Nadal dominates Murray

Frankly the Indian Wells final was embarassing to watch.

The wind was horrific and Murray simply couldn’t cope. However this contest certainly did not decide who is the overall better player.

This match decided who was the better player in gale force winds which was always going to be Nadal due to his technique which allows for a high margain of error.

Murray was forced to serve at 3/4 speed throughout the match as it was just impossible to apply any pace due to the fact the ball was being blown all over the shop when he threw up.

If I was in the crowd for that match I would have been so disappointed as it wasn’t very nice to watch at all. Just knowing how much the wind was effecting Murray really put a downer on the spectacle.

Unsurprisingly Murray got very angry and I can totally sympathise with him as playing in ridiculous winds is probably the most annoying thing in the world when you are losing.

Nadal seemed to cope fine with the conditions and his spinny serve held up perfectly. He did not face a single break point throughout the match. It was like a home coming for him considering he grew up playing on the wind swept coast of Mallorca.

Match Prediction – Indian Wells – 16/03/09

Here are my match tips for the third round of Indian Wells.  Predicted winners are highlighted in bold.

Philipp Kohlschreiber vs Nicolas Lapentti

Kohlschreiber is be expected to win this match and I think he will however the German often makes life difficult for himself. The German should advance but it may take three sets against Lapentti who is capable of causing anyone problems on his day.

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Paul-Henri Mathieu vs Andy Murray

Mathieu is a decent player but he doesn’t have the mental or physical capabilities to beat Murray here. The world number four will come through in two tight sets.

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James Blake vs Fernando Gonzalez

There is talk of Blake wanting to get his ‘revenge’ on Gonzalez after his loss to the Chilean at the Olympics where he had match points. Personally I think this memory will count against Blake and Gonzalez will again be victorious.

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Richard Gasquet vs Fernando Verdasco

This is Verdasco’s first tournament since his fantastic showing at the Australian Open and I fully expect him to carry on his scintillating form. Gasquet has been playing better recently but I just can’t think of a reason why I’d prefer him to the red hot Spaniard.

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Tommy Robredo vs Marin Cilic

Very tough match to call. I think serving will be crucial in this contest and Cilic has the better delivery so I will go with him to come through in three sets.

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Gilles Simon vs Ivan Ljubicic

If Ljubicic played to his best ability he would have a big chance however I haven’t seen him on form for a while. I think the resilient Simon will win perhaps in a couple of tie break sets.

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Ivo Karlovic vs Roger Federer

This match will be a struggle for Federer. We saw yesterday Monfils go out to big serving John Isner and this game could have the same outcome. However Karlovic is so limited and immobile from the back of the court that I can’t see him breaking Federer. I think the first set will be a tie break which Federer will win and then he will dominate in the second set.

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Igor Andreev vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Davis Cup team selection – mind boggling

I have no idea why John Lloyd went to the bother of putting the GB players through an energy sapping play off series. Each match was best of five sets which was designed to test each player over the Davis Cup format. These are all young physically fit guys who grind out results on tour regularly and surely they do not need to be put through 5 set matches before playing for their country.

Alex Bogdanovic was not invited apparently because he has lost seven of eight matches played for Great Britain. I’m sure if any other British player was playing this record would most probably be similar. It seems very strange to make this statement to Bogdanovic when considering the fact he would have been favourite to win his play-off matches had he been involved.

No consideration was given to the world ranking of each player in the selection process which doesn’t make sense as a ranking is a measure of how good a player is.

The British number four James Ward lost to Chris Eaton 21-19 in the fifth set in a six hour match having played a five set match a couple of days earlier. I don’t see how this could make Eaton such a sure selection when he is ranked nearly 100 places lower than Ward.

Unsurprisingly Britain lost the tie and maybe the selection process should be thought through a bit more in the future.