Day 4 of the Rome Masters was a bit anti-climactic as two top players in the form of Stanislas Wawrinka and Andy Murray ended up withdrawing with injuries. Defending champion Rafael Nadal continued his campaign with a dominating victory over homeboy Fabio Fognini in straight sets. The only excitement of the day came in the way of Jerzy Janowicz’s upset of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and 4th seed David Ferrer's three set win against compatriot Fernanando Verdasco.

Rafael Nadal continued his brilliant return to tennis after his 7 month long absence from the ATP Tour with another comprehensive victory in the 2nd round of the 2013 Italian Open. The win came against local hope and world no. 25 Fabio Fognini after a little over an hour on court 6-1, 6-2.

On a far from memorable day for the seeds, Tomas Berdych was the first of the big guns to exit the 2013 Monte Carlo Masters with World no.2 Andy Murray and World no. 7 Juan Martin del Potro joining him on the way out soon after. Top seed and two time runner up Novak Djokovic came close to crashing out in the third round with his fellow seeds but found his game in the second set to outlast Argentina’s Juan Monaco in three. 8-time champion, Rafael Nadal, on the other hand was his usual impenetrable self on clay and wiped the floor with Germany’s Phillip Kohlschreiber in straight sets.

In the first of the day’s three upsets Italy’s Fabio Fognini managed to complete only his 2nd victory against a top 10 player as he dismantled Czech Tomas Berdych in 79 minutes 6-4, 6-2.

The men at the top of the rankings charts had a good day on court on day 3 of the 2013 Monte Carlo Masters with world no.1 Novak Djokovic, world no.2 Andy Murray and 8 time consecutive winner Rafael Nadal leading the way into round 3 of the tournament.  Accompanying them into that round are 4th seed Tomas Berdych, 9th seed Marin Cilic and 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, who all came through in comfortable straight set encounters.

Nadal was the first of the top players to take to the court on Wednesday. The Spaniard opened his campaign for a record 9th title at Monte Carlo by dominating Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-2 needing just over an hour for his 43rd consecutive victory at the tournament. The 3rd seed began strongly and raced to a 4-0 lead before Matosevic held serve for 1-4 but that proved no deterrence for Nadal as he wrapped up the set for a 1-0 lead.

Third seed David Ferrer has been one of top 5 men’s players on the planet ever since he reached his career best world no. 4 position back in 2008. Despite that, there has been a huge gap between him and the ‘big 4’ players in front of him evidenced by the fact that he has been unable to defeat any of them in a final on twelve separate occasions with one of those losses coming against his opponent in the 2013 Miami Masters final – Andy Murray.

The duo had met 11 times over their careers prior to this meeting and the Scot led the head to head count rather narrowly, 6-5. With the Spaniard looking better and better as the tournament progressed and the 2nd seeded Murray looking a bit shaky, it looked like a perfect opportunity for Ferrer to finally improve that lopsided record against the top players.

The quarter-finals in the bottom half of the men’s draw at the Miami Masters saw both victors progress to the semi-finals with straight set victories. In the first of two last eight matches, Andy Murray, the highest ranked player left in the draw, overcame 9th seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 42 minutes while 8th seed Richard Gasquet got his revenge from his Indian Wells defeat and upset 4th seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3

Both Murray and Cilic began the match by serving poorly. The Croatian went 3 break points down in the opening game but Murray squandered all of them and was broken in the very next game to concede a 2-0 lead to the 9th seed. Two more breaks of serve followed and the match continued to 3-2 in Cilic’s favour. The Scot though got a pair of crucial breaks for 5-4 and more importantly was able to serve out the opening set 6-4.

The biggest upset off the tournament came in the men’s draw of the Sony Open on Thursday courtesy 15th seed Tommy Haas who defeated world no.1 and two time defending champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. Fellow Serb and no.7 seed Janko Tipsarevic was another member of the top 10 who was sent packing with a loss in three sets at the hands of 11th seed Giles Simon 7-5, 2-6, 2-6. The other top players like 2nd seed Andy Murray, 3rd seed David Ferrer and 4th seed Tomas Berdych performed according to rank and moved into the quarterfinals with comfortable straight set victories.

15th seed Tommy Haas has a great CV that has a former world no. 2 position and 4 Grand Slam semi-final appearances to his credit but his career has been plagued with injuries preventing him from putting together a strong run in the last decade. Moreover, at 35 Haas is the oldest player in the top 50. With Miami being practically home turf for Djokovic, who came into their match on the back of 14 straight wins here, things did not look good for the German.

The seeds in the men’s draw at the Sony Open continued to overcome their opponents as they moved into the 4th round at the Miami Masters.  Andy Murray, seeded second as a result of Roger Federer’s absence,  survived a scare in the opening set to overcome Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-3. Indian Wells semi-finalist and 4th seed Tomas Berdych had an even more difficult match as he fought back from a set down and saved two match points to defeat Colombian Alejandro Falla 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-4. Other members of the top 10 including no. 6 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, no. 8 seed Richard Gasquet, No. 9 seed Marin Cilic and no. 10 seed Nicolas Almagro all progressed to the round of 16 with straight sets victories in their respective third round matches.

Dimitrov played a great opening set against Murray, runner up in Miami last year, and broke twice for a 5-2 lead. The Scot saved two set points and forced the Bulgarian to serve for it, but the youngster crumbled under pressure and made three double faults allowing the 2nd seed to make a comeback. The fight between the two continued into the tiebreak where Murray edged ahead for 7-3. The 2012 U.S Open champion broke early in the second game of the next set and held serve from that point to wrap things up 6-3.