Rafa pulling out has somewhat put things into a strange time warp. For a start, Federer's swagger on court, like the Centre Court is HIS house and Wimby is HIS party, is somewhat back. What is it? Is it the fact that Rafa's not around? Has he finally 'eased up' (after tensing up) after RG? Maybe a bit of both...
Another couple of factors suggesting to me that we are in some kind of time warp is that Lleyton Hewitt actually looks as though he can comfortably make the quarters if not the semis - especially seeing how he dispatched Del Potro in straights! I know we all laughed (well, I did!) when he suggested after RG that he believed that he can win Wimby again, but now it don't seem as funny. Kudos to him though!
Now onto one of Top's faves (and mine too, I guess)...Herr Tommy! He's also rewound the years back. After the AO semis of 2007, Haas was playing a blinding spell of Top 5 tennis for a fair few Masters events, where he won my support. Plus he does have ants in his pants about coming to the net...even serving and volleying! Since winning Halle, it looks like some considerable amount of rejuvenation has gone on. Fed's rejuvenated after RG, Lleyton's rejuvenated after beating (an albeit injured) Nadal - I'm not quite sure what's going on, but I think I like it!!
Also, looking generally across the board, the SHBH looks like it's back in the game in a big way! It's nearing 50-50 I'd say. Are people trying to revive da old skool? Are people trying to emulate The Fed? I mean, seeing Fed play a Spaniard with short hair, no headband, no DHBH and flatish strokes was a novel experience for me. Once again...oh, just read the last sentence of the paragraph above!
Finally, looking at the draw for the 4th round, I do have some hope for some sick tennis which throws me off my seat.
Lleyton Hewitt AUS
v
Radek Stepanek CZE (23)
Tomas Berdych CZE (20)
v
Andy Roddick USA (6)
Andy Murray GBR (3)
v
Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (19)
Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP
v
Gilles Simon FRA (8)
Igor Andreev RUS (29)
v
Tommy Haas GER (24)
Dudi Sela ISR
v
Novak Djokovic SRB (4)
Fernando Verdasco ESP (7)
v
Ivo Karlovic CRO (22)
Robin Soderling SWE (13)
v
Roger Federer SUI (2)
As for the gals, I think Dementieva and...wait for it...Ivanovic will go far this year, possibly the distance. Oh hold, Da Sistaz are still in aren't they? Hmmm...Venus made rather short work of Suarez-Navarro as revenge from Melbourne, bagel and all! Perhaps there is still a more than odds-on chance she'll blow Darling Ana off the court too...we'll see.
Any WHY (pronounced HWY!) is Dinara being put out on Court 2 when she's the No.1 seed?! That said, a choking Dinara (we've seen THAT before) could get beat by Amelie. I'm going out on a limb here and say that Serena-Elena D will be one semi, the other will be Venus with...erm...any one out of Dinara, Amelie or Caz Woz (OK, not so outlandish but it is quite unpredictable, come on!).
So to conclude, the outbreak of H1N1 and/or the Iranian Presidential Election has rejuvenated Men's tennis!!
(Oh come on! You cannot argue with the stats! The correlation is impossible to refute!)
(Aaaarrrggghh! I gotta select all the tags to this post! I really can't be bothered! Oh...here goes!!)
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