As there are no ATP tournaments this week (other than Davis Cup of course) I thought i'd start a thread on San Jose which starts on 12th, and the defending champion is - of course - Andy Murray.

Last year, Murray beat Hewitt and Roddick on his way to winning his maiden ATP title. So can he do it again this year?

Here is the player list for this year's event:

San Jose Player List

Blake and Roddick both will be tricky for Andy. As the third seed, he'll be expected to meet one of them in the semifinals. They are both in really good form, so they have to be the favorites to make the finals. (Seems like there might be a good rivalry about being the #1 ranked American this year, by the way.)

So the first question is: will Andy make the semis? Marat will be on the other side of the draw, so the highest-ranked player he might run into would be Mardy Fish at 47. Of course there are still plenty of good players beyond that ranking who could be dangerous, such as Mardy, or Ben Becker. Still, not making the semis here would be a major disappointment for Andy.

Beyond that, we'll see. If he is in form, I think he has the game that could allow him to win the title again. It will be good to see how he does now in his first tournament post-AO. It would be nice to see another battle of the Andys, as well. :)

I can't see Murray having too many problems defending. He's getting to be one of those players who ends up beating himself - so I think it's down to him to hold it together mentally.

....And this is new territory for him.


But he should certainly get to the semi or final at least and minimize the loss of ranking points.

ranking points won't be a massive problem will it, because he got to the 4th round of the AO, whereas last year he lost in the 1st round. Although did he play a tournie in-between the AO and San Jose last year?

I think Andy will defend of course his biggest threats are Andy Roddick and Leyton Hewitt in that tournament and Murray has both their numbers by a mile. :)

I think Murray should make the Semis where he is likely to face Roddick! Obviously thats where I want his run to end :)

On a serious note though it will depend on how is form is up to the Semis as to how he does against Roddick, he really had A Rods number first part of last year beating him in San Jose then Wimby but A Rod has come back well beating him pretty easily in Cincy then in the Kooyong which was an exhibition event, so I have to like A Rods chances against Murray I think it will be a Roddick Blake final and hopefulyl Andy can get revenge for Queens and Indy last year as he hadnt lost to Blake before that.

In the first round Murray plays Kevin Kim so not a bad draw first up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/6300819.stm

Main draw:

(1) RODDICK, Andy USA vs DANCEVIC, Frank CAN
GOLDSTEIN, Paul USA vs (WC) QUERREY, Sam USA
SCHUETTLER, Rainer GER vs LOPEZ, Feliciano ESP
UDOMCHOKE, Danai THA vs (8) SPADEA, Vincent USA

(3) MURRAY, Andy GBR vs KIM, Kevin USA
PLESS, Kristian DEN vs QUALIFIER
KENDRICK, Robert USA vs GREUL, Simon GER
QUALIFIER vs (7) LEE, Hyung-Taik KOR

(6) BECKER, Benjamin GER vs QUALIFIER
ECONOMIDIS, Konstantinos GRE vs PHAU, Bjorn GER
LU, Yen-Hsun TPE vs QUALIFIER
(WC) OUDSEMA, Scott USA vs (4) SAFIN, Marat RUS

(5) FISH, Mardy USA vs GABASHVILI, Teimuraz RUS
DELIC, Amer USA vs (WC) WARBURG, Sam USA
KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO vs GARCIA-LOPEZ, Guillermo ESP
KUNITSYN, Igor RUS vs (2) BLAKE, James USA

Not a terrifying line-up. Murray should be able to win this if he holds his nerve.