Albert Montañés (SPA) won the ATP 250 of Estoril (Portugal), defeating portuguese hero, Gil.
He defends his last year title, and reach the 4rd title of his career.
For Gil, it was his first-ever final.
Let's Remember that Montañés beat Roger Federer in the SF.
The future looks very, very dark for Roger, i must (sadly) say. But hey, he is Roger Federer and he's perfectly capable of winning Madrid, Roland Garros, Halle and Wimbledon, but ONLY if he remembers how to play tennis. C'mon Rog!!!
Mikael Youzhny (RUS) won the ATP 250 of Munich (Germany), defeating Marin Cilic in the final.
It's the first title of the year for Youzhny, the 6th in his career. It was his 6th final in the last 8 months. Not bad at all.
For Cilic it was his 3rd final of the year, with two titles. He also has 5 finals in the last 8 months.
Sam Querrey (USA) won the ATP 250 of Belgrade (Serbia), defeating countryman Isner in the final.
The top seed, Novak Djokovic, withdrew due to virus infection.
Querrey reaches the 2nd title of the year, and the 4th title of his career.
With this title and the final in Houston, he now looks strong for Madrid and Roland Garros, and i dare to say that he will make pretty well in those (a QF and maybe a SF).
this week is the Masters 1000 of Madrid (Spain).
Nole withdrew because of virus infection, so he lose 250 (Belgrade) + 360 = 610 points, and if Rafa reach the final in Madrid, he will reclaim the no. 2 spot.
That's pretty likely to happen, so, Rafa and Roger would be in diferent halves of the draw in Roland Garros, but something is tell me that Roger won't make his 5th straight final this time...
Del Potro and Davydenko are also out, so, the no. 2, 5, 6 of the world are out. That's why Soderling is the fourth seed this time.
Projected QFs:
Federer-Roddick
Murray-Cilic
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Soderling-Verdasco
Nadal-Tsonga
Nadal should win, just because he's like no other in clay. On top of that, there's no Nole, Delpo and Kolya. Besides, Federer and Murray are playing like shit, so... his biggest opponents right now (not only for Madrid, but for Roland Garros as well) are Soderling and Verdasco. Pretty easy for Rafa.
The only thing that could happen is that Roger find his Oz Open form... THAT would be awesome for all of us tennis fans (a Roger-Rafa final).
Roger has a pretty comfortable draw, since Roddick is no great-threat in clay and because of his terrible head-to-head against Fed.
And in the SF, Murray is playing pretty bad and clay is his worst surface, and Cilic, well, started the year amazingly, but now he's in a deep slump. So, if there's a time for recover, Roger, is Now. You must make the final. Don't matter is Rafa beat the shit out of you, the final is enough for now. I mean, he's coming from a lose in hands of... Albert Montañes?? c'mon...
The other half if, of course, more interesting: Rafa, Soderling and Verdasco make more noise.
Let's just pray for a Federer-Nadal final again (last year, in his last match right here in Madrid, Fed beat Rafa)