We have reached the quarterfinals and it seems to be the end of the line for my picks Andy Murray and Mario Ancic (Andy Roddick was a bust).
Andy Murray matches up well against Nadal as his very strong net play will test the speed of even the fleet-footed Spaniard if Nadal decides to stay behind the baseline. Murray is going to have maybe 50,000 strong supporting him as well (15K in the stands, 35K outside), so if he starts a rally, you'll probably hear the excitement all the way over in Flushing Meadows. Nadal is all but untouchable anywhere though, if your name ends in anything but "erer", so while this figures to be a match to behold, it could quickly devolve into a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 pseudo-walkover.
As I explained before, Mario Ancic doesn't stand much of a chance against Federer, who has once again stepped his game at this year's Championships. He'd be lucky to take a set, and I don't expect that Roger is going to be underestimating Ancic like the first time they met.
As for the other two match-ups, I'm not going to say that they won't be as exciting as those two Centre Courters, but the storyline just isn't as rich. I really have nothing to say about the Schuettler-Clement match other than that they came from the weakest quarter, which became even weaker as the 3 top-seeds bowed out within the first two rounds. Marat Safin is probably the biggest success story of the tournament, but Feliciano Lopez is pretty strong, so that could be ending here.
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