I have to admit that the story about Novak in Scotland made me smile. I find that PseudoFed is hit or miss. Most of it isn't funny but then he had the article about asking for Haas' permission to call the trainer that was actually funny.

I have to admit I'm relieved that the end of this match was purely a fitness/mental issue for Haas, given the physical issues he's had. It's always interesting when Gasquet and Murray play each other. After Murray's match today, I have trouble picturing the upset (that wouldn't have been the case a few days ago) but at least it's clear Gasquet is finally playing at a high level again.

I admit that I read this with one specific question in mind: how did you feel about the fame caused by the 11 hour match? I ask this as an Isner fan since his Washington run straight out of college. I had always felt this was a gritty young man mixed with this aw-shucks attitude but I admit being so proud that he was involved with a match like that. As for Mahut, I always hoped he'd have that moment when he could really see the effect he's had, to be on the winning side for a change so he could enjoy it. I felt that happened by beating Roddick (the player he lost to for the Queens title) at Roland Garros (the yearly letdowns).

It's been a common scene the last few years to see Roddick get behind then start to blame everything else on the court and at least get angry. The fact nothing of the sort happened in this match might be more troublesome than the result.

Anderson was already a seed due to Fish & Nishikori out. Florian Mayer is now a seed thanks to Monfils.

At this point, safe to say that Venus will be playing unless she literally can't walk onto the court. I just can't see both Lepchenko and King passing her at this point. I haven't been all that impressed with Vania's singles play this year but it looks like it's going to be that, not the doubles ranking, that will determine her fate. The fact that Vania doesn't have an American doubles partner - and I can't see her matching well with a Williams sister - means that ranking doesn't help her here Another player with this type of problem is Sam Querrey, who would qualify as a team for doubles with Isner but the six-players-max rule makes it highly unlikely he'll be picked unless he makes a big run the next two events.

Judging from the way Raonic's serve plays on this court, I'd say Fed is going to have issues in their match. I don't necessarily think tiebreaks are a bad thing here - Ferrer beat Raonic in two tiebreaks. I'd also say that this match in particular made the blue clay seem like a hard court. Aren't there enough of those on the schedule?

This match was a case of the score not saying it all. Yes, it was a three set match against a higher ranked player but Donald only played decently in the second. In the third set, Troicki didn't really have to do anything until the last game of the match (still has issues finishing matches, even against a player like Donald). That he didn't win doesn't really bother me since clay is clearly not his surface - Harrison hadn't won on clay until today and most of the other Americans stayed in the US. Giving up on sets does bug; he did that against Mathieu when he only won one game. His mental game is gone, a disaster given his size forces his game to rely on his brain.

Besides the Olympics, there's another resource that has yet to be tapped in South American events and that's the power of their best player. del Potro, despite some nice results on clay, prefers the hard courts. He has never played the Latin American swing - traveling to the US and/or European events in February.

It would have served so much better to have someone who is a fan of his despite some of these faults. In my case, I was not a fan of his when he was actually in his best years. Every time I'd sit down ready to watch him play and see what the hype is about, he appeared uninterested or was actually injured (or "injured"). I didn't see the 2005 Monte Carlo matches until only a few months ago so the first time I really saw him light it up was the Roddick match. That match at the time actually angered me as a Roddick fan because I was all "this flake never does anything when I want to see him play and he decides to wake up now?" I was happy when the next year at Wimbledon was the Murray match. But for me I became a fan because of the suspension. It would have been nice to see the person writing this column explain their feelings about that specific period in time. How someone who is a fan deals with an incident like that. Richard was considered a joke outside the tennis world for the suspension and the defense that went with it. I saw him mentioned on something as far away as TMZ! What caught my attention was the players' reactions. Tennis was dealing with Agassi's book, saw a decided lack of support for Martina Hingis and players to this day deriding Odesnik. This felt different, as I'd hear in particular Nadal talk about this. By the time he was cleared, it was the rare time I actually believed it wasn't a corrupt system. I should point out that, while Murray is actually my favorite player, I would admit that their 2010 French Open match was a time I was totally torn. When Richard was up 2 sets and a break and you could actually sense he knew exactly the position he was in, I really didn't know what to do as a fan. It's something I've never seen happen - I've seen chokes, I've seen Richard choke, but I've never seen a player actually replay a previous match with an opponent during a changeover and look scared of history repeating itself instead of thinking of possible victory.

Hard to really take anything regarding Rafa from this match, given that he won it before stepping on the court. Kuku looked scared from the first shot. Rafa's biggest issue was the lightning in the distance spooking him in the warmup.

When I saw this matchup, I initially thought Montanes for the win - until I remembered Albert's actual form this year. Albert is exactly the kind of player that would give a player like Raonic fits: not physically imposing but uses his comfort on the surface to make North American players raised on hard court wonder how they could ever win on clay. Milos should look at Isner's Davis Cup wins to see how someone with a big serve can win on clay if they have the right strategy.

I would be the first to say I don't take much stock in Russell beating Fish. That said, the effect of a week like this is a big deal. The points from this week (even if he loses) will put him around 105 in the world - right around the ranking to make the main draw of Grand Slams. For a 33 year old journeyman to still be able to accomplish that is a big deal and speaks for his resolve.

The best thing about Tennis Channel's countdown of the Greatest of All Time was the footage of the older players and hearing the older commentators/historians/living relatives talking about them. Thanks for posting this match - very fascinating.

For a mere 500 level tournament, this was a really tough draw for Murray. Berdych is the player outside the Top 3 he's had most problems with so beating him then following it with beating Djokovic is still a big deal. I don't see losing to Federer having much of an affect. That he did this well in the first tournament after a painful Australian Open loss (something that hasn't been true the last two years) is an excellent sign for the Masters events upcoming. Federer will likely make a big deal out of this win but this match means little beyond the fact he finally faced Murray for the first time in over a year.

While I agree to some extent that it doesn't mean that much because we know Murray can beat these guys in best of 3, the truth is he really didn't do much of that last year. The final against Rafa in Tokyo was the only outright win for Murray. He also didn't get to face Federer last year, the one Murray has a winning record against. I'm interested to see how they match up now.

I had tuned out after a series of failed slices and drop shots from Dolgopolov gave del Potro a 5-3 lead - he had seemed ready to bail from the match - so I'm rather surprised it got to a tiebreak. Still, good test for a clearly weary delPo.

I watched the two SFs and this final and it's funny how someone can be defensive yet can mean two totally different things. I find most Wozniacki matches to be dull whereas I enjoy watching Radwanska matches. That both played Goerges make it rather easy to see the difference. I love watching Aga's variety of shots and why she deserves to be compared to Hingis in style. I also like that, so far this year, she's speaking up about the top players in a way you'd never hear from her before. Yes the most amusing part have been Sharapova's "isn't she back in Poland" and Azarenka's reactions to her words but she is starting to believe she's good enough to start to mix it up in the press about them, which is a positive sign.

I was kind of puzzled at how little respect Goerges was getting before the match. How quickly it is forgotten what she did to Wozniacki twice last year - and that was a confident Woz at that point getting pushed around by Julia.

I needed to comment on something written in the article: If he starts to lose to someone ranked below him whom he believes he should beat, he’ll get his back up: How dare you? This attitude has helped him survive many challenges from lower-ranked guys over the years and made him a strong competitor in general. It's exactly this aspect that has made me lose respect for him as he's in his later years. When he's losing to a player he shouldn't, that's when he gets combative. I can understand a player who loses it in the heat of battle but Roddick doesn't seem to get that way against players he respects. I say this as a long-time fan of Andy Roddick who has lost love for him in the last two years. It's almost like clockwork to predict when he's going to argue with a linesjudge or chair umpire. He does usually seem to feel bad about acting this way by the time of the post-match press conference. He's in general a good sport and a good representative but it's now so tiring and I wish I could say more about his game than his attitude. At the USO 2011, it was nice to see the no-nonsense guy return, especially when it came to the rain and court issues and then later rising to the occasion to beat Ferrer. When I first saw Roddick, I wasn't a fan. He was this brash young kid who was being promoted for his serve without the results. When he played the match against El Ayanaoui, that was when I realized how strong his fight was and I was on board from that point. When he won the USO later that year, I did think he'd win Wimbledon once due to the way the game was at that point (Ivanisevic and Krajicek won there with not that much more than a serve so why not). By being a fan of Roddick, it made me frustrated by Federer because I didn't think Roger was really *that* good. It wasn't until Rafa made his first Wimbledon final that I felt how good Federer truly was. Even now, I rarely root for Federer (though the reasons have changed) but I can still respect all that he's done.

This is reminding me of Novak's start of last year. We don't know yet how long she'll go on winning but you could immediately see the change in Novak once he won that second major. Both started walking about with that same swagger. You never doubted from the moment she got on the court that Vika was in control.

It saddens me the number of comments I'm seeing about her physique. If she is able to compete at top level, I don't care - Lindsay Davenport is a great example. It's when a player wears down that I feel it's more of an issue (hence the critism on Pavlyuchenkova). The US has two current ladies junior champs (Taylor joining Grace Min) and Madison Keys is, in my opinion, better than both of them. Doesn't seem so bad at the moment for the future of American tennis.

While I figured Azarenka has the edge against Sharapova in an ordinary match, you never know how a player is going to be when they finally get to that first GS final (and the start made that seem a possible issue). Gone are the days when she'd play passively in a big match. She just got better and more comfortable as the match went on.

Rather sad that Jelena doesn't sound as if she's pushing to make a run at the top of the game. Amazing how the circumstances of the Clijsters/Li match (both the injury and the streakiness) actually have made the current #1 as favored to win the match!

I'm not sure I've ever seen Lleyton cry until the end of this match. It's nice that the Aussies have finally come to appreciate what Hewitt has done in his career. If this is the last big win of his career, nice that it happened here.