This was a strange match, and Murray explained some of the reason he looked so lethargic in his win over Feliciano Lopez.  Great Britain isn’t known for its sunny, hot weather, so players like Murray generally heads to some place warmer–for Murray, it’s Miami, so he can acclimate his body to the heat and humidity.  Unlike, say, Roddick or Fish, who have grown up playing in the heat and are more used to the grind, Murray has to work on this.

This year, however, he couldn’t train in Miami because he was aiming to win a medal at the Olympics.  Murray had said he regretted that he didn’t take the Olympics seriously enough back in 2008 when he lost in the opening round to Yen-Hsun Lu.  Of course, Murray might have credited that early loss with saving energy and allowing him to reach his first Slam final.

This match had seemed tough, but in Murray’s favor.

Murray had been up 2 sets to none, courtesy of two tiebreaks, then up 4-2.  From that point on, Lopez fired off 4 games in a row with Murray barely running down balls.  Murray would get into long neutral rallies, and let Lopez hit winners at will.

The fourth set looked precarious too.  Twice, Murray had games where he had to fight off break points since he wasn’t getting many looks at Lopez’s serve.  Indeed, he barely scrapped to 6-5 having to save break points.  Then, he let Lopez hit a few big serves to push it to a tiebreak.

Murray then got up a mini-break early, but double-faulted to give it back, and eventually got a good pass, and a miss by Lopez to wrap up the fourth set in a tiebreak.

Murray got a bit lucky because Lopez is something of a throwback player, probably modeling his game after fellow Spaniard, Emilio Sanchez.  Sanchez was Arantxa’s older brother.  Despite the topspin that was prevalent in the game, Emilio used slice on his backhand almost exclusively.  Lopez prefers the slice quite a bit, but manages to stay relevant because he has a big serve and his forehand is good enough to keep him in contention.

Because of this, Murray was able to play long slow rallies and wait for Lopez to make errors.  It’s strange for a guy that tired to do this, but it was lack of explosive footwork that was affecting Murray more than stamina.  Murray might have struggled more against Fernando Verdasco who hits with two hands off the backhand and might have pushed Murray off the ground more, but that’s how these matches turn out.  Luck of the draw.

Meanwhile, Federer continued to show his dominance over another lefty Spaniard.  No, not Nadal.  Verdasco.  Federer had never lost to Verdasco, and he wasn’t about to lose to him again.  Verdasco had worked his game, a few years ago, up to the top ten when he reached the semis of the Australian Open in 2009.  But he seemed to play too much in 2010 and faded badly after the US Open and hasn’t been the same player since.  Good enough to keep a seeding, but not good enough to be top ten worthy.

Final score: 63 64 64.

Earlier in the day, Jack Sock was trying to continue his improbable run over 11th seed, Nicolas Almagro.  The first three sets had gone to tiebreaks, with Almagro taking the first and third, and Sock taking the second.  That third set tiebreak was crucial for Sock, if he had any hopes of getting through, but he made an error and let Almagro get too big a lead.  He faded in the fourth set, 61, but still his best Slam performance in the singles.

For some reason, Kei Nishikori struggles against tall players.  He’s never done that well against del Potro.  He didn’t face del Potro, but he face someone just as tall in Marin Cilic.  Cilic has struggled since reaching a peak in 2010 when he made the semis of the Australian Open.  Cilic then faded to play some OK tennis the rest of 2010 and 2011.  In 2012, Cilic seems to be doing better.  He had a strange victory over David Nalbandian in Queen’s (prior to Wimbledon) who was defaulted after kicking some wood paneling near a lines judge which then splintered and injured the judge.  Even so, Cilic has had some solid results since then.

Cilic won 63 64 67 63 over Nishikori.

Martin Klizan, a player who has generally been at the fringe of playing in the main draws and only ever seems to show up in Slams which has 128 players (usually more than twice the size of a typical draw) followed up his upset of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga by beating another Frenchman in Jeremy Chardy.  He won in straight sets,, 64 64 64.

Tsonga had been expected to be a tough seed in Murray’s path to the US Open title (though he has his own worries in the next round), but Klizan’s upset has opened up that section of the draw.

With the long matches today, there are still a few matches left to play, most featuring Americans.

James Blake, long since relevant in the top 30, has somehow clawed his way back to playing good tennis.  Blake’s game seems much like Roger Federer minus the genius.  Blake hits hard, takes big chances, and when the shots lands in, he can still be tough to handle.  He’ll take on Milos Raonic who has been having a tough time in his wins, but remains Canada’s only hope.  The winner of this match will take on Andy Murray.

Sam Querrey will take on Tomas Berdych.  Berdych has been having a mediocre 2012, but has managed to stay in the top ten, nonetheless.  Querrey has been trying to come back, once again.  He had a ho-hum 2011 mostly because he was recovering from injury and still had issues early into 2012, but has played somewhat better, especially with a win over Raonic at Wimbledon.

Berdych lost in the fourth round of the French Open, then in the opening round at Wimbledon and the Olympics, but did reach the finals of Winston-Salem.  Berdych has yet to drop a set, though he’s not played anyone too tough yet.  Berdych and Querrey recently played each other at Winston Salem, the week before the US Open, and Berdych won that in straight sets.

The feature American is Mardy Fish playing Gilles Simon.  It’s power vs. steadiness.  Fish is favored, but sometimes Fish struggles with confidence, so Simon will push him.