Let’s Talk Men.

One particular man anyway, at least to begin with. JMDP was fairly solid in a straight sets victory over twentieth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, with the exception of minor kerplosions serving for the first set and the match. But he got it done anyway, 76(3) 63. Round of sixteen, baby. At a Masters.

All about the heart.

And the arms.

And the legs.

It was a frustrating match for Dolgopolov, who is such a fun and funky player but couldn’t quite rein it in at crucial moments. Couple that with some smoking forehands from JMDP and, well. JMDP plays Philipp Kohlschreiber yet, who caused a sensation by taking out Robin Soderling in straight sets. Something of a surprise given the fourth seed’s stellar 2011 so far (Australian Open excepted), but apparently Soderling had a left foot injury and may be doubtful for Miami. At least he didn’t make any catty remarks about “real tennis”. Speaking of which …

 Sam Querrey has apparently finally arrived in 2011, beating Verdasco 75 64 to set up a fourth round meeting with Tommy Robredo, who dismissed Donald Young 60 64, thereby succeeding in making Andy Murray look even worse. Verdasco’s bete noir, young Milos Raonic, hasn’t quite flashed his pan yet, beating former victim and thirteenth seed Mardy Fish. He’ll meet the American wildcard Ryan Harrison in the third round after the aforesaid upset twenty-second seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

It would be interesting to see these two face off. In fact there’s a superfluity of really interesting third-round matches from the bottom half of the draw tonight, starting with Roddick v. Isner and ending with Cilic v. Wawrinka, taking in Gasquet v. Melzer, Troicki v. Llodra, Gulbis v. Djokovic and Berdych v. Bellucci. Why was I slagging off this tournament again?

Damn those vampires.

Today’s OOP

Stadium 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Gulbis vs. Djokovic
2. Marion Bartoli vs. Kim Clijsters (NB 13.00hrs)
3. ATP: Chela vs. Federer
4. Caroline Wozniacki vs. Alisa Kleybanova
5. ATP: Roddick vs. Isner (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Dinara Safina vs. Maria Sharapova (NB 20.30hrs)

Stadium 2 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Jelena Jankovic vs. Ana Ivanovic
2. ATP: Cilic vs. Wawrinka
3. ATP: Gasquet vs. Melzer
4. ATP: Raonic vs. Harrison
5. ATP: Dlouhy/Hanley vs. López/Nadal
6. ATP: Bryan/Bryan vs. Dolgopolov/Malisse

Stadium 3 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Berdych vs. Bellucci
2. ATP: Troicki vs. Llodra
3. Francesca Schiavone vs. Shahar Peer
4. Jankovic/Pavlyuchenkova vs. Azarenka/Kirilenko (after suitable rest)
5. Nadia Petrova vs. Peng Shuai

Court 7 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Bhupathi/Paes vs. Bopanna/Qureshi
2. Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Victoria Azarenka
3. Yanina Wickmayer vs. Dominika Cibulkova
4. Mirza/Vesnina vs. Jans/Rosolska
5. ATP: Knowles/Mertinak vs. Erlich/Ram