TENNIS in DEPTH.

Defending champion David Nalbandian dropped out of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington DC at the first hurdle as he was defeated by James Blake. Nalbandian, seeded eighth, never found his rhythm as he lost 6-2 6-4 in the second-round clash. The Argentinian was the only seed to lose as number 11 John Isner topped Tobias Kamke 6-1 6-3, 13th seed Kevin Anderson rallied to dispatch qualifier Chris Guccione 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-0) and number 16 Jarkko Nieminen beat Igor Kunitsyn 7-5 6-4, all in second-round clashes.

The rest of today’s action was in the first round, and was highlighted by a lengthy battle between Grigor Dimitrov and Tim Smyczek, which eventually saw Dimitrov come through 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3). Ryan Sweeting beat Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-2 6-4, Flavio Cipolla dispatched Marsel Ilhan 7-5 6-0 and Michael Berrer was a 7-5 6-1 winner over Paolo Lorenzi.

Wildcard Ryan Harrison advanced with a 6-4 1-6 6-1 win over Mischa Zverev, Somdev Devvarman beat Denis Gremelmayr 6-2 6-3 and Tommy Haas beat Amer Delic 6-2 6-3.

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Kevin Anderson is through to the quarter-finals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships for the second consecutive year after a 6-1 7-5 win over Michael Russell. The big-serving second seed fired down 10 aces to set-up a last-eight meeting with Gilles Muller, who edged past wild card Robby Ginepri 7-6 (8-6) 2-6 6-2.

John Isner won an epic all-American clash with James Blake 7-6 (10-8) 6-7 (7-3) 7-5 in just shy of three hours. Blake battled back from a break down in the second to take the match to a decider but his younger opponent held on. Third-seeded Isner will now meet Yen-Hsun Lu after he recovered well from a set down to beat qualifier Marinko Matosevic 3-6 6-1 6-2.

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Blake had lost his only two previous meetings against the young Latvian and was immediately in trouble when he conceded the opening set. But the 31-year-old rallied, either side of a rain delay, to triumph 5-7 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 and set up a second-round meeting with compatriot and third seed John Isner.

Fellow American Michael Russell also won through after he brushed aside teenage wildcard Donald Young 6-0 6-3, but the news was not so good for other local hopefuls Alex Bogomolov jnr and Ryan Sweeting. Seventh seed Bogomolov was bundled out by Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 6-3 7-6 (8/6), while Sweeting lost a hard-fought three-setter against India’s eighth seed Somdev Devvarman 6-4 3-6 6-4. Japan’s Tatsuma Ito claimed his first ATP Tour win by beating Michael Berrer 7-6 (8/6) 6-4.

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Canadian Milos Raonic continued his impressive early-season form by beating former world number four James Blake in straight sets in their second-round clash at the San Jose Open on Wednesday. The confident, big serving 20-year-old showed his mettle in a 6-2 7-6 triumph to set up a quarter-final against Lithuanian Richard Berankis, who defeated American Donald Young 6-4 5-7 7-5. “Serving well, taking care of my serve and putting pressure on return games. Everything’s coming together.” Raonic’s serve did let him down once, however, when he was broken at 5-4 when serving for the match, but he recovered to persevere through a tie-breaker.

After reaching the fourth round of last month’s Australian Open as a qualifier, Raonic showed more composure and recorded 13 aces in his latest triumph. “To overcome what happened in that game, that good game he played, was really satisfying,” Raonic said. “I was more excited than usual after my win over James today.”

Defending champion and top-seeded Fernando Verdasco advanced past American Rajeev Ram in an easy 6-3 6-2 first-round rout. Second-seeded Gael Monfils also made in through the first round thanks to a 6-3 6-2 win over Bradley Klahn. In the day’s other first-round action, big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic knocked off home favourite Ryan Sweeting 6-4 6-4 while American Robert Kendrick topped Russian Igor Kunitsyn 7-5 3-6 6-4

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Ivan Ljubicic will partner former tennis great Ivan Lendl for the International Team at the World Tennis Challenge, 11–13 January 2011. WTC Co-Tournament Director Mark Woodforde believes Ljubicic and Lendl will form a formidable team at Australia’s most innovative event. “Lendl is here to win and he is really excited that Ivan has agreed to partner him on the International team,” Woodforde said.

“With only one player left to announce, we could not be more happy with the calibre of players we have on board so far this year – it’s going to make for an amazing event comprising great on-court entertainment and, of course, some incredible and history making tennis. “The pairing of Ivan and Ivan will surely make the International team the one to beat for this year’s World Tennis Challenge title. “The former No.3 is currently ranked No.17 on the ATP World Tour and the Croatian has finished in the top 50 for the past 10 years. Ljubicic is a winner of nine career ATP titles and has amassed more than $9 million in career prize money. He has also led Croatia in Davis Cup for more than a decade and holds a 36-18 Davis Cup win-loss record.

Lendl and Ljubicic will be tough competition for crowd favourites John McEnroe and James Blake who make up Team America. Sell-out crowds are expected in 2011 with Lendl to face former rival John McEnroe. Both share a record of 12 year-end world championships, and the rivalry still remains fierce between the two players. With Henri Leconte and Michael Llodra confirmed for Team Europe and crowd favourite Pat Cash forming half of Team Australia, there is just one player still to be announced – a current day Australian player who will partner Cash.

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Third seed Novak Djokovic is through to the fourth round of the US Open after knocking out American James Blake 6-1 7-6 6-3 on Saturday night.

Djokovic, a runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2007 and a losing semi-finalist in the last two years, stormed past 30-year-old Blake to take the first set in 22 minutes. Blake delighted the home crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium by breaking for a 4-2 lead in the second set but the Serbian broke back immediately and won the tie-break before wrapping up the match relatively comfortably.

Djokovic now faces another American in Mardy Fish as the 19th seed continued his impressive recent form with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory over France’s Arnaud Clement, his 19th win in his last 21 matches.

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Gael Monfils suffered an early exit in the ATP Western & Southern Financial Group Masters at the hands of qualifer Alejandro Falla.

The Colombian converted three of his four break-point chances on his way to recording an impressive 6-3 6-4 triumph in just over an hour.

Next up for Falla in Cincinnati will be Germany’s Philipp Kohschreiber, who battled back to beat Horacio Zeballos 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-4.

However James Blake fell at the first hurdle, the former champion suffering a 6-3 6-0 loss at the hands of Russian Denis Istomin in just 45 minutes.

“I didn’t have my best, or even close to my best. I haven’t felt prepared for a tournament for a long time thanks to a lot of injuries,” the American said.

“I’ve felt like things have been getting better, and then you get setback after setback and it takes its toll.”

There was better news for Blake’s compatriot Mardy Fish, as he knocked out Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

Andy Murray now knows he will face Jeremy Chardy in his opening match after the Frenchman eliminated German Florian Mayer 6-2 7-6 (7-4).

Julien Benneteau won an all-French tussle with Michael Llodra 3-6 6-3 6-2, while Richard Gasquet rallied from a poor opening set to triumph 2-6 6-4 6-1 against Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

In early second round action, seventh seed Tomas Berdych saw off the challenge of Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-4 6-4, while Marcos Baghdatis won a final-set tie-breaker to knock out Thomaz Bellucci 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7-4).

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James Blake and Andy Roddick blasted Wayne Odesnik for admitting to importing human growth hormones in January before a tuneup tournament to the first major of the year.

Odesnik, 24, who lives in Fort Lauderdale and is ranked 98th, was fined $8,320 in an Australian court Friday and faces a possible two-year ban from tennis. The ITF handles all doping decisions and is investigating the case.

“That’s just plain cheating and they should throw him out of tennis,” Roddick said after his second-round victory over Russian Igor Andreev that ended after midnight Friday.

“I was shocked. We don’t need stories like that. That’s the minority. If that’s the case I have zero sympathy.

Blake, who played World Team Cup with Odesnik, was also unforgiving.

“It’s the same thing you hear about the criminal next door — he seemed like a nice guy until they found something going on,” Blake said. “People look for a way to get ahead, and that’s unfortunate. It’s something that’s frustrating. You want to feel like you’re playing on a fair playing field. I’m glad they caught him.”

Roddick, who has practiced with Odesnik near his home in Austin, became more agitated as the questions continued.

“To have it be one of our guys and for us to lose a guy in the Top 100, it makes me a little angry,” Roddick said. “I don’t want that stigma attached to our country and to our players, so it really [angers] me.

“I take a lot of pride in what we have to do on a daily basis and how responsible we have to be for one …. jackass to ruin it for the rest of us.”

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