Davydenko the Master in Miami

Nikolay Davydenko today became the first Russian in 24 years to win the Miami Masters, as he defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-2 to clinch the title.

The scoreline makes it appear a routine victory, and in truth it was for the world no.4, who as I predicted stood way inside the baseline and dictated play to Nadal. It was an unrelenting assault from the Russian, and once he had broken to go 5-3 up in the first set, the result never looked in any real doubt.

Gone were the nerves that have plagued him over the past year, and he has rediscovered his second serve, which prevented Nadal from gaining the upper hand off the return. When a bit of tension did start to show, double faulting when serving for the match, Davydenko quickly dispelled it the very next point, with some devastating groundstrokes from both wings.

It is not a total disaster for Nadal however; he will look back at this week and take a lot of positives. His hardcourt game is almost there, it just needs some fine tweaking, and not to come up against opponents playing the best tennis of their lives.

For Davydenko, he will be hoping of course to take this excellent form into the clay court season, where he will find Nadal to be somewhat tougher man to beat than he was today.

Miami Masters update – Quarter Finals

As we move into the business end of this years Miami Masters, the smart money now has to be on Roger Federer to take his first title of the season.

The world No.1 has complained of glandular fever earlier this year, but it looks now as if he has shaken that off, and has not dropped a set in progressing to the quarter finals.

He is set to meet Andy Roddick, and holds a devesating 15-1 head-to-head advantage over the American. I can see Roddick putting up a courageuos fight in front of a home crowd, but I can only see Federer walking out of court no. 1 victorious.

In the second quarter, Nikolay Davydenko takes on Janko Tipsarevic, in their second career meeting (Davydenko won the first comfortably). The 23 year-old Tipsarevic is currently most famous for losing to Roger Federer in five gruelling sets at the Australian Open this year, which definetly did not help the Swiss player when he came up tired against Djokovic later on.

Tipsarevic has been playing perhaps career best tennis here this week, but I do not think it will be enough against Davydenko, who has also come back strongly in Miami following disappointing recent results.

Tomas Berdych plays Igor Andreev in the next quarter final; the two have never played on the main tour, but Andreev leads 4-0 in their meetings in ‘Futures’ tournaments. Andreev was named ‘Comeback Player of the Year’ for last season, and is now ranked 32nd in the world, but I feel that Berdych, who has found his form this week, will have too much firepower off the ground for him to handle.

In the final and most eagerly anticipated quarter, Rafael Nadal takes on James Blake. Nadal acheived his first career win over Blake last week at Indian Wells, and will be hoping to repeat the magic here in Miami. Blake however has his pride at stake, he will not want to be beaten two weeks running in front of home fans, by the same opponent, even one so tough as Nadal.

Murray’s make a mess of Miami

Yesterday was a day to forget to British tennis, as both Murray brothers crashed out in their opening matches.

I had always believed Andy’s chances of beating Mario Ancic to be slim after his lacklustre American hardcourt season so far. The Croatian has been in fantastic form since making his comeback from glandular fever, and it was not a huge shock to see him come through 6-2 2-6 7-6.

Murray was apathy itself in the first set and it was painful to watch such a talented player descend into childish sulking. However one thing Murray will never lose is his will to win, and despite all the mutterings under his breath, the Scot stepped up his game to take the second set. Unfortunately he levelled off again in the third set, and whilst he made a fight of it, Ancic deserved the win that came his way.

It was no better for older brother Jamie, who’s first round loss with Max Mirnyi comes as a much greater surprise, given that they have been in excellent form of late, notching up two wins over the Bryan brothers. The pair went out rather tamely to Frenchmen Marc Gicqeul and Fabrice Santoro 6-4 6-4, a team unlikely to progress far in the tournament.

Maybe now that Jamie has some time off he might be able to find a barbers to cut his ever inflating hair!

Miami Master Series preview

This week will see the second Masters Series event of the year get under way in Miami.

The top two players in the world are yet to win a title this season, and will both be looking to change that here. However Federer has lost the air of invincibility he has been shrouded in for the last three years, whilst more and more opponents seem to be finding ways of hitting through Nadal’s heroic defense.

Novak Djokovic is without a doubt the form player in the world at the moment, and he has an excellent chance of defending the title he claimed here last year. Andy Roddick, who started the season so well, will be hoping to avenge his early loss at Indian Wells by having a good run in Miami, and if he finds his serve there are not many who can stop him.

On the British side of things, both Alex Bogdanovic and Anne Keothavong failed to make it through qualification. A-Bog went out to Serbian Victor Troicki 6-4 3-6 6-1 in the first round, whilst Keothavong made it to the second round before going out to the number four seed Anastasia Rodinova 6-1 3-6 6-3.

So, once again Andy Murray is our only British hope, and the Scot has been handed a very tough draw. He has a bye into the second round, but is likely to find himself up against the in form wildcard Mario Ancic. But, if he make it through that match he will fancy his chances of making it through to the semi-finals, where he could meet Roger Federer.