Straight sets: For the second day in a row, eight men’s matches resulted in only one third set. Thankfully, yesterday’s contests were generally much tighter than Tuesday’s. Nobody felt that more keenly than Juan Martin del Potro.
Delpo, playing Philipp Kohlschreiber, was out of sorts for much of the first set, apparently dealing with a stomach issue. He stayed on the defense, trading protracted holds with the German into a tiebreak. A brilliant down-the-line backhand flick on the first point of the tiebreak seemed to be all he needed–his energy came back, and he only lost a single point in the breaker.
Kohlschreiber took his time recovering, dropping to 1-4 before breaking back and evening the score. The German made it to another tiebreak, which in its way, had a chance of deciding the match. Kohl was obviously in better shape for a third set after more than two hours of play. He ran out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak, and proceeded to lose five match points before falling 9-7. Ouch.
Today, del Potro draws Tommy Robredo, who had a surprisingly easy time with Sam Querrey, beating him 6-1, 6-3. Here’s a shocker from the sportsbooks: Delpo is more heavily favored over Robredo than Rafael Nadal over Ivo Karlovic. The difference is slight, as both are given a roughly 85% chance of winning.
The other half: Four quarterfinalists get the day off today. Richard Gasquet pulled an upset, downing Andy Roddick in straight sets, and he’ll meet Novak Djokovic. The tour should be terrified right now: Djokovic beat Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-1. A drubbing of Ernests Gulbis–that you can understand. But while the Serbs are close friends, there’s no explanation for such a lopsided victory over Troicki except for the obvious one: Novak is playing unbelievable tennis right now.
The final quarter will be all Swiss, between Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. (First, they play their quarterfinal doubles match, for a chance to face–of all people–Nadal and Marc Lopez.) Wawrinka snuck through against Tomas Berdych in the one three-setter of the day, while Federer was pushed to a first-set breaker by Ryan Harrison.
Clearly, a Djokovic-Federer semi is very much in the cards, and for the first time in my life, I might have to pick the Serb.
Also in doubles: The pairing of Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse recorded another win yesterday, this time over the Murray brothers. Today, they face Bopanna/Qureshi. Dolgo and Malisse have won all three of their matches in a champion’s tiebreak: 10-8, 10-7, and 10-8.
Up and coming: Watch out for the 20-year-old Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. Quick recap: He started the year winning two consecutive futures events in Turkey, then qualified for the Kyoto challenger last week. In Kyoto, he reached the final before losing to Dominik Meffert.
That effort got him into the main draw of the Guangzhou challenger, where he recorded a big win over Lucas Lacko in the second round and then a revenge victory over Meffert in the quarters. Today, Stebe plays Uladzamir Ignatik for a spot in a second consecutive final. Since the Kyoto results haven’t gone on the computer yet and Stebe has few points to defend, look for him to make a massive leap in the rankings next week.
Pim Pim’s brief return: After Joachim Johansson‘s impressive performance in Davis Cup, it was exciting to see him in the draw at Switzerland F1. He beat Mate Pavic in the first round, but has withdrawn, presumably with injury. Too bad.
Another comeback: Here’s another name you might know: Crazy Dani, Daniel Koellerer. The Austrian has also struggled with injury, and he’s the third seed this week at Turkey F9. He’s through to the second round, and perhaps more remarkably, he’s through to the semifinals in doubles with his countryman Michael Linzer.
See you tomorrow!