Week 6 Thursday Update

Week 6 continues to move along, with a few upsets taking place. I'm hoping that Andy Roddick survives his match against Leonardo Mayer tonight, because I've got tickets to see him tomorrow. Fingers are crossed. But let's see what else is going on, before heading to San Jose.

In Rotterdam, Djokovic is cruising. He beat Chiudinelli 4 and 2 after his first-round opponent retired in the second set, and then the player he was supposed to play in the third round, Florian Mayer (no relation to Leonardo) pulled out of the tournament. He's on his way to the semis, having played only three sets of tennis! It's a shame that Mayer had to withdraw, because he had a good win yesterday over fifth-seed Tommy Robredo. He'll face the winner of Monfils-Youzhny, a tasty little quarterfinal match-up. Youzhny beat Djokovic in the semis here last year, so if the Russian comes through, I'm sure the new world number 2 will be looking for revenge.

In the bottom half, Soderling will play Julien Benneteau, and there are still too excellent second-round matches to player. Marcos Baghdatis, after an excellent win over James Blake (what was he doing in the Netherlands?) plays Nikolay Davydenko. The winner there will face the winner of Andreas Seppi and Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer. Still some good tennis to play in Rotterdam.

In Costa do Sauipe, the dirtballers are continuing to ply their trade. Horacio Zeballos still is not doing that well in his first year seriously playing the top tier of the tour. He's now 0-4 on the season, if I'm not mistaken. The jump from dominating the challengers to playing well at the top level is a tricky one to make. Richard Gasquet also pulled out of the tournament before it started, which sure doesn't help his comeback efforts. Hometown favorite Bellucci is still going strong, as are clay-court veterans Juan Carlos Ferrero, Igor Andreev, and Albert Montanes.

Over in San Jose, Sam Querrey finally won his first match of the year, breezing past Teimuraz Gabashvili in straight sets. He'll next face compatriot Taylor Dent, which is a winnable match, and should feature some spectacular serving. If he gets past Dent, he'll face either American veteran Michael Russell or (more likely) Belgian Xavier Malisse, who upset defending champ Radek Stepanek in the first round. Looks like Malisse may finally be ready to make use of his overturned ban.

Roddick plays Leonardo Mayer tonight, as I mentioned, and if he makes it through, he'll face Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. Roddick leads the head-to-head 4-2, with one win coming earlier this year. It was a tight win for Roddick, as Berdych blew him off the court in the first set, 6-1.

In the bottom half of the draw, Denis Istomin upset Tommy Haas, who apparently didn't benefit too much from his dual German-American citizenship. Istomin faces Philipp Kohlschreiber, who has an excellent chance of making the final here. The draw was already top-heavy, and two of the four seeds in the bottom half (Haas, already mentioned, and Jeremy Chardy) have already lost. The only player standing in his way is Fernando Verdasco. It seems unlikely that Benjamin Becker or Bjorn Phau might make it to the final, but it's possible!

It's also worthy of note that the Bryan Brothers continued to do pretty poorly at this tournament, which they've never won despite playing eight (now nine) times. They lost in the quarterfinal the unlikely team of Benjamin Becker and Leonardo Mayer. The Bryans are now 7-9 at this tournament, a pretty poor record for the number one doubles team at an American hard-court event!