Mario Ancic defeated Andy Murray 6-4 6-4 to become one of the first players to advance to the third round of the Open Sabadell Atlántico in Barcelona.

Mario Ancic scored his second win of the year over Andrew Murray to send the British  number 1 crashing out in his first match. The players exchanged breaks of serve in the opening set, with Mario winning a vital second break in the ninth game before holding his nerve and serving out for the first set. The second set followed a similar pattern, Murray wasting three break points before Ancic wrapped up the second with same scoreline of the first.

Ancic is rapidly re climbing the rankings having missed much of the 2007 season due to illness, he advances to the third round to face the winner of the encounter between Nicolas Almagro and Filippo Volandri. In Contrast Murray seems to be floundering in making up points in this period he missed last year. The promising start he made to the year is starting to fade and the progression he had to make on clay is as yet not quite coming to fruition.

Murray was the third seed to exit the tournament, following Fernando Verdasco and Jarkko Nieminen.

In other matches Nicolas Lapentti beat Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno Traver.

Next week will see the start of the ATP tour clay court season with 3 master events and Grand Slam being crammed into a 6 week period. It will see two back to back masters event, Rome and Hamburg, played in the space of two weeks, where as last month the two back to back US hard court master events were spread over four weeks.

The clay court event congestion gets worse when you also consider that the event crammed in between master event Monte Carlo and Rome is also another important clay court event in Barcelona, which regularly attracts a high class field. Which means the clay courters on tour need to compete in 4 of their most important events in the same amount of weeks. Then to top it off after one week break, the only clay court grand slam is played.

The congestion has been caused because the ATP tour moved the two US masters events mentioned above, Miami and Indian wells to accommodate the US college basketball season.

World number 2 and 3 time French Open champion Rafael Nadal said,

It’s an outrageous way to treat European and clay-court players. The truth is the ATP is making our lives almost impossible, Moving Miami and Indian Wells back because of college basketball is something I understand because it’s very important to them but this is a world tour. We only have three Masters Series events and we have to play them with an important tournament like Barcelona all running together. I’m tired of complaining about this but the people in charge of this don’t share my opinion and I have to respect that.

The hard court players allready have the advantage of having more than 50% of all ATP events played on Hard courts and even a higher % of the big money events take place on hard courts. The 4 $1M+ tournaments that are played on tour will all be crammed in to the period between 21st April and ending with the final of French Open on 8th June. Whilst the 12 £1M+ hard court events are spread more evenly throughout the year.

 
The biggest fear of the clay court players will be if this trend continues, then the clay courts could be marginalised the same way that grass has been. There is only one major tournament currently played on grass, that being Wimbledon with a two mid tier events Halle and Queens club, which are played at the same time, meaning Grass court players only get 2 tournaments a year to play on their preferred surface. Which makes it no surprise we don’t see grass court specialists any more on the tour. No major player since Pat Rafter has made an impact with a serve and volley game.

Grass and carpet (Another surface that suits a serve volley player) are surfaces that have been used sparingly by the ATP tour in recent years. The increasing number of events played on hard courts, including this years Olympics threatens to remove variety from the game. I for one would love to see more grass court tennis and although clay is not my favorite surface I would hate to see it marginalised, which at the moment seems to be happening.

The USA and Spain both took control of their matches finishing day 1 of Davis cup Quarter final with a 2-0 lead. In the other two matches the score was deadlock at 1-1.

Scores after day 1

• RUSSIA 1, CZECH REPUBLIC 1
• ARGENTINA 1, SWEDEN 1
• SPAIN 2, GERMANY 0
• UNITED STATES 2, FRANCE 0

Andy Roddick first seen off Michael Llodra in a toughly fought set, that needed two tie breakers. In the second James Blake saved two matchpoints to win a five-set epic against Paul-Henri Mathieu, securing only third five-set win in the 11 matches he has played.

David Ferrer fought back to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-2 to give his Spannish team a 2-0 lead and are now one win away from reaching the Davis Cup semifinals for the first time in 4 years. Ferrer took to the court after Rafael Nadal’s comfortable straight-sets win over Nicolas Kiefer.

Marat Safin over came Tomas Berdych’s in a thrilling five setter. Savin produced one of his best performances in years as he came from two sets down for the first time in his career, to win 6-7(5-7) 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4. Radek Stepanek struck back to level the tie with a straight sets victory over Igor Andreev.

Robin Soderling beat Jose Acasuso to give Sweden a vital point, defeating the Argentine easily 6-0 6-4 6-1, to square the tie after David Nalbandian had given Argentina the lead with a less comfortable win over Thomas Johansson in Buenos Aires, eventually winning 6-2 5-7 6-4 6-2.

Andy Murray has pulled out of next week’s ATP tour event in Valencia Open after picking up a virus during his preperations for the event.

The Valencia Open marks the begining of this year’s clay court season and during this period Murray must earn as much points as possible since dropping out the top 20 this week. He has no points to defend on the red surface as he missed most of last years clay court season due to injury.

Murray learned his craft on clay, but as yet has not produced any significant wins or showed any form on the surface. After hiring clay court specialist and two time french open champion Alex Coretja to join his coaching staff, he will be expecting more this year.

Murray will no next play at Masters Series tournament in Monte Carlo on 21 April.

Britain’s second most successful open era player Tim Henman will join BBC Sport’s team of experts for coverage of this year’s Wimbledon Championships. This year Britain’s most successful open era player Greg Rusdeski has joined the BBC’s rival tv broadcasting team on Sky.

Today Henman said,

I’m delighted to be joining the BBC team this year, It’s exciting for me to return to Wimbledon in a non-playing capacity.

BBC TV executive producer of Wimbledon Paul Davies added:

Tim was an incredibly popular player and the success, drama and passion he experienced at Wimbledon has created a unique connection with both the Championship and British tennis fans. Returning to SW19 with the BBC team seems the perfect fit and his on-court experience will add a fascinating dimension to our coverage. We hope this will be the start of a successful partnership between Tim and the BBC.

Henman won 11 ATP career titles and reached four Wimbledon semi-finals in five years between 1998 and 2002, whilst Rusedski won 15 titles and went one better reaching a grand slam final at the US open. Both will be hoping that fellow Britain can go one better and overcome the huge burden of expectation and win a grand slam. Murray, a winner of 5 ATP titles at the age of 20 is well on track to eclipse both Greg and Tim, whether he will ever win a grand slam we will have to wait and see. 

The Wimbledon build up event played in Nottingham will come to an end this year with new event for both men and women planned for Eastbourne.  Eastbourne is currently the UK’s biggest women’s tournament after Wimbledon.

The Nottingham event, held the week prior to Wimbledon, is a significant smaller than that of the Uk’s other grass court tournament the Stella Artois championships at Queens Club, which is held two weeks before Wimbledon and usually attracts a first class field.

In 2010 the Eastbourne event venue will be opened up to bids from new venues, so it’s current Birmingham location could change.

Former British Number 1 Greg Rusedski won this title twice in his career and younger brother to Andy, Jamie won the doubles here last with Eric Butorac.

Roger Draper, chief executive of the LTA, said:

The new, co-ordinated calendar will help raise the profile of the sport nationally and enhance the experience for fans, players and spectators. We are confident that the changes will help to re-energise the calendar and open up the sport to a new audience as well as offering a better experience for existing fans. The bidding process in 2010 further opens up the calendar and means that new venues have the option of bidding to host world class tennis. This is at the heart of the LTA’s new commercial strategy where we hope to position a lead partner as the umbrella sponsor of British tennis.

Andy Murray has insisted that he will represent Great Britain at the Olympics in Beijing this summer.

I’m definitely going to play at the Olympics, It’s something that not all athletes get the chance to do in their career. It’s an honour to represent your country and I’m looking forward to it. I’m just hoping I can get a good run this year and not have any problems with injury.

This years Olympic Games has been in the news for more reasons than sport recently, with many protests occurring over the hosts China’s human rights record. However, Andy was only focusing on tennis and the court challenges ahead.

For me, the Olympics is more about the sport, I’m just concentrating and looking forward to playing in the tennis. I’m not a politician.

The tennis competition at the Olympics is set to finish on 17 August, with the US Open scheduled to start on 27 August.

Murray will be joined by Roger Federer the world number and most dominant force in tennis over the last 4 year as he aims to add Olympic glory to his collection of titles.