As Sally so graciously pointed out below, my picks were right for the Wimbledon quarterfinals (Well, except for Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement who haven’t finished their match yet)! I’m amazed at myself.

The most impressive of the three completed matches was Rafael Nadal’s pounding of Andy Murray. I knew it was coming. I think a lot of us knew it was coming, and since I’m not British, I wasn’t forced by birth into rooting for lost causes.

Three lop-sided sets later (6-3, 6-2, 6-4), Murray was wiping his brow and Rafa was looking like a dominant front-runner to win Wimbledon.

On the other side of the bracket, Roger Federer continued his impressive style, winning in straight sets over Mario Ancic. Prior to the match, reporters were touting Ancic’s position as the last man to beat Federer at Wimbledon. That was in 2002. Riiiiight. That was so far from being a factor in this match that it was a non-factor. It had nothing to do with it at all, and the results (6-1, 7-5, 6-4) proved it.

Two things to note about the top two players, though.
1) While Federer hasn’t dropped a set in the tournament (Rafa only dropped one against Ernest Gulbis), Rafa is playing his way into dominating form. That scary type of domination where he’s untouchable; the same type that led him to another French Open title a few weeks ago.
2) Federer has to face down Marat Safin in the semis. Safin is on his last hurrah (until the next one comes six years from now…), and players who think their last chance is at hand can be really dangerous. Even if there wasn’t that factor, Marat is the real deal. This isn’t his first time at a grass court hoedown, and Federer could have some trouble with the big-serving Safin. However, Rafa is going to have an unknown player who is unfamiliar with this type of stage. That player - Clement or Schuettler - will have also been on the court longer, been through more stress because of rain delays and generally will probably be less on point.

Speaking of Safin, how about his comeback against Feliciano Lopez? Safin lost the first set 6-3 but a long rain break helped the Russian regroup his commonly scattered concentrations and won the next three sets 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 to set up his date with God Roger in the semis.

Ultimately, I think we see Rafa and Roger in the final again. I want Roger to win this title. I’m cursed with being a realist, however, and I’m well aware that Rafa is playing with pocket aces.

Roger Federer took a commanding 6-1 first set from Mario Ancic, and it was 1-all in the second when the rains shooed them off court.

In the other quarter of this half of the draw, Feliciano Lopez holds a 5-2 first set lead before the rain break over Marat Safin. Granted, a lot can happen in a best-of-five match, but it’s not a great way for Safin to start out.

But here goes my picks. Roger over Ancic. Safin takes advantage of the rain break, comes back and takes out Lopez. In the other half of the draw, Rainer Schuettler over Arnaud Clement (I don’t know much of anything about either one of them), and as much as the entire population of the British Isles would love to see Andy Murray win, it’s going to be Rafael Nadal into the semis.

There - I’ve predicted. And since I’m quite horrible at calling games (hence why I’ve never taken up the occupation of gambling), I’ll be lucky to get two of the four.

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.

Somewhere I remember reading that Marat Safin had a little bit more awesome left in him…where was that…oh wait, that was here! The guy I dubbed the ultimate has-been showed he’s not done yet when Safin dumped third-seeded Novak Djokovic out of Wimbledon in the second round in straight sets (6-4, 7-6, 6-2).

It took Safin only two hours to sign Djoko’s exit ticket from the tournament the Serbian has been boasting he might win. Now Novak’s earlier comments about beating Roger Federer look pretty lame-o, don’t they?

Tsk, tsk - o ye cocky little young’un - take a lesson from this and instead of wasting your time and breath on talking about your chances, focus it on your tennis to make sure you get those chances (i.e. not double faulting your chances away in the second round of a Grand Slam tourney).

But now, maybe I’m being too harsh on the little bugger. After all, it was Marat Safin. Yep, never thought I was going to say that again! The Russian has been free-falling to the depths of the tennis underworld and couldn’t find the rip cord. Until today.

Who knows? Maybe this was the last burst of light out of an almost vanished firework. Maybe Marat’s next match will be his demise (he plays Andreas Seppi who needed five sets to beat Florent Serra for his berth in the third round). Any of you who remember back a handful of years remember that Safin was the man - sometimes.

But for today, it doesn’t matter. Why? Because today, Safin avoided getting saddled with Slacker of the Day. That esteemed dishonor goes to Nole.

I’m watching the replay of the Marcos Baghdatis/Marat Safin match. How nerdy is that? I already know who wins - Baghdatis in a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 battle - but here I sit, glued to the television as though it were live.

I love tennis; what can I say?

With the victory, Baghdatis will face Lleyton Hewitt. I was going to throw my support behind Baghdatis but comparing the match statistics, Hewitt was more solid in his last match than Baghdatis was against Safin. So - who knows? We all saw what happened when I picked Andy Murray to make a deep run so maybe I should just sit here and watch the reruns.

Russian Davis Cup team captain Shamil Tarpischev went on the record today, telling the press fellow countryman Marat Safin would not be in attendance at the Davis Cup. There has been some speculation on whether Safin was flying under the radar and would be making an appearance in Oregon but Tarpischev was fairly emphatic with his statements.

“I think these guys [the Russian Davis Cup team] play better than Marat, and he is not going to be here.”

Well, you can’t get much more plain than that, aeh?

Bob Bryan, a member of the top-ranked doubles team with brother Mike wasn’t so sure about Safin’s stated absence this weekend.

“It might be some trick they have up their sleeve. Who knows?”

Indeed Bob, way to put the question to the table.