Miami, FL Ricky Dimon
The first day of main-draw action in men’s singles at the 2014 Sony Open saw Jeremy Chardy outlast Juan Monaco in a thriller on Stadium court. Chardy prevailed 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5) after two hours and 38 minutes to set up a second-round date with second-seeded Novak Djokovic.

It almost ended prior to a final-set tiebreaker, when the 48th-ranked Frenchman forced Monaco into a 15-40 situation at 4-5. Monaco saved the first match point with a serve-forehand combination and Chardy netted a backhand on his second opportunity. Two holds later, a ‘breaker had to decide the outcome. The Argentine fought off one more match point at 4-6, but Chardy finally got the job done at 6-5 thanks to an overhead smash.

Miami’s Stadium crowd was treated to another tense three-setter during the night session. Amidst a lively atmosphere, Marcos Baghdatis recovered from a dismal opening set and from two breaks down in the third to overcome Santiago Giraldo 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 51 minutes. Giraldo served for the match at both 5-2 and 5-4, but the Colombian failed on both occasions and he ultimately lost six straight games to Baghdatis to seal his fate.

It was just Baghdatis’ fourth victory of the season. The struggling Cypriot will next go up against Philipp Kohlschreiber on Friday.

Giraldo was not the only Colombian action on Wednesday. Whereas not a single American man took the court (six are scheduled for Thursday on the other side of the draw), three Colombians contested their openers. Alejandro Falla lost to Marinko Matosevic 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) and Alejandro Gonzalez took care of Malek Jaziri 7-6(9), 6-1.

The Grandstand featured a pair of stellar individual performances. Red-hot and fast-rising Dominic Thiem powered past recent Irving Challenger champion Lukas Rosol 7-6(6), 6-4. The 20-year-old Austrian, who qualified for the main draw for his fifth successful tournament qualification already this season, won 86 percent of his first-serve points. At the other end of the career spectrum, 35-year-old Radek Stepanek donated fewer games than any other man in a 6-3, 6-0 rout of Daniel Brands. Stepanek required a mere 57 minutes to book a spot alongside Andreas Seppi in the round of 64.

Ricky Dimon is a contributor in Miami and writes for tenngrand.com. You can follow him on Twitter under @RD_Tennistalk by clicking here.

Novak Djokovic will have the opportunity to defend his Sony Ericsson Open title on Sunday. The world number one ousted Argentine Juan Monaco 6-0, 7-6 to reach the final.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Monaco was on cloud nine as he ushered in his 28th birthday by taking apart world number eight Mardy Fish for his first semifinal showing at the Sony Ericsson Open.

The Monaco of the quarterfinals was no where to be found the opening set. In twenty-seven minutes, conceding only eight points with two by way of double faults, Djokovic wrapped up the first set.
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Rafael Nadal is recognized as the ultimate gladiator. For him to wake up this morning and conclude that his body would not cooperate with his wish to combat Andy Murray in the semifinals at the Sony Ericsson Open must have been devastating.

Unfortunately, the world number two had to disappoint his legion of fans as a niggling left knee problem forced him to cease from taking court.

In facing the media, Nadal explained “since the beginning of the tournament, I have [had] problems. . . The thing is growing worse every day. After the last match, I saw that the situation was going to be complicated to play today. But, as always, I believe that things can improve”.
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Once a ladies doubles semifinals concludes, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal will grace stadium court at the Sony Ericsson Open as each seeks to become a finalist.

The world number two and four have budded heads eighteen times previously with Nadal the winner on thirteen of those occasions. Murray is the 2009 champion in Miami while Nadal has been the runner-up three times including last year.
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Initially, defending champion Novak Djokovic appeared on his way to a routine win over David Ferrer. However, against the never say die Spaniard, the proceedings got complicated in a hurry. Still, Djokovic vanquished Ferrer 6-2, 7-6 to clinch another semifinal appearance at the Sony Ericsson Open.

Despite Djokovic’s 7-5 record against his rival, the Serb is well aware that Ferrer is someone who never admits defeat until the hand shake at the net.

After securing a break in the opening set, Djokovic jumped to a 3-1 edge. On a double fault from Ferrer, a second break was gifted and swiftly Djokovic punctuated the set.
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The first match on stadium court at the Sony Ericsson Open has world number two Maria Sharapova and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki fighting for a berth in the final.

After reaching her maiden semifinal in Miami, Wozniacki will attempt to advance to her initial final of the season. Subsequent to her enormous victory in the quarterfinals over Serena Williams, the 21 year old will not be deterred by the challenge.

A runner up three times including 2011, Sharapova has been to the final on every occasion that she’s progressed past the fourth round at this event. It’s the initial encounter between these two this year. Sharapova has a slim advantage in their head to head of 3-2.
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With a record of 21-2 against Andy Roddick, Roger Federer who has been in superb form this season should have taken care of his rival in the third round. Instead, Roddick upended Federer 7-6,1-6,6-4 to advance to the fourth round at the Sony Ericsson Open.

The last time Roddick was victorious over Federer was a night session also at the Miami Masters in 2008. Since then, Federer has won their six meetings including a heartbreaker in the final of Wimbledon in 2009.

In the third game of the opening set, Federer had double break point. But, Roddick did not flinch and eventually held. With no further break chances for either player, the first set went to a tiebreaker.
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The last encounter that Roger Federer had with Juan Monaco was three years ago at the Masters Series in Hamburg whereby he was victorious. Although the Argentine is known to excel on clay, he gave Federer a good fight on hardcourt today. Federer pulled away with a 7-6, 6-4 win to pen his name into the fourth round.

As a result of a double fault, Federer gave Monaco break point in the opening game. However, Federer managed to hold. By misfiring on a forehand, Monaco gifted Federer a break point and threw in a double fault for the break.

At this point, it seemed Federer would make short work of world number 35. But with a couple of mistakes of his own, Federer surrendered the next game allowing Monaco to get back on serve.

At 2-1, Federer had a couple more chances to break. Still, Monaco was unflappable and guarded serve.

With Monaco saving six out of seven break points, the first set went to a tiebreaker which Federer claimed.

In the second set, Monaco dominated on serve while Federer had a few tight games. Consequently, it seemed that the match could go to a third set. As usual though, Federer stepped it up at the right time.

After an ace for game point, Monaco double faulted for deuce. Then, with a forehand winner, Federer had his second break point opportunity of the game. When Monaco’s forehand landed long, Federer went up 5-4.

With Federer serving for the match, Monaco continued to resist. Finally, with a forehand up the line winner, Federer arrived at 40-30. With Monaco’s stroke going out of play, Federer penned his name into the next round.

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Despite a 10-2 record against his second round counterpart, Roger Federer is acutely aware that Radek Stepanek can be a dangerous player. However, from the outset, Federer was in full control of the match. Federer vanquished Stepanek 6-3, 6-3 to move on to the third round at the Sony Ericsson Open.

At love, Federer broke to go ahead 4-3. Federer sustained the cushion all the way through to seal the first set.

His first time out serving in the second set, Federer stared at break point in the second game. Yet, the world number three wiped that out in a hurry. Subsequently, Federer obtained the break in the third game.

Thereafter, Federer was supreme breaking Stepanek one last time as he served to extend the match.

Federer has been a fixture on the tour for over a decade. It seems every time he steps on court there’s another record he is equalizing or shattering. With the victory this afternoon, Federer knotted Pete Sampras with 762 wins.

Federer was asked his thoughts on this new feat “It’s nice tying Pete, but he could have played for many more years. He could still win some matches on tour now if he wanted to. . . It’s a funny stat, but it shows how long I have been around already, how much I’ve won, all around the world and all the different surfaces. . . over 10, 12 solid seasons. I’ve never missed big chunks of seasons. That’s how you end up with so many wins, I guess.”

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On Sunday, the 2010 French Open gets underway.  Before the first ball is struck at Roland Garros, here’s a taste of how the proceedings may unravel on the gentlemen’s side.

Since 2006, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had made it a habit of contesting for the trophy on the final Sunday. Last year, Robin Soderling interrupted that cycle by ousting Nadal in the fourth round.  After descending a wee bit in the rankings, with a record three Masters clay court titles, Nadal returned to his familiar spot at number two this week.  Therefore, this sets up the possibility of a final featuring defending champion Federer and his old nemesis Nadal.

By far, Nadal has been the best clay court player this season.  As such, it’s almost a given penciling his name as a finalist.  In examining the draw, Nadal, the top seed in the bottom section, appears to have a green line through the round of 16.  In the quarterfinals, the Spaniard could see slight resistance from fellow countrymen Fernando Versdasco and Nicolas Almagro.  The latter in particular competed well against Nadal in Madrid.  Still, Nadal should pull through.

Also in the bottom half are Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic, potential semifinal adversaries for Nadal.  Last year, Roddick had a career best showing in Paris by reaching the round of 16.  In the first round, Roddick takes on veteran Jarkko Nieminen, then, a possible third round match with Juan Monaco.  Hence, the American may say his goodbyes to Paris early. Assuming Roddick advances to the quarters, he could face the second best performer on clay this year, David Ferrer.  Considering that Roddick has not competed since the Sony Ericsson Open and with clay being his least successful surface, it hard to imagine Roddick progressing to the second week.

Despite a clay title and two other finals, Djokovic went down in the third round in 2009.  This year, Djokovic withdrew early in Serbia and his best result was the semifinals in Monte-Carlo. Consequently, for Djokovic, resting may be a blessing.  On the other hand, it could be a curse, not allowing the Serb to be clay fit.  With former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero potentially as a third round opponent and Ferrer in the quarterfinals, the third seed could have his hands full before getting a crack at Nadal.

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