The match of the day in the women's draw looks to be Amelie Mauresmo versus Serena Williams. Despite being out of action from January until August Serena reached the latter stages of Cincinatti and Los Angeles in August and has been building up some impressive form here dispatching Hantuchova and Ivanovic in straights. Serena leads the head to heads 10-1. Mauresmo's only win came on clay in 2003. In their most recent meeting Serena win 6-2, 6-2 on the way to the 2005 Aussie Open title. However, the Mauresmo of this year is a different player and is now a double grand slam champion. Will she be able to erase the memory of so many previous defeats to Serena including many tight 3 set losses.
Justine Henin-Hardenne was in fine form today, destroying Shahar Peer 6-0, 6-1. Peer tried to attack Henin-Hardenne from the baseline with her forehand but made too many errors and some sublime strokeplay from the Belgian completely overwhelmed her opponent. Henin said "It was a very good match for me," she said. "I did a lot of serve and volleying today and that helped me to stay aggressive."
The big shock in the women's draw today has been the loss of 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to Serb Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic has enjoyed some fine victories this summer and in the previous round she beat French Open semi-finalist Nicole Vaidisova. Kuznetsova hit 41 winners but made 46 unforced errors on the way to a 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 defeat.
Rafael Nadal is currently cruising against Jiri Novak leading 6-2, 7-6, 3-2. Both players hold large winning records over Roger Federer but Nadal has been in a different class so far.
Marat Safin appears to be suffering no ill-effects from yesterday's 5 set thriller against David Nalbandian. He's leading Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-2. The diminutive Belgian has caused Safin lots of problems in the past and has beaten him twice this year. However, at the moment he's simply being overpowered.
Roddick pretty much overpowered Becker hitting 19 aces and 32 winners to win 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. I was pretty confident that Becker would take at least a set off A-Rod but he was apparently a bit flat after the Agassi win and wasn't able to serve himself out of trouble. Becker's not a great mover along the baseline and Roddick exposed that.
"Shooting the guy who shot Bambi? I guess it feels better than shooting Bambi." Andy Roddick after beating Andre Agassi's conqueror Benjamin Becker.
"We'd practice, he'd come home, kick his feet up on my couch, have a beer. It was pretty surreal." Roddick on the start of his player-coach relationship with American legend Jimmy Connors.
One of the matches of the day was definately Hewitt v Gasquet, Hewitt won 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 in a match which went on until nearly 1am US time. Hewitt appeared to have the match well under control after winning the first two sets. But the hard hitting Frenchman immediately broke Hewitt's serve in the third set and then proceeded to use his whipping ground strokes to get on top of Hewitt. But in the fifth set, Gasquet suffered from cramps, receiving treatment between the change of ends and hobbling noticeably on occasions. Determined to go down swinging, he tried to hit even harder to make up for his lack of mobility. Hewitt, who went into the match with a sore knee, appeared to have no problems moving. "It was hard work for both of us," Hewitt said. "He is a young guy on the rise. I was very wary coming out here tonight. This is where it all started for me, at grand slams, so it's good to get through to another quarter-final." Gasquet conceded Hewitt was too strong in the end. "I'm really tired," he said. "It was a great match for me today. I fought a lot, I did my best today but he was too good."
Nadal beat Novak 6-1, 7-6, 6-4. It appeared as if Nadal would have an easy time winning the match in the opening set. In the first game alone, Nadal already had one ace. He moved quicker than Novak who is 11 years his senior and Novak looked as if he couldn't keep up. In just 29 minutes, Nadal won the set, 6-1. In the second set, however, things got more exciting. Novak began to look more comfortable, and there were no breaks of serve for either player. After taking a time out to re-tape his right ankle, Nadal won the tiebreak to take the set. One hour and thirty-two minutes into the match in the third set, Novak was still keeping Nadal on his toes, serving well throughout the set, but lacking enough power behind his shots to take the lead. Nadal broke Novak at 5-4 to take the match.
