[Rita]

We all know what happened last time i started a cheering thread

[Eden]

I already asked 2 people to start the tournament thread but seems they weren't courageous enough

Let's hope your thread will bring Roger the same luck as your last one Rita

Stan wrote on Twitter that he and Roger will play doubles together: http://twitter.com/stanwawrinka

That should give Roger some match practice before his first match.

Draw:

R.NADAL [1] vs BYE
QUALIFIER vs RIBA, Pere
QUALIFIER vs GRANOLLERS, Marcel
BYE vs J.MONACO [27]

M.BAGHDATIS [19] vs BYE
QUALIFIER vs MANNARINO, Adrian
QUALIFIER vs MALISSE, Xavier
BYE vs J.W.TSONGA [15]

N.ALMAGRO [11] vs BYE
QUALIFIER vs ANDERSON, Kevin
ISTOMIN, Denis vs NIEMINEN, Jarkko
BYE vs A.MONTANES [23]

G.SIMON [28] vs BYE
SCHUETTLER, Rainer vs HAASE, Robin
QUALIFIER vs KARLOVIC, Ivo
BYE vs D.FERRER [6]


R.SODERLING [4] vs BYE
PHAU, Bjorn vs BERRER, Michael
QUALIFIER vs MARCHENKO, Illya
BYE vs P.KOHLSCHREIBER [32]

A.DOLGOPOLOV [20] vs BYE
HANESCU, Victor vs SEPPI, Andreas
STEPANEK, Radek vs DEL POTRO, Juan Martin
BYE vs I.LJUBICIC [14]

F.VERDASCO [9] vs BYE
BERANKIS, Richard vs QUALIFIER
TIPSAREVIC, Janko vs KAMKE, Tobias
BYE vs S.QUERREY [21]

T.ROBREDO [25] vs BYE
ZVEREV, Mischa vs QUALIFIER
STARACE, Potito vs QUALIFIER
BYE vs A.MURRAY [5]

-----------

A.RODDICK [8] vs BYE
BLAKE, James vs QUALIFIER
RAMIREZ HIDALGO, Ruben vs MELLO, Ricardo
BYE vs J.ISNER [30]

R.GASQUET [18] vs BYE
CUEVAS, Pablo vs ANDUJAR, Pablo
BENNETEAU, Julien vs LOPEZ, Feliciano
BYE vs J.MELZER [10]

V.TROICKI [16] vs BYE
QUALIFIER vs TOMIC, Bernard
GIRALDO, Santiago vs GIMENO-TRAVER, Daniel
BYE vs M. LLODRA [24]

E. GULBIS [31] vs BYE
HEWITT, Lleyton vs LU, Yen-Hsun
MAYER, Florian vs GOLUBEV, Andrey
BYE vs N.DJOKOVIC [3]


T.BERDYCH [7] vs BYE
KUKUSHKIN, Mikhail vs KUBOT, Lukasz
DE BAKKER, Thiemo vs BECKER, Benjamin
BYE vs T.BELLUCCI [26]

M.CILIC [17] vs BYE
GABASHVILI, Teymuraz vs SERRA, Florent
DAVYDENKO, Nikolay vs FOGNINI, Fabio
BYE vs S.WAWRINKA [12]

M.FISH [13] vs BYE
RAONIC, Milos vs ILHAN, Marsel
HARRISON, Ryan vs CHARDY, Jeremy
BYE vs G.GARCIA-LOPEZ [22]

J.I.CHELA [29] vs BYE
PETZSCHNER, Philipp vs BROWN, Dustin
ANDREEV, Igor vs NISHIKORI, Kei
BYE vs R.FEDERER [2]

[ApproachShot]

Best of luck Rog! Hope Fedrinka manage to get far in the tournament as well.

[duong]

sorry I don't know what was the last thread you started

For the single draw well it's quite an average draw (only Nadal has a very good one among the favorites actually) :

1st round : Nishikori or Andreev is quite tough, Andreev took Fed to 5 sets in the US Open 2008 and nearly did it again in Melbourne 2010, and typically his spin can benefit from the bounce in Indian Wells ; as for Nishikori he's a promising player with a good complete baseline game and Brad Gilbert to tell him how to "win ugly", which can surely be useful against Fed

2nd round : Chela or Petzschner, well it might have been worse, it could have been Simon, Gulbis, Isner or Robredo for instance

R16 : probably Fish or Raonic or GGL or Chardy : well Fish has been a problem to Fed several times in the past (including here in Indian Wells defeating Fed 6-1 6-1 in SF), and I rather see him defeat Raonic on a quite slow surface like here, and Raonic being probably tired coming after all of his emotions, esp his Davis cup week-end on clay, GGL has had two awful defeats last months and Chardy has only come back last week-end, anyway he's not a danger to Fed imo ;

for the following we will see : at least he avoids Murray and even Roddick who's still someone to avoid here.

As for him to play in doubles, as I said elsewhere,

probably Fed wants to practise the volley and keep on his way to develop a more aggressive game.

Also good to prepare for Davis cup at home against Portugal after Wimbledon and maybe later in the play-offs to go back to the world group after the US Open (Roger needs to take part in one Davis cup match at least before next year to be allowed to take part in the Olympics as he clearly wants) ... or maybe also to prepare to defend the Olympics title in doubles

I think Fed should play the Davis Cup against Portugal after Wimbledon because without him Switzerland might lose to Gil and Machado, and then he would have to play to avoid the team relegation to the group II, which would be a catastrophe for Switzerland and also for him in a lesser extent.

And there is one day between each match in singles in Indian Wells (and Miami) then it's a good tournament to do that.

[Roger the Dodger]

^^Funny you've predicted all the way to QF but still sound doubtful about his chances.

Personally, I'd be very happy if he maintains his SF+ show. As long as he's consistently there in the last 4, he'll get chances for sure.

[Roger the Dodger]

@Rita: Really hoping your thread title ploy works!

[Eden]

Originally Posted by duong

sorry I don't know what was the last thread you started

She started the Doha thread

Originally Posted by duong

For the single draw well it's quite an average draw (only Nadal has a very good one among the favorites actually) :

1st round : Nishikori or Andreev is quite tough, Andreev took Fed to 5 sets in the US Open 2008 and nearly did it again in Melbourne 2010, and typically his spin can benefit from the bounce in Indian Wells ; as for Nishikori he's a promising player with a good complete baseline game and Brad Gilbert to tell him how to "win ugly", which can surely be useful against Fed

Yes, Andreev is a bad match-up for Roger. Roger never won in straight sets so far against Igor. They haven't played in Best of 3 so far and we all know that this format can be even more dangerous.

Andreev doesn't seem to be in really good form this year so far but past results don't count when you enter the court.

Roger has never played against Nishikori so far and even during his prime Roger often had problems against players he played against for the first time.

Originally Posted by duong

2nd round : Chela or Petzschner, well it might have been worse, it could have been Simon, Gulbis, Isner or Robredo for instance

Roger played against Petzschner for the first time in Halle last year and my countryman had chances to take the first set. It was a really close match and Phillip has the selfconfidence now from the Davis Cup weekend.

Against Chela Roger has played 5 times meanwhile so he knows what awaits him.

Originally Posted by duong

R16 : probably Fish or Raonic or GGL or Chardy : well Fish has been a problem to Fed several times in the past (including here in Indian Wells defeating Fed 6-1 6-1 in SF), and I rather see him defeat Raonic on a quite slow surface like here, and Raonic being probably tired coming after all of his emotions, esp his Davis cup week-end on clay, GGL has had two awful defeats last months and Chardy has only come back last week-end, anyway he's not a danger to Fed imo ;

Mardy beat Roger 3 and 2 in 2008 in Indian Wells But you are right that he has been a problem for Roger in the past. A match against Raonic would indeed be interesting but let's wait and see who comes through that part of the draw.

Originally Posted by duong

for the following we will see : at least he avoids Murray and even Roddick who's still someone to avoid here.

Come on, we all know that Novak is the man to beat now

Originally Posted by duong

As for him to play in doubles, as I said elsewhere,

probably Fed wants to practise the volley and keep on his way to develop a more aggressive game.

Also good to prepare for Davis cup at home against Portugal after Wimbledon and maybe later in the play-offs to go back to the world group after the US Open (Roger needs to take part in one Davis cup match at least before next year to be allowed to take part in the Olympics as he clearly wants) ... or maybe also to prepare to defend the Olympics title in doubles

I think Fed should play the Davis Cup against Portugal after Wimbledon because without him Switzerland might lose to Gil and Machado, and then he would have to play to avoid the team relegation to the group II, which would be a catastrophe for Switzerland and also for him in a lesser extent.

And there is one day between each match in singles in Indian Wells (and Miami) then it's a good tournament to do that.

Good points

[ApproachShot]

As duong and I confirmed in the records thread (see my sig), the record for the most weeks spent in in the top 2 of the ATP is also on the line. He is guaranteed to tie Sampras at 376 weeks but will most likely have to beat Djokovic - providing they both get that far in the tournament - to break the record.

Until then the draw looks pretty average. Sure he has had problems with Andreev and Fish in the past, but rarely does one have a draw where all is plain sailing. At least he avoids the likes of Simon and Murray. Berdych is also potentially very dangerous opponent in the QF if he successfully negotiates the earlier challenges. I dare not look as far ahead as the SF, but Djokovic right now is a scary proposition for sure. Of course as explained above, that match could have added significance as well as Federer trying to avenge his defeats at the USO and AO.

[duong]

Originally Posted by Eden

Come on, we all know that Novak is the man to beat now

yes but I meant about the opponents he could meet in the quarterfinals

yes, Petzschner played very well against him in Halle and I like this talented player who also played very well in Melbourne against Tsonga. But well I would have feared Simon more and the surface here is slow

As for the Davis cup, if anyone has any news about Fed's projects, I would be interested

Also if he will play the doubles in Miami or not

[duong]

Originally Posted by ApproachShot

As duong and I confirmed in the records thread (see my sig), the record for the most weeks spent in in the top 2 of the ATP is also on the line. He is guaranteed to tie Sampras at 376 weeks but will most likely have to beat Djokovic - providing they both get that far in the tournament - to break the record.

yes it made me afraid when I saw that, because usually it's the moment when Fed fails

and Djokovic only needs to reach the semifinal and do better than Fed to do better than him

It happened so often in the past (like for Vilas's consecutive wins record in Indian Wells against Canas, or the record of weeks at number 1 and some other records I guess, including his loss in the final in AO 2009 which is his most painful defeat for me in a slam final)

[Roamed]

Originally Posted by Eden

I already asked 2 people to start the tournament thread but seems they weren't courageous enough

Let's hope your thread will bring Roger the same luck as your last one Rita

I would have done but I only just read your message I'll do one some time maybe, having never started one before I don't have a bad track record Thanks for starting it Rita! Fingers crossed for Roger!

[duong]

Originally Posted by Roamed

I would have done but I only just read your message I'll do one some time maybe, having never started one before I don't have a bad track record Thanks for starting it Rita! Fingers crossed for Roger!

exactly the same for me

[Fed_Ds]

Lots of points to be gained here.

Allez Allez Roger

[lunahielo]

Rita, thanks for starting this thread!
Allez, Roger...................and Allez Roger & Stan in doubles.....

[SUKTUEN]

Allez Roger!!!!!!!!!! Fight in USA!!!