Indian Wells: Playstation II

(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Zheng d. Sharapova 6-3 2-6 6-3

"She's like a ball machine," Sharapova said. "She hits a lot of balls back, hits them hard and deep.

"I mean, I'd say I should have done a much better job on her serve, because her serve is definitely one of her weaker parts of the game, but… "

--Yahoo Sports

WTA – you have your Playstation.

Quite similar to what Ivanovic had to say of her after her 2008 loss to Zheng at Wimbledon. Particularly the hard and deep part.

Zheng definitely troubles the tall girls – especially those that can’t keep themselves from firing 14 double faults and 49 UFEs.

I’m no longer much convinced that shoulder biomechanics have anything much to do with this. The injury may be what got her into this position in the first place, but this particular malady just became systemic, and it’s currently working it’s toxins into her groundies.

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Djokovic d. Kohlschreiber 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-3)

Yeah…I’m actually kinda glad I got hold of this shot, because since late last year, I put it to you all that Djoko’s service action has become more and more…..‘clubby’ – by which I mean that there’s now barely any bend in his arm at all.

His serve was always a little nuanced like that – the effect has been more pronounced in recent months. Viewed side on, it’s almost like he’s pushing the ball over.

None of which had any bearing on the match of course

Kohlschreiber’s always a good bet to bag a top ten scalp – today he held three match points, before going down in three.

It was never going to be easy, perhaps even incomplete to leave Djoko with anything other than another three set win.

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Federer d. Hanescu 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-1

Fed’s victory over Hanescu was another ‘routine’ affair. By which I mean the obligatory lapsed set.

Douglas Perry preferred to focus on the lapse. Tignor preferred to debunk the cool clinical mystique– painting Fed as “agitated” and “making the most of getting scared” (he should know, seated up front with the bigwigs, only a row or two behind Larry Ellison).

There’s a lot to agree with in both those analyses – I just found it all a little blah.

Which is probably a good thing at this stage in the game.

And it might be the new choppy hairdo, but that’s the most un-Federer like Federer photo I’ve seen in a while.