The quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open Tennis Masters Series event at Indian Wells, California, features five players in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, led by the Top 3 of World No. 1 and former three-time tournament winner Roger Federer, defending champion Rafael Nadal and last year’s finalist Novak Djokovic.
The other Top 10 performers are No. 7 David Nalbandian and No. 9/2006 finalist James Blake. The three unseeded quarterfinalists are former Top 10 German Tommy Haas, Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka and American Mardy Fish.
In action today in bottom-half play, James Blake meets Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic faces Stanislas Wawrinka.
American James Blake is the only player on the ATP circuit to defeat Nadal three times without losing to the Spaniard. The other players with positive records over Rafa include Lleyton Hewitt (4-3), Dominik Hrbaty (3-1) and David Nalbandian (2-0). Blake on his results against Nadal/left-handers (30-8 lifetime): “In terms of matchups, I've had a lot of success against lefties in generally. I don't know why. I think I return their serves pretty well and get on them pretty quickly. I don't know. Hopefully it will continue tomorrow. When I have played Rafael I've played some of my best matches. To beat him obviously you have to play very well. It just happens I played him at the Open when I was playing great. I played him here when I was having a great run. And then at Masters Cup where I played some of my best tennis. All three of those are three of my best tournaments I've ever had just about, so he's caught me at maybe the wrong times and not on clay, so it's been good matchups for me.”
The three unseeded players in the quarterfinals marks the first time since the tournament moved to a 96-player draw in 2004. The last time there were three or more unseeded players in the quarterfinals was five years ago when there were five unseeded players. Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka, German Tommy Haas and American Mardy Fish are the unseeded trio in the quarterfinals. Wawrinka has won all four of his matches in three sets while beating No. 10 Tomas Berdych in the second round and No. 18 Marcos Baghdatis in the third round. Haas defeated No. 6 Andy Roddick, No. 30 Fernando Verdasco and No. 11 Andy Murray in his last three matches while Fish, who is the lowest-ranked player remaining at No. 98, eliminated No. 31 Igor Andreev, No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 24 Lleyton Hewitt in his last three matches to reach his first Indian Wells quarterfinal. (ATP Digital Services)
Thursday’s Quarterfinals:
No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 9 James Blake Blake leads 3-0
No. 3 Novak Djokovic vs. Stanislas Wawrinka Tied 2-2
Friday’s Quarterfinals:
No. 1 Roger Federer vs. Tommy Haas Federer leads 8-2
No. 7 David Nalbandian vs. Mardy Fish Fish leads 1-0
