Tennis Times

Ray-ray through? Check. He comfortably beat a rattled Melzer 6-3 6-1 6-1 in a sun-drenched match. He was philosophical of his performance afterwards, saying it was one of the best games he'd played all year and then two seconds later saying form comes and goes overnight and he'd have to practice hard and keep on top of his game to have a chance of going through to the semi's. He's definitely getting better at the whole speaking thing though - he was fluent and composed and, more than that, willing to speak. He was offering up more information and thoughts than the questions directed, which I think is progress indeed, and very nice to see. He seems like a nice man.

GoNads through? Check. A potentially difficult match was squashed early on by a free firing GoNads (eurgh) as he took a tight first set 6-2 - a deceptive scoreline indeed. Cilic's first serve percentage was nowhere near good enough and GoNads punished his second nearly every time. He came out of it 6-2 6-4 6-3 and says he felt physically 'perfect' for the first time since picking up a virus in Doha.

Ferrer through? Check. He came back from a set down to win 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-4 against Canadian qualifier, and giant killer, Milos Raonic, who beat Llodra (22) and Youzhny (10) on his way to the quarters. Despite a good start he couldn't maintain his big serving/big hitting and saw the next three sets slip away. Still, a stella performance from a very exciting talent for the future. Remember the (beautiful) name folks; this kid's gonna be big!

Sod through? Uhh... no. HUH? I hear your furrowed brows. He played Dolgopolov (hereafter to be referred to as GLOP - I just like how it sounds, ok?), the crazy, unorthodox Ukranian who is, for me, the surprise of the tournament. It was a tense five-setter which Glop eventually claimed 1-6 6-3 6-1 4-6 6-2 - the biggest win of his career. The Sod looked mighty peeved, I have to say.

So we have our top half quarter finals:

GoNads to play Ferrer and Ray-ray to play Glop. Of the two I think GoNads has the better opponent; yes, Ferrer is ranked and dangerous, but Glop is an unknown quantity, runs like a march hare, and can make bizarre physics-defying shots from all over the court. Should be a very interesting match.

In the women's draw Clijsters and Zvonareva both progressed along with Kvitova and Radwanska after an epic game against China's Shuai Peng in which she saved two match points. Clijsters plays Raddy and Zvo will meet Kvitova in the quarter finals. I reckon Clijsters in straight sets and Zvo in three tough ones.

Now to tonight and The Fed takes on danger man Wawri, whilst Djoko takes on the mighty Berdy. Petkovic plays in-form-hasn't-yet-lost-this-year Li Na and Wozza must drag Scary Schia out of bed (after her marathon 4 hours and 44 minutes match against Kuz... Get it??) in order to beat her and take one step closer to winning her first ever Slam and slamming those doubters' mouths shut.

Phew. Bring. It. On.

Pick of the matches for me? Reeeeaaaallly tough because I have a feeling Djoko/Berdy could be a screamer, but I'm going to have to go with the all-Swiss team of The Fed v Wawri. I think we could see an upset... I don't want to think it, but it's there in the back of my mind. Humdinger; that's all I can say.

I'll keep you blogged...