Broken Rackets to Major Upsets: A Look Back at The Sony Ericsson Open

Things have to be looking pretty good for Andy Murray.

He has solidified his spot as the 2nd best player in the world by weaving his way through a wacky week at Key Biscayne.

Things aren’t looking so hot for Roger Federer. I am from the school of thought that a little blow-up is good for the soul.  Unfortunately for Federer, though, I think it's a sign of exasperation caused by the last few months.

Federer, in what is becoming a common occurrence for him, had another final set melt down, this time against Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. This is troubling for the world number 2 because in the last couple of months he has lost to Nadal, Murray twice, and Djokovic.

Making Roger Federer the worlds 4th best player at the moment.

Onto Djokovic, who has to be really happy with his performance this week, aside from his performance in the final against Murray, that is. He has solidified his spot as the 3rd best player and probably exercised a few mental demons by beating Federer.

Rafael Nadal had an interesting week. He never looked comfortable on the court and made many unforced errors.  He was visibly irritated, often complaining about calls and muttering to himself.

Then came his loss to Juan Martin Del Potro after being up two breaks in the match.

Very un-Nadal like.

Even more telltale was his mention of having a “personal” issue in his post-match press conference. Nadal is always very guarded in his personal life and the mention of an issue is very odd.

Something else that struck me as odd was the attendance of Toni Nadal in Miami. In recent years, Uncle Toni has elected to stay home in Mallorca for the American hard-court swing.

Uncle Toni was not at Indian Wells and in interviews Nadal has said the Uncle Toni takes these tournaments off, sending Francis Roig in his stead.

His appearance in Miami struck me as odd but I wrote it off.  I thought being in Miami is probably like being on vacation. But perhaps there is an issue and Uncle Toni felt it needed to be addressed.

Only time will tell.

Del Potro also had a breakout win in beating Nadal in the quarterfinals.

A word to the wise for the young Argentine, beating Nadal once is a monumental task.

To make comments that you "dominated" him and now you know how to "beat him" is another monster in itself.

Better look out next time you face the Spaniard.

Andy Roddick had himself a very good tournament although he would probably tell you otherwise. I don’t buy into the fact that he was so upset after the defeat because he felt he “deserved” to win.

No one ever deserves to beat Roger Federer.

That said, Roddick is playing probably the best tennis of his career and it is great thing to watch.

We forget that Roddick was the heir to the Sampras throne before Federer snatched it and ran.

All said, I think it is amazing Roddick is continually improving his game and trying to include himself in the upper echelon of tennis. It is a testament to who he is as a player and a competitor.

Overall, I think most would call the tournament a success.

I was hesitant to make predictions on how the tournament would go because I think that sometimes, given the tournaments proximity to the clay season, the top players may not lay too much importance on this tournament.

I was happy to be proven wrong.

With the exception of Nadal, all the key players gave solid performances.

Nadal is an interesting story that I think will be played out over the next few weeks.

In the past it has been said Nadal does not like coming over to the U.S. He favors being close to home and near his family and friends.

If that is the issue, I think a long weekend in Mallorca will cure that, if it is more than a little homesickness we will have to wait and see at Monte Carlo.