Merry Murray

I bet Andy Murray is really happy right now. It was his birthday yesterday, I do believe, and as a special treat, he got to play his bestest friend EVAH, Juan Martin del Potro, almost exactly a year after Juan M made some, ahem, very interesting comments about Andy's mum. And to make it even better, Andy lost. In straight sets.

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Yep. Bet he's beaming.

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That said, Andy Murray has really exceeded my expectations on the red stuff (or the almost blue stuff, in Madrid) this year. He's not a claycourt player and it's evident - he certainly doesn't look comfortable out there. But he's been winning matches on the stuff, and that is something. That is certainly something.

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I'm certainly not going to go and proclaim him the uber-favourite for Roland Garros or anything - I mean, please, everyone knows who that is! - nor am I prepared to elevate him to the arena of serious contender on claycourts just yet, but give him a little time, and... Andy's working at it. He has done much better than I thought he would - even with the whole loss to Juan Martin del Potro thing.

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This means we have the #1, #2, #3 and #5 seeds through to the semis in the men - and what have we got in the women? Well, we have #1. And... oh look, there's #9! Caro Wozniacki made it through. But our other two semi-finalists are unseeded - veterans Patty Schnyder and Amelie Mauresmo. Schnyder has been on a hot run of late, taking out Serena last week and now Jelena Jankovic, and Mauresmo has been very impressive as well. But where are the big guns there? No one is delivering except Dinara at the moment - and right now, because of that, I'm thinking she deserves to be #1.

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Today's Results

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Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open (Madrid)

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Men's Draw

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Rafael Nadal def. Fernando Verdasco, 6-4 7-5

Roger Federer def. Andy Roddick, 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-1

Novak Djokovic def. Ivan Ljubicic, 6-4 6-4

Juan Martin del Potro def. Andy Murray, 7-6 (7-4) 6-3

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Women's Draw

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Dinara Safina def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-4 6-3

Patty Schnyder def. Jelena Jankovic, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Caroline Wozniacki def. Vera Dushevina, 6-0 6-4

Amelie Mauresmo def. Agnes Szavay, 5-7 6-1 6-1