Roger Federer! As it turns out, this is not the match we have been waiting for but rather the one we’ve been dreading. Although in the second set, Roger has three match points, he fails to convert any of them and goes on to lose in a third set tiebreaker. Roger! You are the reason we bought these tickets! I am distraught but am glad that we saw him play two matches and the exhibition. He is looking very thin and does not seem to be hitting his serve as hard as usual. Perhaps his wan, rustiness is due to the lung infection he picked up in Africa a few weeks ago. Since the rumor was that he wasn’t going to play at Indian Wells at all, we are happy to have seen him play at all. He is magical when he is on his game – so different from everyone else’s slugging, grunting efforts. He quietly hits the ball so much harder than anyone else we’ve seen.
Who to root for now? Well, we definitely don’t want Djokovic or Murray to win so we are going with either Nadal or Roddick.