The Draw is out:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2009/5014/mds.pdf

Wow..what a lousy end to a terrific year for Roddick. Hopefully his knee injury is something rest and rehab can fix so he can get back ASAP. All the hard work he's pt in with Stefanki deserves a much better reward than this.

Hewitt has had a pretty good year considering he underwent hip surgery a year ago. And he crushed Isner yesterday - surprisingly so for an indoor event. Monfils looked really sharp winning his first match. Cilic's dream run from Beijing is already at an end here, going out to Berdych in a close first round match.

Good news for Andy Roddick and his fans - the knee injury is just a sprain, no surgery necessary, and he'll be back on court in ~3 weeks. What a relief! As one with a history of knee problems, I got nervous upon hearing that the pain was in the back of the knee, which usually involves the MCL or ACL. A torn MCL would mean being out for 12-18 months (if not forever), but a sprained MCL requires just a few weeks of rest and rehab - phew!

There have been eight, count 'em, EIGHT retirements in this tournament. Is that a record for a 56-draw event?? Of course, all these retirements will spur another round of hew and cry about the too-long, too-demanding ATP calendar. The powers that be, in all their infinite wisdom, will eventually decide that the best course of action will be to do absolutely nothing. That's the way it's been for decades, and I can't imagine this recent rash of retirements will change anything.

While Hewitt was never my favorite player (outside of his immediate family, was he anyone's favorite player?), I'm very happy for him, that he's come back so successfully from hip surgery. Although he didn't go deep in this tournament, beating Isner 2&4 and taking Monfils to 3 sets make for a good result. A return to the top 10 is a stretch, but surely Lleyton would love to get to the top 16 (he's #23 now) to be seeded at these megabucks Masters 1000s.

Random thoughts on the other matches ... it looked like Fernando Verdasco was feeling the pressure in his opening-round loss. He's currently #7 in the year-to-date rankings to get into the London Finals, and I'm guessing that being amongst the Elite Eight is very important to Fernando. I've never seen the guy freak out as much as he did against Ljubicic. You would think a veteran ATP umpire would know common Spanish cuss words, but yikes, Fernando unleashed a spew of profanities that would make a dockworker blush without getting a warning. Didn't see the match, but Soderling's victory over Tsonga 3&3 is a big win for him. I wonder if Tsonga's frustration against big servers came into play there. Novak looked very sharp against Schuettler, but it's easy to look sharp playing #99 in the world. Against #12 Simon, Novak looked awful, at least in the 2nd set when he made 12 unforced errors on the forehand alone. But Simon changes the pace and angles so much that it threw Novak's timing on that side (which is vulnerable to begin with) totally out of whack. Novak should be able to clean things up against Davydenko, who hits such a clean ball. Haven't seen any of Feliciano Lopez's matches, but wow, he's looking awfully good, esthetically that is. I hated the long hair before, but with the short 'do and trimmed beard, zoinks!

Finally, how the fark did Ernests Gulbis, ranked #80 and who's barely won a match all year, get a wild card into a Masters 1000?? Gee, maybe just maybe his petrobillionaire daddy promised the oil-starved Chinese a few barrels in exchange for the WC? It would have been nice to see old Academy pals Novak and Ernests play a match, but in order for that to happen, Ernests would have had to win his first-rounder, which is obviously asking waaaaaaaay too much of the guy.

Not sure, but it reminds me of Rome last year, another retirement-plagued Masters event. I think there were five or six. Then, as now, we had somebody fast-forwarded to the final courtesy of his opponents' retirements in the quarters and semis - but then, also as now, it was somebody with more than enough credibility at the Masters level, and who was already the favourite in his incomplete matches, so that it doesn't really cast such a shadow over his eventual result (Djoko in Rome, and Rafa here). But yes, now there are NINE who have fallen by the wayside this week. Two of them were having their best events of the year (Ljubicic and Lopez).

Agreed 100%. He always had the pretty-boy reputation, but didn't do much for me really - but this look really works for him. Meanwhile the eyes are still purty and the tush remains ogle-worthy as ever. At any rate, he did his countryman a big favour by taking out Soderling. I don't think any of us were ready for that grudge rematch yet, including both players themselves.

Have to say I'm delighted that Davy came through today. Nothing against Djoko, but it wasn't much fun to watch him wriggle out of two matches this week that had threatened to give him a lot more trouble (Cilic in Beijing and Simon yesterday) because his opponent just wasn't up to going all the way. Instead, when Davy could have faltered at critical moments in the third set (and been discouraged by numerous missed opportunities throughout the match), he played some of his most solid tennis, especially in the tiebreaker itself. Plus there's the poetic justice of Davy avenging his loss here last year in the final, although of course it was the Masters Cup then and not a garden-variety Masters event. (I also would rather see him back in the year-end event instead of Tsonga, incidentally). It's worth recalling that the Russian is 2-0 in regular Masters finals, and of course it was Rafa himself he bested in Miami last year. However, Rafa will undoubtedly be much fresher tomorrow given the three-hour slugfest Nikolay endured. Just please - no retirement!

Davydenko leads Nadal H2H on hard courts 2-1. The only match Nadal won was three years ago in Shanghai, and even that was a long 3-setter (57 64 64). Besides Miami where he crushed Nadal 64 62 Davydenko also won their QF in Paris last year when Nadal quit the match after losing the first set 1-6. With all that you'd have to think it's Davydenko who's in the driver's seat tomorrow. Nadal isn't playing all that well and Davydenko is so great at timing his ground strokes on a fast court against the Nadal Topspin. But Davydenko has plenty of challenges to overcome tomorrow. He's had back-to-back 3-Set matches, plus he's won Malaysia and been to the Beijing QF since the US Open. At age 28, all that tennis accumulates in your legs much faster than when you're 23. If Davydenko is fatigued, or becomes fatigued during the match, that great timing will be the first thing to go out the window. Still, at best you'd have to call this one a Pick 'Em.

And it's more than a little ironic that the injury-plagued Nadal is the one who's still standing while 9 guys have given up ghost with injuries in this tournament alone . Seriously though, it gives a lot more credence to the statements made last week by Roddick and Nadal about the schedule. In addition to the nine who quit here, Federer and Murray decided to nurse their own injuries and not even play this swing of the calendar.

Incidentally - if Nadal wins tomorrow, he'll have won the most titles in 2009 with six. And he would be the only man to have won 7 different ATP Masters Series Events (Hamburg 2008 was still a Masters Series Event when he won it). It's amazing to think he could put together a year like he's had in 2009 and still be 2nd Best. How fitting it'd be if he & Federer were to square off in the YEC Championship match in London, the city where they played the best match ever.

Well Davydenko had the marathon match the day before, but manages to come through in straight sets vs. Rafa. Great result for Kolya and congrats to him.

A simply fantastic result for Davydenko. It seems about once a year, Davydenko puts together a week of superb hitting and nabs himself a Masters 1000 title (no mean feat, Novak has yet to win one this year, and US Open champ Del Potro has yet to win one ever). There are two ways of countering Rafa's high-bouncing topspin: either be 6'6" like Marin Cilic or take the ball crazy-early like Davydenko. When Davydenko plays like this, it reminds me of the ping-pong style of tennis Agassi used to play.

The best player of the week came through and won the title. If anything, I thought Nikolai hit even better during his match with Novak, at least in that 3rd-set tiebreak, when he was totally zoning. My only beef with Novak is some disappointment that he played so passively in those two games where he had love-40, triple-break point. But like I said, the best man won.

Because Andy M's 1000 points from 2008 Madrid drop off, Novak rises to #3 in the rankings. Davydenko leaps ahead of Andy R and Tsonga to #6. Nikolai's Shanghai victory also gives him a great chance of making the ATP Tour Finals. With a fair amount of tennis still to be played, however, the eighth spot is very much up for grabs. Verdasco is #8 in the year-to-date rankings, but less than 400 points separate him and #11 Tsonga. So if, say, JW defended his title in the Paris Masters, he would likely grab that 8th spot. With Verdasco and #10 Gonzalez struggling, I'd say the favorites to grab the last London slot are Soderling and Tsonga.