Competed over 9 days, the Olympic tennis has half as many participants, but runs in half the time.  A full 128 field takes two weeks to complete, another 5 days more.  This compressed schedule means three rounds on played on consecutive days, and for half the players, four rounds are played on consecutive days.  Every third round match is played today.  Every quarterfinal played tomorrow.  Every semifinal played on Friday.  And, some played their second round yesterday.  The only solace is playing best of 3 sets.

Early in the day, Roger Federer played Denis Istomin.  Istomin, from Uzbekistan, had had decent performances about 2 years ago, but had faded somewhat in obscurity since then.  But playing well as of late, he gave Roger Federer a tough battle.  Late in the first set, he had a 15-40 chance to break, but Federer kept his cool and held, and then broke to take the first set, 7-5.  The second set was a little easier with a 6-3 win.

Novak Djokovic had to deal with resilient Lleyton Hewitt who showed he could still play on this surface.  Hewitt took the first set 64 and kept it close, but the Serb took the second set, 75, then ran away with the third set, 61.

Andy Murray had played Marcos Baghdatis back in the third round of Wimbledon a few weeks ago.  Baghdatis took a set off the Scot then, and he took a set off him today.  Murray’s first two matches had been played indoors.  With predictable conditions, Murray had played well.  However, this match was played outdoors where wind conditions add a challenge to this match.  With Murray playing poorly, Baghdatis wasn’t at his best either.  Murray eventually turned around the second set and took it 6-1.  He got an early break in the third.  Although he had some chances to widen his lead, it was enough to take the third, 6-4.

Feliciano Lopez got in the tournament when Nadal dropped out.  With such a strong Spanish team, it was difficult to qualify in the top four that would originally include Nadal, Ferrer, Almagro, and Verdasco.  This is too bad because Lopez’s best surface is grass, and he’s had some of his best Slam results at Wimbledon.  With a big lefty slice, a slice backhand, and a decent net game, Lopez had his better year last year, but is still a tough one.

Lopez had the misfortune of playing the most dangerous player outside the top 3 seeds, namely, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. If Lopez had hopes that Tsonga was tired after his victory over the hard-serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, it didn’t materialize.  Tsonga won 76 64, and now faces Djokovic tomorrow.

Nicolas Almagro dashed the hopes of Belgian, Steve Darcis, with a 75 63 win.  Although grass is hardly Almagro’s favorite surface, his ranking different with Darcis and his powerful shots were enough to keep an advantage over the man that knocked out Tomas Berdych.

John Isner with confidence is such a different player than Isner without.  Isner lost to Falla in the opening round of Wimbledon.  He went to Newport to regain some of that confidence.  Tipsarevic would rather play on hard courts, or lately, on clay.  Isner knew that he had chances against the second rank Serb.  Isner took a tight 75 76 victory with a second set tiebreak that went to 16-14.  Isner had chances to close it out earlier with a mini-break, but Tipsarevic got a critical point.

del Potro and Simon split sets with del Potro taking the first set and Simon taking the second.  Neither is great on grass, which makes it kinda even for both.  del Potro, as expected, took the third set 63.

In the last match of the day, Spain’s David Ferrer took on Japan’s Kei Nishikori.  Prior to Nishikori, the best Japanese male was Shuzo Matsuoka.  Matsuoka was never much better than about 40 in the world, but he did well on grass.  Ferrer had been improving on grass, winning an event at the Netherlands which, admittedly, had a weak field.  Even so, Ferrer’s been one of the hottest players playing this summer.  He reached the semis of the French, his best result to date, then won at Netherlands on grass, reached the quarters of Wimbledon, won at Bastad on clay the week after.

But this match went in a strange direction.  Apparently NIshikori came out aggressive and Ferrer struggled on second serve.  Nishikori took the first set at love.  It appeared Ferrer righted the ship with an early break.  Nishikori came back, but eventually Ferrer took the second set, 63.  The third set kept on serve until 54 when it was too dark.  Because of the tight Olympic schedule, it was decided that the match had to be completed today to be fair to the winner.  They put the match indoors in Centre Court, and Nishikori immediately broke to take the third set, 64, and take the match.

Preview of Quarterfinals

Federer vs. Isner.  On the one hand, Federer has done well against big servers like Ivo Karlovic.  On the other, John Isner did beat Federer on clay in Switzerland in a Davis Cup match.  However, there’s something to be said that clay may be Isner’s best surface because he can hit through the clay, but get time to recover and hide his main weakness: speed.  Isner had a bad Wimbledon this year, despite the fact that a big server like Isner ought to do well.  Isner chalked that up to lack of confidence which he seems to have regained.  Even so, Federer is likely to win this in two close sets.  It will mostly do with how sharp Federer is returning.  Isner will look to win in his usual way.  Hold serve, and take his chances in the tiebreak.

Nishikori vs. del Potro.  del Potro played Nishikori when they were in the juniors.  Even if 2012 del Potro is not 2009 del Potro, he is still pretty good.  The 2012 del Potro is a lot steadier and waits for his moments.  del Potro has a fair bit of confidence playing the Japanese player.  The issue is whether Nishikori can handle the del Potro serve.  In head-to-head, del Potro has won all three encounters, but this victory over Ferrer has to give Nishikori some confidence.  Still, del Potro is favored even on his weakest surface.

Murray vs. Almagro.  Almagro has never been past the third round of Wimbledon, though he has reached this point numerous times.  Almagro has a big backhand.  Murray has reached the semis of Wimbledon every year since 2009.  Even so, Murray looked a touch shaky against Baghdatis.  Murray should rebound against Almagro who seems, for no good reason, to struggle on faster surfaces.  This suggests his return of serve is a weakness and that faster surfaces expose this.  Murray will want to right the ship.  They’ve met three times, with Almagro’s only victory occurring on clay (no surprise).  Expect a close match to go Murray’s way.

Djokovic vs. Tsonga.  In the only quarter that went to form, Djokovic will be tested by Tsonga.  He’s the one player that had a decent head-to-head with Djokovic.  Djokovic leads 6-5 in head-to-head.  They’ve met 4 times in Slams with the Serb winning 3 of the 4.  The one win for Tsonga came in 2010 when he won in 5 sets despite Djokovic being ahead in that match before fading.  Tsonga has played a tough match against Raonic, a close match against Lopez.  Djokovic struggled a bit against Hewitt.  It could be epic between these two in the toughest quarters of the four being played tomorrow.  Djokovic has come through in the big moments, but Tsonga has the game to take it to Djokovic.  I call this even with a tiny edge to Djokovic who is desperate to win gold.