Do or die for Federer and Nadal

If Nadal's knee problem is only slight, he might be able to play through it on grass. He won't be experiencing the jarring of hardcourts or the lengthy rallies he could expect on clay.

His chances have definitely improved with Federer out!!

I don't know. Nadal looks seriously good to me - he beat Soderling reasonably comfortably, with the Swede playing some excellent tennis. In the end, it was Nadal's consistency that won through. The thing is, whenever I've expected Murray to do well against these top guys, (like in Wimbledon 08 quater-final against Nadal and the Aussie open final earlier this year) he's played poorly and been thrashed, but the opposite seems to happen when I don't have any expectations of him, so I've wisely decided not to predict anything for this match. I wouldn't read too much into Nadal's knee problems atm. Cynically, I believe he's only called the trainer when things aren't going for him, whereas commentators believe it's because of the natural transition from clay to grass. Interesting statistics about Berdych there Vinay. It suggests that he played the big points better, which is something you would expect a champion like Federer to do.

Colin N, Berdych actually had fewer break opportunities ( 6 to Federer's 8) but converted four of his while Fererer could only convert one. Berdych served on an average 10MPH faster and I believe in the end his legs were younger. This then leads me to favour either Murray or Djokovic to win the title. The question mark is the condition of the Nadal knee.

So the Quater-finals are completed and Federer is out!!! Great performance by Berdych, but this loss suggests that his first round match wasn't just a blip. Nadal won in four, after starting slowly, eventually found his best and now plays Murray who like Nadal struggled in the first, but ground down Tsonga and Murray-Nadal is shaping up to be a cracker. Unfortunately for Lu, beating Roddick was his big achievement and Djokovic demolished him.

Isn't every game at Wimbledon (and indeed every tournament on the ATP circuit bar the end of year championship) do or die?

Any chance that Hewitt's habit of losing to the eventual champion will continue?

It did, Rikki-Lee, it did.

I think it was the former. Falla had a very calm demeanor throughout the tie to the extent where it was as though he didn't believe he could win. This might have counted against him when closing out the tie, when he suddenly realised the situation. From memory, Federer didn't do anything different by putting the balls in the court, and he said that in his interview afterwards, but Falla started making mistakes, due to the pressure and Federer capitalised.

I think it's fairly obvious that Falla lost his nerve while serving for the match. The resulting tiebreak and bagel in the fifth seed is what happens to unseeded players in these situations. Federer admitted afterwards that he should've lost, which is a fairly rare admission from Federer who's always a bit defensive when it comes to these sort of matters. But it was a week ago now and Federer has picked up the pace in his two most recent matches. If he makes the final, I suspect it will be a difficult match regardless of the opponent. The titles get harder and harder the longer a run continues.

Federer's first round match was a strange one. Usually, when Federer plays poorly it's because he makes a lot of unforced errors. Instead, it was Falla who was taking charge of the rallies and looked like he couldn't miss at times. It reminded me of Nadal against Tsonga in the 08 Aussie open - hitting a lot of mid-court balls and not dictating the rallies.

Federer and Nadal have both had some close calls this tournament - it's amazing how close Federer was to going out in the first round, while Nadal has gone to 5 sets a couple of times. Neither have been invincible in the first week, but both have got through. But now's time time to lift - and I think they both will. As for backing a winner, my money would be on Federer.