had one awful season with early exits one after another.

With Roddick’s exit, we are almost guaranteed not to have an ESPN live match on Sunday, unless Federer and Nadal make it there. Last week, ESPN chose to show fishing instead of live Tennis. I bet they would’ve shown tennis if an American was involved in it. But with Roddick out and Blake facing Simon (who beat Blake a couple weeks ago), there is a good chance we will be watching fishing again this week.

What do you think of the matches so far? Can Federer bounce back or will Karlovic finally get a win over Roger? Please share your comments here.

Nadal continued his impressive form this year by beating Jesse Levine in straight sets to reach the third round of Toronto Masters. Federer? He lost in three set to Giles Simon by dropping 3 straight service games in the final set, losing it 6-4 in the third after being up a break a couple of times in the third. The defeat all but secured No. 1 ranking for Nadal.