One player that I have a good feeling about in the top quarter is James Blake, who should benefit from a wealth of Davis Cup experience. He's had a maddening season so far - no tournament wins, but plenty of deep runs. I think something similar will happen here at the Olympics.
So according to that schedule, Blake should lose in the semis or final. We'll see if that actually happens.
In that same post, I also said that playing for Switzerland would benefit Roger Federer. I should have phrased that differently. What I meant to say was that Federer should play well at the Olympics because he was striving for something he hadn't yet won - a gold medal. I still think that was true, even after he went down hard to Blake. Federer looked in vintage form against both Dmitry Tursunov and Tomas Berdych, and I think he can still take some things away from those matches, especially the latter. But that's not going to make his loss to Blake, where he was woefully ineffective on many of his bread and butter shots, any easier.
I really enjoyed reading the comments after this match, and I thought Matt Zemek summed things up best:
There are 2 things that I can take away from this match:
1) Fed fought like hell to somehow, improbably, stay in this thing and make the match last as long as it did.
2) Blake played a big-time match. Very few bad errors--he did not play a sloppy match, folks--airtight groundies, awesome court coverage, better passing shots. He deserves to be lauded for his performance and his accomplishment. To not do so would be to take away his moment in the sun. His first win over Roger is a huge moment for him. James has labored long and hard to get where he's got, and to only focus on Fed's struggles would be a profound disservice to James Blake. He is to be thoroughly and heartily congratulated--it truly couldn't happen to a better guy, and that's the really awesome thing about this win. There's no one I'd have rather had Fed lose to than James. Oh, I didn't want it to happen, but I'm glad James is the one to advance to the medal round.
I agree with everything that Matt wrote. (I'm Ed McGrogan, and I approve this message.)
Despite Federer's struggles, Blake truly won this match. His shots found their mark for the most part, and he made few, if any, critical errors. But one of the most important elements of the victory was Blake's ability to keep his emotions in check. James is an emotional guy, and while that can help sometimes, it often appears to get the best of him. Today, he stayed focused throughout the match, even after blowing a 3-0 second set lead. I'm sure he could have envisioned the headline: "Blake loses ninth in a row to Federer after set and break lead." But he chose not to believe that. And for a 28-year old who's never conquered Federer before, that's awfully impressive.
A Remarkable Victory
The second match that I called was the Li Na/Venus Williams quarterfinal. I expected Li to play well at times, gather some inspiration from the partisan crowd, but ultimately walk off defeated to a chorus of cheers. I didn't expect her to play one of the most physically and mentally strong tennis matches I've ever seen.
Venus hit the ball well today. She made some errors, but she rallied well and moved Li around the court with well-struck groundstrokes. But Li never gave up on a point, and when she got to the ball, she hit it with great pace and precision. I think Venus was a bit shell-shocked by Li's physical strength, as well as the massive crowd support she received.
Li reveled as the hometown favorite at times, but when she served for the match, she smartly shut them out. I can't even comprehend what Li has had to deal with in terms of expectations, after reading Tom Perrotta's fantastic piece on Chinese tennis. If she lost this match - while serving for it and up 30-0 - in front of the thousands of Chinese in the arena and the millions watching at home, I think she could have been mentally scarred for the rest of her tennis career. But she somehow kept her level of play exceptionally high from the beginning of this match until the end. Li showed incredible mental strength, and it was amazing to watch. You can argue whether Blake's or Li's win today was more impressive, but they have to be in the same discussion.
A Cool Shirt
Gael Monfils looked awesome, even in defeat.
