The first Masters 1000 Tournament of 2009 was a brilliant success. Nadal is starting to put his own personality and stamp on to the No 1 ranking, growing in confidence as the main man rather than seeing it as a temporary position until Roger takes it back. Something which is now highly unlikely. Roger’s meltdown again Andy Murray is the third time this year with Doha semi-final (6-1 in the third) and the Aussie Open final (6-2 in the fifth). This must be a concern for Roger and his fans. I really thought he’d dropped the shackles of doubt and found the freedom and aggression needed to beat Andy and Rafa with the way he played the second set against Andy, but the careless overhead which he did not bury at 1-1 in the third, which Andy reflexed for a winner, followed by the distraction of Andy’s fall saw an amazing disintegration of his focus. Rafa was excellent in the final, handling the tough conditions so much better than Andy. Mentally Nadal is on a different level to the rest because he brings his mentality to the court every day without exception, win or lose. The Locker Room Power has shifted from Roger to Rafa and from Novak to Andy. Novak hurt his LRP by quitting his match against Roddick in the Aussie Open and Roddick further drove the point home with victory again in the quarter-finals of Indian Wells.

The circuit now moves on to Miami where I predict another Nadal-Murray semi-final with a possible surprise thrown into the mix because invariably Miami has a surprise semi-finalist.

The women will most probably be the Williams show with Ivanovic enjoying a honeymoon period now coached by a friend of mine Craig Kardon, an experienced coach who will not get carried away with the early success in Indian Wells but will be building towards a solid year. There are a lot of young players moving forward in the Women’s game and it will be interesting to see which one or two step up and move into the top five or higher. The names to watch for are Wosniacki, Radwanska sisters, Pavlyuchenkova (semi-finalist of Indian Wells), Cornet, Azarenka, Kleybanova, Kvitova or Cirstea, all of whom are talented individuals with good games and already showing signs of having the mental capacity to challenge the top of the game. Having this potential however is a little different to converting it into major tournament wins.

MCTA

After an excellent training block in the USA, followed by a tournament where Christina Mathis made the semi-finals in Costa Rica and Stefy Boffa the semi-finals of the doubles in Fort Walton, the girls are back in Europe where Anna Fitzpatrick, in her first tournament back from injury after seven months out, was able to win the doubles in Bath 10k with Stefy. Anna will be playing doubles again in Jersey before beginning her singles career again in Turkey a week later.

Both Stefy and Christina are currently at career highs with their WTA and ITF rankings respectively. All the girls have an opportunity to improve their rankings significantly over the next three months.

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