Cincinatti Round of 16

Through two rounds at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, and the tournament is shaping up quite nicely. The top seeds are generally progressing, but the lower seeds haven't fared that great, as several of them got very tough opening draws. Cilic fell on day one to Marcos Baghdatis, and Youzhny fell to Richard Gasquet. Ljubicic dropped to David Nalbandian, and Almagro fell to Stan Wawrinka. But those guys are all former top ten players, so you could have seen those upsets coming. The two bigger surprises today were Ernests Gulbis over Jurgen Melzer (though Gulbis is probably a future top-tenner, in all likelihood) and Mardy Fish over Fernando Verdasco, in two tight tiebreak sets. Other than that, the top players have done well.

The other interesting story has actually been the failure of two of the top American players - Sam Querrey fell pretty tamely against David Ferrer, while John Isner rolled his ankle while playing David Nalbandian, and actually had to retire while leading in the first set. Tough break for Big John, but really a disappointing loss for Querrey. He's dominated at the 250 and 500 tournament level this year, but he has really stumbled at the Masters and Majors. That's got to be the next stage in his career, if he wants to get into the top 15.

Tomorrow, in the round of 16, there are some great match-ups. Marcos Baghdatis plays Tomas Berdych for the right to face Rafael Nadal, who should breeze past Julien Benneteau. Federer plays German Phillipp Kohlschreiber, which should also be a breeze for the former world number one. Rog is 5-0 against the German. They'll be playing to face the winner of Davydenko and Ferrer, which should be a fun match - but neither player will have a chance against Fed in the quarters.

The bottom half of the draw is much more interesting. Any of these eight players have a pretty good chance of making it to the final, while the top half is going to be the winner of the Federer-Nadal semi, in all likelihood. But here, we have Fish against Gasquet, two palyers who are trying to mount comebacks this year, and particularly this season, and a quarterfinal at a Masters event is always a good thing to have under your belt. Gasquet leads the head-to-head 2-0, but they haven't played in two years. That could be a fun match - Gasquet is the better player over all, but Fish has been much better in the past couple months.

They'll be playing for a chance to go after the winner of Andy Murray against Ernests Gulbis, another potential thriller of a match. Gulbis has yet to win against Murray, but they haven't played this year. There's a chance of an upset here, if Gulbis can play his best tennis. And if Murray's a little bit off his game.

The last quarter of the draw is just stacked. Andy Roddick plays Robin Soderling, a match which should be a corker. It's the night match, as well - that's an environment where Roddick thrives. But Soderling has no problem playing the villain. Depending on how tight it is - and if it's a blowout, it'll be a blowout for the Swede - the crowd could play an important role in that match. Roddick needs some match practice before the U.S. Open if he holds any hope of making a run this year, so tomorrow's match is one he needs to win.

Of course, even once he does, he'll be facing either Novak Djokovic or David Nalbandian. Roddick will be hoping that the Djoker doesn't get upset, because he's owned the Serb on hardcourts, especially in day matches. Nalbandian's a bit of tougher story, but this should be a great match-up. Nalbandian's playing like a top guy again, but he's yet to notch a really big win since his come-back began. He beat Robin Soderling, who's number five - but Soderling really stumbled into that ranking. You really have to beat at least one of the big four to really be a contender at these big tournaments.

Lots of storylines tomorrow - it's a bit of a shame that the draw is so bottom-heavy, but it does make for fifty percent of tomorrow's matches to be potentially great viewing. Should be fun!