Kate Much better and nearly 100% thanks

for the love of sport: LOL! I remember something similar, but thought it was that the security guards were too full on with a fan and Rafa was saying "it's only one people":)

Taking deep breath in

Safina to serve for the match

Dinara is serving for the match at 5-4 final set.(Yes, Aussiemarg and Jenni, it is true)

Dent holds again. Rafa serving for the set at 5-2.

Yeah, sucks about Justine. I want her healthy and back on the court so that I can go back to rooting against her. :)

she breaks? good girl, now the big question if she'll be able to serve it out, doubt it, but" DAVAI Dinara!

Scoreboarding, lol. I'm going to tread lightly on this one. :)

Jenni and Sokol

Passing you drinks,drugs and have I missed anything?

"Taking deep breath in"

joining AM

Safina serving for the match?
Now that I have to go scoreboard! :)

2 points away, this is too good to be true, just 2 more points, Dinara...

Dinara holds at love and will face Francesca or Ekaterina tomorrow

She serves it out AT LOVE? *faints*

Congrats AM, Jenni and other fans of Dinara

Sorry Nadia, next time I'll root for you, I promise :-)

That must have been a mistake; Rafa's net cord serve clocked at 139mph. No freaking way.
I'd really surprise if Rafa's puny serve can break 130mph.

Impressed, very impressed!
No drama, love hold.
Good going Dinara!

Now Gulbis focus and take the second set, will ya?

AM, it's time to breath out :-)

Yay Dinara!

Ok Rafa no drama serving for set, Ok?

Key stats: Nadia 4/23 BP and Dinara 3 DFs

Praise The Lord

She has got through to a 3rd rd

*faints*

"Dinara 3 DFs"

That's a great stat for Dinara

Dent is stinking so bad in this match, it's a bit of letdown. Not even giving any decent workout to Rafa. What happened to I-serve-1st-serve-78% Dent from two days ago?

Happy for Dinara and fellow fans. Keep going now!

sokol You sure??

Have a feeling Dent's gonna settle down in this set.

Some first set stats:

W/UFE: N-4/8, D-7/21
1st serve %: N-59%, D-55%
Net points won: N-2/5, D-4/8

High quality this match is not.

Sorry Rafa Vamos and all that 6-2 1st set

manuelsantanafan - I think it was simply a case of Rafa starting little by little with serve practise this year (unlike last year) after a rather long break... not as long as last year, and a much nicer break, but still weeks without playing. For anyone who's interested, what he said was:

"I didn’t have the big chance to practice with the serve, because I have go slowly. Last year I started in Montreal after important stop, similar what I had this year, and I started hard with the serve and I broke my abdominal, no?
So I prefer to don’t practice too much the serve during the week, because I feel this part of the body, the abdominals, a little bit more challenged than usual, and the most important thing is be healthy physically, no?
And I am perfect conditions physically, so the serve I gonna have now Monday and Tuesday to keep practicing hard with the serve and a little bit more with the backhand."

33 minute first set for Rafa. :)

Just remembered that Dent beat Feli in the previous round. Whaaaaa?

Congrats Jenni You did your Hat Trick today.

Geez, Dent is bringing Rafa's level down with him. Rafa can't make a decent pass anymore suddenly. So many error by Dent...

Marion will face Iveta as Kimiko w/d due to left thigh quad strain

In straight sets too Sblily.

I think Rafa gets more of a workout from his pre-match running and jumping around the locker room than Dent has given him so far. Ugly stuff.

Come on, Katya, hold. Lets get another all Russian match :-) Davai!

Phil K serving for the match against Falla 5-3

sblily (Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!/We gonna see, no?)

Yeah Dent whooped Feli's ass by serving 78% 1st serve...

ouch, sblily.
But, you're on fire today.

sblily: I think people were saying Feli said he was tired and not feeling well...Plus, I guess there was a lot less pression.

Dent holds. Do the same pls, Rafa!

Well Dent holds to start the set.

Kolschreiber finally wins the match after making a stop at Falla's bakery for a breadstick in the second set. I guess it was lunch time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaUNizb2Iqg

absolutely delightful interview of Rafa's before wimby...must watch for all rafa die hards :)

Jason Goodall are you on drugs?.

Dent can hold serve and build in this 2nd set

Dent is just serving to Rafa's b/hand side for a lefty that is Christmas coming early

Anybody else think Henin will try once more for a wimby title and then that might be that? Her return to tennis not quite the success of mommykimmie.

Caroline breaks to take the set 7-5

Annie,
Valid comment about Justine and Wimbledon. Will have to elaborate in the fall season.

Dent making life difficult for Rafa now.

Um *anti jinx* Dent's getting better, no? No getting broken, Rafa!

for the love of sport: that's one of my all time fav Rafa vids. He's sooo happy & smiley.

Clearly Dent hasnt done his homework on Rafa

Apparently Fish said this is the fastest Cincy's ever been...

Kinda quiet around here. I expected Rafa fans to be out in full force.

Gulbis is up a break in the second while Verdasco and Fish are still on serve. Fernando will try to force the tiebreak.

Tight game between Fish and Verdasco

Verdasco to serve to force a t/breaker in the 1st set

loving the Rafaisms!! keep them coming! what it is about him that just melts my heart and makes me smile??

Ok that was sickening , cant believe l just typed that..ewww as my kids would say!!.

GB - Yep. I'm a little worried about Feli and the "m" word. :/

Ugh. I love me some Rafa, but I had to turn away from his match before I started to hate tennis.

Aaaaand Sauce is already testy. Fish holds, and Sauce says "Merry Christmas," I think to the chair ump, as he goes to his chair. Crowd was cheering Fish's hold out of all proportion to his actual popularity, so I'm guessing Sauce has been acting like a jackass... again. *sigh*

Howdy all, Rafa out of troubles so far, Wawi (who is fast joining the list of people I will never-ever-ever bet on during suicide) was a disappointment. The others on that blacklist, in case you wondered, are Gasquet and Gulbis. Never again.

Rafa fans: See, all you frazzling was for nothing, according to the scoreboard Rafa's doing fine.

Annie and Rafadoc: Just so you don't think that Mrs. Dent lost the baby weight in record time. She had the baby during or a short time after the Australian Open. I remember that because the ESPN crew was asking him if she was okay with being in the tournament when she was due to give birth at anytime. Luckily for him he lost in the 2nd round so he was there for the birth.

FFS, Sauce. Double faults to give Fish a double set point.

"but I had to turn away from his match before I started to hate tennis"

That bad hmmm?
I guess I shouldn't complain about my non-working stream then.

Verdasco about to get broken for the set

So my fish sauce sb's frozen and Fish held for 6-5?

They can't all have mono!

Maybe there should be blood tests all around. Anyone infected, off the court! No passing it along.

Davai, Vika!

Fed's Cincy presser, for those interested:

http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2010-08-18/i.php

Verdasco saves both BPs.
Gulbis now forget who you are and hold for the second set, please!

That serve was out. Hard to stop play when you are trying to return a fast serve. Ugh. Come on line judges!

wilson75: Thanks for the info!

Ist set:
Caro W/UFE :12/13
Patty W/UFE: 10/17

The SB seems behind or slow then

Did Fer get broken?

Dent needs to follow Fish and lose some weight if he is serious about getting back to top 50. He looks a tank, but too slow for any effective play against top guys.

Listen, (since the tennis is fairly uninspiring right now) what ARE we going to do about Rafa's imminent baldness...the sun is glinting off it as we speak...not cool...this constitutes a crisis of epic proportions in rafaworld...

SB says Fish and Verdasco are going into t/breaker now

Sauce holds. TB time!

So from reading the twitter recaps, it seems that Fergus Murphy gave Sauce a warning for audible obscenity. Sauce says he didn't say anything and Murphy wouldn't repeat the offending language. Cue Sauce mini-meltdown and sarcastic "Merry Christmas" comment.

Aaaaaand Sauce DFs to give Fish the mini-break.

this match is BORING.....and why is Dent SO out of shape??????

Congrats to Phil K with win over Falla

Fish is playing great for what I see. Very aggresively.

fat Roddick => lose some weight => reached final IW and won Miami
fat Fish => lose some weight => won two tourneys in a row
fat Dent => lose some weight?

Well he may be out of shape but he's 3-2 in the second set against Nadal.

Nando saves BPs, forces TB and is now down 1-5

Fish up 5-1 in the TB.

Sauce is "brooding," in commie's words.

Aaaaaand another Sauce DF to give Fish a load of set points. *head to keyboard*

Ok Rafa haven't you had enough practice already? Hurry up and finish this match!

Dent definitely playing better...Has 0-30 on Rafa's serve. NO getting broken Rafa! But now it's 0-40:((((( Just great

Hell Rafa love 40??

Sblily: Thanks for the info. Oh dear Fernando. Settle down.

Rafa's level has dropped. I think he got bored with the match too! Wake up Rafa!

Oh no, Rafa fell to the classic rope-a-dope play by Dent! 0-40 down.

Rafa, really?? really??
WTH? I know all this talk about Dent having no chance was going to jinx Rafa :(

TeamNadal - Dent has always carried a bit too much weight. I don't get it.

W/UFE from 1st set of Fish/Verdasco:
F - 21/12, V - 14/22

So yes, credit to Fish for playing well.

Dent breaks:((((((

Raises "eye brows" Rafa

Break him and get off the court

Okay Rafa...back to work.

@work: yep, that's why I tried to anti jinx...

Hi all: wow this Rafa/Dent match is awful in every way. Vamos already Rafa.

A lot of moonballs in the patty vs. Caro matchup.

Gulbis levels the match with Melzer at a set a piece. Can he win this in 3.
I think he and Verdasco are in tight competition for the title of Biggest ATP Headcases.

What happened to Rafa? I hope he breaks back soon.

oh blimey, if Dent was any better, say a top 30, Rafa would have lost this set already. 30-40 and a chance to break back. And he breaks back.

Yeah thanks Rafa

Get back and focus

Business as usual as Rafael break back and serves 6-2,3-4

"... so I'm guessing Sauce has been acting like a jackass... again."

Does he know any other way, sblily? ;-)

How does Dent manage to add so much weight but avoid the "pot belly" look? Could the extra pounds be all muscle? He's certainly looking much bigger than he did at USO 2009 when he played one of the best (and longest) matches of the Open for that year.

oh come on, always carried extra weight? He has clearly blown up and needs a manzierre.....and WTF Rafa???

at least the commies dont babble on endlessly...

"",
Thanks for the stats on Caroline and Patty. By the numbers, it look like Caroline is trying to go for her shots.