Kevin Anderson

Oh No-vak!

March 28, 2008

Fans taking in second round action at the Sony Ericsson Open were abuzz on Friday as many of the ATP’s best kicked off their bid for a championship.

The biggest surprise of the day occurred late in the afternoon, when No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic (Serbia) crashed out of the tournament with a 6-7(1), 6-3, 4-6 loss to South African qualifier Kevin Anderson.

Ranked No. 122 in the world and playing in his first ever Masters Series event, Anderson pulled off arguably the biggest upset of the year over the player who’s captured the season’s two biggest tournaments to date (the Australian Open crown and the Pacific Life Open Masters Shield). The 21-year old from Johannesburg was impressive against the tournament’s defending champion, playing aggressive throughout the match and fighting back in the third set when Djokovic went up 2-0.

Djokovic wasn’t the only top seed to fall on Friday as No. 7 David Nalbandian (Argentina) was upended by Belgian Xavier Malisse and No. 8 Richard Gasquet (France) was dispatched by Russian Dmitry Tursunov.

The good news for fans in Miami is that most of the top players remain in the hunt for the title. World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (Spain) restored order to the tournament by easily defeating Benjamin Becker (Germany) 7-5, 6-2 to advance to the third round, where he will next face another German in Nicolas Kiefer. Kiefer reached the third round by upsetting No. 25 seed Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) in their second round contest.

Also in action were No. 9 seed James Blake (United States) and No. 10 Tomas Berdych (Czech), who were both victorious in their opening matches. Blake beat Italian Andreas Seppi and will now take on surprise third-rounder Fabrice Santoro (France), while Berdych defeated American Sam Querrey to set up a third round contest with Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The seeds in the top half of the draw will play their first matches on Saturday. Highlighting the day’s action is world No. 1 Roger Federer (Switzerland), who will face Frenchman Gael Monfils. Even without a title to his name in 2008, the Mighty Fed is still the world’s top player and is thrilling to watch whenever he takes the court.

The only other Top 10 seeds on this side of the draw are No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko (Russia), No. 5 David Ferrer (Spain) and No. 6 Andy Roddick (United States). They will begin their play against Ernests Gulbis (Latvia), Thomas Johansson (Sweden), and qualifier Victor Troicki (Serbia), respectively.

Other exciting contests to keep an eye on include No. 13 seed Andy Murray (Great Britain) against former Top 10 player Mario Ancic (Croatia) and No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France), the Australian Open finalist, versus Jurgen Melzer (Austria).