A pretty disappointing day for the Brits on the whole with only Cox beating a non-Brit, but then it was what we expected.

Shame that Milton couldn't continue his form from the second set while it sounds like O'Leary was unlucky - and the Bloomers/Skupski score is just strange.

I'd hope that Evans can join Bloomers/Marray in the QF's, but not much hope is being held out for the rest of them.

I was thinking of going today but I couldn't motivate myself for the long commute without the use of a car.

I will go maybe Saturday if there is British interest but it depends on the start time.

So we will have two in the last 8 and probably will be playing the top two seeds.

cant some one go and trip him up (Melzer pushed right past me at last years DC, was thinking i should do my patriotic duty and stick a leg out...), or when going for the hand shake after the match, put on one of those crazy buzzers and give him a shock so he cant play next day.

Well, the only two times we've played France in DC in the last 30 years, we've lost 5-0, so I think they'd be pretty confident whoever they fielded against us.

Having said that, they might find it quite amusing to thrash us with the French no. 26 (that's Robert, WR 278) and the French no. 40 (that's Blandin, WR 477) ...

L16: Dan Evans WR 451 beat (7) Marc Sieber (GER) WR 378 by 2 & 1
L16: (WC) Dan Cox WR 814 lost to (3) Stéphane Robert (FRA) WR 278 by 3 & 1
L16: (Q) Maniel Bains WR 1118 lost to (4) Yannick Mertens (BEL) WR 297 by 3 & 2
L16: (5/Q) Richard Bloomfield WR 335 beat Jonny Marray WR 427 by 6-2 7-6(4)

QF1: Dan Evans WR 451 v (1) Michael Yani (USA) WR 238

Yani came into this tournament on an 8-match losing streak (mainly in Challengers) stretching back to US Open qualifying last year. Chris Priddle took 7 games off him in R1 and Zitko a set off him in R2 so hopefully Evo will fancy his chances, though the winner is likely to face Robert in the semis.

QF4: (5/Q) Richard Bloomfield WR 335 v Ludovic Walter (FRA) WR 512

Last summer, Walter lost to Jonny Kinsella and both Edward Seator and David Brewer took a set off him, but earlier in the year he was in commanding form in a GB Future, thrashing both Milton & the Skupster on green clay in Bournemouth. .  I'd hope Bloomers would have the edge on indoor hard.

Edit: moved end of sentence to the right place - see SC's post below


-- Edited by steven at 18:08, 2009-03-11

I suppose it's what we expected out of today's matches with wins for Bloomers and Evans, although it did help that the second seed lost.

Bloomers should be looking at having a decent chance of making the final now, while even though Yani is the top seed, he's nothing special and the kind of player that Evans can beat if he plays to his best - Robert might be a step above him, but he has to lose at some point.

And with the talk of the French Davis Cup squad - maybe they should be playing Robert and Blandin.... if they cannot even get through round one with three top 10 players, another very talented player in Gasquet, and one of the best doubles players in the world in Llodra, then there doesn't appear to be any hope for them!