Sony Ericsson Open, Miami 2010
by MAC
At last, after 8 long months, the hard court stretch came to an end in Miami.
When the rest of the big four went out early, we were optimistic for a good result here. Rafa's opening round against Taylor Dent had to be followed on the live scoreboard since for some inexplicable reason there was no televised coverage until the first Saturday. In many respects that was probably his easiest win of the week. He had to fight back from a set down against David Nalbandian and struggled to dominate against David Ferrer. He played with tremendous intelligence and guts to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets in his quarter final. Watching him save those 8 break points was something of a nailbiter, though.
The semi final, by contrast, was something of a disappointment. Many of us felt confident of a straightforward win but we'd all reckoned without Andy Roddick playing as well as he did.
Here are the highlights of the week in pictures.
Watching Federer
Playing doubles with Tomeu Salva-Vidal. They lost to the Bryan brothers, 0-6 3-6
2nd round. Beating Taylor Dent 6-4 6-3
Gratuitous shirtless pics
3rd round. Beating David Nalbandian, 6-7(8) 6-2 6-2
4th round. Moody views.
4th round. Some great vamosses beating David Ferrer, 7-6(5) 6-4
Quarter Final. The joy of beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-3 6-2
Semi final. Saying goodbye to Miami after his loss to Andy Roddick, 6-4 3-6 3-6
All things considered it wasn't a bad American hard court swing. Certainly he did better than we had hoped for after his withdawal at the Australian Open - and he went further than the rest of the "Big Four".