Mutua Madrilena Masters (Madrid Masters)

This was such and amazing tournament that I have to comment on it before I storm off into the year ending talks about the mens tour but who would have expected David Nalbandian to pull off such a feat, beating the top three ranks in consecutive matches! Well we all expected Roger Federer to be in the finals here with Novak and Rafael to face in the other semis, Dmitry Tursunov was someone I hoped to do well but he lost in the first round, though it was close he still lost to a qualifier. Many seeds lost early here also e.g. Ljubicic (12), Ferrer (7), Youzhny (16), Haas (11) who were all in the first half and lost before the Quatres. But Kiefer was victorious along with Federer to reach the semis. I think however Federer had a game plan and that was to play easily just enough to get to the next round but when he met Canas he knew he had to play his best and thrash him for him to keep his dignity so he beat him 6-0,6-3 whilst all the other matches he won by only breaking one game or so. The second half looked very much a strong draw. Blake, Ancic, Gasquet and Djokovic were in the same Quatre to my dismay but Ancic did well to play Djokovic in the Quatres but Djokovic wasn't playing fantastically in this tournament. I'm annoyed however that Gasquet lost in the second round like so many others also Robredo and Berdych were also cured in the second round along with Chela however I am happy that Murrat fought a tough game against Nadal but was overhsadowed by Nalbandian who thrashed him 6-1,6-2. In the end Nalbandian was victorious and I remember when I saw this on BBCi I thought they had made a typing error! But Nadal must have been very tired after Murray and expected an easy match against Nalbandian whilst Djokovic wasn't playing his best anyway and Federer was blown off because he wasn't in the right mindset, that is what explains to me why Nalbandian won!