No I'm not going to gloat.
I may have found the Henin comparisons tough to swallow, but Melanie deserves unalloyed praise and support for what she's managed to achieve here this year.
Last year she was outside of the top 200. Her resolve here has ensured that next week, she'll be a top 50 player. A quality, in perhaps unsurprisingly scant supply this year. And for that, I applaud her.
(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)Now on to those unflattering match stats. 5 winners from Woz and 43 UFEs from Oudin. That there's the match wrapped and tied up. In all it's grinding glory.
Oudin is definitely a more aggressive player than the Woz, though I hope you'll understand why I think that that's not actually saying very much.
The problem yesterday was that Melanie wasn't half as consistent as she's been in any of her previous matches, where she's worked her way into a point before letting rip a winner the Press have gone so gaga over this last week. Though I wonder, how much of that was to do with how difficult she was finding it to break down the Woz defences.
Absurdly unspectacular, and exactly what was needed. Thank you very much.
Difficult to get inspired by Woz's play, and I do get the feeling she'll need to play a little more outside of her comfort zone against Wickmayer, who looked to me to be swinging very freely.
Federer d. Soderling 6-0, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6
I was looking forward to this one, despite the 11-0 H2H.
The funny thing was that Robin came out of the blocks playing spectacular tennis; the trouble was that so did Federer, who quickly smothered any momentum Robin might have otherwise managed to derive.
Perhaps understandably winded , Robin looked a little lost in set two and let things slip.
It must have been the racquet he broke at the end of that set, but something clicked and for the next two sets we had a match on our hands. And it was more of that 'Lights Out' stuff, providing yet more revision material for Murray's unexpectedly early Autumn break.
(Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)A match that might gone to five had Robin managed to secure more of a foothold earlier on.
Despite some of the reports I've read, I think this was probably Federer's best performance yet, and I still don't see anyone beating him in this form.
Djokovic d. Verdasco 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2
What a horror of a first set. The even scoreline only reflects the fact that no one was prepared to commit to anything, preferring instead to tentatively poke at each other in hope of a mistake.
Yeah Djoko's a grinder now. And I in turn, intend to continue grinding that point further home.
Grind. Grind. Grind.
Unless he's forced out of his remission, which is what happened in the latter two sets.
Though it wouldn't have made much difference had he continued playing the same way, since Nando's stomach tears, and foot injury ensured a one sided fourth set. Respect for playing through the pain though.
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