What a surprise this was, especially with how Federer was in the zone in the first round against Seppi. Apparently Federer had the trainer out on the court because he was suffering from the flu. Sounds like a weakened immune system from all the tennis he played in Basel.
Not that I noticed a problem. He was playing well and I was sure he would win after Isner missed three break points in the opening game of the second set. Isner won the first set 7-6(3) and should have gone a break up in the second but looked extremely nervous. He did manage to break later in the second set though and win it 6-3.
He missed a lot of chances though and I thought it would be just a question of time before Federer breaks him again. But to his credit he held on to serve to force a tiebreak in the third set as well which he won 7-5 after leading 5-2.
So after Federer passed Murray in the rankings this week he will be back in the #3 spot again next week. It looked like the Basel title boosted Federer’s confidence, but this was another tough loss for him. He still has London to set things right but as the world #3 he can now end up in the same group as Djokovic and Nadal.
Elsewhere in the Draw
The rest of the big four all won, but Nadal had to stare down a match point to do so. It was another monster mental performance from the Spaniard which he won 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. He saved a match point on serve at 5-6 in the tiebreak and Anderson actually did everything right in that point.
In the end, Nadal’s immense mental strength won the day again and I can’t say that I regret it after what happened between Anderson and Thiem. In that match, Thiem served for the match at 5-4 and had a match point but he choked it by serving a double at deuce and then dropping serve.
It pissed me off because it would have been a terrific win for Thiem, but he simply choked.
Then Murray kept up his impressive form by crushing Goffin 6-1, 6-0. He plays Gasquet in the quarters who was 7-6(3), 4-1 up against Nishikori before Nishikori got injured yet again.
Ferrer also had a 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4 win over Dimitrov after Dimitrov was also a break up in the third set. No surprises there. Ferrer and Isner will battle it out for a spot in the semis against the winner of Murray and Gasquet.
Then in the top half Stanimal and Berdych both won in straight against Troicki and Tsonga respectively. That means Stan plays Nadal which will be the pick of the quarterfinal matches while Berdych will play the Djoker who defeated local favorite Simon 6-3, 7-5.
I thought Djokovic did very well in the first set after being a break down at 1-2 with Simon playing very well and the French crowd behind him. In the second set, there were an incredible seven consecutive breaks of serve and one more with Djokovic serving for the match at 5-4.
Djokovic played a few very retarded shots but then Simon does that to you. He is a master at dragging your level down and in the end Djokovic did very well just to keep putting disappointments behind him and get it done in straight sets.
That is a remarkable quality of him. He never looks back. He stays absolutely in the moment. Dropping serve yet again when serving for the match must have been extremely frustrating but he just put it behind him, broke serve again, and served it out without a problem.
He doesn’t care about looking pretty. He is there to win and he does it like clockwork. A ruthless winning machine he is.
The
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