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Indian Wells
Shoving my expectations/predictions to the side, IW went almost totally according to form. #1 vs. #2 in the final. Three of the top four in the semis, top 8 all made the quarters, and 15 of the top 16 in the fourth round. In other words, it was the revenge of the status quo. John Hart is your champion, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 over Meikeljohn. He was pushed to three also by Perez in the semis, Harald Wentz - that name keeps popping up - in the third round, and didn't really have a routine outing in between. Third title here in a row for Hart, and he'll try to accomplish the same next week.
Interesting fact: Barry Molyneaux has three masters shields. Only one (Cincy last year) is at any of the home-court, best-surface events. He's only made it past the quarters of IW or Miami once -- that was here, several years ago. He lost to one of the big winners here, Srba Dogic, who continues to impress and gain ground on the pack in the Top 10. Chisulo Mpakati also took advantadge of the opportunity given him, defeating #9 Rhodes and then giving Hart a credible match. Ali Solberg couldn't come close to replicating his only masters final from last year, and slips to being just another one of the guys in the Top 10 pack.
My guys did exactly what was expected and no more. Sushant Chiba escaped (21) Acke Kjaerstad of Sweden 6-4, 7-6(9), then pushed Perez to a tiebreak before losing in straight sets for his fourth-round exit. Amrik Kasaravalli, seeded 30th, ran into Samuel Aas for the second straight week. Aas thumped him 6-2, 6-4. Can't complain about the matchup, it could easily have been someone higher-ranked; Kasaravalli is just hard-pressed to pull off an upset against the guys ahead of him right now. He'll get another shot in Miami.
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