Alrighty then. Well obviously the big news is that Fed got dumped out by Gilles Simon. Who? Yes, Gilles Simon, the Jelena Jankovic of the ATP.
But besides Fed, there weren't too many huge surprises today, just disappointments. Gonzo, Verdasco, Youzny, Berdych, Safin, and Robredo are out of Toronto. I'm very sad about Marat. He's just a joy to look at.
On the women's side, Vaidisova, Schnyder, Cibulkova, and Mirza are out of LA. None of that results are all that surprising as Vaidisova lost to the resurgent Bethanie Mattek, Cibulkova lost to the hot Kudrayavtseva, and Schnyder lost to Stanford semifinalist Ai Sugiyama. Cibulkova's loss to Yeng was slightly surprising, though we have yet to see what Cibulkova can do on the hardcourts.
As for Fed, what can we say. Simon is hot for sure, having won his first North American title in Indy last week. But the reality is that I do believe that the "Fed is slumping" talk can officially begin. His AO loss was really close and he claims to have been recovering from mono. Ok, I give him that. His loss at Indian Wells and Miami to Mardy Fish (!) and Roddick could be seen as flukey. Both were playing out of their minds and at least with respect to Roddick, that match came down to a few points that could have gone either way. Since then, he was owned by Rafa through the clay court season. No shame in that. Wimbledon was ridiculously competitive and that final could have gone either way. So he hasn't lost by much.
But this loss to Simon, a clay court specialist, at Toronto in the second round? This is rather shocking. I've been willing to give Fed a break through much of the season, but this loss is huge. Simon has no serve and no kill shot. Fed simply missed forehand after forehand and he was, as he admits, "cold".
That's fine, but seriously, if I were TMF, I would have gone into Toronto will the sole intent of quieting the whispers. There is no way I would have come in "rusty", "cold", or "flat". Because I would have known that the only way of shutting everyone up would be to win the tournament. So his excuse is lame and unacceptable.
Moving on, tomorrow's notable matches in Toronto and LA:
- Soderling vs. Djokovic
- Murray vs. Wawrinka
- Cilic vs. Roddick
- Ferrer vs. Gasquet
- Andreev vs. Nadal
- Petrova vs. Zvonereva
- Kudrayavtseva vs. Safina
