Rear View Mirror<\/b> – a look at last week\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
I picked the winner in Acapulco – Nicolas Almagro<\/b> – and one other semifinalist. One day I’ll learn to trust in David Nalbandian<\/b>. He reached the final and he\u2019s now back in the top ten. I got exactly one semifinalist in Zagreb because the winner was a qualifier and a lucky loser at that \u2013 someone named Sergiy Stakhovsky<\/b>, and only two seeded players reached the quarterfinals. I got only one semifinalist in Memphis too because Robin Soderling<\/b> beat Andy Roddick<\/b> and will meet Steve Darcis<\/b> in the final.<\/p>\n
License plate seen on a midnight blue VW Bug in mid-morning traffic just north of Hollywood, California:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Not Suffering From My Addiction To Rafael Nadal, I\u2019m Loving Every Minute Of It!!!<\/i><\/p>\n
I gave the thumbs up to the Rafa-besotted driver and she returned it.<\/p>\n
Dubai<\/b> (outdoors, hard court)<\/p>\n
Rafael Nadal<\/b> is playing in Dubai this week and so are eight of the top ten players because this is by far the richest tournament outside of the Masters and the slams.<\/p>\n
That would explain Roger Federer<\/b>\u2019s horrible luck. He faces 12th ranked Andy Murray<\/b> in the first round. I\u2019m not a good enough stats person to figure when two such highly ranked players met in the first round, but I\u2019m betting it\u2019s a very rare occurrence. Murray is turning into a regular Nikolay Davydenko<\/b>: so far this year he\u2019s won two tournaments and gone out in the first round in two tournaments. He beat Federer two years ago in Cincinnati but Federer had just won the Canadian Masters and was playing back to back Masters. This time Federer\u2019s had a month off so he should have the edge, but it\u2019s not much of an edge.<\/p>\n
David Ferrer<\/b> gets Tommy Haas<\/b> in the first round but Haas has been playing poorly since he returned from his latest shoulder problem. Gael Monfils<\/b> is making his first appearance of 2008 and his first opponent is Tomas Berdych<\/b>. Berdych had never gone past the second round here and though he should beat Monfils, he could go down to Tipsarevic so I\u2019m giving this quarter to Ferru.<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic<\/b> has returned after a sickness break. Mikhail Youzhny<\/b> is smack dab in the middle of his quarter, though, and Youzhny could be big trouble because he beat Djokovic twice last year, he\u2019s 2-1 over Richar Gasquet<\/b> – the other seed in this quarter, and he reached the final and two semifinals in the last four years. I\u2019m picking Youzhny.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what to make of Nadal. He lost to Andreas Seppi<\/b> in the second round at Rotterdam and lost to Youzhny easily in the Chennai final, though that followed a marathon with Carlos Moya<\/b>. But he beat Andy Roddick<\/b> – the other seed in his quarter \u2013 in Indian Wells last year so I\u2019m picking him to get to the semis and no further.<\/p>\n