Am I the only one who has noticed how the little towel fibers are getting stuck in the players' beard stubble?

I think either Berdych or Blake will win this tournament.

i hate when that happens to me. i mean, when the towel bits get stuck on stubble. i guess i also hate it when i make a bold prediction and the player gets crushed immediately. doh. Haas took out Blake today.

i will not mention my pick for this week to avoid the karma jinx.

I know I'm going to be slammed for saying this but I would have been surprised had Blake won. A win would have almost clinched a spot in the Masters Cup and Blake never ever wins when it means anything.

my observations, so far. yes, noticed the tacky towels, though took me several minutes to figure out why two different people had facial lesions .

so far, i have thought Davydenko looked the best. nearly flawless tennis in dismissing Tursunov. His half of the draw looks okay, actually both sides look pretty easy. Where are all the top players? Paris was always an important tournament, more prestigious than Madrid, i would think. Doesn't anyone want a trophy anymore? I would like to see Safin take off, but the past couple years make that seem unlikely. Wish i could like Berdych more. He is occasionally elegant and stylish, but only when he isn't rushed. Not sure he will get past Hrbaty, a player i find it hard to get excited about. Best not to get too hopeful about Blake, does not seem to be able to sustain his highest level, week to week. All in all, this tournament is wide open. Who will step up and take it?

As much as I like Blake, I certainly wouldn't slam you for that comment. I know what you mean. But hopefully Blake will back into the Masters and the pull out some surprises.

with ancic out now, blake probably will back in to it.....i think haas will beat safin, but i just dont see him winning the whole thing which is what he would need to do to qualify.

no offense to blake or haas fans, and i actually like both of them a lot, but i was hoping ancic would get the 8th spot. blake and haas have been pretty lackluster relatively speaking in the slams and master series events but have been able to amass enough points in the smaller tourneys. for mario to even be in contention when he was injured for so long is pretty impressive.

whoever gets the 8th spot clearly will have earned it though....no excuses. and maybe they'll all get in when someone or two or three pull out last minute like last year.

xordo,

I agree with you on Davydenko. If he continues in his current form, he will win the tournament.

With his clean, pinpoint precision groundstrokes, excellent movement, and little or no emotion, Davydenko looks like a machine.

Well, Blake is in, though he certainly tried to fumble it away the last couple of weeks.

You know, even six months ago, if you'd asked me about Davydenko I would have been like "Eh...his ranking's just a product of how much he plays, he's never had any real success at the slams, doesn't have big enough weapons to succeed on fast surfaces". You've got to admire how much he's been able to make of the gifts he has--right now he may be the second best player in the world.