Week 5 - 2nd half.....MORE tennis!

     On Sunday, we went to the big farmers' market-craft fair in Palm Desert.  All we bought were some vegetables  and some yummy dates.
     On Sunday, we started in Stadium 2 where we saw another huge upset.  Number 3 seed, Petra Kvitova was defeated by 19 year old Christina McHale.  It was a stunning defeat which took 3 grueling sets where McHale dug very deep.  Of course, the American crowd was solidly behind her, too.
      Later, we saw Roger Federer beat Denis Kudla handily - 6-4, 61.  He is amazing to watch; it is like a tennis workshop.  Kudla, born in the Ukraine, plays for the U.S.  At only 19, it seems he is someone to watch.  Later in the evening, we saw Agnes Radwanska beat Flavia Pannetta.  It was competitive in the beginning, but Radwanska got in rhythm and beat Pannetta in the second set by 6-1.
    On Monday we saw the tail end of a match between Mardy Fish and Matthew Ebden from Australia.  Ebden, a qualifier, beat Fish.  (He lost later in the week to John Isner).
We sat in Stadium 2 on the top row for hours.  (Not great for the backs!)  We just couldn't leave as the players were so compelling.  First, we saw almost a three hour match between Ana Ivanovic, who at age 24, is on a comeback. She took on 20 year old Ksenia Pervak of Kazakstan.  It was hard fought by both of them, but, in the end, Ivanovic prevailed.
    The next match was between the popular teams of Nadal-Garcia-Lopez and Alex Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse. There could not have been any more people fit into the stadium which was rocking.  The match was well-fought and very entertaining as the players seem to enjoy playing doubles.  In the end, Rafa and Mark Garcia-Lopez advanced.
    That evening, we almost saw another upset as Caroline Wozniacki took on Sofia Arviddson from Sweden.  Wozniacki, seeded 4th, won the tournament last year and was favored, but the set went almost three hours.  Wozniacki squeaked out in the end with her experience.  Because that set went on so long, the next set between the upcoming 19 year old Ryan Harrison versus Guillermo Garcia - Lopez did not even start until around 10:30.  We were tired and cold, so we reluctantly left after the first set.  Harrison, amazingly, won, taking him to the men's round of 16.  (He later lost in another hard-fought 3 setter to Gilles Simon.)
    On Tuesday, we first went to court 7 where we sat in the first row, next to the coaches of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, who are a winning doubles team.  It was exciting to be so close, although I did worry about the serves coming our way.  But, it was interesting to listen to the coaches.  It was an exciting match.  Paes and Stepanek beat Kai Nishikori, an upcoming Japanese man and Juan Monaco.    It went to two tie breaks.
   From there, we went back to our seats in Stadium 1 to watch a close match between Roger Federer and the dangerous Canadian Milos Raonic, who at 21, has the highest ranking ever for a Canadian male player.  (27)   It went the distance with Roger winning in the third, but it was a challenge for Federer as Raonic has a huge serve.
    The next set was another shocker as we saw Caroline Wozniacki go out to Ana Ivonovic.  Wozniacki, like Murray earlier, just didn't seem to get it together and Ivanovic gained confidence as the match proceeded.  It is nice to see Ivanovic back in the mix, making it to the final 8.
     On Wednesday, we decided to sit in the lawn chairs for a while and watch the big screens as we didn't really want to subject our backs to the bleachers in the outside courts and it was relaxing to just sit there.  The crowd was glued to two matches:
Federer vs. Thomas Bellucci in the main stadium, and Ryan Harrison versus Gilles Simon in Stadium 2.  Harrison put up quite a battle, fighting to stay in the second set, after having been down. But, eventually Simon prevailed.  Federer faced a challenge from Bellucci, but picked it up in the third set and won.
   Later, we saw two matches in Stadium 1.  First, we saw yet another upset as the 8th seed, Li Na, went down to 18 seed Angelique Kerber.  (4-6, 2-6).  Like Murray and Wozniacki, it did not seem that Li Na got into any kind of rhythm.  And, Kerber played well.  She is a 24 year old German and the two women exchanged some very long, hard-hitting volleys.
  Finally, we saw another exciting three-set match, maybe the best match we've seen by the men.  It was ninth seeded Juan Martin Del Potro versus Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.  We have never seen either of them and they treated us to a 2 hour, 44 minute match that went three sets.  Istomin is 25 and Del Potro is 23.  Only in the last set did Del Potro take control, winning 6-2, but the first two sets both went to thrilling tie breaks.  We did not leave the stadium until just before midnight.  Whew.