Roger Federer hadn’t looked all that solid in the two Masters 1000 events leading to the US Open.  Even so, I felt that he had time to fix things up for the US Open.  He’s always targeted the Slams and played cleaner tennis in the Slams.

His opponent in the third round was Marin Cilic.  Cilic hasn’t played the kind of tennis that had lead some to proclaim him the best of the big men which include del Potro, Querrey, Isner, and Anderson.  But Cilic, after reaching the semis of the Australian Open in 2010, has struggled to regain that form.

For that reason, Federer thought that Cilic’s lack of form might lead to a fairly straightforward match.  Instead, Cilic was hitting the ball pretty well.  Fortunately, Federer was striking the ball as well as I’ve seen him.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that he still stayed pretty even until the fourth set.  Federer took the first set in a tiebreak.  Cilic took the second set 6-4 before Fed took the remaining sets, 6-4, 6-2.  This was the kind of win Federer wanted.  Tough, but in control.

Some capsule summaries

  • 20th seed Janko Tipsarevic beat 9th seed Tomas Berdych when Berdych had to retire with a shoulder injury, presumably the same injury as in Cincy
  • 8th seed Mardy Fish beat tall Kevin Anderson in straight sets, but needed 2 tiebreaks to accomplish the feat
  • Juan Monaco halted the dream run of Tommy Haas winning the match in 4 sets.  Monaco plays Federer next
  • 11th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat 19th seed Fernando Verdasco in straight sets
  • 22nd seed, Alexandr Dologopolov, beat Ivo Karlovic in 4 sets
  • 31st seed Marcel Granollers lost to fellow Spaniard, Juan Carlos Ferrero, when he retired in the third set

In the evening match, Djokovic beat Davydenko in straight sets.  Davydenko showed some of his old form, especially in the early parts of the second set, which went half an hour for 3 games.  Davydenko had some issues controlling his shots, and the errors and his lack of satisfaction with the racquet contributed to Davydenko being unable to make a huge impression on Djokovic.  To be fair, Djokovic looked very good as Davydenko tried to punish the ball as he moved the ball around well himself.  Up next for Djokovic is Dolgopolov.

In the post match ceremony, Djokovic acknowledged a guy who did a dance during a game break, and he did his own dance for the audience.

Tomorrow, Rafael Nadal plays David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick plays Julien Benneteau.  In the night match, Andy Murray plays Feliciano Lopez who he faced at Wimbledon.  Murray just came off a five set win over Robin Haase where he lost a two break lead and then got a break and finally held.