Let’s start with the first fourth-round match of the day.  Janko Tipsarevic played Juan Carlos Ferrero.  The two have met twice but not in four years.  Ferrero won both encounters but both times they met, the match was close.  It was expected that this would be a long match too.

And boy was it!  The first set took an hour to play.  The two play in similar ways.  They both grind from the baseline.  They can both hit decent serves and put away balls when the opportunity presents itself.  Ferrero took the opening set 7-5.  Tipsarevic then took the next two sets.  Each took an hour to play.  Basically, Tipsarevic kept grinding and went for big shots when he could.  By the fourth set, Ferrero’s stamina was waning and Tipsarevic was able to win a few loose points and take the fourth set relatively easily, 6-2.

In the next match, number 1 seed, Novak Djokovic played the trick Alexandr Dolgopolov who likes to change spins and paces.  Dolgopolov got an early break in the first set, but Djokovic broke right back.  The two held serve until the tiebreak.  It was clear Dolgopolov wanted to use the slice to throw off Djokovic’s timing, and for a while it worked.  With the wind swirling, Djokovic made errors as he tried going for big shots.  He became a bit gun-shy.

For those who watched the Kirilenko-Stosur second set tiebreak, which went to 17-15, it must have been deja-vu to watch the Djokovic-Dolgopolov in their first set tiebreak.  If Dolgopolov won, Djokovic would likely have a long day at the office.  If Djokovic won, he would feel he dodged a bullet and gain confidence in subsequent sets.  Djokovic won this 16-14.  From then on, Djokovic had a pretty comfortable match.  He broke early in the second and third sets and even broke again in the third set.  This had promised to be a dangerous match, but Dolgopolov’s slightly erratic play and Djokovic’s increased confidence as the match went along helped a bit.

In the third match of the day, Mardy Fish took on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  The two had never played each other before.  The thinking was Tsonga has the big forehand and big serve, while Fish had the better net game, and the win streak.  Breaks were likely to be few.

The first set was even until late in the first set when Fish, who had game points, double-faulted twice, and eventually gave the break to Tsonga who then took the first set.  The two stayed even in the second set with no breaks.  Tsonga then had set points on his serve, but lost both points and Fish was able to win the second set.  Fish got a break in the middle of the third set, then broke at the end of the third set.  With such windy conditions, both players were struggling with keeping shots in the court.

Despite the 2 set advantage and a possibility that Tsonga might feel down about having to play two more sets, he looked fresh.  The two kept even in the fourth set until Tsonga got a break with Fish making errors.  Tsonga took the fourth set.  Fish got irritated at Tsonga claiming his box was disturbing him.  Early on, Tsonga said Fish’s box was bothering him.  As the sets rolled along, Fish’s leg seemed to bother him more and more.  Tsonga’s serve became hard to pick up and Fish made more errors.  Fish was broken once, then twice.  As Tsonga was ready to serve out the match, he got to a 40-15 lead, but Fish tied it at deuce.  Tsonga got to match point again, and Fish got it to deuce, and this happened one more time until Tsonga came to net, and Fish hit a very poor lob that was smashed for match point.

Fish seemed frustrated that his body didn’t hold up and that it was so windy.  He had a difficult time breaking Tsonga’s serve.  Tsonga also looked fresh to the end, hitting big shots.

Last on is Federer taking on Juan Monaco.