HE READS BOOKS TOO: Mardy Fish after beating Roger Federer last week in Indian Wells: “Actually when I won that first set I remembered something from James’ (Blake’s) book. It was a quote from [Fish's former coach] Todd Martin who told him, ‘If you can win one set, you can win two.’ So I stuck [...]

Yes, the tennis Madness in March continues. In this year of unpredictability, the unpredictable has happened again, this time courtesy of Mardy Fish, who destroyed Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 this afternoon in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series.

n spirit of March Madness, we had some good old fashioned bracket bustin’ going on yesterday at Indian Wells with James Blake, Mardy Fish and Tommy Haas scoring upsets.

If you are a tennis junkie or just a casual tennis observer, either way you have to be pretty impressed by the product Indian Wells is putting out there today.

Here at the Pacific Life Open on this wonderfully cluttered middle weekend, thousands of fans are milling into the side courts, the air is thin, the wind is blowing strong and top seeds like Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic are grubbing their way through early round matches. Dozens more are practicing on the outer courts.

I didn’t know it but apparently what happens in Dubai, stays in Dubai. Evidence, Andy Roddick, who looked like, no, who was a world beater just a week ago in desert in the Middle East, but found no such form in the desert of California Sunday after getting dismantled by nemesis Tommy Haas 64, 64.

People love talking about how some players always seem to get the easy draw. And based on my experience and what I’ve heard, Andy Roddick is usually in that conversation.

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
World No. 1 Roger Federer has been pumped about the Beijing Olympics, but now the Swiss is backing off on his commitment to play based on painful memories of past Olympics where he actually had to sit next to people in transportation and talk to other athletes: “It was quite [...]

With countless hours of Indian Wells and Miami broadcast on ESPN, for many years tennis fans have long had their very own version of March Madness.

Is anyone still paying attention that there’s a tournament going on in California this week? Some interesting stuff actually transpired in the past few seemingly lackluster days including a thinned out draw; Lindsay Davenport’s official, albeit weird, retirement announcement; and the announcement of an Andre Agassi-Marcelo Rios exo in a few weeks, where Agassi made [...]