CCC: Thursday

***By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan

***Well, the weather was the big story here at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday,  and when the tennis began at 5 p.m. nobody anticipated that how powerfully that it would be relegated to an afterthought by the end of play.

Shortly after play resumed, Jesse Levine rushed to a 4-1 opening set lead in his match against Rafael Nadal.  But it wouldn’t last for long, as the Channel Slam winner regrouped and turns things around, winning 6-4, 6-2.  It appeared that finally, things were back to normal in Toronto.

Then, like a flash flood, the grounds were again thrown for a loop.  Roger Federer, winner of the past two Toronto Masters, unexpectedly crashed out of the tournament after losing to Gilles Simon.

I caught the last two sets of the match – a.k.a., the part where Federer fans should turn away.  Roger's biggest problem was his serve, which became a liability as the match progressed.  In the second set, Federer hit just 48% of his first serves in, with no aces to his credit.  In the third, he was broken in his final three service games.  It's probably the worst I've seen Federer serve since last year's U.S. Open semifinal against Nikolay Davydenko (though he won that match).

The signature Federer forehand was also off target.  Instead of resembling a honing missile, it was a loose cannon, often struck long.  Federer tried to be aggressive at times - especially late in the match - but was rarely paid off when attempting to take command.

Certainly, Simon deserves a lot of credit in all of this.  That’s what I asked Federer about afterwards:

*Q: Talk about the part of Simon’s game that was the most troubling to you, or the most difficult to play against tonight.

A: No, I think the problem was my game today, you know.  I had everything to put him away.  I didn’t think I served well today at all.  It’s tough.  Different balls than at Wimbledon.  I was serving 70% in Wimbledon and here I’m serving 50%.  Can’t serve any aces, so it’s just a different type of match.  Maybe I guess first match on hard court I couldn’t sneak through the way I usually can, so it hurts obviously.  It hurts your momentum because I think I get through the match and I get into the tournament and start playing better.  But I got caught cold, so it’s kind of hard.

We'll have to see what happens from here on out, but this is obviously a terrible start to Federer's hard court stretch.  And if Nadal can put up a big result this week, the number one ranking could switch even earlier than expected.

Since action didn't get underway until dinnertime, I caught just one other match yesterday - Robin Soderling vs. Fernando Verdasco.  Due to the amount of backed up matches, it took place on a practice court, which made for a extremely intimate setting.  Check back on Friday for a post about that - it'll be worth your time.

As for today's weather?  The forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms from morning until night.  It's clear right now, but fair warning.

**McGrogan's Matches
**
Robin Soderling vs. Novak Djokovic

*Emotions could run high in this one - both players can get animated when things don’t go their way.  I wouldn't rule out an upset if Soderling can serve well enough.

*David Ferrer vs. Richard Gasquet

The Soderling/Verdasco match ran long yesterday, so I didn't catch any of Gasquet's match with Alexandre Kudryavtsev.  I’ll be sure to catch this one though.  The winner likely gets Nadal.