After the Sunday break day, all singles players play today. This includes the top 4 seeds, Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, and Murray. Up first was Murray vs. Gasquet on Centre Court with Prince William (the would-be king) and Billie Jean (the “King”) in observation.
Richard Gasquet has given Andy Murray trouble before. The last two times they met in Slams. In the previous meeting, Gasquet had come back from suspension being accused of using cocaine. He had started finding form and won a tournament prior to the 2010 French Open. However, his ranking had not moved up enough and so he drew Andy Murray in the first round. He won the first two sets before Murray’s superior conditioning won it in five.
The previous time, they met at Wimbledon in the fourth round of the 2008 Wimbledon. At that point, Murray had yet to be one of the “top 4” and was working his way up. This was a key match for Murray. He would win this match in five sets and would have his first serious move to the top, including his first US Open final appearance.
Brad Gilbert predicted that Murray was in too good a shape to repeat a 5 setter against Gasquet and predicted a straight set or 4 set match. He was right. The two kept even until a tiebreak, but Murray got the early lead. Although Gasquet did get the mini-break back, he gave it back and Murray cruised comfortably in the tiebreak. After that, Murray relaxed and the match went mostly his way.
Final score: 7-6, 6-3, 6-2
World number 2 Novak Djokovic also had a straight-forward win over Michael Llodra. Llodra is the kind of player that Djokovic would normally not have problems with despite having beaten him last year in Paris. Llodra is a net-rusher and generally has to come to net. His ground game isn’t good enough to compete against Djokovic, and Djokovic makes it difficult for net players to come to net.
Final score: 6-3, 6-3, 6-3
Feliciano Lopez had a great opportunity to make it the Wimbledon quarters for a third time over qualie, Lukasz Kubot. However, Kubot won the first two sets. “Deliciano” as Lopez has been called by folks as surprising as Murray’s mom needed a tiebreak 9 points to 7, and then won two close sets, 7-5 each, to come back from 2 sets to love down.
Final score: 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 7-5
Finally, Aussie hopeful, Bernard Tomic won his match over Xavier Malisse, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. This marks the first time in a while that a player this young has reached the quarters of Wimbledon.
Federer, who had an early lead in the tiebreak over Mikhail Youzhny, just lost the first set after making errors including a slice long to lose the first set.
Nadal had some ankle issues and asked for an injury timeout with a chance to break del Potro that didn’t come through. del Potro then took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreak, but Nadal’s movement seemed to have come back. Now 4-all in the tiebreak.
del Potro double-faults to lose the first set to Nadal, 8 points to 6.
Mardy Fish has taken a two sets to love lead over Tomas Berdych. He is the last American in the men’s draw after Roddick lost to Lopez. Fish has never been to the fourth round at Wimbledon and thus this win would be his first quarterfinal ever. These are the first sets Berdych has lost at Wimbledon.
