One of the top three seeds fell on Thursday.  Andy Murray lost 64 64 in straight sets to Jeremy Chardy.  On the one hand, Chardy won two rounds in Toronto last week and elevated his rank 9 spots, so he’s been playing solid tennis.  On the other hand, Murray has blamed taking the tournaments prior to the US Open too seriously leading to early exits in NY.  With his effort at the Olympics already putting a lot of work on his schedule, a strategic loss might give him a chance to rest and train.  Murray points out that he lost in the opening round of Queen’s to Mahut, but still reached the finals.

Even if it were a strategic loss, Chardy didn’t make it that easy, as the two players exchanged numerous breaks in the second set.  And, if you’re going to lose, you need to at least play the part, which Murray did, pouting about his poor play.

Let’s get to the late match between Djokovic and Davydenko.  Davydenko has not played all that well since he got injured at Indian Wells back in 2010.  He was off the tour until Wimbledon, and hasn’t been the same player since.  Although he’s won a tournament here or there, his confidence seems to be shot, in part due to a year-long effort to adapt to a Dunlop racquet (he signed up with them in 2010) that he never liked.  He dropped that affiliation and has gone back to his trusty Prince.  He opened up well with a win over Dolgopolov who, admittedly, did just win Washington DC and may not have been all that fresh, then the quirky German, Florian Mayer.

However, with a potential shoulder issue, or just the yips, Davydenko was serving well under 100 mph, and making double faults to boot.  Despite one game with a 40-15 lead, Davydenko proceeded to lose every game in the first set, 6-0, and then retired.

Roger Federer had to do a little more work with Bernard Tomic who is closing in on 20 years of age.  Despite a 6’5″ height that puts him in Berdych’s height range, Tomic prefers the finesse hits, inside out, slices, and the occasional power shots.  But his inability to read the serve early, and his slow movement, and his lack of consistency have hurt his game.  Brad Gilbert, of ESPN, said that Tomic would be well-served by a huge serve in his game to make holding serve less of a problem.  Although Tomic is frequently compared to Murray, he lacks Murray’s speed, return of serve, and power, three deficiencies that simply add up.

Federer generally had few problems with the erratic Aussie.  While he may not have been super sharp, he didn’t need to be.

Mardy Fish overcame a personal challenge finally beating Radek Stepanek, a player he had never beaten.  Wawrinka had a nice win over Nishikori, and may be showing good US Open form.  Raonic needed three sets to defeat Berdych who has been playing rather poorly as of late.  del Potro needed 3 sets to beat Viktor Troicki.  Cilic beat Andujar in straight sets, although the first set went to tiebreak.

Quarterfinals are all played today.