Roger Federer struggled with his contemporaries before he became the dominant player that broke Sampras’s record.  Nalbandian, Hewitt, and Safin.  Since then, Safin retired while Nalbandian and Hewitt struggle to stay relevant.  Federer rarely has trouble playing players his age or older.  And there are players in that age range that are pretty good, whether it be Jurgen Melzer or Nikolay Davydenko.

Chela, alas, while a very competent clay courter, just lacks the firepower and speed to deal with Federer’s game.  Federer likes to move the ball around and then pounce inside out or up the line.  Chela, meanwhile, isn’t exactly speedy.  This lead to an easy 6-0, 6-2 win over Chela who is 31.

Up for Federer next is the winner of two wildcards: Ryan Harrison and Milos Raonic.  Harrison and Raonic have played 3 times with the edge going to Harrison, but that was years ago, and Raonic appears to have the edge in this match with big strokes and a huge serve.  Harrison can hope that their is still some psychological edge left over from junior days, but likely, he is just going to deal with this situation the best he can.

Other top seeds rolled easily.  The ever dangerous Ernests Gulbis who showed flashes of taking the next step heading into the European clay season found his momentum derailed with an injury at the French and hasn’t played that well since.  He played well somewhat recently, but wasn’t ready to deal with red-hot Novak Djokovic, only winning one game in a 6-0, 6-1 beatdown.

Berdych had a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over Brazilian lefty, Thomaz Bellucci.  Richard Gasquet won surprisingly easily, 6-1, 6-3 over Jurgen Melzer.  Stan Wawrinka beat Cilic for a third time this year (beating him previously at Chennai and the Australian Open) and now a 7-5, 6-3 win, the only close match so far today on the men’s side.  Viktor Troicki had an easy 6-3, 6-3 win over Frenchman, Michael Llodra.

This leaves four North Americans left to play today: Andy Roddick will play John Isner and the winner will play Gasquet in the fourth round.  Canadian Milos Raonic will face Ryan Harrison in the battle of the wildcards for the right to face Roger Federer.  The tennis media is awaiting a Raonic-Federer match, but fans of Harrison are hoping he can have a signature win over a junior rival.