2008 Sony Ericsson Open
Key Biscayne - Miami, Florida

Official website.

The draws have not been released yet. The singles draw is due to be made on Tuesday. I wasn't able to find anything about when qualifying starts. The website is pretty poorly designed in my opinion - perhaps not surprising when it's 'powered by Microsoft'. :P

If you feel like it, you can play an official ATP predictions contest.

I am not quite sure whether I understand the rules correctly, though. It seems you are supposed to predict all the winners of all the matches in the draw. There are 95 matches (every match has exactly one loser, and every player except the winner loses exactly once). If my calculations are correct, even if you have an 85% chance to pick every winner correctly (which seems rather unlikely), your chances of picking the correct winner of every match is about 1 in 5 million. It could be a bit of an embarrassment to the ATP if enough people don't play and no-one comes even close to predict everything correctly. Or maybe it'll be an argument of how unpredictable tennis is these days. :shrug:

might be a few names you recognise

draw for mens quals singles

schedule of play for quals

Looks like the Main Draw is out, even though there is no news about it on the website. :wacko:

Looks like a pretty tough quarter for Fed at first glance - possible opening match against Isner, then perhaps fellow Swiss Wawrinka (who was in good form in IW) or Soderling (also a player in good form recently). The next round could be Hewitt or Robredo - both players whom Roger has been able to beat consistently, but Hewitt is not an easy opponent for anyone. Then we have Tsonga, Karlovic or Roddick as possible QF opponents - a match against Tsonga would be pretty exciting.

The opposite quarter to Fed is once more Davydenko rather than Djokovic - Andy Murray could be a more interesting SF opponent for Fed than Davy though; other seeds in that quarter include Ferrer, Youzhny and Kohlschreiber. Mardy Fish is also in that quarter, so it will be interesting to see whether he can follow up his run at IW with another SF against Fed!

Djoko has another fairly easy quarter - he is seeded to meet Canas again in the 4th round, and on the other side we have Berdych and Gasquet again - looks like a duplicate of the IW draw in that respect. :blink:

Nadal also has a fairly kind early draw, but could have another QF against Blake, or against Nalbandian, before obviously being seeded for another SF showdown against Djokovic.

Murray probably has one of the trickier 2nd round matches against Gilles Simon, who beat Nole recently or Mario Ancic, who has been in very good form, although losing to Murray in Marseille, but took the scalp of Tsonga in r1.

I wouldn't bet a bean on Murray defending his points here, that's for sure.

Not sure Federer will add to his tally either, TBH - very strange after the past few hugely consistent years that you really don't know if the real Federer will turn up, match by match.

Meanwhile Nole is on a roll :) and he's my pick for champion. Frustrating not to have Sky Sports right now, but from the reports and clips I've seen he appears to have Rafa's number on hard courts.

PS - I fully share MJT's reservations about the ATP prediction contest. It's crazy.

Anyone who could pick all 95 winners would have far better things to do than enter the contest anyway - like deciding which Caribbean island to buy with their tennis betting income.

gotta love the BBC's reporting:

I love the way they make it sound like only Murray and Federer got Byes in the first round :rolleyes:

thanks for the commentary jedi. It would be cool if someone not named Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic won but I doubt that will happen. :D

Roger to redeem in Miami :pray:

I really dont won't Djoko to win this...he dosen't deserve to be number one yet! :P
Hopefully he'll lose first round....so hoefully Nadal will be Number one before him!

I want Lubjicic to be number one 1st! he was after all the one who got closer to Roger in the non-clay surfaces when Federer was at his best! :hide: ;)

Tommy v Nic Kiefer, that's too mean!!!! :angry:

I know, it annoyed me when I heard it on the radio - Andy Murray straight into round 2. He has a bye for goodness sake!!!!

Schedule of Play for Thursday, March 27, 2008

(ATP singles matches)

Stadium
Bobby Reynolds (USA) Q vs. Marat Safin (RUS)
Mardy Fish (USA) vs. Arnaud Clement (FRA)
Gael Monfils (FRA) vs. John Isner (USA) WC

Grandstand
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) vs. Michael Llodra (FRA)
Jose Acasuso (ARG) vs. Santiago Ventura (ESP)
Robin Soderling (SWE) vs. Stefan Koubek (AUT)


Court 1
Rainer Schuettler (GER) vs. Julien Benneteau (FRA)
Ernests Gulbis (LAT) vs. Dominik Hrbaty (SVK)
Mario Ancic (CRO) WC vs. Gilles Simon (FRA)
Ryan Sweeting (USA) Q vs. Filippo Volandri (ITA)
Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) Q vs. Thomas Johansson (SWE)

Court 7
Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) vs. Dudi Sela (ISR)


Court 8
Victor Hanescu (ROU) vs. Viktor Troicki (SRB) Q
Olivier Rochus (BEL) vs. Ivo Minar (CZE) Q
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) vs. Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) Q
Santiago Giraldo (COL) Q vs. Simone Bolelli (ITA)

Results Wednesday, March 26, 2008

J del Potro (ARG) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 75 61
N Mahut (FRA) d F Mayer (GER) 76(6) 63
M Cilic (CRO) d K Vliegen (BEL) 63 62
D Tursunov (RUS) d E Korolev (RUS) 46 63 62
X Malisse (BEL) d O Hernandez (ESP) 61 61
A Seppi (ITA) d M Gicquel (FRA) 26 64 62
S Querrey (USA) d C Berlocq (ARG) 76(4) 63
M Berrer (GER) d [Q] R Haase (NED) 64 64
A Montanes (ESP) d [WC] K Nishikori (JPN) 75 62
S Grosjean (FRA) d [WC] G Kuerten (BRA) 61 75
[Q] S Warburg (USA) d P Starace (ITA) 76(2) 62
[Q] B Becker (GER) d S Roitman (ARG) 63 64
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d A Calleri (ARG) 76(5) 36 76(4)
N Kiefer (GER) d (LL) *G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 46 76(9) 64 - Saved 2 M.P.
[Q] P Cuevas (URU) d V Spadea (USA) 64 62
F Santoro (FRA) d J Bjorkman (SWE) 61 60

Results Thursday March 27

Bobby Reynolds (USA) Q d. Marat Safin (RUS) 7-6, 4-6, 7-6
Arnaud Clement (FRA) d Mardy Fish (USA) 6-3, 6-3
Gael Monfils (FRA) d. John Isner (USA) WC 6-7, 6-3, 6-3
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) d Michael Llodra (FRA) 7-6, 7-6
Jose Acasuso (ARG) d. Santiago Ventura (ESP) 6-2, 6-4
Robin Soderling (SWE) d. Stefan Koubek (AUT) 6-0, 6-1
Julien Benneteau (FRA) d Rainer Schuettler (GER) 1-6, 6-1, 6-2
Ernests Gulbis (LAT) d Dominik Hrbaty (SVK) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
Mario Ancic (CRO) WC d Gilles Simon (FRA) 6-2, 6-7, 6-3
Ryan Sweeting (USA) Q d Filippo Volandri (ITA) 6-3, 6-2
Thomas Johansson (SWE) d Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) Q 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
Dudi Sela (ISR) d Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR 6-4, 6-3
Viktor Troicki (SRB) Q d Victor Hanescu (ROU) 6-4, 6-1
Ivo Minar (CZE) Q d Olivier Rochus (BEL) 6-3, 6-2
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) d Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) Q 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
Simone Bolelli (ITA) d Santiago Giraldo (COL) Q 6-3, 7-5

Order of Play for Friday 28 March

Schedule of Play for Saturday, March 29, 2008
(ATP singles)

Stadium
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [12] vs. Jurgen Melzer (AUT)
Viktor Troicki (SRB) Q vs. Andy Roddick (USA) [6]
Roger Federer (SUI) [1] vs. Gael Monfils (FRA)

Grandstand
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) [29] vs. Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) [11] vs. Bobby Reynolds (USA) Q
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) [21] vs. Jose Acasuso (ARG)
Juan Monaco (ARG) [18] vs. Ryan Sweeting (USA) Q
Mario Ancic (CRO) WC vs. Andy Murray (GBR) [13]
Thomas Johansson (SWE) vs. David Ferrer (ESP) [5]

Court 1
Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) [4] vs. Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
Robin Soderling (SWE) vs. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) [28]

Court 2
Dudi Sela (ISR) vs. Tommy Robredo (ESP) [14]
Arnaud Clement (FRA) vs. Nicolas Almagro (ESP) [24]

Court 3
Julien Benneteau (FRA) vs. Ivo Karlovic (CRO) [19]

Court 4
Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) [30] vs. Ivo Minar (CZE) Q

Court 7
Simone Bolelli (ITA) vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) [26]

Results - Friday, March 28, 2008

Singles - Second Round

[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] B Becker (GER) 75 62
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d [3] N Djokovic (SRB) 76(1) 36 64 :yikes:
X Malisse (BEL) d [7] D Nalbandian (ARG) 61 64 :o
D Tursunov (RUS) d [8] R Gasquet (FRA) 63 67(2) 76(5) :cry:
[9] J Blake (USA) d A Seppi (ITA) 75 63
[10] T Berdych (CZE) d S Querrey (USA) 61 62
[15] G Canas (ARG) d [Q] S Warburg (USA) 63 46 75
[16] P Mathieu (FRA) d M Cilic (CRO) 46 61 64
[17] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [Q] P Cuevas (URU) 63 63
[20] C Moya (ESP)d N Mahut (FRA) 76(10) 64
[22] J Ferrero (ESP) d A Montanes (ESP) 63 62
F Santoro (FRA) d [23] I Ljubicic (CRO) 76(4) 26 63 :o
N Kiefer (GER) d [25] J Nieminen (FIN) 63 62 :clap:
[27] R Stepanek (CZE) d S Grosjean (FRA) 63 63
[31] I Andreev (RUS) d M Berrer (GER) 62 61
[32] F Lopez (ESP) d J del Potro (ARG) 64 62

:blink:

I think I'll give looking at my prediction results a miss today... :unsure:

If Andy Murray loses to Ancic today his ranking could fall down to between 24-27 :yikes:

well he has just lost
Ancic clinching it 9-7 in final set tiebreak :(

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d G Monfils (FRA) 63 64
[4] N Davydenko (RUS) d E Gulbis (LAT) 36 76(6) 76(3) - saved 1 M.P.
T Johansson (SWE) d [5] D Ferrer (ESP) 64 75
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [Q] V Troicki (SRB) 57 62 64
[11] M Youzhny (RUS) d [Q] B Reynolds (USA) 62 62
[12] J Tsonga (FRA) d J Melzer (AUT) 67(4) 75 61
[WC] M Ancic (CRO) d [13] A Murray (GBR) 62 26 76(7) - saved 2 M.P. :blink:
D Sela (ISR) d [14] T Robredo (ESP) 76(5) 61
[18] J Monaco (ARG) d [Q] R Sweeting (USA) 63 75
J Benneteau (FRA) d [19] I Karlovic (CRO) 36 64 76(2)
J Acasuso (ARG) d [21] L Hewitt (AUS) 63 76(4) :blink: :yahoo:
[24] N Almagro (ESP) d A Clement (FRA) 62 62
S Bolelli (ITA) d [26] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 64 63
R Soderling (SWE) d [28] S Wawrinka (SUI) 36 64 63
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [29] F Verdasco (ESP) 64 76(4)
[Q] I Minar (CZE) d [30] J Chela (ARG) 63 57 63

Order of Play for Sunday 30 March


Stadium (from 11.00hrs)
2. ATP: Santoro vs. Blake (NB 13.00hrs)
4. ATP: Kiefer vs. Nadal
5. ATP: Cañas vs. González (NB 19.00hrs)

Grandstand (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Tursunov vs. López
2. ATP: Mathieu vs. Moyá
3. ATP: Ferrero vs. Berdych
5. ATP: Andreev vs. Anderson (NB 17.00hrs)

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
3. ATP: Malisse vs. Stepanek

:unsure:

something wrong SG?

wow, murray certainly blew it :lol:

like ancic though so a really good win :D really getting back on track after his injury plagued couple of seasons.

:moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody: :moody:



I HATE TENNIS!!!!!

*whispers quietly so SG doesnt hear*

me too

It wasn't a great win. Both played like top 50 players...Ancic was spanking volleys into the net quite a lot. Problem is Murray served like a 5 year old on crack, and the rest of his game had at least matured to 8 year old level.

He is now going to be ranked about 26th :rolleyes:

Hasnt been a good week for your favs SG:

Ferrer out
Sharapova out
Murray out

:hug:

:hug:

I watched a bit of the match and as you say it was error-strewn. Ancic definitely served better in the decider, but Murray should've converted on those matchpoints :crazy1:

Roddick, Bolelli, JCF, Chakvetadze and Dementieva are still in. Thank God.


And Radwanska is out as well :( :( :(

But all of them pale in comparison to Murray and Sharapova.... :( :(

Let us not forget he is 6thin the race this year-so hardly a terrible year. HE will probably fall to about 10th by the end of Miami. But that is really not so bad. If he can make a couple of quarters or semis at 2/3 of the clay masters, he'll be fine. Then he can pick up points in Paris, Queens, Nottingham and Wimbledon.

Then there's Indianapolis, Washington, Montreal, Cincinatti and the US Open.

From now until Metz he is defending 125 points.

Lets say he averages a QF at every event and 4th round for slams. That should see him gain about 800points-125=675points. That would see him into 8th or so, and QF is a very negative prediction...

*looks at results*


:huh:

*looks again*

so that;s Nalby, Djoko, Gasquet, Ljubicic and Murray all out within the first few days? (and marat of course :unsure: )

:blink: :blink: :blink:

words fail me.......

can't believe Novak lost. That should make Federer fans happy.

Why? :shrug: