In their opening round, Roddick-Fish beat the French squad of Chardy-Simon. Next up: the imposing Argentine squad of David Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro, a surprising partnership after their lockeroom blowout last year in the Davis Cup final.

Who doing what and where at Indian Wells? Sean Randall examines the men’s draw the Indian Wells Masters.

The second week of the interesting “Mexico Swing” on the new WTA Tour calendar, which is down time for most all of the top players who have taken the two weeks off to prepare for tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.

“John McEnroe turns 50 tomorrow — it’s incredible how well this guy still plays,” Sampras said following the match. “I’m in awe of it actually. At 50, it’s amazing to move that well. It’s pretty incredible.” McEnroe beat Sampras last year en route to the Boston title. Todd Martin won the third-place match when Jim Courier pulled out with a bad back.

“I’ve been playing better throughout the weeks,” Serena told reporters regarding her form in Melbourne. “I think doubles was really able to help me out. And also I went out and hit a few balls this morning. I had a really good practice. Watching some of the men’s tennis, they were playing really well. I was really inspired like that. Especially last night’s [Nadal-Verdasco semifinal] match. It was just crazy.”

Serving at 4-5 in the fifth and past the five-hour mark, Verdasco was undone by nerves. Verdasco double faulted to give Nadal a 40-0 lead, then two points later double faulted on match point.

Roger Federer says Novak Djokovic is a quitter and a whuss — to paraphrase: “He’s not a guy who’s never given up before; it’s disappointing,” Federer said of Djokovic throwing in the towel in the fourth set against Andy Roddick. “I’ve only done it once in my career. Andy Roddick totally deserved to win that match…I’m almost in favor of saying, ‘You know what, if you’re not fit enough, just get out of here.’ If Novak were up two sets to love, I don’t think he would have retired 4-0 down in the fourth.” Ouch!…

“I had cramping and soreness in the whole body,” Djokovic told reporters. “I think the people could see that I was struggling with movement. I couldn’t serve the way I served in the first two sets. That third set I just started dropping 20, 30 kilometers per hour first serve. Obviously it was much easier for him to return. He saw that longer rallies are not comfortable for me at that point, so he was using it wisely. Really unfortunate way to end my Australian Open 2009. I really tried my best, but sometimes you can’t fight against your own body.”

Murray said the loss could not be attributed to any mounting pressure, but to the play of Verdasco, who not only showed his powerful repertoire of serving and crunching forehands, but a deft touch with dropshots, slices and lobs to keep the Brit on the move.

“She arrived out here broken and penniless and Johnny was the one who took the punt on Jelena,” family friend Glen Schirmer, who worked as Dokic’s dietitian at Giannarelli’s request, told the newspaper. “At his own expense he housed, fed and trained both her and her boyfriend for months. He said he knew that one day he’d get the money back from her. He liked her and he thought she deserved a second shot at it. He felt really sorry for her and they became very, very close. She was trying to get a start again but nobody wanted to touch her, so Johnny took her on.” — One of life’s lessons Jelena, never stiff the mob…