Cincinnati Quarterfinals Open Thread

New world No. 2 and defending champion Andy Murray will open the day against lucky loser Julien Benneteau who benefited mightily from the withdrawal of exhausted Juan Martín del Potro, while new world No. 3 Rafael Nadal will play the night match against Tomas Berdych. In between, Roger Federer will take on Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic will play Gilles Simon.

Someone had to get the night match, but when two former world No. 1's and perennial rivals face off it would make more sense to put that match on last. But Rafa gets the night match and thus the shortest turnaround time should he advance all the way to the finals.

Nothing has changed.

A brief note on Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey. Confidence is like glass. It takes a lot of focused effort to shape it up the way you want it but it can chip, crack or shatter in a blink. The top-ranked American looked like he did in the first round of the US Open in 2005 when he lost in three tiebreaks to Gilles Muller in the first round, while Sam played with conviction, fire in his eyes, and utter determination. It was nice to see. But as expected, all that went out the window against Hewitt in the next round. The young American saved his best for the man who was certainly ripe for the plucking and then turned right back into a boy who doesn't give a shit about winning anything of worth in the next match.

Enjoy the quarterfinals.

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