There was a question whether Tomic could play Federer the way he played Dolgopolov or even Querrey and Verdasco.  That is, hit off-pace shots and hope to befuddle Federer.  The thought was perhaps he couldn’t and would have to up the pace.  Tomic felt confident he could take the match to Federer, but he still has weaknesses that hurt him overall.  In particular, Tomic isn’t a fast mover, he tends to guess which way to go on return of serve, and his off-pace shots can leave him vulnerable to hard hits.  And when Tomic is on the run, he can sometimes mishit shots.

In the first set, the two players were trying to feel each other out.  Tomic was initially relying on pushing the ball hoping that Federer would make errors, and Federer was trying to decide how much power he could go for.  The two stayed even until about 4-all when Tomic made a few errors and Federer took the first set 64.

The next two sets were much more clinical.  After Federer started to drive the crosscourt slice backhands down the line for winners, Tomic switched gears and tried to hit flatter.  In these exchanges, Federer showed a great deal of quick movements showing he’s still as agile as ever.  Having said that, Tomic isn’t exactly a standard hitting player, and so his style just happened to match Federer’s rhythm.  If Federer can do something similar against del Potro, then I’ll believe this performance is real.

Meanwhile, Federer managed to pull all sorts of magic against Tomic.  He hit drop shots.  He drove shots down the line for winners.  He hit backhand overheads.  He dealt with huge flat crosscourt forehands.  He looked as sharp as he did when he used to dominate the tour 4-5 years ago.  Tomic was often shaking his head wondering what had happened.  Everyone knows that it was a learning experience for him  Tomic probably expected a lot more from himself and left with a lesson he’ll have to rue over.  He has a different style, and he may have to add more conventional shot making, in particular, good topspin shots instead of hitting so flat.

Final score: 64 62 62.

del Potro also had a fairly easy time.  He had an early break to Kohlschreiber who broke back before del Potro broke again, then cruised to a 64 62 61 win.

Nadal did not have many problems with Feliciano Lopez.  Lopez struggles in long exchanges from the baseline.  In backhand to backhand excehanges, Lopez invariably feels the need to take a big swat at the ball and invariably nets it.  He managed to prevent a blowout in the first set when Nadal had plenty of opportunities to make second break, but hit enough errors that Lopez was able to stay within a break, but not get any closer.  The second set pretty much went the same.  Then, Nadal secured two breaks in the final for a 64 62 62 win.

Nadal’s opponent is Tomas Berdych, who got himself into a brouhaha.  Against Almagro, the two seemed evenly matched.  Both served well, both hit off the ground well.  Almagro took the first set 64.  The two held serve throughout the second set which went to a tiebreak.  Berdych was a bit more aggressive in the second set tiebreak and won it.  He got an early break in the third set, but Almagro got the break back and the second set also went to a tiebreak and pretty much like the second set, Berdych played more aggressively and won the second set tiebreak.  In the fourth set, the players were on serve until late in the fourth set when, at 0-30 down, Berdych got to net, and Almagro hit a passing shot at Berdych.  It hit him on the arm, but he felt Almagro took a cheap shot to the head.

Berdych managed to dig out of the 0-40 hole win the game to a 6-5 lead then the two again went into tiebreak and Berdych again took the lead and won the match 76.

When it came time to shake hands, Berdych refused.  The Aussies love their competition, but they feel at the end of tennis matches, you shake hands no matter what, as a matter of respect.  So they rained down boos which interrupted the post-match interview.  Had it been anywhere else in the world, it probably would have been treated with a shrug, and the audience would simply not have cared.  Not, the Aussies, however.  Berdych said, in a post match interview, that there’s plenty of places to hit without going after someone.  Almagro said that he’s trying to win the point and that’s how it goes.  The ESPN announcers backed Almagro saying hitting a person is fair play, even though you see a lot less of this (Lendl, Murray’s new coach, would often peg McEnroe to intimidate him–but he didn’t care that he was being branded the bad guy, and recently, Murray pegged Llodra in the back, when Llodra, an experienced doubles player, had the good sense to turn around when it looked like he might get hit–doubles players get hit a lot more due to the close proximity of playing).

Tomorrow, Murray takes on surprise fourth-rounder, Mikhail Kukushkin.  They say it’s unusual that Li Na is coached by her husband, but it’s probably more unusual that Kukushkin is coached by his wife.  Davydenko was unofficially coached by his wife when his brother Eduoard was helping his son in tennis, but this may be a first, at least for a top-ranked player.  Djokovic will take on veteran Lleyton Hewitt who is a huge underdog in that match.

Tsonga will take on Nishikori and Gasquet will play Ferrer.