Since I missed Day 4, let’s recap.

The top seeds, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, had few problems.  Despite Davydenko recently reaching the Doha finals, this Davydenko was not the same as 2010 who was fresh off a win at London in 2009 and was in the top ten.  Federer had too many answers for the Russian.  Andy Murray also found it comfortable to beat Joao Souza of Portugal in straight sets.  Lendl prefers Murray not to play these long drawn out sets, like he used to where he might win 64, 75, 63 and let sets go longer than they should.  Murray has opted to move the ball back and forth trying to take the legs out from underneath his opponents and shorten the points.

This was key because Thursday was the hottest day of the tournament reaching 40C or higher (about 100F).

Straight sets win for Tsonga over Soeda and del Potro over Becker.  Cilic and Gasquet also had straight sets wins on Thursday.  In a match where both players struggled in the heat, Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia beat local player, James Duckworth, in 5 long sets.  10-8 in the fifth.  Ivan Dodig of Croatia also needed 5 sets to beat Jarkko Nieminen.  Gael Monfils, returning back from injury, needed 5 sets to beat Yen-Hsun Lu.

Friday was decidedly cooler.

Djokovic had been coasting in his first two rounds.  While Radek Stepanek should flashes of brilliance using his serve and volley game to disrupt Djokovic, it was only a matter of time, in each set, when he played poorly enough to get broken.  Djokovic in straight sets.

A player like Marcos Baghdatis seems like a dangerous opponent for David Ferrer, but Ferrer continues to be a machine when it comes to playing lower ranked players.  Ferrer broke early, was broken back, then broke again, and waltzed to a straight set win.

Kevin Anderson continued his solid January play upsetting Fernando Verdasco.  Verdasco lost in the first round last year to Bernard Tomic, but only lasted another round longer this year.  Tomas Berdych, who did not start January that well, has been steamrolling his opponents in straight sets, but remains, otherwise, under the radar.  He beat former top tenner and French Open semifinalist, Jurgen Melzer, in straight sets, easily, and may prove Djokovic’s first real challenge should they meet in the quarterfinals.

Janko Tipsarevic continues to show resolve to stay in the top ten by beating French veteran, Julien Benneteau, in five sets.  Sam Querrey became the last American male to exit the tournament with a loss to Stan Wawrinka in three close sets.  Kei Nishikori beat unheralded Russian, Evgeny Donskoy, in three relatively close sets.

Saturday’s play features Roger Federer taking on Bernard Tomic.  These two played in the fourth round last year.  Tomic has been rather boastful of his chances of bothering Federer.  He said Federer should be worried about meeting him.  Tomic needed 4 tough sets to beat the hard hitting German, Daniel Brands, but ended up serving more aces than his hard serving opponent.

Andy Murray is also scheduled to play.  He takes on Ricardas Berankis, who occasionally gets mentioned in the same breath as Tomic, Raonic, Dimitrov, and Harrison.  Berankis is a bit shorter than these players, but he had a strong win in the second round over Florian Mayer who, frankly, didn’t have a stellar 2012.  Murray has said he practices with Berankis, so he is familiar with his style of play.