Posted by Steven on 29/6/2009, 11:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Phew!"
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There's only one thing more nerve-wracking than watching Muzza play a 5-setter deep into the evening at Wimby, and that's doing that when you've got a 2nd row CC ticket for Friday and desperately want to see him play in the semis!
What an immense performance from both men - I don't know if it was just because Stani was playing out of his skin but he seemed to get to everything (Muzza/Rafa style), as if he had learnt a lot from all their practice sessions together and was able to anticipate Andy's shots more than most players manage to do.
They both seemed to have a clear game plan at the start - Stani's to go for all his shots, Muzza's to soak up the pressure until Stani stopped making those shots and to give him a reminder that he was playing the no. 3 in the world when he needed to.
Both game plans more or less worked, though I wonder whether Andy could have won a bit more quickly had he taken the game to Wawrinka a bit more and really made him feel the heat. We'll never know, of course, and maybe it wasn't even possible - after all, Wawrinka's serving tonight was amazing and many of his shots would have been enough to put any player on the back foot.
Anyway, we always knew he'd have at least one really tough match in the second week, where he wasn't quite on (or at least his serving wasn't quite on) and the other player was - hopefully this was it, and he's done the important thing, i.e. got through. Plus he's probably got the crowds revved up for the rest of the week now! 
Having finished even later than against Gasquet last year, I hope he recovers in time for the QF - I was knackered at the end of that, so goodness knows how he feels, no doubt with hours of press conference and physio to go before he can go to bed.
I think he will recover in time. He has three things in his favour over last year:
- he's much fitter generally
- he didn't pump himself up quite as much tonight as he did last year
- best of all, he doesn't have to play Rafa!
So, 'only' three former grand slam champions and world no. 1s to beat probably (the other three players in his half of the draw match that description and Fed in the lower half) if he wants the title. And you thought this evening was tough ... 
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