One upset today in the quarterfinals at Rome. Sort of. Even though Ramirez-Hidalgo (that must be the longest name in the ATP, longer than Srichaphan) is a qualifier, it was surprising to see Ancic beat him. It’s not like Ancic can go on and beat Nalbandian but a quarterfinal appearance on clay at a Masters Series event is a good result.

The same goes for Roddick. How many of you had him in the quarterfinals? His match with Monfils is the only one that’s hard to pick. Monfils is a better clay player by far than Roddick but he’s had a very rough start to his year. Monfils is developing good patience but sometimes he just whacks the ball and sends it flying out of the court. You really appreciate Nalbandian if you watch him long enough because he can hit his share of winners but you never see him overhit. Sometimes I just want to get in the face of some of the younger players and yell and them, “Look at Nalbandian! Do you see him trying to hit the ball a million miles an hour? No. You don’t. And where is Nalbandian ranked? Let’s see, how does number three in the world sound to you? Stop hitting the ball so damn hard you dummy.”

It’s a tossup but I’m going with Monfils. While Monfils has been ineffective, Roddick has been downright self-destructive at times. He might as well have planted a tiny biological bomb in his body before his loss to Andreev at Indian Wells, his frustration was that strong.

It’s mean of me to say it but I’d enjoy Gonzales beating Nadal so I could gain some ground on everyone, and it probably is everyone, who has Nadal on their team for this tournament. It would help cover the damage of forgetting, yes, totally forgetting to pick Nadal as I was falling asleep in front of my computer Sunday night.

Enough about the men. I wish I could find a broadcast of the Mauresmo vs. Hingis quarterfinal match at Berlin. That’s gonna be fascinating. The wily tortoise and the flighty hare. I’m not referring solely to court movement, Hingis is not slow, but her second serve certainly is and Mauresmo can fly around the court. I think that Hingis can get to the top ten but not the top five and I would be very, very surprised if she won another slam.

Here’s the scene from Rome: