Watch now

The OCC: Wednesday

By Peter Bodo

By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan

Hi everyone.  Pete is currently on vacation until the 14th, so I'll be commanding this ship in the meantime.

I'm never going to be Pete Bodo, but Lord knows that I try sometimes.  He often links to his ESPN.com blog posts here, and I'm going to do the same, except that mine is on NBCOlympics.com.  Take a look at it before the Olympic tennis kicks off tomorrow at 4 a.m. - it's about Roger Federer's win over Tomas Berdych, which I think is a pretty significant victory.

BEIJING - AUGUST 13: Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates a point against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the Men's Singles Third Round match at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre during Day 5 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 13, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
© Getty Images

The Olympic tennis draws can be a pain to navigate to online, so this is what it's come down to in the quarterfinal round:

Men's:

  • Roger Federer (1) vs. James Blake (8)
  • Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Fernando Gonzalez (12)
  • Gael Monfils vs. Novak Djokovic (3)
  • Jurgen Melzer vs. Rafael Nadal (2)

Women's:

  • Sybille Bammer vs. Vera Zvonareva (9)
  • Serena Williams (4) vs. Elena Dementieva (5)
  • Venus Williams (7) vs. Li Na
  • Dinara Safina (7) vs. Jelena Jankovic (2)

Observations:

  • Bammer and Melzer have represented Austria admirably in the tennis Olympic event.
  • Safina and Monfils continue to play well since the month of May (Monfils has won a Challenger and reached the semifinals of Roland Garros; Safina is 29-3 on the WTA Tour since Berlin).
  • Federer is 8-0 in his career against Blake, and has lost just one out of the twenty-two sets they've played.
  • The crowds at Centre Court have often been sparse, and the umpire has repeatedly had to ask fans to get to their seats quickly (it's reached epidemic-like proportions).  That won't be the case in the Venus/Li Na match.  If there are any seats available, I'd be shocked and disappointed.

Finally, before I forget to mention this, here is TennisWorld's version of Sports Illustrated's "Sign of the Apocalypse":

While going to ESPN.com's Tennis page on the computer in my hotel's business center, the firewall wouldn't let me access it:

**You are blocked for viewing:

sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/index**

For content of the following type(s):

Gambling