In the singles draw, American Jesse Witten defeated the Canadian doubles champion, Bester, in the round of 16 7-6(8), 7-6(5), and then Lester Cook in the quarter finals 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6).  Ruben Gonzales was defeated in the round of 16 by Uladzimir Ignatik 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4).

Azarenka in Indian Wells

Serena’s ability to hit outright winners off of Venus’ second serve became the key to Sererna’s victory, breaking Venus 3 times as Venus only won 32% of her second serve points.    Up next for Serena is the youngster, Victoria Azarenka, who had Serena against the ropes during their Australian Open encounter in January.  Azarenka was ill with a virus and was forced to retire while leading and appeared very healthy in the Miami heat today during her three set victory vs. Kuznetsova.

Lisa Raymond (w/Peschke) defeated Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-3, 6-2.  Lisa Raymond has a quality blog at the following link:

Lisa Raymond w/ Peschke at BNP Open

Lisa Raymond Blog

The Bryan Brothers were defeated today by Fisher and Huss 7-6(6), 6-4.

In Mobile, Lester Cook and Ruben Gonzales are to meet in doubles semi and possibly singles semi if they make it to the semis.

Cook at Indian Wells

Lisa Raymond w/ Peschke at BNP Open

Lisa Raymond (w/Peschke) defeated Dushevina/Shvedova in a thrilling match 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-8.  Fellow American, Mattek-Sands (w/ Petrova), was defeated by Llagostera/Martinez Sanchez 5-7, 4-6.

Taylor Dent offered fans a refreshing style as the big server was also able to attack Federer’s second serve successfully.  Dent, however, could not recover from missing all of his 8 break point chances in the first set and never saw another opportunity as Federer won 14 out of his 16 first serve points in the second set defeating Dent 6-3, 6-2.

Dent in California

Andy Roddick defeated Monfils 7-6(2), 6-4 in which Roddick won all 15 points in the second set when he made his first serve.  This is an impressive performance even for Andy Roddick.  It is especially strong given Andy won 5 of his 7 second serve points and offered Monfils no double faults.  Roddick will face Federer in his quarter final match.

Travis Parrott (w/Polasek) was defeated in second round doubles action today by Fisher/Huss  6-7(3), 6-7(4).

Challenger and Futures News:

James Cerrantani (w/Norman) and Scott Lipsky (w/Hanley) are playing doubles on clay at the Tennis Napoli Cup in Napoli, Italy.

Eric Butorac and Travis Rettenmaier as well as David Martin (w/Stadler) are playing the French red clay and are already in the quarter finals at Open Prevadies in Saint-Brieuc, Ploufragan

Many new American hopefuls will be playing this week in the Newton Cox USTA Men’s Professional Tennis Classic in Mobile, Alabama.  A notable new talent is American Ruben Gonzales who is the only qualifier that was not a seed in the qualifying draw.

Link to Mobile Singles Draw

Link to Mobile Doubles Draw

Complete List of US Men in Mobile, AL:

Ruben Gonzales
Ryler DeHeart
Alexander Domijan
C. Klingemann
Lester Cook
Michael McClune
Brett Ross
Todd Paul
Jesse Witten
Robbye Pooole
Jack Sock
Jarmere Jenkins
Nikita Kryvonos
N Thompson
Ryan Young
Sekou Bangoura
Ty Trombetta
Joe Bates
Sekou Bangoura
Ashwin Kumar