It took USA’s Andy Roddick 2 hours, 53 minutes to advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon but the important thing is that he did it.  The sixth-seeded player beat 26th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3 despite the fact that Melzer managed to fire 26 aces.

image: Zuma Press

The end of the match was predictable – Melzer and Roddick have battled nine times in the past and the Austrian has lost every single time.  Since Roddick has been the runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in both 2004 and 2005, I’m sure his mind is beginning to wonder if history will repeat itself.  Roddick will play Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round.

Andy Murray has also advanced to the fourth round and I’m sure the British player’s hopes have been boistered by yesterday’s 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over Serb Viktor Troicki on the Centre Court at the All England Club.  The victory only took 1 hour, 36 minutes during which Murray served 17 aces.  He is hoping to become the first male British champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won in 1936.  He will face Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round.

Meanwhile, unseeded Lleyton Hewitt beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.   Hewitt, who won the Wimbledon title in 2002, will face Czech Radek Stepanek in the fourth round.

Maria Sharapova’s match was delayed earlier this week due to rain (she ended up beating Alexa Glatch when they resumed play yesterday) but that seems far less dramatic than the reason for the disruption to Andy Roddick’s third-round showdown with Lleyton Hewitt.

image: Zuma Press

The match was halted when a spectator discovered a bomb threat message pinned to a wall.  Instead of panicking, Roddick and Hewitt actually stood at the net and talked during the 20-minute delay while the security officials investigated the situation.  What do you even talk about (with your opponent) as you wait to find out if someone has planted an explosive device in your vicinity?  It just shows how cool and composed these professional athletes are!

When they were given the all clear, play resumed and Roddick emerged the victor, beating Hewitt, a four-time Queen’s Club champion, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4).

Friday’s quarterfinals will feature matches between sixth-seeded James Blake vs 14th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny and Steve Darcis vs former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Well, it wasn’t the match I was hoping for. It wasn’t anything really. Roger Federer imposed his will on Lleyton Hewitt and ousted the Aussie in straight sets (7-6, 6-2, 6-4) to move into the quarterfinals. Federer looks good, folks. He looks really sharp.

Holy whoa! What have we got going on Court 11?! Fernando Verdasco and Mario Ancic are in an old-fashioned brawl. Verdasco won the first two sets 6-3, 6-4, but Ancic counter-punched by winning the next two sets 6-4, 6-3. Neither one is giving way in the fifth set; they’re deadlocked at 9-all. Man, I wish I was there.

How ’bout my girl Jelena? Yeah. Le sigh. Jelena Jankovic didn’t do much of anything in a piddly, po-dunk match against Tamarine Tanasugarn. T-squared gave the second-ranked Serb the boot 6-3, 6-2. I may end up having two today, but early morning Slacker of the Day honors have to go to JJ.

Both Serena and Venus Williams moved into the quarters with ease and the path to an all-Williams’ final is looking pretty sweet for the duo. Gosh, it’ll be like rolling back the clock a few years.

And Nicole Vaidisova, not at all known for her mental strength, came from a set down to move past Anna Chakvetadze for a quarterfinal berth.

The round of 16 - so very exciting - so very many matches and so very much drama!

I left off something very important from yesterday’s post about the fall of a very short-term Goliath. Slacker of the Day awards for Thursday go to Ana Ivanovic. Obviously. But it still had to be said, ya know?

Jelena Jankovic just survived a three-set scare from Caroline Wozniacki. The Serb dropped the first set 2-6 but bounced back at 6-4 in the second and closed it out with a dominating 6-2 deciding set. Bet she was wishing the could have pulled some of that out in the first, huh?

I didn’t get around to talking about the men yesterday for some oddly weird reason. I was so sidetracked by Ana’s demise that I forgot. So…Lleyton Hewitt. He’s really playing well. How long that is going to last against Roger Federer in the fourth round, I don’t know, but at least the Aussie is putting together a nice little run at Wimbledon. In this crazy tournament, I think anything could happen. Roger holds a 13-7 advantage over Hewitt but remember a couple rounds ago when Marat Safin - yes, that Marat - beat third-ranked Novak Djokovic? Speaking of Marat, he knocked off another seeded player, taking Andreas Seppi in four sets to move on to the fourth round to face Stanislas Wawrinka.

No big upsets thus far today, so I’ll have to return later to bestow Slacker of the Day honors. Maybe Nicolas Kiefer will take out Rafa.

Oh the carnage! Opening day at Wimbledon has come and gone, and half of those who took the court today are disappointed. The other half are not. (Deep - I know…)

I got home from work today and flipped through the draw to see who was still alive and kickin’. This morning I mentioned that Lleyton Hewitt and Svetlana Kuznetsova both dropped their first sets in tiebreakers. Kuznetsova bounced back with a 7-5 second set and 6-3 third set to move on to the second round.

Hewitt had to go five rounds with Robin Haase before finally getting the go-ahead into the second round. The Aussie won the next two sets at 6-3 each before losing the fourth in another tiebreak. With everything leveled at 2 sets apiece, Hewitt came out smoking and won the decider at 6-2. Glad to see the ole backwards hat wearing man from Down Under still has a little fire left.

As Wimbledon always brings, the intensity is often balanced out with laughables on the other side of the scale. Today’s biggest goof was *drum roll* David Nalbandian! The man’s streaky to say the least (and also a bit chubby-ish), but his crash-out in the first round of Wimbledon made me laugh. I’m not sure if that is really the correct response I should have had, but when I saw it - all I could do was sit there and try to hold in my laughter. ‘Bandy only had three sets worth of time during 2008 Wimbledon before Frank Dancevic dismissed him 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

Other interesting things on the men’s side? Novak Djokovic needed four sets to get past Michael Berrer (although granted, Djokovic handed Berrer a big fat zero in the fourth set). That’s trips the interest wire a little bit. But what sends up red flares is who Djokovic is set to slug it out with in the second round: Marat Safin. It’s true. Safin is very close to the ultimate has-been, but I think somewhere, deep-down Dinara Safina’s older brother has just a little bit more awesome to give.

Not gonna lie though…Nole is a pretty tall order for the best of the best, let alone for a past-his-glory-days Safin.

(Image: Newscom)
Steeeetch! David Nalbandian tried and failed to get past the first round of Wimbledon. Shucky-darn.

The grass action is hot and heavy at Queen’s with all the big names coming out to play. Rafael Nadal reached the quarterfinals after getting pushed to three sets by up-and-comer Kei Nishikori. The Japanese player lost the first set 3-6 but rallied to take the second 6-4 before bowing out to Nadal in a 3-6 deciding set.

Nishikori turned pro a year ago and claims Nadal “as his idol.” Not too bad of a showing in the first meeting if you ask me.

Lleyton Hewitt fought his way past Paul-Henri Mathieu for a 6-4, 6-4 trip to the quarters. Hewitt was down 4-1 early in the first set but leveled it at 4-all before ripping off the final two games to win the first set.

Andy Roddick, last year’s champion at Queen’s, won the first set on a tiebreak against Mardy Fish when Fish withdrew due to injury. Roddick will be facing a fellow Andy in the quarters. Andy Murray gutsied his way through a 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 match against Ernests Gulbis. Murray struggled with injuries from head to toe but managed to pull the win and the trip to the quarters.

Who’s going to win Queen’s? Roddick and Hewitt have both won here multiple times. Rafa is coming off arguably his best clay season ever. Murray is - well - Murray. I don’t expect him to win…but who knows? This is tennis for a reason people.

(Image: Newscom)
Lleyton Hewitt zeroes in on a return at Queen’s.

Venus Williams could be the next icon for women around the world when it comes to holding ground on center stage.

Williams was asked to move her third-round match against Sania Mirza from Rod Laver to Vodafone in order to start the Lleyton Hewitt-Marcos Baghdatis showdown. Williams said “no go” and the officials of Operation Aussie decided to let the elder Williams sister have her way.

As this has already played out, we know that Hewitt downed Baghdatis in a 4:30 a.m. finish. That late night/early morning ending was courtesy of Venus.

I can’t say that I disagree with Venus. It was a scheduling lapse on the part of those running the Australian Open, and I don’t believe a competitor should be asked to interrupt a match with the sole reasoning based on commerical popularity.

So - go Venus. Stick it to the man.

Gah. Lleyton Hewitt. He won. That was me eating my words. Now let’s move on.

In other news, David Nalbandian? Cremated. Burnt toast. Hasta la pasta in three sets (6-1, 6-2, 6-3) by Juan Carlos Ferrero. and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga took out Richard Gasquet in four. Is it going to be Tsonga in the final with Roger?

For the women, what everyone was mostly expecting happened: Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin will face off in the quarters. It should be a good match and I’ll be happy as long as Henin gets the W over the Russian shrieker.

With all the fluff out of the way this week, this next week should be an interesting march to the Australian Open title.

Wow. It’s amazing what happens in the tennis world over night, especially during the Australian Open.

Perhaps the biggest news is that Roger Federer got pushed to five sets. It would have been monumental had Federer lost, but we won’t go there. It took the Big Man over four hours to finally push Janko Tipsarevic (a Serbian…where did all these Serbian tennis powers come from? I mean, obviously Serbia, but you know what I mean.) out of the Australian Open with a 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 victory.

The big question really is: will the vigorous five-set exertion play a role in Federer’s push towards the title?

Federer says no. “Just being there in a five-setter is good for me, because I’m hardly ever there. It’s good for my mindset for the next one.”

Anyway, Federer is still alive in the tournament which really doesn’t surprise anyone. When the guy needs to win, he usually finds a way to do it.

How about James Blake? I watched the beginning of that match and was positive Blake was toast. A complete goner. Somehow he pulled his way out of it, put together an impressive third set (hello, 6-0), won the final two sets in the five-set match and got the W. Go, Blake, go.

I was going to talk about Lleyton Hewitt, but he’s dead to me now. It’s going on four in Melbourne and Hewitt is still battling it out with Marcos Baghdatis. They are in the fifth set, but it never should have gotten that far. Hewitt blew a 5-1 lead in the fourth. I don’t think “blew it” is a strong enough term actually.

But Hewitt is a goner. He’s washed up, Baghdatis has the momentum and is better in five-setters. And I’ll eat my words if Hewitt pulls it out, but I really don’t think he’s going to and he’s still going to be dead to me. You don’t let a 5-1 lead vanish and still retain my friendship. Uh-huh, no way.

You know, if I had a kid, I would consider naming him Lleyton. Something about the double ‘L’ just gets to me…like llama. Remember when Hewitt and Andy Roddick used to be the big rivalry? He was good, Hewitt was. He’s faded off the scene a bit but he’s still smacking the ball around.

Advancing in the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships yesterday. Hewitt made his seventh quarterfinal match of this year. He may be a bit off peoples’ radars but Hewitt is the fourth seed in this tournament and 19th in the world. Not too shabby, eh mate?