Day 5: The Men

Well, that's more like it.
After two rounds of struggling, Roger Federer played the match we've all expected the No.l player in the world to play. Going up against Arnaud Clement, Federer earned a strong 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory and after a rocky start, and has found his way safely into the second week.
Federer's next opponent is going to be Jurgen Melzer. The Austrian veteran, coming off his career-best result at Roland Garros, followed that up with his best Wimbledon, besting Feliciano Lopez, no slouch on grass, in four sets. Federer's got to like his chances there.
Tomas Berdych got tested for the first time in his third-round match, against Denis Istomin. Istomin won a pair of tiebreakers, but Berdych hung tough, and his greater experience in best-of-five matches probably proved to be the difference, as he is also safely into the Round of 16, 6-7(1), 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4.
He gets to play another big server, German Daniel Brands, who lost the first two sets against Victor Hanescu in tiebreakers but came back, winning the third set, and then breaking Hanescu in the fourth. After winning the set 6-3, he jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Hanescu retired.
After all of the tough matches the top guys have gone through, Novak Djokovic and Lleyton Hewitt are suddenly looking good. Too bad they play each other next. Djokovic has bounced back from being down two-sets-to-one in his first-round, against Olivier Rochus, but he's come through his next two matches easily, including his 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 third round win over Albert Montanes. Hewitt had a potentially tough opponent in Gael Monfils, but his biggest scare came in the second set, when Monfils forced a tiebreaker that went 11-9. After that, it was fairly comfortable sailing, as Hewitt won 6-3, 7-6, 6-4. That sets up a potentially good Round of 16 match, definitely the best one of the top half.
After cruising through his first-round, Andy Roddick has lost sets to Michael Llodra and now to Philipp Kohlschreiber, this time 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3. Still, he's got to be feeling good about his chances, too.
I'll admit, when I looked at the draw, Yen-Hsun Lu was not the guy I expected Roddick to be playing, but here he is, taking advantage of Florian Mayer's retirement at 6-4, 6-4, 2-1. Actually, Lu's had a pretty comfortable road to this point - he's the only man in the top half who hasn't lost a set. It will be interesting to see what he does against Roddick.
Tomorrow, things continue with the bottom half of the men's draw. Matches I'll be follwowing? Mathieu vs. de Bakker and Malisse vs. Querrey. Also in action are Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling.