Oh Roger, how could we doubt you?  Just because you’ve been mishitting balls since Indian Wells, and then Miami, and then Rome, and then Estoril.  You kept telling us “everything is fine–I’m having good practices”, telling us not to panic.  But how were we to know?  If you could play like today, then what was stopping you.

It was maybe 5 years ago when Roger Federer played like this all the time.  He would dominate players not named Nadal and roll over them with apparent ease.  That Federer has not been with us for a while.  He makes appearances at Slams and perhaps the occasional Masters 1000 event.  But for Roger, it’s better late than never.

Federer will point to his serve percentage which, at 63%, is a pretty good number for the Swiss maestro.  Once Roger feels good with his serve, the rest of his game flows.  Considering how short Roger’s shot tolerance has become, it seems odd that Wawrinka came to net as much as he did.  Even a struggling Federer tends to pass well.  And Fed wasn’t struggling today.

Routine shots that Roger was missing were now going in.  By the time Roger had his second break, Wawrinka was befuddled, making errors way too often.  He looked flummoxed.  Federer would slice the balls low to his backhand and Wawa had nothing but errors to give back.  Wawrinka would hold serve to 4-1, but then Roger held to 5-1, and then broke again to 6-1.  This was a far cleaner performance than his play against Benjamin Becker, where Fed struggled on returns.

Earlier in the day, Andy Murray had an easy win over Victor Hanescu.  Hanescu is one of those tall, hard-hitting players.  His feel at net is pretty impressive for a guy 6’6″.  At one point, the two were trading drop shots.  However, Hanescu’s movement is not nearly as good as it could be, and this made it ideal for a player like Andy Murray.

Murray’s beginning to learn lessons on clay that he doesn’t apply on hard courts.  To win on clay, you have to be aggressive.  Andy Murray began going for bigger backhands both crosscourt and down the line, and this allowed him to shorten rallies.  Murray is not normally the kind of player that likes going for big shots, but he did it against Hanescu, and is looking more solid on clay.

Murray gets a rematch against David Ferrer.  Although Juan Carlos Ferrero is called the Mosquito, it should be David Ferrer, whose speedy moves and aggressive shot making befuddles nearly everyone not named Nadal.  Murray will really see how his form is playing a player as tenacious as Ferrer.  Murray’s first serve percentage is still a bit on the low side, but he was nonetheless serving well earlier today.  Ferrer beat Marin Cilic earlier, 6-3, 6-2.  It’s an upset, but Cilic plays better on faster surfaces and hasn’t been playing well since Australia.

Rafael Nadal had what you might call a “typical” John Isner match.  Against a big server like Isner, but a relatively slow mover, Nadal is able to hold serve easily because he can move the ball whereever.  Isner is still not quick enough nor imposing enough off the ground to bother Nadal.  This generally leaves Isner scrambling to reach shots and he looks as bad as Karlovic, even though he’s a better mover than Karlovic.  But it’s no shame to lose to the king of clay on clay.  Nadal faced no break points.  Isner was basically broken if he got to break point.  One break each set: 7-5, 6-4.

In the upset of the day, Fernando Verdasco played another big hitting lefty, this time, veteran Jurgen Melzer.  Melzer won 7-5, 6-3.  Verdasco has to wonder if he peaked too early.  That, or he has chosen to “tank” this result to get himself ready for Roland Garros.

Gael Monfils played a close match against Garcia-Lopez, winning 7-6(5), 6-4.

Gulbis continues to show increased maturity.  Having won the first set easily over Feliciano Lopez, 6-2, Gulbis found himself working hard to keep in the match.  At one juncture in the middle of a set, Gulbis was down 0-40, but ran off a bunch of points to hold serve.  Gulbis had some chances to break, but didn’t do so.  However, Gulbis won every point in the tiebreak, 7-0, and beat Lopez for the second time in as many weeks.

And Gulbis gets to play another player he played in Rome: Roger Federer.  Gulbis played a nervous match to beat Roger Federer, but truth be told, that Roger wasn’t the Roger that played Wawrinka.  To be fair, this isn’t the same Gulbis.  That Gulbis squeaked by his next opponent in Rome and eventually gave Nadal all he could handle including taking the only set Nadal has dropped on clay.  This will be a true measure of how both Federer and Gulbis is playing.

Andy Murray has a rematch with David Ferrer.  Murray is also playing better than he did back in Rome, but his opponents have been somewhat ideal for Murray’s game.  Even so, one can see that Murray is playing more attacking tennis.  Still, Ferrer is a tough opponent, whose speed and ability to get back shot after shot can infuriate the most opportunistic of players.

Jurgen Melzer takes on Nicolas Almagro.  This promises to be another hard-hitting match.  Finally, Nadal takes on the athletic Gael Monfils.  Monfils had an entertaining match against Nadal in the US Open last year.  Is he ready to pressure Nadal this go around?

So tomorrow, the quarterfinals!