20130904murrayBefore we get to the Murray match, let’s talk Djokovic.

Right now, based on current play, Djokovic and Nadal are the class of the field.  Sure, Nadal dropped a set against Kohlschreiber, but at least Kohlschreiber was attempting to dictate play.  Even with the German staying close in the first set, Rafa still had a triple break opportunity which, if he had converted, might have saved him a set of play.

Similarly, Djokovic was back to being his imperious self with a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 beatdown of Spaniard, Marcel Granollers.  As is, Granollers has few weapons to bother Djokovic.  He’s not a power player.  He’s decent at net owing to his doubles with Marc Lopez.  But today’s best players pass tremendously well, so being a good volleyer is often not worth that much.

And, Granollers, unlike Djokovic had a tough road to the fourth round.

Five set win over Estonian, Jurgen Zopp.  Five set win over Rajeev Ram, the American.  Five set win over Tim Smyczek, the American, after being down an early break in the fifth set.

One can imagine that Granollers had little to give, and with Djokovic playing efficiently, the Spaniard had no chance.

Andy Murray was scheduled to play the night match against Denis Istomin.  Istomin is Uzbekistani whose best known for having been coached by his mother, though he seems to have hired a new coach.  Commentators are quick to note that due to a car accident, Istomin had to halt his career for 2 years during his teens to recover, so he’s come back a long way to get to this point of playing pro tennis.  His rank first went up a few years ago, but like many players (see, Stakhovsky, Robredo), the rankings often slip back down usually due to injury, once again.  This year, he’s back to playing solid tennis.

Istomin wears bright neon clothing and glasses reminiscent of Kirsten Flipkens.  His style was compared to Tomas Berdych, but he lacks Berdych’s attacking style.  Berdych tries to cover up his weaknesses by attacking to the corners, and he’s always looking for opportunities to do so.  Istomin is often content rallying down the center and only hits big when pressed on the run.

Unlike his previous match, where Murray was struggling with breathing in the heavy humidity, the evening match was much cooler and far windier.

Murray had hoped to start a bit quicker, but like his match against Florian Mayer, he came out of the gates slowly, having trouble handling the Istomin serve.

In the press interview, Murray brushed away charges that he had played poorly claiming that he was only broken twice, and that, in the end, a win is a win.  Conditions, he felt, were tricky.  He had cooled down some due to the weather, and he felt this was aggravating some pains here and there, but he did recover, and he did win, so what’s the problem?

For reporters and fans of the sport, they look down the line at potential matchups.  Murray’s next challenge is Stan Wawrinka, and Stan was looking very solid.  And even if Murray beats the Swiss, he doesn’t look in good enough shape to challenge either Djokovic or Nadal, or even both, without significantly raising the level of his game.  He doesn’t look as good as he did at Wimbledon, for example.  He’s regressed to playing defensive tennis, unable to easily dictate play, and forcing many shots up the middle where Djokovic and Nadal are still aiming for the lines and making shots.

Murray’s woes began when he lost serve in the first set to Istomin, but he promptly broke back.  The match headed to a tiebreak where Murray got up 5-2, but ultimately, due to errors and adventuresome hitting by Istomin, lost the next 5 points in a row and the tiebreak.

Irritated at the loss, Murray started the second set well with two breaks, and eventually had a nice lob that Istomin ran and hit a tweener.  The shot was a bit awkward because it was high and Istomin had already recovered to the center.  Murray couldn’t quite hit an overhead, and a touch shot needed angle.  Murray muffed the angle shot with the ball landing on his side.  Still, he closed out the set comfortably, 6-1.

The next two sets were closer as Istomin continued to hold serve, but with Murray coming up with key breaks as needed.  Istomin made quite a few forays to the net, but his skill there left a lot to be desired.

Ultimately, it came down to match point and Murray shanked a forehand into a sky-high moonball.  This ball, surprisingly, landed in.  Istomin soft-balled an overhead, then Murray hit another shot, then Istomin made an error to hand the match to the Scot.

Murray will face his toughest opponent so far in Stan Wawrinka, who is looking confident.  He’ll need to step up his game as he’s looked slow to start each of his previous 3 matches even though he often closed out strong.

Wawrinka wins a thriller

It’s rare that the Swiss that makes it deepest in a Slam in the number 2, Stan Wawrinka, but here he was facing a longtime foe, Tomas Berdych.  Wawrinka has been having a solid year, among the best in his career, and it’s lead him to a top ten spot.  But one of his low points came in a loss in a Davis Cup tie to the Czech Republic where he lost the singles match to Tomas Berdych, a player he has a good head-to-head record against.

Basically, when it comes to playing Berdych, you need to weather the storm of his power hitting, and you need to move him around.  Wawrinka, in particular, used his slice backhand to change up the pace.

Of the two matches being played, this was clearly the more entertaining and more competitive.  Berdych started off strong and took the first set, 6-3.  Wawrinka came back even stronger and won the second set, 6-1.  The third set was the key.  Twice, Wawa got up a break, and twice, Berdych came back.  It looked like Berdych might even take the tiebreak, but Wawrinka held tough, and won it 8-6.

The fourth set went more Wawrinka’s way, including a great defensive point at match point that had Wawa running side to side until he sliced a short ball with Berdych at net, and Berdych missed the shot, to give the match to Stan, 6-2 in the end.  Fans were more supportive of Stan, yelling out “Let’s go, Stan”.

Youzhny claws back to win in 5 sets

One reason the Wawrinka-Berdych match ran so late was because the Youzhny-Hewitt match went 5 sets.  These veterans were battling it out.  Fans were generally in the Hewitt camp, probably because he was an ex-champ and, frankly, because he speaks English a lot better than the Russian.

Youzhny took set 1, but Hewitt fought back to take sets 2 and 3.  Youzhny won a number of games to take set 4, even though Hewitt had been leading.  The fifth set saw Hewitt take a 5-2 lead, with chances to close it out, but Youzhny hung tough taking the next 5 games in a row.  Youzhny won a key point when he was brought into net by a short volley and managed to get a volley himself out of the reach of the Aussie.  Hewitt netted a backhand to give match point to Youzhny, who now faces top seed, Novak Djokovic.