L16: James Ward WR 504 v (Q) David Diaz-Ventura (ESP) WR 999

When you need to win one match to make it into the top 500, the last person you want to meet it one of the two players who has double bagelled Rob Dee - in fact, Diaz-Ventura has beaten him twice. He has beaten Dan Smethurst recently and a few Brits we've hardly heard of, but got bagelled by Morgan Phillips in the 3rd set in 2006. OK, it could be worse!

The draw has opened up nicely for him but Diaz-Ventura is on a good run at the moment so will prove a tough opponent! If Wardy gets past him then the Semis should be a certainty where he should get to pit his witts against someone in the top 300!

COME ON WARDY

Eek. When I said Diaz-Ventura was one to be feared, I was just being silly because D-V has beaten Rob Dee twice - all that proved was that he's managed to be drawn against him twice. I expected James to beat him easily!

Yes, it begins to look like the 'curse' is back, because he almost certainly won't be top 500 immediately after IW now.

However, the curse might not be back, because in contrast to the way that no tournaments dropped off in calculating this Monday's rankings, about 50% more tournaments will drop off the rankings than will get added at the end of Miami, which should mean that 53 points from any number of tournaments will be enough for a top 500 place again, so James should make it even if he doesn't score any more points between now and then.

R1
DEMOLINER (BRA) / RICE (GBR) defeated GENARO-MARTINEZ (ESP) / OLASO (ESP) (4) 6-4 6-3

Q/F
DEMOLINER (BRA) / RICE (GBR) defeated DEL BONIS (ARG) / SPAAR (SUI) 6-2 6-3

S/F
PEREZ PUIGDOMENECH (ESP) / PEREZ-PEREZ (ESP) (1) Vs DEMOLINER (BRA) / RICE (GBR)