It was a well anticipated match the Federer vs Soderling French Open quarterfinal rematch. Would Federer be able to deal with the pace of the Soderling shots this time to clinch sweet revenge? Would Soderling forget about the 12-1 record in head to head? Everybody thought it would be a tight and exciting match and for the first time in the Open the stadium was packed.

It was not too be. Federer was in fantastic form despite really bad and windy conditions and was serving Soderling off the court. The big Swede always had problems in windy conditions, especially with the serve and the high ball-toss he uses, but also with his giant windmill strokes. Not so with Federer. He took the opportunity to play an impressive match that should put the chills up Djokovic’s spine.

The favorites are still breezing through the draw, at least the top three players Djokovic, Federer and Nadal. Djokovic had far fewer problems than I thought with Fish, winning in three easy sets. Maybe Fish was tired but in that match it was pretty evident that he lacked something. Being fitter and slimmer he seems to play far more passively and against a player like Djokovic that doesn’t quite cut it. He would have needed to go for his shots a lot more to get the Djoker off balance. Djokovic is now playing Monfils in the quarter-finals who managed to dispose of his countryman Gasquet pretty handily. I like Djokovic’s chances in that match

World number four, Andy Murray,  is sometimes criticized for being too passive on the court and letting his opponents dictate play. In doing so he doesn’t really give credit to the enormous talent he possesses. Yesterday was a case in point. He lost in four sets to Stanislas Wavrinka after letting the Swiss dominate the proceedings completely. You have to give big credit to Wavrinka though for playing one of the best matches of his career, but you can’t help to think that neither Nadal nor Federer would have let him.

Murray’s loss was not the only upset of the day, my dark horse for the tournament, giant John Isner came up short against an inspired Michail Youzhny and also lost in four sets. This means we have only one American left in the draw in Sam Querrey who obliterated Spanish Nicolas Almagro in three easy sets. Querrey can go far in this tournament if he keeps up that kind of form.

Yesterday had a few pretty big surprises, although it might not be so surprising to see Roddick out early considering he is still recovering from mono. You have to give it to Tipsarevic though, he played an almost flawless match painting the lines and going for broke as often as he could.

Another quite surprising result was that teenager Ryan Harrison managedto beat Ivan Ljubicic in four sets. Really impressive and this bodes well for the future of American tennis.

American tennis is already in decent form despite Roddick’s loss, becuase both Querrey and Isner managed to get through their matches quite convincingly. These players are both dangerous enough to reach a semi-final here I think.