TENNIS in DEPTH.

Robin Soderling booked his place in the third round of the Barcelona Open with a straight sets win over Juan Ignacio Chela.

The 25-year-old Swede won through 7-5 7-5 although the match was not all smooth sailing as he had to deny Chela from serving out the second set.

Local hopeful Nicolas Almagro joined Soderling in the last 16 as he beat Simon Greul for the second time in a week.

Almagro, the 15th seed, battled past the German at the Monte Carlo Masters last week but enjoyed an easier afternoon in front of his home fans to win 6-1 6-3.

Lucky loser Ivan Navarro made full use of his second chance to beat Pablo Cuevas 6-2 6-4. The Spaniard was drafted into the main draw after sixth seed Tomas Berdych’s withdrawal due to an ankle injury.

In first round action, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt continued his return from hip surgery to beat qualifier Marsel Ilhan 6-4 4-6 6-2 in just under two hours.

Twelfth seed Hewitt underwent surgery straight after the Australian Open in January and reached the quarter-finals in his first tournament back at Houston last week.

Other seeds to progress were Jurgen Melzer (11) who beat veteran Nicolas Lapentti 6-3 6-3 while Feliciano Lopez (16) was 6-3 3-0 ahead when his Ukrainian rival Oleksandr Dolgopolov jnr retired.

Three seeds were eliminated from the draw today with Tommy Robredo (nine), Juan Monaco (10) and Barcelona resident Albert Montanes suffering surprise defeats.

Robredo was trailing 6-7 (9/7) 6-4 3-1 when he retired from his match with Simone Bolelli while Monaco was beaten by Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-2 3-6 6-2.

Montanes showed little fight in his 6-3 7-6 (7/1) defeat to world 46 Jeremy Chardy, although the home fans did have some reason to cheer when Barcelona-born Albert Martin beat Mikhail Kukushkin 7-5 6-4.

Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis fired 11 aces as he beat Peter Luczak 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 while clay-court specialist Victor Hanescu breezed past Andreas Beck 6-1 6-2.

France’s Stephane Robert and Sergiy Stakhovsky were three-set winners against Denis Istomin and Mischa Zverev respectively.

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Venus Williams will let U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez know Tuesday after she practices whether she will be able to play against Russia. Fernandez is holding a spot open for Williams on a team that already includes Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Liezel Huber.

The ITF may allow delays for this weekend’s Fed Cup ties because of the travel disruptions caused by the volcano in Iceland.

“Due to the unprecedented travel disruption in Europe, the ITF is monitoring the situation for the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas ties planned for this weekend,”  “At the moment, we are working under the assumption that all ties will go ahead as scheduled but there may be a need to postpone the start of some ties if travel disruptions delay teams from reaching their destinations. The ITF is in regular contact with our National Associations to ensure that every effort is made to have the ties go ahead as scheduled.”

The Russian press reports that Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev and player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova are stuck in Moscow due to the multiple flight cancellations. Russia is scheduled to play the U.S. in Birmingham and may ask for a delay, but also has the option of waiving the 48-hour rule, where a player has to be able to be on site two days before the first ball is tossed.

“The women’s international calendar is too tight and the rescheduling of the Fed Cup match may cause even more trouble for us,” Tarpishchev said. “It’s not easy to reach an agreement with our top players, who are under contract obligations with their sponsors and tournaments organizers.”

The USTA reports that if the tie is delayed, its site in Birmingham can host play Monday and Tuesday.

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Thomaz Bellucci reached the second round of the Barcelona Open following a straight-sets victory over Jarkko Nieminen.

The Brazilian edged a tight encounter 6-4 6-4 at the Real Club de Tenis.

The tournament had earlier been hit by the withdrawal of defending champion Rafael Nadal, the world number three.

Back on court, Nicolas Almagro eased through against fellow Spaniard Santiago Ventura, taking only an hour to secure a 6-1 6-2 victory.

Almagro, the 15th seed, was completely dominant, firing 10 aces en route to victory.

Juan Ignacio Chela also progressed with a 6-1 6-4 win over Filip Krajinovic.

Richard Gasquet got the better of Russian Igor Andreev in a tight match lasting one hour 42 minutes.

The former Wimbledon semi-finalist edged a first-set tie break 7-5 before securing a vital break in the second to claim a 7-6 6-4 victory.

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Rafael Nadal has announced his decision to withdraw from the Barcelona Open BancSabadell – 58th Conde de Godó Trophy, organizers have confirmed. The Mallorcan player will hold a press conference at the tournament, which commenced earlier today, at noon on Tuesday in order to fully explain the reasons behind his decision.

In a message relayed by his communications manager, Rafael Nadal declared, “I am really sorry not to be able to play in Barcelona, more than any other tournament, but this year after the win in Monte Carlo my body is asking me to rest. I repeat that I’m especially sorry not to play there, because I would like it to be understood that it really is that way, because it is played in my club and it is my home tournament. I have said on many occasions that the tennis calendar, specifically the clay court season, is badly structured and my not being able to compete in Barcelona is a consequence of that. I want to extend my thanks in advance to the members of the club, the organizers of the tournament, and all of the fans for their understanding. Tomorrow I will be in Barcelona and will be available for the organizers.”

Rafael Nadal will meet with the media tomorrow at noon in the press conference room of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899.

David Nalbandian of Argentina and Tomas Berdych f the Czech Republic have announced their withdrawals from the Barcelona Open BancSabadell 59th Conde de Godó Trophy, citing right leg and left ankle problems respectively.

Nalbandian, who arrived in Barcelona from Monte Carlo where he reached the quarter finals, had been awarded a wild card invitation from the tournament and was due to make his 2010 debut against Austria’s Jurgen Melzer on Tuesday. ‘Lucky loser’ Nicolas Lapentti will take his place in the main draw.

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Just how good is Samantha Stosur? After her incredible showing in the 2010 Family Circle Cup where she hit 36 winners and less than 10 unforced errors, her performance has caught the imagination of the tennis predictors who are now adding her name to those of Serena and Henin as possible winners at Roland Garros.

“After this week, I’m feeling great on the clay,” Stosur said. “It’s great to be able to start the clay season. When I get to Roland Garros I will be ready to go and try to at least go as far as I did last year.” Stosur wore a left wristband bearing the words “attitude” and “composure”.

“They are just two words that stood out to me for the last little while,” she said. “It just keeps me focused on those two things. With the way I played, I was able to do that.”

After taking a severe pasting Zvonareva was gracious enough to say,”Sam played unbelievable and she deserved to win,”

Was her victory a onetime freakish affair? Or has she found that clay suits her game more then the hard courts?

I think it’s the latter. She has a vicious high kicking second serve that is unique among the Women players. The ball kicks as high as her opponents ears, a place where most players cannot effectively strike the ball, and it’s a serve that none are familiar with.

She hits the ball as hard as anyone on tour, and given the extra time that the clay offers, she can set her feet and hit winners off of both wings with relative ease. Couple this with her known ability as a great volleyer, a facet of the game she perfected as a top ten doubles player, and we have a complete package.

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Jelena Jankovic says she arrived in Brandeton by car. “I somehow managed to catch a sleep for a couple of hours. I travelled the entire day from Charleston untill late at night. Right after the quarter final match ended, which I played against Hantuchova, we packed our things and went to Brandeton by car. Now we are trying to find tickets and a plane, which would get us to Belgrade, but most of the airports in Europe are shut down due to the volcanic dust which appeared after the erruption in Island, it has covered almost entire Europe so far, and paralized air traffic.”

“Since I woke up I’m sitting at the computer reading all the news, following the situation with the air traffic problems, because it is very important for me to come to Belgrade as soon as possible. In a week time we are playing Fed Cup match in the play off, against Slovakia. I want to come home on a first possible flight, because I need to go to therapy at my doctors. My left wrist is hurt, and it has been swallen for almost seven days now. It was getting more and more worse from one match in Charleston to another. The balls in Charleston were too heavy and, unfortunately, on the first practice there I made some move which cost me an injury. I didn’t want to talk about it on the press conferences, because I didn’t want to encourage my future rivals by such information. I played as much as I could, without backhand and with fear that I could worsen that injury.”

“I’m continuing with the search for the flight by which I could arrive to Belgrade, but as could see on the news even our airport �Nikola Tesla� is cancelling all the flights. I hope that I will be able to come to Serbia somehow in a couple of days. If there are no planes, maybe I’ll find some submarine, hehehe, I’m just kidding!”

The Japan Tennis Association has asked that its Fed Cup playoff against Slovenia be postponed because of air travel disruptions caused by Iceland’s volcanic eruption.

Japan is scheduled to face Slovenia in a Fed Cup promotion/relegation playoff on April 24-25 in Maribor but asked the International Tennis Federation on Monday to postpone the match.

Japan’s players had been scheduled to leave on Sunday.

Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev has been forced to delay his departure for the United States and the Fed Cup semi-final with the United States on April 24-25 because of the disuption caused by the

volcano in Iceland.

Russia’s team doctor and several coaches were also forced to stay at home because of the severe disruption to international air travel caused by the eruption.

“We wanted to change our route to land at Los Angeles on the way to Birmingham, Alabama, but failed and now have to wait for the flights reopening,” Tarpishchev said.

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Is it possible that Murray’s sponsors are poking fun at their spokesman? He needs the ‘best seat in the house’ since has spent so much time recently sitting on the sidelines.

Highland Spring – one of Andy’s sponsors – has launched its biggest and best on-pack promotion to date. It’s called Best Seat in the House and has been created to help you enjoy a great summer of sport.

Available from leading supermarkets across the UK, Best Seat in the House gives you the chance to collect tokens on special promotional packs to redeem against a range of cool rewards, including the huge inflatable chair so expertly demonstrated by Andy above.

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American Wayne Odesnik has accepted “a voluntary provisional suspension” from all events, including the Grand Slams and other ATP-sanctioned tournaments.

The 24-year-old was caught with eight vials of human growth hormone (HGH), each containing six milligrams of the substance, by customs officers in Australia in January.

Odesnik pleaded guilty to importing the HGH in an Australian court in March and was fined more than $7,000 (around £4,500), but has not tested positive for a banned substance.

The International Tennis Federation said on Monday that the suspension began last Friday, and will run until his case, currently being investigated by the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, is finished and an independent tribunal has reached its decision.

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