Blake won! No gold for Fed

You have to feel bad for the man. This season has truly sucked for him. No GS, no Masters, no important bigger tournament win, no beating Nadal on clay, no GOLD! How will he ever recover? Will he be so down from this terrible season that it just keeps on going into USO? Or will he continue his continued win since 2004? But what happened?

Very simple, very straight forward tennis talk: Blake played better than Federer almost every game. To about 3-3 in the first set, Blake held easily, Federer struggled. At 4-4 and 5-4 it looked like Federer was coming up with some answers to Blake’s continued pounding. However, that last service game was so full of errors, winners, u name it, that it was decided by the best player of 1st set and that was Mr. Blake. 2nd set started with some other Federer I haven’t seen in a while. Got broken and Blake eased to 3-0 lead. Federer was not angry, but just walking around looking confused. Nothing worked at that point. However, at that point, IMO, it was Blake who was the best on all terms. Serve, forehand, even backhand sat on the line, hard and woops! 3-0. Federer played like 8 or 9 points on that world class level, but only enough to level it at 3-3. Then Blake played like in the 1st set, and Federer could answer on occasions. But not enough! Blake won the tiebreak comfortably 7-2. Blake was better and the h2h is now 1-8.

Djoko, Rafa, Gonzo are coming up…

Olympics last 8 breakdown

Federer – Blake
Oh no. Blake is going in way too confident with a 0-8 record against the #1. He has even won ONE set in their 8 “close” battles. I’m not making fun of Blake, but if he were to pull a win today, it would be biggger than Roddick’s Miami win, Gonzo’s MC win, even Djokoivc’s SF Aussie Opne win. Blake has to my recollection never played his absolute best against Federer. I remember watching them in USO in 2006, Blake’s best fall season, where they battled in 2 intense tiebreaks, one of which Blake won. It doesn’t do him good to lose the 2nd set 6-0 though. That’s just plain embarassing. I would be stunned to see Roger losing a set today, but Blake seems to be tuning up his engine for the most important part of the season for him. But hey… Federer has lost to so many different jokers this year, maybe Blake can finally get a win as well.

Mathieu – Gonzalez
How about that Gonzalez?! He beat tiny Rochus 6-0, 6-3 and has eased through the opponents to reach another QF for Chile. Is he like a patriot or something? He hasn’t really done what he did last year and I can’t see him returning to Shanghai regardless of what he does here. But is he here to defend his Bronze? Just one more win now and that’s a good possibility. Although, likely opponents will be either Nadal or Djokovic. What about Mathieu? I big talent IMO, but somehow will never break through. He looked decent during French Open, but hasn’t done much since. Could be close, but Gonzo seems strong.

Monfils – Djokovic
Now this is interesting. Monfils took out Nalby in 2. I’m not saying that’s so great, but he has gone silently through the draw and ended up in a QF against Novak. I assumed Novak would have problems getting fresh air in his lungs on the very first day. However, he seems to come with the humid and non-fresh conditions. I think this match is all in Monfils’ hands. If he plays confidently like in French Open, he should have a shot at Djokovic. I haven’t seen Djokovic play at all, but I have a feeling he’s not giving 100%, maybe only 99.5. That’s usually enough to go 8-6 in a tiebreak in contrast to 6-8. However, my gut tells me Djokovic sees the Big 3 all still in and wants a damn medal just as bad as the rest. Beating Nadal in a SF on hard court shouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world.

Melzer-Nadal
I don’t know how Melzer would beat Nadal. I have to place him in the same category as Mathieu, only lower. He has never met Nadal, I’m sure he’s happy, and I think that he will be sent home packing. There’s no way Nadal will lose this match, now that he’s in a position to take on Djoko in the next round. Nadal will win. Safest bet of the day.