Marcos singing

Good thing you chose tennis Marcos. I hope this performance is your last on the music stage.

Up one place

As of today, up one place (to 18) in the ATP rankings. Problem is, if 2007 Wimbledon turns out sour, then there will be a big fall, as last year's semi final appearance points get deleted. Nadal does it again at Roland Garros, but continues to live in Federer's rankings dust.

Au revoir Paris

Well, out in the 4^th round. Best performance at Roland Garros to date. Can’t complain really, not our favourite surface. But on paper should have at least made it to the next round. I make it another 125 ATP points gained here.

One thing’s for sure, I will remember Andreev from now on.

Bring on the grass courts.

Who is Igor Andreev?

Ranked 125^th by ATP, and to be honest I have hardly heard of him. By no means a player to be underestimated though, he featured in the world’s top 25 in 2006. His best grand slam run to date was 4^th in the French Open in 2004. Does that make clay his favourite surface?

Although this will be their first encounter, Marcos will have to be wide awake if he is going to get to play Djokovic.

2-0 vs Grosjean

Yes, and that is for encounters, not sets. Straight sets this time, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Very impressive, despite this not being Marcos' favourite surface.

Next up is either the Dane Kristian Pless or Yen-Hsun Lu from Chinese Taipei. Should be an easy ride onto facing Dominik Hrbaty (or another unseeded player). A piece of good news is that Roddick is currently having a rough ride with the Russian Andreev. Down by 2 sets to 1 I get the impression the next we’ll be seeing of him will be at Wimbledon. That leaves no top 4 seeds to face Marcos till the semis. Fingers crossed.

Paris 2007

Roland Garros has started and Marcos is seeded 16th. First opponent is (the unseeded) Sebastian Grosjean, whom Marcos beat by 3 sets to 1 at Wimbledon last year; that was their only competitive encounter to date. Although on paper Marcos should not have much of a problem, Grosjean is always dangerous especially on home turf in front of home crowd on a centre court. IMO this is an unlucky draw for Marcos. Plus he hasn't been playing his best tennis of late...

We shall see.