Third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fought back from a set down to beat Nicolas Almagro for the second time in as many weeks to secure a berth in the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open yesterday.

Juan Carlos Ferrero had high hopes of advancing into the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters but instead smacked into an impenetrable brick wall named Rafael Nadal today.

Second seed Novak Djokovic saved three match points before scraping past Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber while Rafa Nadal eased into the fourth round of the Indian Wells ATP tournament yesterday.

Andy Murray's attempt to climb to second place in the world rankings continued apace yesterday with a comprehensive straight-sets win over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Montreal Masters.

The top-seeded Andy Roddick beat Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-3, 6-2 late on Wednesday at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, the American's first match since losing the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer.

Imagine finishing a marathon thinking you've crossed the line just ahead of your closest rival. You celebrate for a good five seconds. Then someone tells you that you didn't win, and you have to do the last few hundred metres again. This time you lose. You'd be gutted.

Facing Roger Federer on grass is usually a daunting enough prospect but lining up against the Swiss with a dodgy stomach could make Robin Soderling feel more than a little queasy today.

Andy Murray reached the semi-finals of the AEGON Championship for the first time in his career with a straight sets victory over American Mardy Fish at Queen's.

The sun was shining but in most other respects the mainstream British grass-court season opened here in familiar fashion yesterday. You can always rely on a fair sprinkling of home players on the first day of the Artois Championships and you can usually expect some battling displays, even if the final results are predictable.

Andy Murray went out in the second round of the Rome Masters here yesterday, beaten 6-2, 7-6 by Stanislas Wawrinka, but at least the British No 1 was in good company. Among the other losers was the king of clay himself, Rafael Nadal, who suffered only his second defeat in his last 105 matches on his favourite surface.

With injuries disrupting his last two clay-court seasons, Andy Murray was determined to arrive here for this week's Masters Series tournament in the best possible shape. The British No 1 practised hard in Barcelona last week, training in the heat of the afternoon with the former French Open finalist, Alex Corretja, who has joined his coaching team.

Feliciano Lopez served 24 aces to Andy Roddick's 22 in their shoot-out here tonight in the final of the Barclays Dubai Championships, but it was the American who proved there is more to his game than pure firepower. Roddick recovered from the surprise of losing his first set of the tournament to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 54 minutes to claim the 25th title of his career.

Andy Roddick has discovered a new way to play your best tennis: part company with your coach, spend more than 20 hours on three different airplanes flying halfway round the world, arrive at your next tournament the day before your first match, sleep badly and feel like a zombie on court.