There’s something about Nadal that makes Federer fans edgy.  Anytime they see an issue, say, a 4-set win over Brands or a 4-set win over Klizan, they think Nadal is vulnerable.  They’re waiting for him to falter.  Surely, he can’t recover.  They create scenarios in their head about someone making that upset.  People forget that at Wimbledon, back in 2010, Nadal was pressured to 5 sets, in two consecutive rounds (against Robin Haase and Philipp Petzschner), and still won Wimbledon.

When Nadal faced Nishikori, some felt the number 1 male Japanese player would be ready to pounce to success, using his hard hitting groundstrokes to push Nadal around.  It’s been said that more players ought to play “with nothing to lose”.  Usually, when that happens, players play beyond their comfort zone and, rather than succeed, they manage to fail faster.  Some complain that Ferrer, with his tremendous loss record to the top 3, should try something different.  Ferrer isn’t a serve and volleyer.  He’s not a power baseliner, at least, in the Tsonga/Berdych/Federer mold.  If he tried to play like that, he’d just lose faster.

To this end, Nishikori just lost faster.  Those big swipes at the ball meant errors.  At times, Nadal wins just because his opponents choose to play bigger, and unlike Daniel Brands, fail to have a great day.  So Nishikori became Nadal’s easiest win at 64 61 63 with none of the worries he had in previous rounds, partly, one assumes since the weather has been a bit sunnier if not altogether warmer, and perhaps the ball was jumping off the courts more than usual.

Tommy Haas, as many will point out, is the oldest player left in the tournament.  Mikhail Youzhny, his fourth round opponent, is not much younger, and is north of 30 himself.  The two met recently in Rome, and Youzhny had a standard straight set victory.  Little did he expect that it would be Haas that would have the easy victory.  Youzhny had one of his famous outbursts, smashing a racquet, fortunately not on his personal self.  In any case, victory to Haas, 61 61 63.  Reaching the QF of Roland Garros for the first time, Haas has now completed a Grand Slam of quarterfinals, reaching the quarters (at least) of each of the 4 Slams.

Up next for Haas is Novak Djokovic who he has beaten, but not in recent years.

Finally, the best match of the day featured two right-handed one-handed backhand players.  Both came in with some baggage.  Wawrinka faced two crushing defeats this year.  One, a loss at the Australian Open, to Novak Djokovic, when Wawrinka played some of his best tennis.  One, at a Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic, where he and partner Marco Chiudinelli lost in the long Davis Cup match in history (though, to be fair, his partner double-faulted on match point), to Berdych and Rosol.

Gasquet’s history has been more tumultuous.  He had been tagged since he was a teen to be France’s new tennis saviour.  While he’s played good tennis, he’s never achieved the dizzying heights that an adoring and tennis-mad country has wanted him to, being surpassed by players like Tsonga, Monfils, and Simon.  Gasquet was nearly banned from the game with cocaine usage, but survived on appeal.  He has worked his rank up to the top 10.

Wawrinka was perhaps the fitter of the two with Gasquet not particularly noted for his fitness.  And that turned out to be huge because Wawrinka had to dig out of two sets to love down, and break points in the fourth set numerous times (after having numerous break points against Gasquet) before he finally managed a late break and pushed the match into a fifth set.  That went to 6-all, and Wawrinka again had to fend off break point, before he got to 15-40 on Gasquet’s serve and hit a huge inside in forehand to complete the comeback, and send the French crowds back home, after hours of  “Ri-chard, Ri-chard” wondering whether Gasquet would ever break through and become the French Nadal.

Finally, Novak Djokovic fought off the emotions of his childhood coach passing away, and a somewhat lethargic start to beat an erractic Philipp Kohlschreiber who alternated great hitting with a few too many misses.  Djokovic lost the first set, but came back in four to win it.  Up next for Djokovic is Tommy Haas.

Today, Federer faces his toughest opponent in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while David Ferrer takes on the comeback king, Tommy Robredo.