As many a tennis journalist will remind you, Brian Baker had no ranking a year ago, had asked for a last minute entry into a Pittsburgh event–which he had to drive from Nashville and to qualify for–an event that he won, that spearheaded Baker’s unprecedented rise through the ranks.  A year later, he had entered Nice, a clay event the week before the French Open, qualified and reached the finals.  He would reach the second round of the French losing in five sets to Gilles Simon, now getting flak for saying men should be paid more than women.

Despite the unlikely comeback of Brian Baker, the Wimbledon committee passed on giving Baker a wildcard.  This was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise.  Back before the injuries, Baker hadn’t really played on grass, so qualies gave him that experience.  Baker would play three unseeded players in Rui Machado, Jarkko Nieminen, and Benoit Paire before reaching his first seeded player, Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Kohlschreiber is a bit short for a modern tennis player, standing around 5’10”, but he has a big game.  He beat the Nadal-killer in Lukas Rosol, perhaps only fitting since it was Kohlschreiber, some two weeks ago that beat Nadal in Halle.  Kohlschreiber also beat Tommy Haas in the first round of Wimbledon, the guy that beat Federer in the finals of Halle (and he lost to Haas in Halle).  Maybe Kohlschreiber can’t beat you, but he can beat the player that beat you.

Obviously, asking Baker to beat someone of Kohlschreiber’s caliber, at least in his current hot form, was a bit much.  Still, how can you deny a fourth round run?  By all accounts, this was a highly successful run which should allow Baker to gain direct entry at the US Open without having to qualify.  Of course, he’d like his ranking to be higher, possibly even seeded, so he wouldn’t have to rely on a nice draw that was helped by players upsetting seeds.

Baker was one of two matches that didn’t get played at all yesterday due to rain.  The other was David Ferrer and Juan Martin del Potro.  If this was 2009, no doubt, you’d favor del Potro in the win.  He was bigger, more daunting, and frankly, a little bit scary.  But this is 2012, and del Potro is still trying to move into the upper echelons of tennis.  David Ferrer, meanwhile, does a lot with a little.  He’s like mini-Rafa.  He can’t hit as big a shot, can’t run nearly as fast, doesn’t have nearly the serve, and yet, he chases down everything, is accurate, and rarely has down days except maybe against Rafa.  Ferrer is the bull terrier that could.  He could look at del Potro and say he’s taken bigger men down than him.  Ferrer had already knocked off de Schepper (who is taller than del Potro) and Roddick.

Indicative of Ferrer’s style was a marathon first game, one that Ferrer eventually held after many deuces.  From then on, it was game-on for Ferrer.  No one expected a particular easy match, but no one told Ferrer, and apparently no one told del Potro either, whose sloppiness contributed to Ferrer’s, 63 62 63 win.

The remaining matches were all partly started yesterday.  Andy Murray, famously, could not complete his match at Centre Court because Wimbledon, steadfast in its belief that it is an outdoors tournament, would not move Murray’s match to Centre Court after Djokovic’s dismissal of countryman, Viktor Troicki.  Not even for its favorite son.  Turns out Federer had complained earlier in the week that indoor grass is just not Wimbledon and may have lead to Nadal losing to Rosol, a man that lost in the blustery outdoor conditions in his next match (to be fair, Rosol was already up 2 sets to 1, but Nadal has a way of coming back).

Murray was already up a set and a break over Marin Cilic who was coming off the second longest Wimbledon singles match in time.  Never mind that the match, clocked at a bit over 5 and a half hours was merely half the Isner-Mahut match.  Murray must have gotten scouting reports that Cilic’s forehand was erratic, if more powerful.  In his return to grass, shots that used to be in every one of Murray’s matches but disappeared during the clay stretch, have made an emphatic comeback.  In particular, Murray is back to slicing his backhand and throwing in judicious drop shots, making grass’s natural tendency to keep shots low, more pronounced.  Murray left the court up 40-0, held serve, and won the set comfortably, 6-2.  The third set was similarly comfortable at 6-3.

Murray’s draw continues to be difficult.  Murray has pretty much lost to everyone in his draw and potential draw at least once.  It’s fair to say both Davydenko and Cilic are nowhere near their best, especially Davydenko.  Cilic was making a bit of a comeback with his recent win in Queen’s.  Murray’s never lost to Karlovic, but Karlovic is just one of those tests that one takes that’s never comfortable.  Baghdatis has beaten Murray.  So has Cilic.  Up next is Murray’s first real challenge.  David Ferrer, unlike the other players he’s played so far, is at the top of his game, and even if grass is Ferrer’s third favorite surface, he’s still on a hot streak, having won a grass event leading to Wimbledon.  Murray will still be favored, but Ferrer puts the bar up high.  Murray will need to jump over that one to make it to his dream.

Mardy Fish had hoped he could deal with the overpowering Jo-Wilfried Tsonga whose game seems much better suited to grass than native clay.  Fish came out storming yesterday and took the first set.  The rain delay, alas, hurt Fish more, as Tsonga came out more aggressive and took the next three sets: 76, 64.,64.  The tiebreak was critical.  With the match knotted one set apiece, Tsonga could breathe a sigh of relief.  Murray has, by the way, lost to both Tsonga and Kohlschreiber, though he’s obviously beaten them both too.

The “big” surprise of the day was Florian Mayer who made pretty short work of Richard Gasquet.  Gasquet has better grass court pedigree (one of these days the French will change Roland Garros to grass to spite everyone).  Mayer was already up a set, and took the next set, 6-1.  He did lose the third set, 6-3, but came back strong, 6-2 in the fourth.  Mayer will play Djokovic in the next round.  It was at Wimbledon that Mayer had his first big run, but expectations were so high, and his personality not that well suited to fame, that he fell back to obscurity until his game got better once again last year.  Mayer even had a win over Nadal in Shanghai continuing Nadal’s woes playing after the US Open.

Quarterfinals are set.

Djokovic v. Mayer.  Djokovic is generally pretty comfortable playing his countrymen, and even though a victory against Viktor was expected, he should still be pretty confident playing Mayer.  Mayer is a tricky customer, probably along the lines of Radek Stepanek, but guess who played and beat Stepanek?  Yeah, Djokovic.  So maybe four sets.  Mayer had a convincing win over Gasquet, but whether that translates to anything remains to be seen.  Djoker should be heading to another semi.  Although Roger hopes there’s one more upset in store.

Federer vs. Youzhny.  Fed rankles at the thought that his generation was weak, so that’s why he won so many Slams.  Everyone points to his current rivals in Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray, but Fed’s generation included Roddick, Nalbandian, Ferrero, and yes, players like Youzhny and Malisse.  He likes to point out that they’re still on the tour and chugging along.  Of course, he still has an amazing record against his age-contemporaries.  Youzhny should lose to Fed, but Fed’s back is an issue.  Hopefully, Roger isn’t posturing and saying these back issues and not a problem.  If he can play healthy tennis, Roger should get back to the semis once again.

Murray vs. Ferrer Murray’s section of the draw was the only one where all the predicted seeds made it to the fourth round.  Every other quarter had seeds lose.  Thus, if Murray is to win his first Wimbledon, he’ll do it the hard way.  Ferrer has been on a tear lately.  Although he was slammed in the French semis, he did reach the semis for the first time.  He also won the Netherlands grass court event.  Murray will have to elevate his game to take down Ferrer.  Clearly, Murray has the game to do it, but Ferrer is the kind of player that never seems to play bad.  If Lendl wants to earn his keep, it will be this match that counts.  Murray had a very convincing win over Cilic, but Cilic is more like del Potro.  Baghdatis might come a bit closer to Ferrer’s style, though Baghdatis hits a bit bigger and more erratically.  Still, I think Murray is ready to raise his game, so let’s see if he can do it on grass.

Tsonga vs. Kohlschreiber Tsonga has a chance to get to the semis again.  I think he’l just have too much game for Kohlschreiber.  He has a huge serve and a huge forehand and moves well for a big man.

So this ought to be once nice fourth of July.