Baghdatis game was just sad.
I thought Dellaqua gave a vey plucky performance against Venus. In spite of that (& that bernard Tomic looks to be a real find) I’m glad that Hewitt & Stosur are the only Aussies left in the singles.
Some good games on today!
Chicagojeff please confine your remarks to the actual content of what other posters write, rather than cast aspersions upon their character.
Ellen Cherry
Game Room Moderator
Isner v. Murray: Hasn’t been a walk in the park for Murray. Isner is playing well.
Nadal loses second set to Karlovic.
Karlovic is no one to underestimate. He can win sometimes.
Del Potro seems tired and very unenthusiastic. He’s up against a tough one with Cilic!
So, again Safina is not #1, or even #2 or #3. Though since it is injury, I suppose I shouldn’t pile on. Still, you’ll notice who is still playing, and who is not. 
As usual, the men are more consistent at the top than the women. Of the top 8 seeds on the men’s side, only 1 is out so far, and I doubt that the remaining 4 to play their 4th round will be ousted. By contrast, the women are missing 2, 3, 5, and 8 are all gone; indeed one entire half of the draw has managed to upset the expected quarter-finalists, and there are still four of them to play their 4th round, and I am not so confident of those 4 as I am of the men in the same situation.
Couldn’t agree with you more. No worries if you miss one of the men’s matches. While they are good matches, you already know who is going to win. Ho hum, been there done that.
At least with the women the outcomes aren’t so predictable.
Yeah she pulled out of the Championship in Doha during warm up for the first match. However the Tournament as a whole was the walking wounded.
What exactly has been Davydenko’s problem this fourth set? He should have put the set out of reach for Verdasco so many times but he hasn’t, like say that tiebreaker. Verdasco is making so many errors and Nikolay isn’t making that many is he? Or is it just timing of the errors with Davydenko’s coming at far more crucial moments or what?
I noticed he ‘goes way’ sometimes. When he played the Final in Doha against Nadal he lost the first set 6-0 then when on to win it handlily.
I was glad to see Roddick advance and thought he played well against Gonzalez. I was very impressed with the play of Gonzalez, though. Seemed like every time he got down to a break point, he upped his game. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such aggression from someone playing from behind. It was fun.
I did feel bad about the crowd. I thought they were pretty rude at times - to both players. And I think it may have affected the play somewhat. I thought the umpire probably should have been more firm with the crowd - although I don’t know if it would have helped. I also felt like the comentators were down on Roddick a bit - they seemed to think that he needed to come up with a solution for the crowd. I don’t think it’s the players job to ensure the crowd can behave. If you’re going to host a tournament, you should probably have a plan for dealing with this type of thing.
That match was pretty brutal. Davydenko didn’t play all that well, so even though Verdasco made 80 errors, Davydenko couldn’t put him away. The ESPN guys were wondering if this is a fitness issue for him, and if he just can’t take the beating that come with playing seven best-of-five matches in two weeks. Verdasco didn’t have a lot working. 20 double faults is the worst I’ve ever seen, and he missed horribly on some forehands. He used that slice down the middle to stay in the match and Davydenko had trouble dealing with it. So we’ll see what happens when Davydenko plays Federer again.
Marin Cilic began his coming out party last year when he beat Andy Murray at the US Open, but his win against del Potro yesterday is big. Cilic is very talented this is the second straight time he’s made the quarterfinals at a major. Don’t count him out against Roddick.
Justine Henin beat Petrova in a tough match, so she’s into the semifinals. She’s going to play Zheng Jie, who was very consistent and solid in beating Maria Kirilenko. Zheng is sort of like a mini-Henin, but without as much offense. You have to like Henin to make the finals and play the winner of the Williams half of the draw.
Meanwhile Cilic did a good job of holding steady to win the first set against Roddick in a tiebreak. It was a very even set, but I thought Roddick was going to steal it when he got a break point on Cilic’s serve at 5-4. Cilic held on and won. Roddick called for the trainer between sets, and he’s getting his right shoulder worked on.
Well Cilic did end up winning in five sets. I like the way Dick Enberg put it (paraphrasing big time) that Marin went on a five game sabbatical during the fourth set when Roddick was 4 or 5-0 up on Marin. Well he came back from the sabbatical just in time I’d say.
Nadal/Murray starting too damn late for me to catch it and I honestly cannot make any predictions. Haven’t seen Murray playing at all this tournament, though Nadal looked good when I saw his matches.
I don’t see Davydenko getting passed Federer. He may be on a 2-0 win streak against him but we all know Federer couldn’t care less about nonMajors, in a big picture sense. Davydenko better play a ton better than he did against Verdasco if he wants to stand a chance.
So far it’s been pretty damn fun to watch. Much higher level of play than the Roddick match.
I think it has had its moments but it’s pretty ugly at time too.
And now Nadal, down two sets, has suddenly come up with a mysterious knee injury. This way when he gets his ass handed to him he can claim injury rather than ass kicking. Never seen this before! 
That stinks!
I didn’t see the match, so I don’t know how this happened, but making up an excuse is not Nadal’s style. We know he’s had problems with his knees and it sounds like he did not quit until the match was effectively over anyway. So I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. He is extremely tough.
Cilic’s offense and Murray’s defense should make for a good match, and they can both get mentally shaky at times. Who knows what kind of game they will bring? Murray is steadier, but Cilic (and del Potro) must be hell to play against. They’re so damned big and long, they just cut off the angles at the sides of the court and can turn a defensive shot into a deep offensive shot very quickly. Roddick deserves a lot of credit for taking that match to a fifth set when he was not completely healthy. He did a great job of changing tactics and it worked very well for two sets. Good on Cilic for pulling himself together, because I wasn’t sure he could recover after losing a two-set lead in such a big match against a player who had so much more experience. (By the way, was I the only one picturing that match as Ivan Drago vs. Rocky Balboa? Of course, Rocky lost this time.)
So tonight we get the Federer-Davydenko match everyone has been talking expecting, plus the rematch of the 2008 final with Djokovic against Tsonga, along with the other womens’ quarters. I hope I can stay up to watch this. Djokovic has barely been tested in his first four matches but I like Tsonga’s chances.
This tournament is shaping up in a really interesting way that is kind of similar to the US Open. I was trying to figure out what Nadal’s loss means for the rankings - I think he’s probably going to drop out of the #2 place, but I think Djokovic could even become #1 if he wins, depending on where Federer finishes.
Before the AO started, Nadal was exactly 1000 points ahead of Djokovic. I don’t know how many points Nadal gets for making it to the quarters and I don’t know how many Novak would get if he wins. I do think they will end up being pretty close. Nadal may stand a chance of holding on to #2 if Novak goes out in the semis.
I saw the first two sets of the match and both players were just hitting beautifully. There were some incredible points. I don’t think I have ever seen Murray move as well as he did. He also seem to be maturing and keeping the over the top emoting in check.
I wish I could have seen the first three games of the third set. I am curious if there was a noticeable change in Nadal’s movement. There didn’t seem to be any difference through the end of the tie break.
I don’t doubt that Nadal was really hurting last night. I agree that he is not the type of player to just quit to save face, however, I was disappointed he didn’t play at half speed, stick out the last three games and give Murray the legit win.