Indian Wells Match Thread (Nadal wins!)

[Silver]

First topic message reminder :

Rafael Nadal defeats Juan Martin Del Potro to win Indian Wells 2013! 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Nadal's route to the title:

R1: Bye
R2: Ryan Harrison (7-6, 6-2)
R3: Leonardo Mayer (Walkover)
R4: Ernests Gulbis (4-6, 6-4, 7-5)
QF: Roger Federer (6-4, 6-2)
SF: Tomas Berdych (6-4, 7-5)
F: Juan Martin Del Potro (4-6, 6-3, 6-4)

Updated draw on the ATP site.

[laverfan]

Nadal 2001...

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Rafael-Nadal.aspx?t=pa&y=2001&m=s&e=0#

Nadal 2002...

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Rafael-Nadal.aspx?t=pa&y=2002&m=s&e=0#

IIRC, some of the Challengers are now considered part of '12'. I need to check ATP rules...

[Henman Bill]

To be honest I think that Mayer's withdrawal casts a lot of doubt on the validity of Rafa's title. After all, he has a 100% record against Rafa on hard
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=N409&oId=MB02
Major asterisk needed here.

[Henman Bill]

Just kidding. I have really enjoyed the tournament this year. Also a lot of good spirited posting on here, let's not take for granted how lucky we are with the lack of pointless arguments and trolling at the moment.

[JuliusHMarx]

To be honest I think that Mayer's withdrawal casts a lot of doubt on the validity of Rafa's title. After all, he has a 100% record against Rafa on hard
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=N409&oId=MB02
Major asterisk needed here.

A Mayer asterisk, perhaps?

[lydian]

Cheers JHM - as others have stated that would be 2002 then - LF, Futures and Challengers both offer ranking points so count.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Rafael-Nadal.aspx?t=pa&y=2002&m=s&e=0

So in 2014 he would enter his 13th year - so can drop 2 Masters, plus MC is optional too, not that he'd drop that one! I would think he drops Miami and Cincy which is a humid, unpleasant sinew straining steambath of an event directly the week after Canada - why do they do that with Masters events.

He probably gets a huge appearance fee for Shanghai and he probably cant avoid the Asian swing totally anyway so perhaps drops a 250 or 500 to make way).

Does anyone know if a player gets other exemptions from the >600 matches, 12 yrs service, 31 yo criteria beyond Masters events?

[invisiblecoolers]

Congrats to Rafa for a fantastic win , specifically for the 0-3 comeback in the 2nd set.

On JMDP, well he showed the heart of the lion, I guess he roares back harder in the upcoming FO, I am least worried about Miami and stuff.

[The Special Juan]

Well done Rafa, that's a very good win. I didn't see the match so I can't comment on anything but it seemed DelPo had a bit of a collapse as he was a break up in the 3rd. Anyway, congrats Rafa and unlucky IC but you should be very proud of DelPo's efforts.

I'm not surprised about his decision to skip Miami but is he allowed to? I thought they were compulsory.

[carrieg4]

I'm a bit late coming into this (work has been busy) but congrats to Nadal on his win . Congrats to his very patient fans as well, it has been a hard wait while he has been out of the game.

Great tourney for JMDP too. Bodes well for his future career

[barrystar]

Cheers JHM - as others have stated that would be 2002 then - LF, Futures and Challengers both offer ranking points so count.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Rafael-Nadal.aspx?t=pa&y=2002&m=s&e=0

So in 2014 he would enter his 13th year - so can drop 2 Masters, plus MC is optional too, not that he'd drop that one! I would think he drops Miami and Cincy which is a humid, unpleasant sinew straining steambath of an event directly the week after Canada - why do they do that with Masters events.

He probably gets a huge appearance fee for Shanghai and he probably cant avoid the Asian swing totally anyway so perhaps drops a 250 or 500 to make way).

Does anyone know if a player gets other exemptions from the >600 matches, 12 yrs service, 31 yo criteria beyond Masters events?

Like I said, what's the penalty for breaking the rules? As I recall with the debate about Djoko in 2011 it is exclusion from a bonus prize fund - if that's all it is I'd put a knee above that if I were Nadal.

[The Special Juan]

@lydian I think I heard that, because he's over 30 and played an x amount of matches in his career he can pick and choose i.e. he can play all or none. I think I heard a commentator say that on TV.

[socal1976]

I think they do have to look at possibly changing the rules with these mandatorys and with the penalties they give. Still the tour as a whole does have an interest in having the big stars play at all the masters if possible.

[lydian]

Good point barry - agree wholeheartedly, or even wholeknee'edly

[Born Slippy]

The penalty is having your best other Masters result removed from your ranking total (i.e. -1000 points for Rafa).

[lydian]

Arhhh...now that's a little bit more serious.
Does that apply for EVERY Masters event skipped?

[Silver]

Arhhh...now that's a little bit more serious.
Does that apply for EVERY Masters event skipped?

You mean, 2000 points lost for two Masters event skipped beyond an initial allowance? Assuming a player had won 2 previously to count towards his results. If so, that'd be an enormous rankings hit. Can anyone confirm this? I had a look but couldn't find anything on it.

[Born Slippy]

It's VIII D(2) of the ATP Code. Either they've changed it or I was slightly mis-remembering it though. It's a suspension from the Masters at which the player scored the most points in the previous 12 months.

[Silver]

Thanks Born Slippy, well unearthed. Still a pretty severe punishment, I wonder if it'll come into force for any of the top players this year.

[Silver]

One last post from me here, to detail the significant movers and shakers in the rankings after Indian Wells this year:

#4: Rafael Nadal (up 1, Indian Wells winner)
#5: David Ferrer (down 1, 2nd round)
#20: Sam Querrey (up 3, 4th round)
#23: John Isner (down 8, 2nd round)
#29: Kevin Anderson (up 8, QF)
#55: Ernests Gulbis (up 12, 4th round)
#58: Pablo Andujar (down 12, 2nd round)
#69: Carlos Berlocq (up 16, 4th round)
#88: Ryan Harrison (down 15, 2nd round)
#124: David Nalbandian (down 31, 2nd round)

Congrats also to Jurgen Melzer, who won the Dallas 2 Challenger last week in a field which included top seed Marcos Baghdatis. He beat Denis Kudla in the final, and also won the doubles title! Not a bad 1-2, even at challenger level.

Definitely been a fun ten days or so, great tournament this year. Same again for Miami, guys? I'd be happy to man another match thread if people would like

[socal1976]

You did a great job Silver would love to see another match thread. Harrison has been real dissappointing interesting his little brother Christian has a wild card in the miami event. I hope Gulbis keeps it up.

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