For some reason, Robin Soderling’s power groundstrokes seem more intimidating on clay than on hardcourts.  The last time Soderling played Roddick was this year, in Indian Wells, a match Roddick won in three sets.  Roddick went on to the finals where he lost to Ljubicic before winning Miami the following tournament.

This match was one that was just played very closely, and in the end, it was just a matter of who won the last few points.  Roddick won the first set 6-4, got up a break in the 2nd, only to give it back.  That set went to a tiebreak which Soderling won 9 points to 7.  The third set was also close, with Roddick having chances again.  The match eventually went to a tiebreak, and Roddick edged out Soderling.  Roddick had said that he suffered from a mild bout of mono, but that he was mostly over it.  This match seemed to show that he was in good enough shape to compete.

Roddick’s next opponent is Novak Djokovic.  Djokovic was having an easy time with Nalbandian when his health issues came up again.  The second set was very close, but Djokovic managed to play some good points and squeeze out a win, 9-7.

The bad news for Djokovic is that he’s the second match on tomorrow on what promises to be a hot day.  His only hope is that Roddick is not exactly ready to deal with the heat because of lack of fitness due to mono.  Roddick will, one assumes, be confident that he can deal with the heat.  Djokovic, on the other hand, will be nervous.  One person that will wish for a Roddick win is Roger Federer.  The sooner Djokovic loses, the less far Federer needs to get into the tournament and still keep his lead over Djokovic.  Were the US Open held next week instead of the week after, Federer would already be guaranteed a #2 seed, but because there is one more tournament, his seeding at the US Open will be whatever his ranking is after Cincy concludes.  Since Fed is defending champ and Djokovic is runner-up, Fed needs about 160 points more than Djokovic to keep his slender lead in the rankings.

Speaking of Fed, for the second match in a row, he barely had to play.  Against Denis Istomin, Federer played 7 games before Istomin tweaked an ankle and could not play any longer.  Fed didn’t even get that far with Kohlschreiber who withdrew without even playing Federer.

Federer’s opponent will be Nikolay Davydenko.  Davydenko is just starting to regain some of the rhythm he had from last year.  Just last week, Davydenko was struggling with keeping his forehand in play, spraying balls everywhere.  Against a player like Ferrer, this would not be good enough.  Ferrer is quick and can hurt you if you don’t pressure him.  Ferrer loses because he can be overpowered.  Ferrer hits hard, but not super-hard.

Ferrer took the first set against Davydenko, 6-4.  However, Davydenko got an early break in the 2nd set and took that set 6-3.  Davydenko had a cheering section, perhaps a result of a four-syllable name that made it easy for his American fans to chant “Da-vy-den-ko” (clap, clap–clap, clap, clap) as if this were a college basketball game.  Alas, Ferrer got an early break, then Davydenko immediately broke back, then Ferrer broke again, then Davydenko broke back again.  Davydenko held, and had chances to break Ferrer in the next game, but finally at 5-all, Davydenko did break to get up 6-5, and see Ferrer smash his racquet in disgust.  Davydenko held to win the match.

Davydenko faces Federer next.  This should be interesting as Federer has had very little match play and, until this tournament, Davydenko has look shaky.  Davydenko seems to be reaching form just in time.  Is that enough to beat Federer?  We’ll see.  The last time these two met was in Australia where Davydenko came close to upsetting Federer.  Both players were playing better tennis then.

Andy Murray was struggling in his match against Ernests Gulbis.  Gulbis hit more than twice as many winners as Murray and also more than twice as many errors.  Gulbis kept attacking the Murray second serve which dropped to 80 mph or less.  Murray resorted to spinning 100 mph first serves just to avoid giving Gulbis second serve looks.  Murray did not look as sharp as he did in Toronto.  There was some discussion whether Murray might tank the match so that he wouldn’t fatigue himself trying to win Toronto and Cincy back-to-back.  Roddick did the duo some years ago as did Agassi, both under the tutelage of Brad Gilbert.

Murray takes on Mardy Fish next.  Fish beat Murray twice this year, once in Miami and once again in Queen’s.  Fish has been having a bit of a late-career resurgence a la Nalbandian (except Fish never had the early career success that Nalby did).  Fish took on Richard Gasquet, won a close first set, 7-5, then had an easy second set, 6-2.  Gasquet has been playing well as of late, but Fish has been playing better.  Given Fish’s record against Murray, he’ll feel confident against Murray.  Murray’s big question is whether he wants to fight hard to get deeper in the tournament.  Murray looked a bit flat against Gulbis.  Admittedly, Gulbis is dangerous, but Murray looked sharper back in Toronto.

Baghdatis beat Berdych in a close 7-5, 6-4 match and faces Rafa next.  Rafa still doesn’t look sharp.  Against Julien Benneteau, Rafa was down an early break, but broke back.  Benneteau then broke again and took the first set.  Benneteau’s strategy was to attack the serve and hit huge backhands, and he did a pretty good job of that.  In the second set, Benneteau was able to push to a tiebreak and had match point, but lost 8-6.  Benneteau then appeared to cramp in the third set and could not get medical attention until the first change over, 3 games in.  By then, he was double break down.  Benneteau recovered one break but apparently was broken back again, and lost the third set, 6-2.

Nadal has never lost to Baghdatis in 6 meetings, all of them on hard courts except one on grass.  However, they’ve played three-setters in 4 of the 6 matches.  With Nadal still not 100% sharp, Baghdatis might have an outside shot at pulling the upset.

The schedule has Murray playing Fish in the first match of the day at noon, then Roddick vs. Djokovic after that, then Federer-Davydenko after that.  The evening match is Nadal against Baghdatis.

There is still a chance the top 4 men in the world could make the semifinals, but there’s also a chance for at least one of these players to be upset in the quarters.  Tomorrow should be more fun!