Federer V Karlovic
In many ways, this was Federer at his best. Clinical, doing just enough to take a set, i.e. one break of serve. Apart from the last set where Jeff Goldblum (i.e. The Tall Guy - sorry, late 1980s joke) went all out with his serving (actually, so did Fed) to force a tie-break, which Fed took fairly comfortably.
At times the match just seemed to roll through service games, although there were flashes of brilliance from Fed. Actually, the commentators showed that the key was Federer stepping in by about a half a metre to take the Karlovic serve early - seems as though it worked, job done.
It did show that our Swiss friend did what Djokovic could not today...handle a serve and volleyer - more on that one later. Next, in fact...
Djokovic V Haas
During this match, I coined a new phrase for the 4th seed and it was after he lost the 2nd set breaker despite being 6-3 up. Wanna know what it is? Are you ready...Chokovic!! And get this, after the 2nd set, Nole made some sort of gesture to his camp and they then disappeared!! Dunno what that was all about! Anybody...?
Anyway, Haas is reproducing the form that got him to the 2007 AO semis and the Indian Wells semis soon afterwards. He played fantastically, rushing to the net, great volleying and a SICK SHBH (See Top? Another one...). I am very pleased for him as he looks as though he will trouble Federer more than Chokovic would have. Just goes to show that the net is still key to success at Wimby.
However, he will have to exorcise the odd demon after RG - nuff said! Then again, the way Fed is playing is that he is King Roger and Wimby is his palace!
Murray V Ferrero
JCF was out of his depth as soon as the first set was over, I felt. However, he was well in the rallies with fairly deep and solid groundstrokes. Then Murray would, at will, crack a backhand winner down the line. A fantastic shot, so it is. His forehand cross-court was also doing the biz. He plays (a probably knackered!) Andy Roddick, who I don't think will take more than a set off him - unless Andy M melts down...which I doubt.
Hewitt V Roddick
Definitely the more thrilling match with a lot of intense end-to-end rallies. High quality groundstrokes from both with Roddick coming to the net more and Hewitt showing his grit from the baseline.
Again I saw a shot at court level of a serve by Andy Roddick where he fired a serve down the middle, Lleyton didn't even move a muscle! Rather reminiscent of the Murray-Roddick match again at Wimby (2006 I think) when Top and I were watching a similar shot at court level of the Roddick serve. Once again, his opponent didn't move a muscle and we were laughing - dunno why. It was something like "I ain't even gonna bother beginning to attempt to get that serve back!!".
TBH, I got a bit fed-up of this match by the time it got to the 5th set and I went off to do something else. Turns out Roddick got a break of serve and took it 6-4. Both, who were rivals at their peak, played at their current peaks which, although ain't Slam winning stuff, was still of a very high standard. The Aussie did well, hats off to him.
So, I guess it hasn't been that bad without Nadal, has it...?
Roll on the lasses and then...Super Friday!! COME ON!!! (Lleyton Hewitt style)
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