Robredo faced Roger Federer in the fourth round today, and he felt he’d have to play his best. For a while, Robredo kept it close, but Federer played his best match so far, in a convincing win, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
Today’s matches again lacked the sizzle of the best women’s matches. Today, there were two such matches. 17 year old Melanie Oudin came back from a 1-6 first against Nadia Petrova to take the tiebreak, 7-6, in the second, then break to win 6-3 in the third.
The other close match was veteran, Svetlana Kuznetsova (at age 24), losing two tiebreaks against Dane, Caroline Wozniacki. Kuznetsova goes for big shots but she’s as likely to miss as hit.
French Open finalist played a familar foe today. In the French, Soderling beat Davydenko in the quarters. Today, Soderling was up a set, but Davydenko played close. Davydenko took the second set, 6-3. But when Soderling took the third set, 6-2, Davydenko retired, bothered by a leg injury.
John Isner was the last American standing. Although Verdasco had had problems with big serving Ivo Karlovic, he did recently beat Isner’s doubles partner, Sam Querrey. Verdasco’s groundstrokes were simply too much for Isner, who had a hard time getting to net. Although Isner took the first set, Verdasco got one break in each of the next sets and won rather comfortably. This is the first time an American male has not reached the quarterfinals of the US Open.
Djokovic is playing the night match. As of 11 PM, Djokovic is winning comfortably. He is up two sets to love, 6-1, 6-3, over Radek Stepanek. Stepanek isn’t playing well, while Djokovic is trying to fly under the radar and make it another round. With Roddick’s loss, Djokovic looks like he’ll have to face Verdasco. Djokovic leads Verdasco, 3-2, in head-to-head, and has won the last 3 times they’ve met.
The match concluded with Djokovic having an easy win. In the interview afterwards, “Killer” Cahill tried to convince Todd Martin to hit with Novak. Novak then asked McEnroe to play. McEnroe obliged. Not finding any tennis clothes, he came out in a button down shirt and his racquet, and they played a few for-fun points. While the crowd may not have had a great time with the match, the after-match antics were pretty amusing, part of Djokovic’s efforts to rehabilitate his image for the New York crowd.
Tomorrow, Marin Cilic plays Andy Murray. Murray leads their head-to-head 3-0. He’s beaten Cilic on grass, hard courts, and clay, most recently at the French Open.
Perhaps the most intriguing match is Gael Monfils against Rafael Nadal. Nadal leads their head-to-head 3-1, but he had a poor match against Almagro. Nadal would have been in serious trouble had Almagro not had such a hard time holding his own serve. The likelihood is Nadal will play much better unless his abdominals are still bothering him.
Juan Martin del Potro plays Juan Carlos Ferrero. They’ve only played twice, both in 2006, and on clay. Ferrero won both. Del Potro is a different player today, and you’d expect him to give Ferrero all he can handle. Still, Ferrero should have a little confidence knowing he’s beaten him before (although those matches were somewhat close, even back then).
Finally, two of the hardest hitters in the game face off, as Fernando Verdasco takes on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The two have never played each other.
We’re getting closer to the final rounds of the US Open! Stay tuned for more!
