Indian Wells: He Won, He Won (and so did some other people)

And so the bafflingly invisible-to-the-civilised-world tournament has kicked off in earnest. You can tell, bevause JMDP has played and won, beating Steps for the first time, 64 60.

Afterwards, he said the sort of things he says:

“I played better than him,” Del Potro said after his first win over Stepanek in three tries. “I take all my opportunities, especially in the second set, and was very focused on my serve.”

Del Potro said he injured the wrist in his previous match with Stepanek in the fall of 2009. He had surgery in May.

He was out eight months following the surgery and his ranking tumbled from No. 5 in 2009 to No. 257 at the end of 2010. He is No. 90 now, and not sure how close he is to being fully recovered.

“I was out a year, a long time,” he said. “Maybe I had my best form today. I can improve my game, everything, my serve and my approaches. I don’t know if I can play better or not, but I know the way to improve day by day. It’s a long road to be in the top players again. It’s very tough to play good tennis after a year out of competition, but I’m trying.”

source

Maybe Nike should make him a T-shirt that says, ‘Still Trying. STOP ASKING.’ Anyway, interesting that he identified the Paris match with Stepanek (I’m assuming) as the one that incurred the original injury. I thought he had it before then, what with losing to Roger-Vasselin and retiring against Melzer, but apparently not.

In people-who-aren’t-Delpo news, we lost two incipient favourites of mine, curly Robin Haase (to Rainer ‘stop waiting for me to retire, that’s never going to happen’ Schuettler) and Rebecca Marino, who lost in three sets to Ekaterina Makarova.

But we did see rare wins for Donald Young, Agnes Szavay, Urszula Radwanska and Dinara Safina, who beat Arantxa Parra Santonja.

Fuck yeah.

Men

Singles – First Round
[Q] R de Voest (RSA) d P Riba (ESP) 64 ret. (groin pain)
[Q] R Sweeting (USA) d M Granollers (ESP) 64 61
[Q] S Devvarman (IND) d A Mannarino (FRA) 62 63
X Malisse (BEL) d [Q] F Cipolla (ITA) 61 64
[Q] M Russell (USA) d K Anderson (RSA) 67(4) 63 64
J Nieminen (FIN) d D Istomin (UZB) 26 75 75
R Schuettler (GER) d R Haase (NED) 76(4) 75
I Karlovic (CRO) d [Q] M Matosevic (AUS) 76(2) 67(3) 62
M Berrer (GER) d B Phau (GER) 64 46 64
[Q] T Smyczek (USA) d I Marchenko (UKR) 26 63 62
V Hanescu (ROU) d A Seppi (ITA) 46 76(5) 63
J Del Potro (ARG) d R Stepanek (CZE) 64 60
[WC] R Berankis (LTU) d [Q] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) 16 63 64
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d T Kamke (GER) 62 60
M Zverev (GER) d [Q] M Ebden (AUS) 64 63
[Q] D Young (USA) d P Starace (ITA) 26 63 63

Women

Singles – First Round
Peng Shuai (CHN) d. Renata Voracova (CZE) 75 61
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. (Q) Rebecca Marino (CAN) 64 46 64
Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. (WC) Jill Craybas (USA) 63 63
Iveta Benesova (CZE) d. Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 61 62
Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) d. (Q) Misaki Doi (JPN) 76(0) 61
Simona Halep (ROU) d. (Q) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) 06 62 64
Elena Baltacha (GBR) d. Roberta Vinci (ITA) 26 75 62
Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) d. (Q) Tamira Paszek (AUT) 61 61
Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) d. Zheng Jie (CHN) 63 62
Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) 63 63
Urszula Radwanska (POL) d. Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 36 64 76(6)
(Q) Zhang Shuai (CHN) d. Ayumi Morita (JPN) 62 26 76(4)
(Q) Lucie Hradecka (CZE) d. (Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 76(6) 62
(Q) Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) d. Angelique Kerber (GER) 62 61
(WC) Christina McHale (USA) d. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) 63 61
(WC) Sloane Stephens (USA) d. (Q) Jamie Hampton (USA) 62 64

Doubles – First Round
(1) Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) d. Niculescu/Rodionova (ROU/AUS) 76(4) 63
(4) King/Shvedova (USA/KAZ) d. (WC) Kuznetsova/Zvonareva (RUS/RUS) 62 63
(8) Mattek-Sands/Shaughnessy (USA/USA) d. Kleybanova/Yan (RUS/CHN) 61 62
Hantuchova/Radwanska (SVK/POL) d. Peer/Peng (ISR/CHN) 76(3) 63
Mirza/Vesnina (IND/RUS) d. Hlavackova/Hradecka (CZE/CZE) 64 61
Schiavone/Stosur (ITA/AUS) d. Errani/Vinci (ITA/ITA) 76(2) 26 105

OOP

Stadium 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Jelena Jankovic vs. Coco Vandeweghe
2. ATP: M.López/Nadal vs. Fyrstenberg/Matkowski
3. Alla Kudryavtseva vs. Kim Clijsters
4. ATP: Federer/Wawrinka vs. Mirnyi/Nestor
5. ATP: James Blake vs. Chris Guccione (NB 19.00 hrs)
6. Ana Ivanovic vs. Kimiko Date-Krumm

Stadium 2 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Raonic vs. Ilhan
2. Timea Bacsinszky vs. Vera Zvonareva
3. Francesca Schiavone vs. Zuzana Ondraskova
4. ATP: Djokovic/Troicki vs. Chela/Monaco
5. ATP: Melo/Soares vs. Murray/Murray
6. ATP: Hewitt vs. Lu

Stadium 3 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Harrison vs. Chardy
2. Melanie Oudin vs. Yanina Wickmayer
3. ATP: Andreev vs. Nishikori
4. Bethanie Mattek-Sands vs. Shahar Peer
5. ATP: Isner/Querrey vs. Llodra/Zimonjic
6. ATP: Davydenko vs. Fognini

Court 7 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Anastasija Sevastova
2. Marion Bartoli vs. Monica Niculescu
3. ATP: Bopanna vs. Tomic
4. Dominika Cibulkova vs. Sania Mirza
5. Lucie Safarova vs. Andrea Petkovic

Court 8 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Alizé Cornet vs. Tsvetana Pironkova
2. ATP: de Bakker vs. Becker
3. ATP: Kukushkin vs. Kubot
4. Chuang/Dulgheru vs. Hampton/Oudin (after suitable rest)
5. Kaia Kanepi vs. Gisela Dulko

Court 4 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova vs. Petra Kvitova
2. ATP: Gabashvili vs. Serra
3. Benesova/Zahlavova Strycova vs. Martínez Sánchez/Medina Garrigues (after suitable rest)
4. Llagostera Vives/Parra Santonja vs. Azarenka/Kirilenko
5. ATP: Berdych/Tipsarevic vs. Dolgopolov/Malisse
6. Jans/Rosolska vs. Peschke/Srebotnik

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Cuevas vs. Andújar
2. ATP: Giraldo vs. Gimeno-Traver
3. ATP: Benneteau vs. F.López
4. ATP: Meltzer/Petzschner vs. Almagro/Ferrer
5. Sybille Bammer vs. Julia Goerges
6. ATP: Benneteau/Gasquet vs. Anderson/Kohlschreiber

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Ramírez Hidalgo vs. Mello
2. ATP: Petzschner vs. Brown
3. Jarmila Groth vs. Sara Errani
4. Huber/Petrova vs. Hercog/Hsieh
5. ATP: Mayer vs. Golubev