We used to have the big 3. Then after the grass season we had the Big 4 (Murray included). Now we have the Big 2 as Murray is struggling again and Rafa is badly injured. That’s tennis!
FEDERER – TOMIC 6-2 6-4
12 years and a lot of quality/consistency still divide the two players. The Australian is probably the most exciting “possible new kid on the block” with his nice variations and “not boom boom” tennis. But there is still lot of work to do. Roger is ageless and he is as good as it gets on this kind of (very fast) courts in Cincinnati.
The match lasted only 62 minutes with Federer not conceding a break point and converting 3 out 6 break opportunities.
“Overall I’m happy, but it’s hard to judge my game in these quick conditions,” said Roger “I’m especially happy with my ball-striking, though my serve was a bit off. Overall it was a good performance, I’m playing as well as I want to right now.”
The Swiss Maestro is going to play Mardy Fish (6-3 6-3 on a dangerous Stepanek) in the quarters. “It’s his kind of surface, he’s at home in America and so I am going to have my hands full,” Federer said about the next match.
Head to head is 7-1 for Roger. They have already played here in the 2010 final when the world no.1 won a dramatic 6-7(5) 7-6(1) 6-4.
DJOKOVIC – DAVYDENKO 6-0 Ret.
Very very good news for Nole. He has been putting so much strain on his body during the last few weeks and he really needed a bit of a “bonus”. And that was it… Nikolay had to retire after 32 minutes because of a shoulder injury. The Russian could not give a game to Nole to commit 8 double faults in the first set. “It’s never nice to win like that, it was obvious that he had problems as he wasn’t able to serve over 90 miles per hour,” said the Serb
Nole will play Cilic in the quarters. Head to Head 6-0 for Nole.
CHARDY – MURRAY 6-4 6-4
That was quite of an upset. (Very) lucky loser Jeremy Chardy defeated in straight sets Murray with the surprise of everybody (Chardy included). The Frenchman wasn’t even able to qualify for the main draw, but he got Isner’s place after the American retired because of a back injury.
“I didn’t serve particularly well. I got broken three times in the second set, which isn’t good enough. I broke him a couple of times in the second,” said Murray. “I had a lot of close games on his serve in the first and second set and didn’t convert enough chances, and, yeah, I didn’t serve well enough.”
“I won’t play any more matches. Going into the big tournaments, sometimes I’ve won tournaments in the buildup and it hasn’t helped me and then this year Wimbledon I lost in the first round at Queen’s and made the final there for the first time,” added Murray. “So it doesn’t normally have that much bearing. But, you know, obviously I would have liked to have done a bit better this week.”
Chardy will play Del Potro in the quarters. They have never played each other.
RAONIC – BERDYCH 6-4 2-6 6-2
A very solid performance by the Canadian that took full advantage of 20 aces on 13 service games. Milos was broken only in the second set to win the match in 1h and 52 minutes.
Raonic will play Wawrinka (6-3 6-3 on Nishikori) in the quarters. This will be their first match.
