Late Night Marathon - 3/13/2011

Date: 3/13/2011
Result: Indian Wells, R3 Dominika Cibulkova def. Vera Zvonareva 4-6 7-6 6-4
Why it matters:
- This was a good-old dog fight between two scrappy players.  Sure, Vera has elevated her game to become an elite player on tour, but look at someone like Nadal - he's a good example of an "elite" grinder.  I really enjoy watching players who are looking to squeeze every ounce of talent out of themselves; it's even more fun when both players in a match try to for over three hours.
- Speaking of Vera being elite, aren't these the types of matches she should be winning now?  Emotional and mental meltdowns seemed to be a thing of the past for Zvonareva.  While this is nowhere near the level of some of her more famous on court antics, Vera's rise up the ranks has been largely due to her new-found ability to regularly close out these types of matches.  You should be able to count on Vera in crunch time, but losses like this make that harder to do. Is this the beginning of the end?  Doubtful.  You can't win 'em all, and Vera's already won a premier title in Doha this year.  She will bounce back soon.
- Cibulkova continues her good form this year.  After her amazing run to the Roland Garros semifinals in 2009 (including a quarterfinal pasting of Maria Sharapova), she had some difficulty living up to increased expectations.  However, 2011 has been marked so far with solid wins and no bad losses, including taking down Wozniacki and now Zvonareva on hardcourts, which she's had mixed results on in the past.  There's no reason she can't keep up this up for the rest of 2011.
Honorable Mentions:
-Indian Wells, R2 - Stanislas Wawrinka def. Nikolay Davydenko - 36 76 64 - Davydenko is almost back.  Even when Davydenko was top 5, this wouldn't be a horrible loss, but at his current ranking, he can't afford any more matches characterized as "not a bad loss".  Davydenko can be another top 10 stalwart, but when you're seeded high and have easier draws from the start, it's obviously easier to put together solid results.  Nikolay usually plays a lot in the clay season, and look for him to start to move his rank back up then.  For Wawrinka, simply another good win.
-Indian Wells, R2 - Ryan Harrison def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez - 63 76 - Technically an upset, this was an important win for Harrison.  By the luck of the draw, Harrison got matched up with one of the most vulnerable of the top 32 seeds (GGL has been playing well, but is overranked at 25).  After rough losses in winnable matches this year to Mannarino (at the Australian Open) and Serra (at Delray Beach), taking down Garcia-Lopez is a solid outing.  It also sets up an intriguing match (glimpse into the future?) between Raonic and Harrison.