Could this finally be the return to form of Igor Andreev?  He's 2-6 6-3 4-4* against Nadal

All 32 top seeds, actually. In both of them.

The Nadal-Andreev match today was really entertaining. After the 1st set I thought it'd be something like 2 and 2 to Nadal as Andreev was dreadful, spraying forehand errors everywhere. However, it was an amazing turnaround from 2-6, 3-3 0-40, Andreev suddenly started finding the court consistently with that forehand and peppering the lines.

It really showed Nadal's vulnerability to players who can hit that hard (and there's a growing number at the top of the game). When he took control with that heavily topspin forehand, pushing Andreev back and in particular, using the topspin to get to Andreev's backhand he invariably won the point by either opening up the court or inducing a crazy shot from the Russian. However, for some reason he was mostly content to stay way behind the baseline and try and absorb Andreev's power and wear him down, which he ultimately did.

However, against a player like Berdych/Djokovic/Blake who can hit with that pace more consistently than Andreev, and do it off both sides, Nadal would probably have lost today.

Andreev was a break up in the 3rd, led 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 but missed several pts for 2-0 and Nadal broke back with a couple of amazing passes. From then on, Andreev never really got into the Nadal service games, consistently making sloppy errors/crazy shots. He was never going to win a tiebreak, having to come up with those shots when every single point counts against a player as solid as Nadal.

Andreev reminds me a bit of the old, bad Gonzo except that he doesn't possess the Chilean's backhand or service power. He goes for shots from some crazy positions and runs round his backhand the whole time. If he improves his backhand and shot selection he could go a lot, lot higher....one of the big problems he often has in points, is that he runs so far round his backhand that the rest of the court opens up. Has a great topspin 2nd serve, its placement gave Nadal some big problems today

Quarter-finals:

Federer v Djokovic

Rochus v Haas

Soderling v Santoro

Nadal v Youzhny


Fed v Djokovic is going to be a great match ! Fed isn't anywhere near his best so far this week so it could be a lot closer than their Aussie Open match, I think Djokovic will get a set.

How on earth did Rochus beat the undertaker He could give Haas some problems too as the surface is so slow. Haas works the points well but doesn't appear to have many ways to hurt opponents on the Dubai courts. He just ground down Serra today, outlasting him in the long rallies and getting to the net whenever possible, which proved really effective.

Nadal-Youzhny could be another cracker. Nadal leads the head-to-heads 3-2, Youzhny won in this tournament back in 2004 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. Nadal won a 5 set thriller 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the 2005 Aussie Open and then unsurprisingly 6-0, 6-2 on the clay later that year. Youzhny won their last encounter in last year's USO quarters 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1.

Morgan Phillips trains at Andreev's academy. Hopefully this will all rub off on him!

Arka wrote:

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Yep. Roland Garros 2009 finals:

Morgan Phillips [GBR] def. Rafael Nadal [ESP] by 62 60 61.

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I love it!

Two results so far today....

Soderling lost his hitting rhythm against Santoro for a set but came back to ultimately overpower the veteran 6-1, 6-7, 6-0

Haas completely outhit poor Oli Rochus 6-0, 6-2

Predictions for Fed-Djoko ?

Anyone think that Youzhny will beat Nadal ? (apart from Arka)