'Morning. Pete is still on vacation. Meanwhile, this is today's post for the Tribe's discussions, debates, deliberations, unfreakingbelievably dire predictions, cutting-edge analyses, wild guesses, celebratory dances, group wakes, serious pontifications and statistically fine-tuned prognostications concerning the tennis matches being played. The Order of play for the men's Masters Series tournament in Mason, Ohio is here, and the women's schedule for Toronto can be found on this link.
Today is quarterfinals day in Mason, Ohio. First on Center Court today, for the second day running, is Carlos Moya, who yesterday avoided melting for just long enough to edge out a close-three setter against Juan Martin Del Potro. He faces another former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt. Their current head-to-head is one of the more prolific on the ATP tour - 7-5 in favour of Hewitt. That's not quite as prolific as Federer and Nadal, at 6-8, or Federer and Roddick, at 13-1, but getting there. Hewitt has won the last five meetings with Moya. However, these two haven't played each other since the Tennis Masters Cup in Texas, in 2004 (on a hard court), so that statistic might well be totally irrelevant, especially looking at Moya's recent form, and the fact that three of those five later meetings were on grass. For what it's worth, of their seven meetings on hard courts, Moya has won three, and Hewitt four.
Roger Federer, after benefiting yesterday from Marcos Baghdatis' self-confessed "choke" during the first set of their encounter, and edging out the second, faces Nicolas Almagro. Their head-to-head record is 4-0 in favour of Federer, and he has beaten Almagro twice this year, both times in straight sets, at the Masters Series events in Key Biscayne (on a hard court) and on clay in Rome. If he comes through today, Federer fans may hope that beating Almagro at a Masters Series event isn't some kind of jinx for him this year - in Key Biscayne he exited in his next match, against Guillermo Cañas, and in Rome, he lost in the following round to Filippo Volandri.
An all-American quarterfinal is the first match during the evening session. James Blake (who, for the first time in four meetings, defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero yesterday) will be facing the nineteen-year-old Sam Querrey. Their head-to-head is 2-1 in favour of Blake, but Querrey won their most recent meeting, a three-tiebreak affair in Indianapolis. Blake had beaten Querrey a few weeks earlier, on grass in Halle. All three of their meetings to date (the other was last year in Key Biscayne) have gone to three sets.
The last of the quarterfinals features Nikolay Davydenko versus David Ferrer, Andy Roddick's conqueror from yesterday. These two top 20 players haven't faced off since their sole career meeting to date, in Palermo, on clay, in 2004. On that basis, I'll predict nothing about this match other than that there could be a lot of exchanges from the backcourt.
As always, enjoy today's tennis!
-- Rosangel