2 out of 3 for Top Seeds

The 3 Top seeds made it to the Final in Estoril, Valencia and Houston. Only two of them won the title. Federer defeated Russian World N°4 Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 1-2 ret. due to a left leg injury at his muscle. Then another top 10 player won David Ferrer took 3 sets to beat Nicolas Almagro 4-6 6-2 7-6 in over 2h. On the other side of the ocean, in Houston James Blake lost to Marcel Granollers from Spain in 3 sets as well 6-4 1-6 7-5.

At the Estoril Open it was the top 2 seed battling it out for the title, it was the 3rd meeting between them on clay and Federer kept his record perfect overall (12-0). It was a very tight first set as Federer had few break point opportunities early on, and then saved a couple a set points on his serve. With no breaks of serve, Federer won the tie-break 7 points to 5. During the changeover, Davydenko went to the lockers to have a massage to his left leg, and then came back firing as he broke Federer and led 2-1 before he decided to retire.

It was the first time that Federer won a title with his opponent forced to retire. Federer said it was a shame for Nikolai to do that in the final, but he was still very happy with his first win of the season and a perfect start for the Roland Garros campaign. He also is very happy with Jose Higueras who will follow him in Monte-Carlo next week.

In Valencia, it was local resident and hometown favourite David Ferrer against Nicolas Almagro who already won 2 tournaments this season on clay, and seems like a good contender for the French Open. Ferrer who saved match points against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the QF. Ferrer won his 6th career title and his first of the season he improved to 6-4 in his ATP finals.

In Houston it was the seed N°7 Marcel Granollers from Spain who made the surprise as in his maiden ATP final he won the title defeating the World N°8 player, James Blake.