It is a bit of a struggle for the top seeds in the me’s draw. Roger had a bad scare with Falla in the first round and yesterday he had to battle with Istomin in the 1st set, Nole had to recover twice from a set down in 3 matches and Andy was battling with veteran Marcos Baghdatis fro 1 set down. All of them crashed out in the doubles.
DJOKOVIC – HEWITT 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
After soundly beating Andy Roddick in the previous round , Nole was expected to trash another veteran: Hewitt. But Leyton disagreed with that. The Australian was in top form to take advantage of an unconfortable Djokovic that was really struggling to keep his balance on this grass. The result was a surprising head start from Hewitt that won the first set to seriously threat Nole in the 2nd. When there is an undergdog taking a lead (or a 1st set) it is expected that he melts down. This wasn’t the case probably because of the Australian’s strong experience (well… hi used to be world no.1!). So Nole had to battle through all the second set to finally win it 7-5. Actually we had a melt down, and that was in the decider where Nole got an early lead to leave only 1 game to the Australian.
“I was trying to focus on my game and trying to see what I could do to get into his serve,” said Djokovic. “He was serving really well, with a lot of efficiency. I just needed to step in a bit. That’s what I did, I changed the momentum in the middle of the second set when I made a break. Yes, he broke back, but I felt I got back into the match.”
“I think he plays his best tennis on grass,” said Djokovic. “I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a great competitor. He has shown again that he’s a player that loves to play on a big stage. He loves to play big matches, especially for his country. We all know how much effort he puts into playing the Davis Cup, when he wears the Australian shirt.”
“It’s been great. I did the right preparation and couldn’t have asked for anything more. Once again at Wimbledon, I’ve lost to a quality player. I probably pushed him more here. In a three-set match, it’s obviously a little bit different to five sets, but today I was on top for a good part of the match.” said Hewitt
Nole will play Tsonga in the quarters. The Frenchman had a tough, but quick, match with Feliciano Lopez to win 7-6(5), 6-4 in only 69 minutes. Talking about the next match, Jo said “It’s going to be a big match, but it is like every day.I have to win and I have to win for my country.”.
Head to head is 6-5 for Nole. They played only once on grass and it was last year’s Wimbledon semifinal where Nole won 7-6(4) 6-2 6-7(9) 6-3 (that was a great match!)
MURRAY – BAGHDATIS 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
Shaky stuff for the Scott as Marcos was not backing off. The Cypriot had a wonderful start to incredibly win the opener 6-4. Marcos was a man on a mission as he tried to be the first athlete from Cyprus to win an Olympic medal. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as Marcos had to bow in the second set to then suffer a decisive break in the 4th game of the decider.
“The pressure was a bit bigger and I am disappointed,” said Baghdatis. “I came here for a medal. That was my dream, so I can say everything has finished today. All the disappointment came out. I’m sure tomorrow morning, the day will be better.”
Murray will play Almagro in the quarters. Head to Head is 2-1 for the Scott. This will be the first time they play on the grass. The Scott is the favorite, but Nicolas is playing a very good tennis.
