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[Howdy. Sorry for the glitch that seems to affect some comment posters on recent threads. Maybe a fresh start will help. Lance Harke filed this report a few minutes ago. Seems like he's shell-shocked, like the rest of us, by the losses by Murray and Djokovic - a pair of upsets that makes some of the comments we made in our recent Tennis.com podcast even more relevant - PB]
Wow, life is all about timing, right?
Just as I arrived at the Sony media center Mardy Fish was up 2-0 in the stadium court, and I heard several media personalities discussing the possibility of a "Mardy upset."
Sure enough, as I sat down I saw a thinner, fitter Fish taking the ball very early, flattening out his backhand, and generally taking it to Murray.
Murray, by contrast, seemed to never find his rhythm, and employed and discarded a variety of approaches -- from back court exchanges with Fish, to slowing down the pace with loopy forehands, to slicing and keeping the ball low, all to no avail.
One thing I noticed was Fish, who did not have high first serve percentages today, really scored on his kicker second serve to Murray's backhand, which jumped high and put Murray out of position on his backhand return.
That coupled with some clutch first-serve winners from Fish in the final two games of the second set clinched it, with Fish winning 6-4, 6-4.
Boy like I said the other day, with The Djoker and now Murray out so early, maybe the possibilities really are endless.
Oh yeah, there's still Federer, Nadal, Roddick.....
-- Lance Harke