The 2nd round. Koubek shows his stuff, the King plays doubles and Almagro still has a massive head

Decided to combine the 2 days reports into one, mainly because I am lazy and also because I was drunk from last night or lacking sleep, choose whichever version you prefer to believe.

Koubek vs. Calleri : Calleri was already pissed off in the 1st game with umpire Molina, who Peta actually watches instead of matches, not totally true. Koubek started well like he did in the Moya match and was hitting good length on his groundies and Calleri was still pissed off from before and was spraying it everywhere and Koubek ran off to a 5-0 lead. Then Calleri settled down and was able to break Koubek once and hold, then had chances to break Koubek to get it back to 5-4, but failed.

The second set was very close and both players were playing quite well. Koubek was more defensive in this match, but this is to be expected considering Calleri has more firepower off both wings than Moya, but also less patience as well as he always wants to rip that big shot and early as well. It went pretty much point for point and it came to the tiebreaker and in the context of the match, this was huge. Koubek winning it would sour Calleri's mood even more and if Gordo wins it, then he will have more confidence and be able to extend the match.

Calleri was playing the better in the early part of the breaker and had 3 set points, there were so many netcords in this breaker, Calleri was hitting flat and Koubek gave it a little bit of air and was varying the position of where he was hitting the ball. Calleri went for a backhand down the line on set point and just missed, but he believed it was in and dwelled on it and Koubek eventually took the breaker 8-6.

The third set was similar to the second in that the points were close and the rallies hard fought, with Calleri trying to push the pace and Koubek using the angles to open the court. It was a good standard of play and once again they came to the tiebreaker and Koubek played it better and was also able to use the wide serve to Calleri's backhand effectively and that won him a lot of cheap points, which were key and Koubek won in 3, though Calleri's play was worth a set at least, but got to take it when it counts.

Youzhny vs. Seppi : Tough draw for Seppi here, as the Colonel has been in good form and gave Nadal an absolute slapping in Chennai, so he is hitting the ball well. At the same time Seppi had chances to compete well, but for the upset to happen he had to take them and it has not been his strongest point.

The overall standard of the match wasn't great, both guys can and will play much better than this. The rallies were competitive and Seppi wasn't getting outhit at all and was holding his own well, but wasn't converting the chances when he had them and was passive on too many of the big points and not getting over his forehand when he needed to.

Youzhny lifted the game when he had to and when both players aren't playing near their best, then usually the more credentialed one is going to win most of the time and this was the case here. It wasn't a case of an opportunity lost, but more like not performing well on the big points and missing too many 1st serves as well. For Youzhny, he did what he needed to do to get the result.

Andreev vs. Vliegen : Igor hasn't started the year very well, but he managed to get through Pavel and was the strong favourite to get through Vliegen here. This match was close for the first 2 sets, but the feeling was Andreev was never going to lose this match, and if he did he would have to play poorly.

For the first 2 sets Igor just did enough and was able to break Vliegen in the 11th game of the 1st and 2nd sets easily and then hold. The 3rd set he showed some more quality with some huge forehands and serving quite well, but he will get better during the clay season.

Berdych vs. Oscar Hernandez : With the huge expectations of the King after his crushing defeat of Minar. The Berdman was put on notice and he realised that he had to lift his game when playing the great Oscar.

This was a very good match from Berdman overall in relation to his winners/unforced error ratio, which was quite good. It helped for sure that Hernandez was outclassed on the surface, no matter how hard he battled. He looked good as usual and he didn't play that badly, it's just the surface wasn't for him and the Berdman was able to hit it deep and through the defences and the King made unforced errors more than usual.

One funny incident the King and Berdman were 1 all on the dropshots and Berdman has Oscar about 7m behind the baseline. He sets him up for the dropshot and he is inside the service line and it bounces twice before it hits the net. Good to hear the Berdych army in full force.

Monaco vs. Delic : This was a match that went longer than it needed to for sure, but on this occasion result wise it worked out, it doesn't always happen like that. Monaco had this match in control and the court was packed with fans from Bosnia supporting Delic and while they were loud, they were fair and a few random Argies cheering on Monaco.

Monaco was too solid and consistent from the baseline and moving Delic around and exposing his movement and lack of a backhand. He served for the match at 5-3 and forgot how to play and lost 4 games in a row and then lose the initiative which Delic then took. Big Amer started serving better and doing well in the rallies as Pico Monaco was hitting short balls and not using the angles as he was earlier and Amer got confident was able to take the 4th set and had a break in the 5th.

Delic served for it, but Monaco is a fighter and needed all of that to come through, and was able to run out the winner 8-6 in the end. The court was very packed, it was funny seeing Argie players standing on the side of the court where you could only get a limited view, but a fun atmosphere for sure.

Nalbandian vs. Luczak: Looch started very well and was able to hang with Nalbandian in the baseline rallies and used his serve well to get the 1st set.

After the initial shock, Nalbandian was able to lift his game to another level, it wasn't the sublime tennis he can play, but there were less errors than before and Luczak was having to work harder to hold serve.

Nalle was able to use the angles and proved to have too much variation for the very gritty Luczak, who if he can perform like this on the tour, should be able to have some good results during the year and maintain a top 100 ranking barring injuries.

Gremelmayr vs Spadea: Sammy was at this one, as we were for the Gremlin and Roitman match which was an exercise in frustration.

Spadea was the heavy favourite, but the Gremlin had chances to upset him, just depended on which Gremelmayr showed up. Spadea doesn't have many weapons apart from a good return and he fights very hard and this has got him success to where he can make main draws of most events.

Gremelmayr blew this one in the 5th set and after the match his coach screamed out in German and then Vinnay Ice was high 5ing the crowd, like it was Davis Cup and showing his street cred. He will be just another victim of the Ferrer machine.

Querrey vs. Tursunov : Big Sam and Tursunov this match should have been about plenty of massive hitting, but the reality was very different.

The officiating was shocking here and the umpire the legend of Khader Naouni he of the great voice and even cooler afro had a lot of work to do and it seemed Tursunov was getting the majority of the shit calls. Yes, he got the shit calls, but that doesn' t matter when he can't hit the ball into play consistently and he made so many mistakes.

Big Sam decided to play a smart match and just hit the ball up the middle of the court and get it back with not much on it and let Tursunov make the mistakes. Dima went into his shell and still missed a lot of shots, this is one performance he won't be too happy with.

Blake vs. Russell: Russell started off well with a 2-0 lead, then it all changed from there sadly for Russell fans.

Blake was on fire for the whole match and everything he did was coming off, he was swinging hard and it went it and didn't open his eyes to after the match. The court was packed and Blake is very popular with the ladies here and had 99 percent crowd support.

Mike made a lot of errors, partly he didn't move as well, but also because of the pressure from Blake. When he is like this, he is very hard to beat. Cut down his angles as he loves running, hit balls up the centre of court and change the pace of the rallies can throw him off his rhythm, hence why he does well against Andreev and Davydenko and poorly against Fed. All three hit the ball very well, the first 2 don't have much variation, but Federer does and can execute.

Blake was volleying like Stefan Edberg in this match and even Russell knew it wasn't happening for him that day. Of course we stay to the end, because just cause a player you like is getting thrashed, doesn't mean you turn on them, like I have seen in other sports. It's always easy to support winners on the field, but it's better to be a winner away from the court and that is something Russell truly is.

Doubles moments : Doubles can be funny, but only when there are singles players playing it and their reactions are definitely interesting after they lose.

The King and Montanes were playing doubles together and it was hilarious, they were laughing the whole time while on court. Thinking about what they are going to do for dinner or which bar they will go to.

Oscar was winning some points in fact 96 percent of his team's points as big Al was missing return after return. I said to Hernandez. "Thanks for the laughs in doubles, but man you were carrying Montanes out there". He didn't want to agree, but he knew what was going on and it was true, but it was good training for singles.

Chucho and Roitman lost to the sexy team of Eschauer and Flo Mayer, maybe it was their sexiness that put them off and they couldn't win.

Brzezicki and Calleri defeated the Twin Towers of Karlovic and Isner and the sad thing is that Brzezicki let himself get broken by these guys, but at least the tennis players beat the servers and too bad I didn't see any topspin lobs over their head.

Massu/Almagro and Berlocq/Seppi: Berlocq what a guy, he was definitely the weak link here and Almagro looked bored and always looking in the crowd and still has a big head, but Peta loves him. Massu you can hear grunt from 2 kms away, but his shots don't have the same force they used to.

Seppi was trying to carry Berlocq, but it's like taking a one legged man in an arse kicking contest and the result was the same. Seppi loves doubles won 2 matches all year and one with the King.