Washington's most important tennis event, the Legg Mason Classic, got under way this week. Most of the major names in men's tennis are in Beijing this month, but ninth-ranked Andy Roddick, skipping the Olympics to be ready for the U.S. Open, decided to come back to the FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park to defend his title. Roddick is favored to win a second consecutive Legg Mason title, but he was happy to survive the first round, when all but three of the eight seeded players were upset. That included the former world no. 1 player Marat Safin, whom some put in the running to challenge Roddick. Safin resigned his first match after pulling a muscle in his neck.

Last night, fourth-seeded Tommy Haas looked evenly matched with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in their second-round match, trading games evenly in the first set until the German broke Mahut's third service. Mahut did not give up easily, breaking Haas to fight back to 5-5. Haas, having trouble with his serve and audibly frustrated, ended up having to contest the set in a tiebreaker, which Haas was ultimately able to win (7-4). Haas vented his spleen against the judge over more than one call, as Mahut continued to keep pace with him in the second set. At the press conference afterward, Haas said that his repeated double faults in the match "kinda drove me crazy."

John Isner used a big serve and solid groundstrokes to defeat Donald Young in straight sets. (Kyle Gustafson / www.photokyle.com)

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In response to questions about his shoulder (he received a massage between games at one point), Haas said that it was "just tightness," nothing else of concern (not that he would ever admit to real trouble). Haas recovered in the middle of the set, breaking the visibly tired Mahut's serve twice to win 6-3. Haas later went to some lengths to explain his arguments with the referee, including an incident when a ball took an accidental bounce off his racquet and hit a spectator. When asked about why the crowd was so vocal in support of him, Haas replied, "Probably because I am a veteran. Maybe they think it will be the last time to see me, or maybe because they think they will see me yelling." Yeah, probably the latter.

Another seed-killer, American John Isner, went from sending eighth-seed Marcel Granollers home in the first round to a relatively easy victory over 19-year-old Donald Young, winning the first set, 6-4, in about half an hour. The 6'9" Isner's serve was solid and fast, although at times he struggled returning the wily left-hander. Both held their serves all through the second set, leading to a tiebreaker in which Isner became a little frustrated with a double fault. Young looked alive but slammed his racquet angrily on his shoe as Isner took the tiebreaker (7-4). Isner, a native of North Carolina who had plenty of supporters around the court last night, reached the Legg Mason final last year, out of nowhere, losing a very close match to Andy Roddick. Having also taken a set off Roger Federer in the third round of the U.S. Open last year, he is a player to watch. He was also a good sport, coaching an adorable little girl in the promotional contest before the final match.

The left-handed Alejandro Falla handily dispatched fifth-seeded Mardy Fish, who had beaten Falla in the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles the previous week, in the first round, yielding only a toughly fought first set. In the second round, the Colombian battled to a tiebreaker win in the first set against Florent Serra from France. The second set also went to a tiebreaker, during which neither player could gain an advantage over the other until Falla was finally able to triumph (13-11). He will continue his unexpected bid in the quarterfinals against Tommy Haas.

The final match last night was the latest victory for 19-year-old sensation Juan Martín del Potro, who has just been ranked 19th in the world. Having won 14 straight matches coming in to the tournament, including a decisive defeat of Andy Roddick at the Los Angeles Classic, del Potro swiftly moved past wild card Jesse Levine in the first round. The 6'6" Argentinian pummeled his second-round opponent, Dudi Sela from Israel, taking the first set, 6-0, in less than 20 minutes. Both players stayed along the baseline, a game that the much taller and more powerful del Potro dominated.

Most of the crowd headed early for the exits, but Sela did not get the point that he was supposed to lose. He somehow came back, breaking del Potro's much faster serve once and taking the second set, 7-5. Del Potro looked tired in the second set, which dragged on for almost an hour. The crowd, or what was left of it, woke up and turned to Sela's side, spurred on by a vocal Israeli flag-waving Dudi contingent in the upper tier. Sela found his way to the net and out-finessed his opponent by varying the speed of his return and making del Potro move around the court. Just as the streak appeared at an end, del Potro returned to form and broke Sela twice straight, winning the second set, 6-2.

The schedule of today's singles second-round matches has Viktor Troicki against Bobby Reynolds in the Grandstand court at 5 p.m. At Center Court, Andy Roddick's match against Eduardo Schwank will begin after 6 p.m., followed by Robert Kendrick against University of Maryland graduate Somdev Devvarman, and then Igor Kunitsyn against Fabio Fognini (who defeated one of the seeded players in the first round). In doubles play, Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek will play Paul Goldstein and John Isner (Center Court, 4 p.m.), and in the Grandstand Rogier Wassen and Lovro Zovko will play Marcel Granollers and Sebastian Prieto (7 p.m.), followed by Bruno Soares and Kevin Ullyett squaring off against Eric Butorac and James Cerretani.