I played a good match last night against Andreev.  Igor started the match serving exceptional.  He served 73% and every first serve was in the 130 mph range.  He broke me once in a tight game and that was all he needed.  Andreev has one of the heaviest forehands in the game, and his ball was jumping very high in the daylight. 

As the sun went down the conditions started to slow down a little bit and I was able to capitalize on one break of serve in the second set.  That gave me a lot of confidence and I was able to ride the momentum in the third set.  His first serve percentage dropped in the third set and I played very solid from the baseline winning the third set 6-2. 

Today has been a rest day, I practiced early on stadium to get used to the surroundings and have spent the remainder of the day finishing some school work   I will write after my match tomorrow with details of the Murray match. 

Talk to you soon and thanks again for the support.

Michael

Well I played another night match this year.  In Indian Wells, at night the conditions are completely different than during the day since the temperature when we stepped on court was 55 degrees!  The balls and the playing conditions are much slower, even though the desert here is elevated a little bit.  I played solid in my match, Lorenzi has great defensive skills and I did a good job of finishing some points at the net. 

I am happy with my first round performance because the first match in a tournament is always difficult.  Following the match, I was drug tested at 10 30pm!  It doesn’t happen to often that you win a match and get drug tested, but it is good to see that they are increasing their random tests on players and ensuring that our sport is clean.  I have a day off now, to rest up and practice and get ready for Sunday’s match. 

Thanks for the support and check back in for my next blog.

Michael