ATP Toronto - Nalbandian sets up Sod encounter

David Nalbandian continued his excellent form of late by reaching the 3rd round of the Toronto Masters. In the 1st round he recovered from losing the second set to beat the consistent, David Ferrer. He then demolished an uninterested Tommy Robredo to set up an intriguing clash with Robin Soderling. Soderling had a tricky 2nd round match with Ernest Gulbis who took the first set. Soderling however showed great character to hang in the match, saving several break points and turn the match around with his punishing groundstrokes. Nalbandian v Soderling is the highlight match on Thursday and i'm going for Soderling to come through in 3 sets.

The big 4 all came through in straight sets but all 4 were pushed. Federer overcame some first set jitters to defeat Juan Ignacio Chela 7-6 6-3. Nadal was also pushed hard in a first set tiebreak by Stanislas Wawrinka but ultimately prevailed. Andy Murray was struggling at 5-4 down in the first set to Xavier Malisse but managed to raise his game and helped along by a collapse of Malisse, was able to come through in straight. Djokovic had the toughest match as he was evidently struggling with the conditions as he called for the trainer in the 2nd set. He did manage to come through in the end defeating Julien Benneteau 7-5 7-5. The surprises so far have included the exits of Sam Querrey, Marin Cilic and Fernando Verdasco. Querrey continues to be inconsistent in his performances as he was defeated by Kevin Anderson in 3 sets who will now face Rafa Nadal. Cilic once again was disappointing and is failing to meet his potential as he was ousted by Viktor Troicki in straight sets. Verdasco was serving for the match against Jeremy Chardy before a major collapse which ultimately saw him losing the match. Verdasco has struggled of late and this performance was extremely disappointing and uncharacteristic of Verdasco who should be beating players of Chardy's calibre. This gives Chardy a match-up with Davydenko who will feel confident of getting some winning matches together.