Shanghai Day 4: Messy

There was so much garbage on the court today you could smell it through the TV. But Andy Roddick came along and cleaned it all up, wiping the floor with Fernando Gonzalez 6-1, 6-4. The ATP homepage is reporting that Roddick is the first player to clinch a semifinal berth on Saturday. Not quite what I thought, but the ATP ought to know, no?

Andy missed nary a return of serve throughout the entire match, breaking Gonzo at will in the first set and getting the deadly early break in the second to close out the match in just over an hour. Andy also covered the court efficiently, hit his backhand with authority, sufferend no mental lapses, and didn't allow Gonzo a chance to breathe.

For his part, Gonzo was out of sorts from jump. Trying to change directions to cover a laser passing shot from Andy down the line, he fell on his ass. Slow to recover, he stumbled back on his ass a game later. He was down 5-0 before I could finish feeding my animals.

What a difference a match(up) makes.

Quite frankly, the Chilean looked a little sauced. Not saying he was, but he looked it. Maybe he had glue on the soles of his shoes. Surely he suffered a huge letdown after his epic win over Roger Federer on Monday. But it's also fair to say that as well as Andy played, Gonzo might not have been able to do much more regardless. He fell to 3-7 in their career head-to-head and 3-4 on hardcourts.

The first match of the day between Federer and Nikolay Davydenko was so ugly, I stopped watching it after the first set and commenced to cleaning the toilets in my house. Believe me, it was more enjoyable.

Federer has never been in a position to play in an event after he's lost, so his terrible performance wasn't all that surprising. And Kolya was just, well... Kolya. After breaking Raja when he served for the set, Kolya earned two game points to level the set at 5-5 only to double fault, hit a backhand wide, a forehand into the net, and miss an easy overhead smash on set point down. Pitiful. Raja bumbled on to a 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Despite the ATP reports, I still thought Andy could be eliminated from the event, but apparently, the math needed to do so (both Raja and Gonzo would have to win their matches in straight sets and by extremely lopsided set scores) is far too unlikely to come to pass, so Andy is safely through to his third Masters Cup semifinal in four appearances.