The official draws for the U.S. Open were announced Thursday and for the third time this season, the bookmakers and the men’s seeding committee do not see eye-to-eye in a Grand Slam event.

Thirty-one year old Croatian Ivan Ljubicic did the unthinkable in silencing a heavy pro-Roddick crowd by out-serving America’s top gunslinger. Not that Roddick served poorly, he did not. It’s just that Ljubicic served spectacularly, which he did.

As happens so often in the pivotal third set, he who serves well, wins. The trend happened again twice on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open as 31-year old Ivan Ljubicic staved off a charge from Rafa Nadal and Andy Roddick sealed the deal against Robin Soderling.

It is hard to tell if 31-year old Ivan Ljubicic is celebrating his birthday on Friday or celebrating a well-deserved day off as he prepares for his semifinal match with Spanish sharp shooter Rafa Nadal on Saturday. Nadal, fresh off a three set win over John Isner, withstood a late charge by the 19th seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-6 (4) to win his 20th of 21 matches at Indian Wells. The defending champion looks healthy and fleet afoot.

If tennis fans wanted explosive action on day four of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, they were sorely disappointed. Two retirements on the men’s side deprived spectators (and TV viewers) of compelling combat, while the women–with their tournament bracket thrown upside-down by a spate of upsets–provided just one eyebrow-raising result in the round of 16. [...]

As the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters heads toward a pair of Saturday semifinals, it’s just as the oddsmakers predicted heading into the tournament: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray join a Swiss tennis player in the final four. Oh, wait: Stanislas Wawrinka, not Roger Federer, is the man representing Switzerland as the year’s first [...]

Andy Murray didn’t bench press 600 pounds or stop a criminal in a back alley on a humid Saturday afternoon in Miami. He did, however, prove his toughness to his peers. Murray withstood the hard hitting of Argentina’s Juan Monaco to pull out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory in just over two hours. The second-round [...]