The scores look nearly the same.  Federer beat Tomic in the third round, 64 76 61.  He beat Raonic today 64 76 62.  And yet, the impression from watching both matches was completely different.

Despite the thumping that Tomic eventually took in the third set, he was able to make Federer work hard.  Tomic brought in both a tough serve, newfound power, and the ability to hit behind Federer, all tools he might need to beat Federer in the future.  And though Federer was up to the challenge, it showed the world that Tomic had learned some new tricks.

By contrast, the first two sets of the Federer-Raonic match was like watching old-school grass tournaments where there were hardly any rallies.  Indeed, Federer seemed keen on standing in, and letting Raonic ace him, giving Raonic no rhythm off the ground while Federer himself kept serving well, and allowing very few groundstrokes.  It resembled a match he might play against Ivo Karlovic.

Federer looked for a few key moments.  In the first set, it was a game where Raonic didn’t hit as many first serves, and in the second set tiebreak, it came down to a mini-break.  You could sense Raonic getting frustrated that he wasn’t able to extend Federer off the ground as he exposed the young Canadian’s movement problems.  Since Raonic was hitting so few groundies, he lacked rhythm and was missing on some fairly easy shots.

In the third set, Federer wanted to stop playing around, and got into a few more of Raonic’s serves, breaking him twice at the start.  Raonic managed to hold serve two more times, but since he was making so little impression on the Federer serve, it was only a matter of time before the Swiss maestro would finish his work.

So while Federer beat Raonic with similar scores, it felt more like Raonic still has to work on the parts of his game that he said he was working on (return of serve and his volley) while Tomic has taken strides in his game, and it felt like Federer had to lift his game to beat Tomic, but not as much for Raonic.  Having said that, I think Federer likes matches like Raonic because it’s a great mental test for Federer.  He has to continue to hold serve and wait for the few opportunities to present itself that he can take advantage of.

Earlier in the day, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga proved too tough for Richard Gasquet, taking him down in four sets: 64 36 63 62.  Murray knocked out another Frenchman, Gilles Simon, who had played the third longest match this year in beating his compatriot, Gael Monfils.  Score: 63 61 63.

And, despite a knee issue and playing doubles yesterday, Jeremy Chardy used his power to knock Andreas Seppi out of the tournament, taking big swipes off his forehand and cracking on his serve: 57 63 62 62.  His power should make it interesting match vs. Andy Murray who has yet to be pushed in his first four rounds.  Expect that match to be closer.

Tomorrow, Novak Djokovic takes on Tomas Berdych as quarterfinal action begins.