(Photo: PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports)Well.
I'd say 'I think I've seen it all now', except I'm pretty sure I haven't.
This Slam continues to surprise me. Amidst the various other fiendish things it's doing to my head.
And not in ways I'm remotely comfortable with.
For the record, I'm a great fan of Tommy Haas's, the guy's had his career torn to shreds by the number of injuries he's had. A very unique talent that made it to #2 in the world in his pony tailed hey day. I love that he's so active and full of belief at the ripe old age of 32.
Except I don't think I've supported Federer so much in any single match he's played. Ever.
The story of what might have been had he lost that match doesn't bear thinking of.
No doubt, that particular thread of fate continues to play out like some torturous Greek Tragedy far away in some remote corner of the multiverse.
I want no part of it.
The only rationalisation I can offer up is that, with Nadal and Djoko out, Federer now needed to provide his own do-it-yourself version of the Grand Narrative - his way of rubbing out (or diminishing the significance of) the asterisk most Rafaelites are sure to draw attention to should he go on to win here. Which presumably means we're all in for some pretty rough rides in his upcoming matches.
Scary. But the alternative is depressingly fatalistic.
The break point he held at 4-4 in the third set with that lob rally that led up to it was the turning point, and provided us with yet another one of those fateful moments that this warped week of Grand Slam Tennis has twisted our minds with (I have an image of a burly Frenchman drilling into some poor fan's skull with a RG-embossed corkscrew)
RANDOM THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Is anyone else weirded out by the amount of single handed backhands that made it this far in the draw? Or that they're all in the bottom half of the draw? Kohlschreiber's gone out to Robredo who will now hold the fort with Federer, who almost didn't hold out against Tommy Haas.
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