With a respite from the rain that caused Wednesday to be washed out and the morning to be wet, the fourth round matches were all put on courts at the same time to get the fourth round complete.  Unfortunately, at Louis Armstrong, Roddick noticed a bulge in the court with water coming up.  This was apparently caused by water coming from underneath the court.  Whether it seeped from the edges or was the side-effect of rain falling on the courts for two days is not clear.

Roddick and Ferrer left the court and it seemed that they would be delayed about 45 minutes.  However, even after an hour, it was not yet dry.  They did eventually bring the players back, but Roddick complained there was still water on the court to the head referee, Brian Earley.  Earley claimed it was dry ten minutes earlier, but Roddick pointed out the water was coming from underneath, so drying it from the top wasn’t going to help.  Earley then offered that the two play on one of the unused courts, Court 13, or wait until the end of Murray-Young.  Roddick opted for Court 13.  Ferrer didn’t seem too picky and agreed to play there.

But let’s get back to earlier in the day.  Andy Murray and Donald Young were the first to play their match.  Young had been leading 2-1 on serve.  He had been aggressive before and wanted to be aggressive today.  Unfortunately, Murray was just too steady and Young was a bit too error-prone.  Murray was prepared to just let Young make errors and win without having to exert himself.  Murray won rather handily, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

Rafael Nadal, like he did yesterday, delayed his on-court appearance, although tbis time, they waited until both players were ready to go on court before releasing them, thus Muller and Nadal came out at the same time.  Nadal, knowing that he might have to play four matches in four days, started off quick.  He broke early to get back on serve.  The two held serve until the tiebreak.  Nadal won the tiebreak.  Nadal then quickly won sets 2 and 3, and it wasn’t that close.

John Isner and Gilles Simon were the only two players that didn’t play at all on Wednesday.  Isner knew right away that he wasn’t going to play long rallies with Gilles Simon.  He was going to take big cuts at the ball, serve big, and worse gets to worst, win in tiebreaks.  This is pretty much what he did.  Isner took the first set in a tiebreak.  Simon broke a few times in that first set, but Isner did well to break Simon as well.  Simon got some more breaks in the second set, and got a 6-3 win.  However, Isner managed to do a better job holding his serve in sets 3 and 4.  Isner was broken only once more, but also got the break back.

Isner won all 3 tiebreaks pretty handily, with the fourth set tiebreak the only close one.

Andy Roddick took the court with David Ferrer up a break from yesterday’s play.  Ferrer seemed off for about two sets, not playing his usual quick, steady, aggressive style, and Roddick was able to hold serve to win the first set on the strength of that break.  Roddick also got a break in the second with Ferrer not getting a chance to break.  In the third set, Ferrer got more comfortable with his game and took that set, 6-3.  In the fourth set, Ferrer still looked good and had a break early, but Roddick, who appeared to be in some pain, went for shots, and secured one break, then a second break.  He then served huge to win the fourth set, and head to the quarters.

I had thought Roddick had decent chances because his serving was looking better and he was directing his down-the-line forehand better than usual.  Roddick is usually scared to hit that shot because he’s not too steady with it.

From this group, Isner faces Andy Murray next while Roddick takes on Rafael Nadal.