All the quarterfinal matchups for both singles competitions are now set at the All-England Club. The round of eight has acquired a very unique composition in the ladies’ and gentlemen’s draws, but that doesn’t mean the occasion will be any less meaningful for the participants involved. Some members of the 2009 “Quarterfinal Club” at SW19 are bona fide title contenders, while others have a puncher’s chance at making history, and still others are ready to accept their quarterfinalist’s check and be grateful they’ve advanced this far. Want to separate the contenders, floaters and pretenders? Today, we start with the ladies, before dealing with the gentlemen’s field tomorrow.

Women’s Quarterfinals -All Matches on Tuesday

Top Half of Draw

(1) Dinara Safina vs. Sabine Lisicki; (3) Venus Williams vs (11) Agnieszka Radwanska

Safina might be the No. 1 player in women’s tennis, but the Russian is making her first-ever appearance in a Wimbledon quarterfinal. Having acknowledged that she’s playing with tendonitis, the 23-year-old–who had to overcome a 3-0 third-set deficit to nip Amelie Mauresmo on Monday–simply isn’t operating at the level of proficiency needed to win the crown jewel of tennis. Admire Safina’s fight, but the French Open runner-up will be hard pressed to do much from this point forward. Safina: PRETENDER.

Lisicki will be playing in her first Wimbledon quarterfinal as well, in a match that will double as the German’s first-ever slam quarterfinal. Nerves will be hard to overcome for this 19-year-old flamethrower, who can hammer first serves as well as the Williams sisters, the ultimate exemplars of what analyst Mary Carillo refers to as “big-babe tennis.” Lisicki owns the talent of a future Grand Slam champion, and she might be able to hit her way past Safina in the quarters. As long as Venus and Serena are still around, however, it’s very difficult to imagine Lisicki staging a pair of palace revolts in front of the royal box on Centre Court. Lisicki: FLOATER.

Venus Williams wobbled ever so slightly in the second set of her third-round triumph over Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro, but that episode was far more a hiccup than a clear sign of worry. Venus owns five of the Wimbledon trophies that bear her first name (the Venus Rosewater Dish), and while her sister will present an imposing presence in a potential final, the 29-year-old is an overwhelming favorite to advance to Saturday’s showdown from the top half of the draw. You can’t win a championship without advancing to the title match itself, and Venus–who is closing in on her eighth finals appearance at the Big W in the past 10 years–knows how to pass through the pressure of quarterfinal and semifinal situations. Venus: CONTENDER.

Radwanska is putting together a quietly solid tournament. The native of Poland hasn’t done anything spectacular in suburban London–she avoided meeting sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic in the fourth round, and faced 17-year-0ld newcomer Melanie Oudin instead. Nevertheless, the kid from Krakow has beaten the opponents that have been placed in front of her. Radwanska has never gone past the quarterfinals at a slam; accordingly, the Polish product hasn’t attained a WTA ranking any higher than ninth. A quarterfinal is a terrific result at a major tournament; one shouldn’t think, though, that a semifinal appearance is in the cards for this 20-year-old in 2009. Radwanska: PRETENDER.

Bottom Half of Draw

Francesca Schiavone vs. (4) Elena Dementieva; (8) Victoria Azarenka vs. (2) Serena Williams

Schiavone has been coming to Grand Slam tournaments as a main-draw singles participant since 2000. Yet, the Italian entered SW19 having reached just two quarterfinals in 35 prior appearances at majors. This quarterfinal marks her third such result, and her first at the All-England Club. Ranked 43rd and bereft of a particularly powerful weapon, Schiavone wins with guile and savvy, a reality borne out by her performances in the first four rounds at Wimbledon. Schiavone is 4-0 in tiebreaks, a glowing record any hardened tennis pro would covet; the 29-year-old needed to win two of them in the same match, a second-rounder against shrieking teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal. If she can reach even one tiebreak in her upcoming match against Dementieva, Schiavone should consider herself fortunate. Merely getting to that point–in sets and matches alike–will be hard to pull off for a player who has already exceeded expectations to a considerable degree. Schiavone: PRETENDER.

Dementieva is, quite simply, the best women’s tennis player never to have won a major (with Safina, her countrywoman, being a close second). For this reason, the 27-year-old must be accorded a certain amount of respect. She’s not quite a pretender, because she rates as an overwhelming favorite to advance to the Wimbledon semis for a second straight year, and to her fourth slam semifinal in her last five appearances. Yet, it also remains that Dementieva’s ceiling usually arrives in the semis of slams, where she’s 2-4 in her career, and winless since 2004. Dementieva: FLOATER.

Azarenka, the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open champion, owns an eye-popping record of 36-6 this season, second in winning percentage to Safina’s mark of 41-8. Given her ability to play Serena Williams on even terms, the 19-year-old has to be viewed as a potential heiress to the throne. One big match would put Azarenka on the cusp of a Grand Slam title that is likely to grace her trophy case before too long. Azarenka: CONTENDER.

Serena Williams, owner of a not-too-shabby 29-7 record to date in 2009, is the best closer in her sport. Justine Henin had battled the younger Williams sister for the top (unofficial) position in women’s tennis, but once the Belgian retired, Serena had the stage to herself. Sister Venus is the queen of Wimbledon, but this 27-year-old–who has won 10 slams compared to Venus’s total of seven–can be counted on to deliver the goods at any major tournament. If she’s not in the final against her sibling, Serena will view this Wimbledon as a colossal failure. Serena: CONTENDER.

Unlike the 2009 French Open final, Robin Soderling played his best tennis on Monday against Roger Federer in the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Sadly for the Swede, it didn’t matter one bit.

Showing the fabulous form that eluded him against Federer in Paris, Soderling blistered the ball and kept it inside the lines for most of the afternoon at famed Centre Court. Playing like the man who won six matches at Roland Garros before faltering in the final round, Soderling reaffirmed his newfound status as a title contender on the ATP Tour after many years of underachieving at major events. Yet, all the 13th seed received in exchange for his high-level slugging was an improbable straight-set defeat and a ticket out of England.

Federer–never dominant but supremely opportunistic–made the most of a few precious chances by stealing three sets that had all the predictability of a coin flip. On a day when he claimed just 51 percent of all the points he contested, the No. 2 seed from Switzerland claimed a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win in less than two hours to advance to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

It’s hard to believe that a match defined by such forceful swings of the racket ended so quickly. In boxing, Soderling and Federer would have lasted 15 rounds, going the distance and leaving fans breathless until the final bell. In tennis, however, scoring big is achieved in a different manner; winning the right clusters of points in key moments can take an even-steven affair and turn it into a supremely deceptive straight-setter, and that’s what happened in this fourth-round fistfight.

Through the first eight games of the first set–as would be the case for other stretches of the afternoon–Soderling put Federer on the defensive and kept the Swiss in a fundamentally reactive position. Bludgeoning the ball from the baseline and thumping his first serve consistently, the Swede coasted on his service games while Federer struggled at times. For all of Soderling’s power, however, the man standing across the net–a five-time Wimbledon champion–found the timely serves and mental resources needed to forge a 4-all tie.

After Federer stayed in the fight, the Swede would begin to throw a few errant punches, and that’s when the worm turned on the most famous piece of grass in sports.

Soderling’s one patchy service game in set one was the one game that cost him dearly. The ninth game of the first set witnessed a clear show of nerves from the underdog, who began to spray his forehand long and wide. Soderling did fend off two break points with considerable composure, but the Swede couldn’t stay in a rally on Federer’s third break opportunity. Given a 5-4 lead, Federer promptly uncorked a typical combination of aces and service winners–the Swiss had 23 aces on the day–to tuck away the first set in a manner Pete Sampras would have recognized.

Sampras–tied with Fed for the most Grand Slam singles titles of any male tennis player–would often come to Wimbledon and win sets by protecting his serve and pouncing on one golden break chance late in a set. Federer mimicked that pattern in the first stanza, and while Soderling continued to hit big and fight fearlessly as the match continued, a familiar template was established for the Swiss.

In the second set, Federer actually lost more points than he won (35-34), but again, the 14-time major titlist won the points that really mattered–specifically, the final two. After 12 service games and 10 tiebreak points decided absolutely nothing in set two (6 games all, 5-all in the breaker), Federer hammered an ace for 6-5 and then snatched an unlikely two-set lead when Soderling lost a forehand long. The Swede, playing near–if not at–the height of his own personal powers, dueled a legendary opponent on even terms… and found himself with nothing to show for it heading into set three. Despite his deceptively large scoreboard deficit, the 13th seed would continue to keep pace with Federer, but just the same, the Swiss superstar would own the relevant answer in moments of truth.

After 12 more break-free service games and nine more tiebreak points, Soderling had the third set on his racket at 5-4 with two serves and a mini-break in hand. But just when the Centre Court crowd might have had a right to expect a fourth set, Federer once again pushed the Swede off the ledge. A dazzling cross-court running forehand allowed Federer to level the breaker at 5-all, guaranteeing the Swiss at least one more serve. Knowing he had to win the 5-all point if he wanted to stay on court, a nervous Soderling double-faulted. The lapse was extremely rare, but as this match proved from start to finish, one lapse on one point was all it took to decide three separate sets. Gifted with a match point in a battle that felt like a five-setter, given its statistical evenness, Federer didn’t blow the opportunity. A solid first serve gained the Swiss the leverage he needed to advance to yet another Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Robin Soderling jokingly said after the French Open final that “no one beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row,” a nod to Federer’s 10-0 career record against the Swede heading into Monday’s match. Evidently, Soderling was wrong, but it’s just as important to note that after an exhibition of mortal combat that took place on the razor’s edge, this swingin’ Swede is coming ever closer to toppling the fabled Federer. That reality is, in one sense, quite encouraging for the man who has transformed his career over the past month, but then again, moral victories don’t count for much between the white lines on gamedays. It’s Roger Federer who’s in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, thanks to the big-point brilliance that has defined the past five years of awesome and otherworldly tennis.

While Venus Williams enjoys a heaven-sent draw in the top half of the ladies’ singles bracket at Wimbledon, the bottom half of the draw is about to have its heavyweight encounter.

On the best day of the entire tennis calendar–when every round of 16 match is played in both the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles fields – the biggest story to emerge from the WTA side of The Championships was the formalization of a quality quarterfinal matchup: Victoria Azarenka versus Serena Williams. The eighth-seeded Azarenka labored past 10th-rated Nadia Petrova, 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-3, in 145 minutes on Court 3, while Serena coasted through her fourth-round encounter, demolishing unseeded Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3, 6-1, in a tidy 56 minutes on Court 2.

The excitement surrounding Azarenka-Williams is justified for a number of reasons. First of all, the schedule at Wimbledon puts the ladies’ quarterfinals on Tuesday, just one day after the extravaganza of “Fourth Round Monday.” With no men’s matches stealing any publicity from the elites in women’s tennis, Azarenka and Serena will have the big stage all to themselves, and it’s appropriate that the Centre Court spotlight should fall so fully on these two hard-hitting powerhouses.

Serena, to be sure, enjoys the far more decorated career, a resume graced by 10 Grand Slam championships and numerous other scalps from more than a decade spent in the salt mines of the WTA Tour. With that having been said, Azarenka possesses the spunk and tenacity needed to trade punches with the greatest active player in women’s tennis. Recent matches between the two foes indicate as much.

At the Australian Open in January, Azarenka swiped the first set from Serena in the fourth round of the tournament, before a series of dizzy spells forced the 19-year-old Belorussian to retire while trailing in the second set. Serena did go on to win the title in Melbourne, but the American superstar couldn’t deny the fact that this teenager from Central Europe outhit her for most of that afternoon Down Under.

In April, Azarenka gained revenge in the finals of the Sony Ericsson Open. With Serena’s legs heavily wrapped up, the American was barely able to move toward the end of the proceedings. Nevertheless, a fitter, finer Azarenka never lost sight of the ball… or the finish line. Blocking out any and all distractions, the young woman who has been mentored and encouraged in recent years by Chicago Blackhawks NHL goalie Nikolai Khabibulin displayed the dialed-in determination of a Stanley Cup champion. Pounding serves and drilling groundstrokes, Azarenka seized the jugular against her wounded opponent, polishing off Serena, 6-3, 6-1, for the biggest title of her burgeoning career.

This Wimbledon quarterfinal represents something of a grudge match for these residents of the top 10. Both women have lost to the other, due in large part to physical deficiencies. Both women have shown the ability to dictate play from the baseline and impose their will on the other. Serena–as a result of her championship credentials and major tournament experience–will carry a clear edge into combat on Tuesday, but Azarenka owns the artillery that can turn the Serena’s seasoned swagger into an irrelevant issue.

With floaters and surprises such as Francesca Schiavone, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Sabine Lisicki populating the round of eight in the ladies’ singles field, prime-time tilts are few and far between. When Victoria Azarenka stares down Serena Williams on “Ladies’ Day” at Wimbledon, fans of women’s tennis will get at least one sexy showdown before Saturday’s grand finale.

Remember what was said yesterday about the elusiveness of consistency in women’s tennis? Saturday’s play at the All England Club only affirmed the theme.

Shortly after sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic got taken out by no-name American Melanie Oudin, fifth-rated Svetlana Kuznetsova–the reigning French Open champion–succumbed to the firepower of Germany’s Sabine Lisicki. Unseeded but quite dangerous, Lisicki used her own brand of big-babe tennis–mixed with the occasional drop shot–to overwhelm her more credentialed opponent. A decisive 6-2, 7-5 third-round triumph carries Lisicki into the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. When the fourth round commences on Monday, Lisicki will face ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki–yes, the same woman Lisicki defeated two months ago in Charleston, South Carolina, for her only WTA Tour title.

When Jankovic lost to an unheard of 17-year-old, the responsibility for the outcome rested to a considerable degree on the Serb’s own shoulders. Melanie Oudin earned everything she received, but Jankovic’s lack of fitness and conditioning clearly played a substantial part in her own undoing. Lisicki’s swatting of Sveta, on the other hand, was more a product of the winner’s level of quality: The German won the third-round match more than the Russian lost it.

While ranking as a notably significant event in its own right, this match on Court 1 wasn’t nearly as much of a surprise as Jankovic-Oudin. When Lisicki powered past Wozniacki to win in Charleston, WTA watchers could see that this 19-year-old possessed the toolbox of skills compatible with an imposing grass-court game. Lisicki might have hit only 4 aces in this match, against 8 double faults, but whenever the German did get her first serve in play, she dominated, winning a stellar 80 percent of her first-serve points. Kuznetsova, by contrast, won just 56 percent of her first-serve points and could never feel comfortable when toeing the service line.

The tone of this match was established at the very beginning, and then maintained to its conclusion. Plainly put, Lisicki’s nerves would occasionally creep into the picture, but the German was able to right the ship just when she began to teeter. Kuznetsova broke the 19-year-old in the first game of the match, but Lisicki was able to promptly respond and thereby calm her mind. If she had fallen behind 2-0 in the opening set, Lisicki could have remained tenative and unsure, but the positive reaction to an immediate deficit allowed her to play at a generally high level. Smoking her serves at an average speed of 109 miles per hour–far more “ghitty up” than most players on tour (the Williams sisters being the exceptions)–Lisicki got the fifth seed on the defensive and kept her there. In little more than one hour, the German had amassed a commanding 6-2, 5-2 lead. The Kooze was set to lose by a wide margin, due partly to her own flat performance, but mostly because her teenage counterpart was able to deliver the goods.

Just then, however, the nerves that affected the underdog re-entered the equation against the woman who lifted the championship trophy in Paris just three weeks ago.

While Kuznetsova refused to quit, Lisicki–so close to the finish line–began to think about the moment and lost the free-flowing form that carried her to a huge scoreboard advantage. Serving for the match at 5-3, Lisicki’s imposing serve was broken for the first time in the second set; with Kuznetsova then serving at 4-5, Lisicki had a break point that doubled as a match point, but the German couldn’t pounce on a second-serve opportunity, and the French Open champ held for 5-all. What looked to be a runaway turned into a tense affair, but the realization of an extended swordfight evidently allowed Lisicki to regain focus on her tennis. No longer worrying about winning the match, the 19-year-old simply returned to playing high-percentage points. Lisicki held for 6-5 and then–in a repeat of the second game of the match–broke Kuznetsova (this time from 40-love down) to complete the biggest win of her young Grand Slam career.

As this match is put in context, it needs to be said that Lisicki–though unseeded and unaccustomed to the latter stages of a major tournament–owns the weapons that should make her a force on grass courts and cement in the coming years. It would not be a shock if this bomb-throwing ballstriker won a few more matches at Wimbledon, and then returned to the All England Club for more success in the future.

As for Kuznetsova–whose 24th birthday coincided with this defeat–another Grand Slam ended in an all-too-typical manner. The Kooze and her camp of coaches and advisors hoped that her title in France would transform the tenor and trajectory of her career at the majors; instead, another third-round loss will have to be entered on her resume. She does have the consolation of knowing she lost to a hard-hitting dynamo from Germany, but Svetlana Kuznetsova also realizes that she didn’t enhance her standing in women’s tennis with this letdown near London town.

Consistency is a word that might be used too often in conventional tennis discussions, but after Sabine Lisicki’s breakthrough win at Wimbledon on a surprising Saturday, the difficulty of this profession has only become even more magnified.

In the eyes of many tennis fans around the world, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is a backward-thinking organization hopelessly attached to an outdated past. The idea that no tennis should be played on the “Middle Sunday” of the Wimbledon fortnight strikes your typical sports nut as absurd.

Sunday, after all, is a great day to draw big numbers… at the turnstiles, of course, but also in front of TV screens as well. Wimbledon’s brand name isn’t just meant for localized commerce at SW19; the tournament in the cozy village of the same name is also intended to popularize tennis and fetch significant advertising rates for the broadcasters that pay big rights fees to cover The Championships. Whether it’s the BBC in Britain, NBC or ESPN in the United States, or any other major international network around the globe, Sunday offers prime viewing exposure for an athletic centerpiece such as Wimbledon.

Keeping the grounds idle on “Middle Sunday” therefore robs the All England Club of a considerable financial windfall. Fans around the world are deprived of several hours in front of the tube, on a day when they’re more likely to be at home. The second Monday of Wimbledon might be considered the best single day on the Grand Slam tennis calendar, with all 16 ladies and gentlemen playing their fourth-round matches in a tennis buffet of bountiful proportions, but viewers spread across the planet can’t follow the action quite so easily on a Monday. If it’s been asked once, it’s been asked a million times: “WHY? Why keep Wimbledon quiet midway through the tournament, on a weekend afternoon when crowds would surge and TV ratings would increase?”

Surely this old, quaint idea has run its course, correct? Not so fast.

There’s an official political reason for the silent Sunday at SW19, but there’s also a very compelling tennis-centered reason why the no-play policy makes sense for this most traditional of tournaments.

First, the official political reason: Quite simply, Wimbledon–charming and unspoiled by the relentless forward march of time–values its relationship with its neighbors. The people who live in and near the village find themselves inconvenienced and overwhelmed during each day The Championships swing into action. Parking, shopping, and so many other basic components of everyday life, become adventures when Wimbledon arrives; therefore, the nod to an idle Sunday is a way of giving the village’s residents a much-needed break in the midst of this two-week sports spectacular.

As a point of comparison, the Olympic Games–wherever they land–never take a mid-course break, plunging the host city into a whirlwind of non-stop scrambling, but that massive event isn’t likely to return to a city other than a large and multi-ethnic urban center; at Wimbledon, where championship tennis is played at the beginning of each and every summer, the dynamic is different: Townsfolk need the annual respite from the event that puts the Big W on the map. Part of Wimbledon’s old-world charm is the tournament’s insistence on remaining true to a longstanding set of ideals, even while the All England Club modernizes its facilities and updates certain aspects of the tournament’s operations. By maintaining a good relationship with the neighborhood in which it resides, the entity known as the Wimbledon tournament keeps its positive place in the public mind. Playing on the Middle Sunday would unsettle the villagers who are willing to put up with two hectic weeks a year, as long as they get one breather in the middle of this fabulous fortnight. Seems like a small price to pay for an event that is beloved throughout the world.

While local neighborhood politics is indeed the main source of the no-play Sunday, the policy has an added benefit that might be underappreciated by the casual tennis fan, but is widely valued by the players who participate in The Championships: Balanced scheduling.

At the Australian Open, the two men’s singles semifinals are played on separate days, creating an unfair dynamic before the championship match at the end of the tournament. At the French Open, the men’s and women’s semis are played on the same day, but the quarterfinals in both draws are staged on different days. At the most recent Roland Garros event, Svetlana Kuznetsova didn’t just have to beat Serena Williams and Samantha Stosur on her way to the women’s final, and eventually the championship; the Kooze had to knock off Williams and Stosur on back-to-back days because of the quirk in the tournament’s schedule. And, at the U.S. Open, the women’s and men’s quarterfinals are played on different days, while the semifinals in both draws precede the final by only one day. The 24-hour turnaround for the men’s final (the women get about 30 hours due to a prime-time singles final) is the single most difficult hurdle for any ATP professional, anywhere and anytime. As one can see, three Grand Slam tournaments lack balanced scheduling during the second week of competition, when stars and studs should be well-rested heading into matches.

This is where the quiet Middle Sunday makes Wimbledon the fairest tournament of them all… literally.

The absence of a Middle Sunday–when some third- and fourth-round matches would be played at the other three slams–allows Wimbledon’s schedule to flow on an even track. The 16 women who play their fourth-round matches the following Monday are all put on court very early in the day. Having received at least one, and sometimes two, days of rest, the WTA Tour’s elite performers know that if they survive Monday, they’ll have to play their quarterfinals on Tuesday, otherwise known as “Ladies’ Day” at Wimbledon. Yes, there has to be a back-to-back grind somewhere in a tournament, and at the All England Club, the structure of the schedule puts players in the best position to cope. Putting the back-to-back doubleheader after an idle Sunday represents the most equitable solution among the four Grand Slams; stacking a quarterfinal on top of a fourth-rounder is much more desirable than putting a semifinal right after a quarter, or–worse–doing what the U.S. Open does by scheduling a final the day after a semi.

All in all, the policy of a quiet Middle Sunday allows the women–after their one back-to-back stretch–to play the semifinals and final with 48 hours’ rest, on relatively even terms. The men–who play later on the second Monday of the tournament–can all play their quarterfinals on Wednesday, followed by both semifinals on Friday and the final on Sunday. Perhaps Wimbledon insists on being old-fashioned in some ways, but there’s no question that the Big W gives its players more second-week rest than any of the other major tournaments. Tennis wins under that scenario, because the superstars who normally play at the business end of Grand Slam fortnights ought to be primed for battle. At Wimbledon, they are–more so than in Melbourne, Paris, or New York.

Go ahead, then: Label Wimbledon’s no-play Middle Sunday an idea whose time has long since passed. The merits of the policy actually suggest that the All England Club is wise to stick to this piece of a tournament’s proud tradition.

Did anyone outside Melanie Oudin‘s family members, close friends, and coaches know about a 17-year-old from the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia, before the 2009 Wimbledon Championships began?

Didn’t think so.

But now, this uncommonly resourceful teenager is on the minds of every pundit, scribe and broadcaster at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Oudin became the headline story of week one at SW19 by shocking sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic in Saturday’s third round. The 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2 triumph on Court 3 sends the Wimbledon newbie into Monday’s fourth round with the assurance of a paycheck no smaller than 53,000 pounds. Oudin’s accomplishment is remarkable enough in its own right, but the road that led the 17-year-old to the Saturday spotlight makes her feat that much more phenomenal.

Oudin had never won a Grand Slam match when she boarded a flight to London a little more than a week ago. Relegated to the qualifying rounds, those unforgiving yet off-the-radar proving grounds in professional tennis, Oudin managed to crank out three match wins and crack the main-draw field of 128. Merely busting into the bracket at a major tournament is an achievement that eludes thousands of tennis lifers who toil on the challenger and futures circuits for meager prize money that often fails to cover travel and medical expenses. Oudin–already a participant in two other slam tournaments–managed to hit the big-time in her sport’s most famous setting… and that was before she took the court for her first-round match on Tuesday against a pretty formidable foe, 29th-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer.

Improbably yet undeniably, Oudin–filled with confidence as a result of her wins in the quallies–remained unflappable against opponents with far more credentials. Bammer reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 U.S. Open, and won the first set against her American counterpart. Oudin, however, didn’t flinch at all, taking the next two sets while dropping just six games. The result established a pattern that would remain in place for the rest of this magical week.

In the second round against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, Oudin dropped the first set but again rallied to take the final two sets. How many games did the 17-year-old lose in the final stanzas? Yeah–six. Players this young, and this unaccustomed to the magnitude of major-tournament tennis, will typically waver when they get punched in the mouth by more experienced opposition, but Melanie Oudin has oozed with self-belief no matter what the score or circumstance. Against Jankovic, the former world No. 1, this quality emerged to a superabundant extent.

Oudin had four set points in the first set against the 24-year-old Jankovic, a one-time slam finalist and a five-time participant in the semifinals of a major. Yet, on each of those four points, the American novice coughed up an unforced error, which allowed the No. 6 seed to get out of jail and win the set in an extended tiebreak. While Jankovic needed a 12-minute medical timeout (for dizziness and heat exhaustion) after the set ended, the fact still remained that Oudin had to win two sets against an accomplished adversary. Jankovic is a far cry from the player who had contended for Grand Slam championships in recent years, but the Serbian star is familiar with the rigors of the WTA Tour. Oudin might have had a physically frail opponent on her hands, but the knowledge of her missed opportunities in set one had to weigh on the American’s mind. As the second set remained on serve after nine games, Oudin encountered the moment when her mental toughness would be tested as never before.

With Jankovic serving first in the set, Oudin had to toe the service line, on serve, at 4-5. At 30-all, Oudin–though not trailing by a break–still found herself two points away from ultimate defeat. Jankovic, for all her inadequacies in this match and, on a larger level, throughout a disappointing 2009 season, was just a heartbeat away from escaping this match, gaining a precious day of rest on Sunday, and remaining a factor heading into the second week of Wimbledon. The feel-good ride of Melanie Oudin was just about to end if the teenager couldn’t call forth a new level of composure.

Sure enough, the 17-year-old played the following cluster of points with the poise of someone 10 years older. Employing a variety of shots that are foreign to a generation of baseline-hugging ball-bashers, Oudin–with a trusty drop shot at her disposal–held for 5-all and then broke for a 6-5 lead. Given the chance to serve out the set, a pleasing yet paralyzing prospect for any tennis player in a match of such magnitude, Oudin’s nerves held steady once again. The American took care of business and sent the match to a third and deciding set. With Jankovic’s foot receiving attention after the set ended, the struggling Serb–already beset by whole-body weakness–had little left in the tank. Oudin’s ability to overcome first-set stumbles in previous matches helped her out on Saturday; the 17-year-old with the furious finishing kick produced yet another 6-2 set in a decider, her second of The Championships. While Jankovic is left to ponder a disastrous 2009, Melanie Oudin carries on, into the second week of Wimbledon for a date with 11th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska on Monday.

And so it is: A player without a Grand Slam win heading into this tournament; a player with a world ranking of 124; a player who didn’t receive one of the many wild cards handed out to British teenagers, and who had to play her way through the quallies as a result, has now found herself in the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

Pretty heady stuff for a 17-year-old, right? Just don’t expect Melanie Oudin to lose her sense of perspective. With the focus and concentration she’s displayed in one otherworldly week of tennis, the “Marvel from Marietta” can make fourth-round appearances at slams a rather regular occurrence.

After all he’s been through in his life, Tommy Haas finally found reason to smile at the end of another long journey on a tennis court.

The German, along with Croatia’s Marin Cilic, produced a third-round match of considerable quality at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. The slugfest evolved into a sprawling and soaring showcase that kept a Court 1 crowd spellbound over the course of two days. When these two Friday foes reached their Saturday endpoint, the sport of tennis claimed the ultimate victory. Fortunately for Haas, an up-for-grabs ticket to the fourth round fell into his hands on this most tension-filled occasion at the All England Club.

Haas, a man who has historically lost close matches at Grand Slam events, finally prevailed in an extended passion play. The 31-year-old knocked used a break of serve in the seventeenth game of the fifth and deciding set to claim the best match of the tournament to date. Once on the edge of victory but then near the abyss of defeat on Friday evening, Haas steadied himself on Saturday to outlast Cilic, 7-5, 7-5, 1-6, 6-7 (3), 10-8, in a remarkable up-and-down donnybrook that required 4 hours and 28 minutes of riveting competition.

When Haas returned to the lawns of Wimbledon one day after warring with Cilic for 4 hours and 1 minute, the veteran knew that the previous evening’s marathon–free of resolution–would turn into a Saturday sprint to the winner’s circle. Tommy Haas and Cilic would play only 27 minutes in abundant light that contrasted with the 9:33 p.m. finish of their Friday foray, but those 27 minutes represented one of the more meaningful stretches of each player’s career.

For many different reasons–all of them laced with a considerable amount of poignancy–the loser of this epic encounter was going to be devastated to a particularly pronounced degree. One of these men was going to sit in front of his locker at the All England Club and realize that a lot of terrific tennis–more than four hours of it, to be more precise–would go for naught. One of these seeded players–Haas 24th, Cilic 11th–was going to be denied a chance at a winnable fourth-round match against Igor Andreev, and a potential date with Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. One of these stick-wielding wonders would have to confront the fact that after playing so well for so long in a Friday evening marathon, this Saturday sprint would produce another blot on a career path littered with disappointing results.

For Haas, the specter of defeat looomed particularly large. The German once attained the world’s No. 2 ranking, only to have his career derailed in 2002 by two separate events. A car accident on June 8 of that year nearly killed his parents, forcing Haas to retreat from his on-court responsibilities. Later in 2002, Haas then suffered a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, which required surgery and a full year’s worth of rehabilitation. Missing all of 2003 due to his physical woes, Haas lost the rhythm and regularity an elite player not only covets, but requires. In the past few years, the product of the Nick Bollitieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, has done a commendable job of regrouping, reaching the 2007 Australian Open semifinals and fighting his way to three separate U.S. Open quarterfinals (2004, 2006, 2007). Yet, for all he had achieved under psychologically challenging circumstances, Haas’s balky body would continue to betray him.

At Wimbledon in 2007, Haas tore a stomach muscle in a third-round win, preventing him from taking on Roger Federer in the round of 16. This incident followed a withdrawal from The Championships in 2005, when a sprained ankle suffered during warm-ups took the German out of the tournament before it even started. In the 2006 U.S. Open quarters, Haas took a two-set lead against Nikolay Davydenko, only for cramps to sabotage his game and scuttle his plans in New York. Bad luck and memorable collapses have trailed Haas like a black rain cloud; in addition to all his injury-created losses, the German has also had a penchant for blowing big leads at slams, a trait never more apparent than when he lost a two-set lead to Federer in the fourth round of this year’s French Open. You name it, Tommy Haas has endured it. A loss to Cilic–in which he led by two sets and then had two match points in the fourth set at 5-4, 40-15 on the Croatian’s serve–would have left the 31-year-old reeling.

For Cilic, the stakes in this showdown were also appreciably high, even though the 20-year-old–unlike Haas–has most of his career in front of him. Cilic isn’t being expected to reach the semifinals or finals of Grand Slam tournaments just yet, but with his failure to reach the quarterfinals at a single major championship, the world’s 13th-ranked player is in danger of hitting an alarmingly low ceiling. Cilic had an opportunity to advance to the round of eight at SW19, due to the absence of Juan Martin del Potro from this particular section of the gentlemen’s singles bracket. Doors like that don’t always swing open in professional tennis; Marin Cilic needed to take advantage, and after blowing a set point in the first set and then forfeiting two match points at 6-5 in the fifth, the youngster from the Balkans needed to summon forth a Saturday surge against a man 11 years his senior.

Who, then, would rise to the moment? Haas, the tortured tennis graybeard with a long trail of sob stories in tow, or Cilic, the young pup who needed to send a message to the big dogs in the sport?

In the 27 minutes it took to resolve this titanic tilt, Haas didn’t so much win as Cilic lost the plot.

The two competitors resumed play from Friday’s suspension with the fifth set deadlocked at 6-all. After four uneventful holds brought the scoreline to 8-all, Cilic–serving at 15-all–lost a forehand that gave Haas a 15-30 opening. When the German nailed a down-the-line backhand pass for 15-40, the Croatian felt the weight of the moment crashing down on his frail shoulders.

Haas dominated the ensuing rally to break for a 9-8 lead, and even though the German wobbled when he tried to serve out the match in the next game, Cilic–so resilient in erasing a two-set deficit on Friday–flinched on a pair of break chances. Twice, the Croatian had a very easy forehand put-away on a short ball from Haas, and twice–with the court wide open–Cilic couldn’t keep the ball in play, with the first forehand rocketing long and the second one smacking the middle of the net. Given not just one reprieve, but two, Haas came to his senses. Hitting with more authority from the baseline, the 24th seed didn’t allow Cilic to find the open court, and when the Croatian sent one more forehand long, Haas–used to the short end of the stick in drawn-out duels–finally landed on the sunshine side of a tennis divide.

It’s worth noting, in conclusion, that Haas and Cilic played remarkable tennis late on Friday, trading haymakers and pulling out pressure-packed points when the lighting at Court 1 was as bad as–if not worse than–the lighting that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had to deal with in their 2008 Wimbledon final. It is well known in the tennis community that if Federer and Nadal had reached 8-all in the final set of their unforgettable battle, the match would have been postponed until the following day. In this match, Cilic was just about to finish off Haas on Friday, but when the German managed to scramble back and tie the fifth set at 6-apiece, a suspension entered the picture. The drama might have been reduced for Saturday’s resumption, but it bears mentioning that if Federer and Nadal had been involved in this kind of a match, tennis journalists throughout the world would have been singing hosannas from the rooftops. Haas-Cilic ’09 won’t receive the publicity or praise of Federer-Nadal ’08, but in terms of drama, passion, suspense and grit, this match offered everything that makes tennis so special in a Grand Slam setting.

Call this match the low-key classic, then. No trophies were handed out on Saturday at SW19, but Tommy Haas and Marin Cilic left a memorable imprint on Wimbledon just the same.

Ivo Karlovic might be a one-trick pony, but oh, what a magnificent trick lies at this powerful pony’s disposal.

Karlovic, the most fearsome server in all of tennis, rode 46 aces to the finish line on Friday, as the Croatian narrowly defeated France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four razor-close sets. The 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory on Court 1 propels the ATP Tour’s bomb-throwing giant into the second week of play at the All-England Club. The landmark triumph also moves “Doctor Ivo” into the fourth round at a Grand Slam singles event for just the second time in 25 career appearances.

When one sees the Karlovic serve, it is initially hard to fathom how this gentle 30-year-old beanstalk of a man hasn’t won more on the pro circuit. At 6 feet, 10 inches tall (2.08 meters for those who follow the metric system)–Karlovic enjoys a body angle relative to the net that makes his serves virtually unreturnable when they’re hitting their spots. While most tennis pros have to power the ball through the service box, the king-sized Croat can get on top of his serves and hit the ball with a more downward trajectory; it sometimes seems that Karlovic’s serve is little more than an overhead smash initiated from the baseline.

Yet, for all of his serving exploits, Karlovic has rarely been able to threaten the world’s top players. He might reach a great many tiebreaks in the matches he plays, but therein lies the peril of being a one-note wonder who lacks the all-around game of other, more proven performers. Goran Ivanisevic–like Karlovic, a thunderous server with a mediocre assortment of groundstrokes–proved to be more proficient as a volleyer, and developed a small but meaningful amount of appreciable consistency from the backcourt. The 2001 Wimbledon champion never lit people up from the baseline, but Ivanisevic did shore up his weaknesses to the point that his all-around game possessed some degree of texture. If he lost one tiebreak set, Goran could mount a comeback.

For Karlovic, that hasn’t been the case.

The world No. 36 hasn’t enjoyed much success at slams, and hadn’t escaped the first round at Wimbledon since his last fourth-round appearance in 2004. It’s assumed that mammoth servers should have their way on grass, but with Karlovic, that line of thought hasn’t been borne out. Bereft of the serviceable groundstrokes owned by Ivanisevic, and not as nimble at the net, Karlovic truly relies on the serve and the serve alone. This means that on any occasion when he’s not serving, the 30-year-old is exposed. He might cruise on all six service games in a given set, but the chances are very high that he’ll barely dent an opponent’s serve as well. This leads to tiebreaks, the element of tennis with which Karlovic enjoys an intimate relationship.

Tiebreakers simultaneously represent Karlovic’s great hope and his worst fear: They can allow Doctor Ivo to win sets and matches without breaking an opponent’s serve, but if Karlovic can’t pull them out, he’s finished. Precisely because he has no other weapons to turn to when his serve doesn’t do the job on a given point, Karlovic has usually found himself outflanked and underequipped when pressure-packed points arrive. No one serves at even 80 percent on a consistent basis, let alone 100 percent, but with Ivo Karlovic’s style of play, missing a first serve–especially in a tiebreak–simply can’t happen. The small margin of error facing the veteran offers insight into why Karlovic hasn’t won more matches.

This is not an underachieving player, mind you; it needs to be said that Doctor Ivo–who has never reached the quarterfinals of a slam, and has therefore never created an expectations monster for himself–is merely a man who is hamstrung by his height when the topic of discussion is not his serve. Karlovic’s 6-10 body simply makes it incredibly difficult for this tall tower to bend down to retrieve slices or any other shots that stay low to the ground. Any player who can hit a dipping passing shot will either draw an error on a Karlovic volley, or force this serving sensation to hit the ball without much of an angle or pace. It’s fair to say that while Ivo Karlovic can render opponents powerless with his mighty serve, opponents can break down the Doctor in several different ways. That reality best expresses why Karlovic hasn’t claimed more scalps on tour, at the slams or in other tournaments as well.

With respect to this match against the ninth-seeded Tsonga–another huge-serving, big-hitting fireballer–the question surrounding Karlovic would be the same query that’s engulfed the 30-year-old for years at the slams: Could he serve well enough long enough to overcome his deficiencies?

Here’s an amazing statistic about Karlovic at Grand Slam singles events, which helps explain why this man has lost the five-setters he’s played: Doctor Ivo entered Friday’s fistfight against Tsonga with an 0-11 record in five-set matches at slams. With the sole exception of the U.S. Open, tennis’s major tournaments do not play a tiebreak in the fifth and final set. This means that when matches go the distance in Australia, France, or here at Wimbledon, Karlovic lacks the safety of the shootout-style format provided by a tiebreak. The Croatian simply has to win tiebreaks, and also win matches in four sets or fewer.

On this day at SW19, Doctor Ivo found the medicine he’d been looking for.

The two men played three tiebreaks, all of them decided by the minimum number of two points, but it was Karlovic who was slightly better in the clutch. Serving with just as much authority in set four as he did in set one, a man who is prone to losing stamina–due to lugging his longer-than-long arms and legs around a court–showed surprising resilience against Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up. Karlovic didn’t lose his cool or his focus in the three tiebreaks that were contested, especially in a pivotal fourth-set standoff that–had it gone Tsonga’s way–would have produced a fifth set, Doctor Ivo’s personal Waterloo.

Karlovic biffed an easy forehand volley early in the fourth-set breaker, forfeiting a mini-break lead he had gained just moments earlier. In the past, such a mistake would have made Karlovic crumble, but against Tsonga, the doctor didn’t panic. Down 4-3, Karlovic coolly held his two service points and then–at 5-4–crushed a forehand return on a second serve from Tsonga. By picking his battles wisely, and going for broke only when he could afford to, Karlovic earned two match points at 6-4. The first one came on Tsonga’s serve, whereupon the Frenchman fended off the grim reaper. At 6-5, however, Karlovic had the match on his racket: One serve, one bomb, one ace, and Doctor Ivo would be through to the fourth round. A man who lives by the serve–and who couldn’t last long on the ATP Tour without it–encountered the kind of scenario he must dream of in his sleep.

The Croatian–knowing the importance of this one serve–took a little extra time before toeing the service line. He regrouped, he bounced the ball, he reared back and fired… and smoked an unhittable laser down the middle T of the ad court service box. The deed had been done, and without having to deal with a nightmarish deciding set, Ivo Karlovic–winner of two tiebreaks and bearer of 46 aces, just weeks after hitting a record 55 in the French Open against Lleyton Hewitt–had once again reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Giants have their weaknesses–Ivo Karlovic is no exception. But on one fabulous Friday at SW19, a calm Croatian truly stood tall in the saddle.

Professional tennis might look like an attractive gig, especially at Wimbledon, but while the money’s good for those who reach the middle rounds of main draw events, the sport is unforgiving in the way it shapes reputations. One only had to watch Friday’s third round at the Big W to understand why.

There are only 24 competitors remaining in the ladies’ singles field, and two who won’t be around for the second week of The Championships will suffer considerably in the court of public opinion. No. 12 seed Marion Bartoli crashed out of SW19, losing, 7-6 (5), 6-0, to Francesca Schiavone, while 14th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova fell to Elena Vesnina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. These two top-15 players might be walking away with just under 30,000 pounds in prize money–not bad for a week’s work–but the price of a nice paycheck comes with the assessment of one’s place in the WTA Tour hierarchy. If Bartoli and Cibulkova were to be judged right now, they wouldn’t receive terribly favorable verdicts from pundits or longtime tennis observers.

Bartoli’s removal from the ladies’ field is particularly disappointing. The Frenchwoman stormed to the 2007 Wimbledon final on the strength of a titanic upset against then-No. 1 Justine Henin in the semifinals. The agility and shotmaking displayed by the self-confessed Pierce Brosnan fan gave the impression that this “Bond Girl” of the tennis courts would become a regular face in the latter rounds of slams. Today’s loss to Schiavone, a solid but hardly overpowering 29-year-old veteran, reaffirms just the opposite. Now 24 and not exactly on good terms with the progression of time, Bartoli is running out of chances to become a bigger force on tour. Since her runner-up showing two years ago at the All England Club, Bartoli has produced only one quarterfinal showing at a major, in this year’s Australian Open. In every other slam event, coach Walter Bartoli’s daughter has failed to get out of the fourth round, often losing before the end of the first week. What’s even worse for the 12th seed is not just the fact that she lost, but the way she was excused from Wimbledon. Bartoli competed valiantly in the first set, getting nipped at the wire by her Italian opponent; however, once the scoreboard began to tilt against her in set two, Bartoli’s game plummeted in a scene reminiscent of ner non-competitive Aussie Open quarterfinal against Vera Zvonareva. Female tennis players, throughout the locker rooms of the WTA, will take note of the second-set collapse that befell Bartoli; such a pronounced lack of staying power in individual matches shows why the Frenchwoman has lacked similar resilience in the cauldron of Grand Slam competition.

As for Cibulkova–a double-digit seed, but a player with a golden chance of making a deep run in a depleted field–the judgment following her loss to Vesnina shouldn’t be quite as harsh. Nevertheless, the Slovakian’s setback against her Russian adversary is still notable, because it shows how elusive consistency is in the world of women’s tennis.

Cibulkova made headlines and earned highly-deserved accolades by rolling to the French Open semifinals a few weeks ago in Paris. There was the sense that “Domi” would be able to dominate for another week and a half in suburban London, and pull down another semifinal showing to cement her place in the upper reaches of the tour. This loss to Vesnina–the world No. 37 who had not been to the fourth round of a major since the 2006 Australian Open–puts Cibulkova’s French Open joyride in a box marked “aberration,” at least for now. If she doesn’t deliver the goods at future slams, the 20-year-old Cibulkova–fair or not–will be tagged with the label of underachiever… as is the case with Marion Bartoli today.

A 24-year-old Frenchwoman is having to endure a considerable amount of criticism. A 20-year-old Slovakian could face harsh treatment from the press if she doesn’t bounce back in the coming year of Grand Slam tennis. Yes, the Marion Bartolis and Dominika Cibulkovas of the world are able to win tens of thousands of pounds in prize money, but they don’t earn that cash without receiving a great deal of scrutiny from scribes and fans who assess their every move.

Think tennis is an attractive line of work? In many ways, it is, especially when the fashionable whites are worn on the lawns this special village on the outskirts of London town. Just remember one thing if you’re good enough to become a top-level tennis pro: Unless you’re able to set a consistently high standard of excellence, you’ll have to endure more than your share of stormy seas.

It’s time for Marion Bartoli and Dominika Cibulkova to navigate some very choppy waters if they want to salvage their on-court reputations.

Not since 1992 had an Israeli man reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam. After Friday evening’s action at the All England Club, a 17-year drought is over, thanks to Dudi Sela.

Ranked 46th in the world but sure to rise up the ladder in coming weeks, Sela delighted Jewish tennis fans everywhere by reaching the fourth round of a major tournament for the first time in his career. When he ousted 15th-seeded Tommy Robredo in the third round at the Big W, Sela made a little bit of history for himself and his country. The 7-6 (8), 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 win on Court 3 allowed Sela to become the first Israeli on the ATP Tour to reach the round of 16 at a slam since Amos Mansdorf turned the trick at the 1992 Australian Open. A series of emotional fist pumps to the crowd, in the moments following his exhilarating triumph, showed just how much this occasion meant to the 24-year-old who currently lives in Tel Aviv. Just as significantly, the display of elation was a product of the determination Sela exhibited throughout the duration of this match.

Sela didn’t dominate this battle so much as he owned every truly significant sequence. A riveting first-set tiebreak stayed on serve for the first eight points, and remained knotted as the tension on the court escalated… 5-all, 6-all, 7-all, 8-all… and when the dust had settled, the player with the “Heavy Dudi” artillery managed to shoot down his Spanish counterpart. The 10-8 tiebreak not only gave Sela an early lead; it fueled his confidence and set a tone for the rest of the proceedings. At 6-5 in the second set, just about everyone in the arena was expecting a tiebreak, but Sela–like any elite player manages to do–made a big push for a break and succeeded to take the second set in its 12th and final game. Robredo would cruise to the third set and then gain a 5-3 lead in the fourth, but with the first two sets lodged firmly in the back of his mind, Sela never doubted in his abilities come crunch time.

The Israeli upstart held easily for 4-5, and then–with the set hanging in the balance–broke Robredo to get back on level terms. After consolidating the break to grab a 6-5 lead, Sela pounced on the Spaniard in Robredo’s next service game, and before anyone could believe what had transpired, Sela–winning four straight games precisely when his fortunes were flagging–marched into the second week of a slam singles tournament for the first time in his professional life.

The first week of a major championship might not bring out the A-list celebrities or generate through-the-roof television ratings–especially on a weekday–but the early rounds of Grand Slam competitions definitely unearth the special stories that make this sport so compelling for those who pay attention. Roger Federer and Andy Murray might own the spotlight in the week to come. After the first five days of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, it’s hard to identify a story any better than the one authored by Dudi Sela.