World number two Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the Farmers Classic citing undisclosed personal reasons. Luckily for the tournament, Andy Murray agreed to take up a wildcard into the Main Draw in the eleventh hour. Los Angeles also marks the return of young star Ernests Gulbis who was forced to withdraw from the French Open and then sit out of Wimbledon with a Hamstring tear.

[1WC] Andy Murray (GBR) bye
Qualifier - Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS)
Karol Beck (SVK) - Alejandro Falla (COL)
Lukas Lacko (SVK) - [5] Ernests Gulbis (LAT)

[4] Feliciano Lopez (ESP) bye
Xavier Malisse (BEL) - Dudi Sela (ISR)
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) - [WC] James Blake (USA)
Benjamin Becker (GER) - [8] Mardy Fish (USA)

[6] Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) - Santiago Giraldo (COL)
Qualifier - Qualifier
Kristof Vliegen (BEL) - [WC] Ryan Sweeting (USA)
[3] Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) bye

[7] Horacio Zeballos (ARG) - Rainer Schuettler (GER)
Qualifier - Robby Ginepri (USA)
[SE] Kevin Anderson (RSA) - Illya Marchenko (UKR)
[2] Sam Querrey (USA) bye

Interesting draw here.  On paper, the possible Murray-Gulbis quarterfinal matchup must be considered the highlight of the draw as the Latvian was in such great form before he got injured. However, Gabashvili and Falla are also two capable players - Gabashvili taking out Roddick in Roland Garros and Falla serving for the match against Federer in the first round of Wimbledon so it definitely isn’t a certainty. Out of the bottom half both Baghdatis and Querrey have a great chance of moving through to the semi-finals as the draw is quite top-heavy.

And onto the Gstaad Main Draw:

[1] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) - Evgeny Korolev (KAZ)
[WC] Alexander Sadecky (SUI) - Qualifier
Andrey Golubev (KAZ) - Qualifier
Frederico Gil (POR) - [5] Tommy Robredo (ESP)

[4] Albert Montanes (ESP) - Pere Riba-Madrid (ESP)
Denis Istomin (UZB) - Qualifier
Daniel Brands (GER) - Peter Luczak (AUS)
Qualifier - [7] Richard Gasquet (FRA)

[6] Victor Hanescu (ROU) - Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)
[WC] Agustin Velotti (ARG) - Andreas Beck (GER)
Igor Andreev (RUS) - Florent Serra (FRA)
Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) - [3] Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)

[8] Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) - Jeremy Chardy (FRA)
Thiago Alves (BRA) - Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)
Dustin Brown (JAM) - [WC] Michael Lammer (SUI)
Marcel Granollers (ESP) - [2] Nicolas Almagro (ESP)

The possible semi-final matchups of Youzhny vs. Gasquet and Bellucci vs. Almagro are intruiging to say the least. Gasquet returns after a brief injury spell as well as Andreev also returning to competition. There was a rumour that Andreev was even considering retirement by the end of the year but hopefully that isn’t the case. Life for FootFault wouldn’t be the same without the great mixed-doubles team of Andreev and Kirilenko.