By the Skin of His Teeth

Roger Federer, if I get a stomach ulcer, I am blaming you.

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Sometimes it is so damn hard to be a Roger Federer fangirl. I'm deliberately not talking about the assumption that Federer 'must' win now Nadal is out for fear of jinxing it, but if he had lost this match... God, I would have been so damn disappointed. The first set... he should have won. He didn't lose a point on serve till the breaker, where he fell apart. The second set, if he'd hung onto that break, it could have totally been the other way round. But there we were. Tommy Haas, up two sets to love on Roger Federer.

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And then it's break point. It's 4-3 to Haas, Federer serving, and Haas has a break point. Federer hits the gutsiest damn forehand I have ever seen. Paints the line. And then the match turns. Federer takes that set, 6-4. Then 6-0 in about four seconds. Haas struggles gamely in the beginning of the fifth, gets it to 2-all... but then Federer just screams away. That point, that break point... if he had lost that, Tommy Haas would have been serving for the match. But he made it. He made it.

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God, that man is a champion.

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He really, really is. I can't deny it. This was an almost exact replica of that Berdych match in Australia, which nearly slayed me. I nearly turned the match off, unable to watch the end, unable to face it. But I owe Roger that much, and I remembered that match, and so I kept on, and I watched and listened and I prayed to the great gods of tennis. (Considering Roger Federer is my tennis god, it might have been a tad redundant, but sort of poetic in the same way). And I believed. And... and my Roger did not let me down.

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I was sad when Rafa lost. But if Roger had lost, I think I would have been just about catatonic. Thank you, Roger. Thank you. You might have given me an ulcer, but thank you.

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And I don't know if my troubles will go away, because he's facing Monfils in the next round, who looked very good in his victory over Roddick today. Not that Roddick is the king of clay or anything, but this is certainly his best result here by a long shot, and Monfils pretty much nailed him to the wall. The Federer/Monfils semi last year was a close one, and Roger will have to do a little better than scraping through by the skin of his teeth, I think. I'm just hoping that he's suffered the same malaise as both Nadal and Djokovic seemed to have - but instead of falling victim, he managed to fight on. I have my fingers crossed for that.

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Making up our other quarter final we have Juan Martin del Potro, who had a very good win over Jo-W Tsonga - though Jo was, in my opinion, largely walkabout for large sections of the match - and Tommy Robredo, who had a nice win over Kohlschreiber. I do not wish to sound, you know, psychic or anything, but did I or did I not predict that Tommy Robredo would make the semis? And are we not just one win away from that?

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Quick women's watch, and Serena is beginning to look ominous. Maybe we are going to see the Safina/Serena amazing rhyming final after all. However, she'll face Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has been coming through the draw quietly but likewise ominously... and that could be a cracker. And how about the other quarter? Isn't that a surprise? Sam Stosur, who demolished Virginie Razzano, over Romanian prodigy Sorana Cirstea, who has really come into her own with two big victories over her BFF Wozniacki and now Jankovic in an epic third set. Now this could be a good one - and although I think Cirstea is great, I am pulling for Sam in this one 110%!

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Today's Results

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Tommy Haas, 6-7 (4-7) 5-7 6-4 6-0 6-2

Gael Monfils def. Andy Roddick, 6-4 6-2 6-3

Tommy Robredo def. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Juan Martin del Potro def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Serena Williams def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-1 6-2

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4 1-6 6-1

Samantha Stosur def. Virginie Razzano, 6-1 6-2

Sorana Cirstea def. Jelena Jankovic, 3-6 6-0 9-7