In three matches, Juan Monaco had dropped only one set, to the venerable Tommy Haas.  So he had to be feeling pretty good about his game and giving Roger Federer a good match.

Little did he expect that Roger Federer would have his best performance of the tournament.  It’s intriguing to watch Federer.  When it’s not a Slam, Federer actually takes more risks.  He’ll go closer to the lines.  He doesn’t want rallies to last more than ten shots.  He just wants to be efficient.  In a Slam, he hits safer shots.  He’s willing to play longer rallies.  He hits about as hard, but he doesn’t hit near the lines until he’s ready to put away the ball.

Unfortunately, for Monaco, he had two problems.  Problem number 1 was seeing Roger Federer’s serve.  It had him baffled all night long.  Indeed, the first set lasted all of 18 minutes.  By the second set, Monaco was getting into some rallies.  However, Federer was striking the ball very hard tonight, including returns.  Normally, Federer likes to chip his returns, but against a less than spectacular server, Federer was able to tee off.  Even when Monaco hit serves into the 120s, he lacked good directional control, so it let Federer hit good returns.

The two were trying to beat the rain.  All night long, there was rain heading just west of New York and missing.  This was similar to the 2008 men’s semifinals where New York City avoided rain until about 2 PM which, alas, affected the Murray-Nadal match.

Fortunately, this didn’t affect this match.  Roger Federer closed out the last set at love.  He hit 14 aces and numerous serves that weren’t returned.

Roger did have a chance to hit a tweener when Monaco lob volleyed him.  Although Roger reached the tweener in plenty of time, he overhit it long.

Up next for Roger Federer is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who has beaten Roger the last two time they’ve met, most notably at Wimbledon.  Federer has the advantage of playing a quick match while Tsonga played a five setter.  Tsonga has, however, been training with Gil Reyes, so his fitness may be quite good.

Tomorrow, Isner faces Simon, Murray faces Donald Young, Rafa plays Gilles Muller, and Andy Roddick plays David Ferrer.