The men’s draw has gone pretty much to form. The women’s draw, on the other hand, has been devastated. Anyone who has followed the women’s game knows how good the Russian women are. They all hit hard. But they all seem to have some mental demons to work out. There are perhaps 20 Russian women in the top 100, but none in the final 8.
That all changed today when world number 2, Andy Murray, came out to play Marin Cilic. Cilic played a tough match against Djokovic in last year’s US Open. However, he had never beaten a top 3 player. Murray had beaten him in all 3 meetings including a win at the French Open in straight sets.
Murray had chances to break Cilic in the first set, but Cilic managed to hold his serve and break Murray to win the first set. After that, it seemed downhill for Murray. Murray was not able to use his variety to confuse Cilic. Meanwhile Cilic kept powering shots, using his serve out wide to set up the point. Murray seemed bothered by his left wrist, and his backhand was not nearly as sharp, but his forehand was also missing.
Murray’s critics, many from the UK, feel Murray needs to build a game where he beats a player by blasting past them. Murray rarely beats a player by hitting winners on them, like Gonzalez hit winners when he’s on or Federer hits when he’s on. Nadal goes for somewhat fewer winners, but he hits with so much topspin that he makes his opponents work hard, and if they let up, Nadal is startlingly accurate hitting angles. He fetches the ball extremely well and can hit shots out of nowhere.
Murray is going to have to go back to the drawing board and decide what he needs to do to deal with the hard hitters in the game. He had been relying on one of the best returns in the game, but Cilic served very well, while Murray seemed unable to get rhythm on return.
Cilic will now face Juan Martin del Potro.
del Potro played Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ferrero has had wins over del Potro, but those came back in 2006 before del Potro made his big jump up. del Potro has two huge weapons: his serve and his forehand. His forehand may be the most effective big forehand in the game. When he has time, he clubs this forehand like no other, and clubbing seems like the most accurate way to describe del Potro’s forehand. Despite Ferrero’s speed, he was unable to hold off del Potro. del Potro won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Two more matches on tap today. Hard-hitting Fernando Gonzalez goes up against flashy Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. This evening, the other flash Frenchman, Gael Monfils, takes on world number 3, Rafael Nadal.
