Washington Round of 16

The only reason I'm able to write about this round at the Legg Mason tennis championships is that a rain delay has prevented any action from taking place today, so we're in the same state we were in yesterday. I've been busy this week, so I'm glad for the chance to catch up.

Yesterday's action was fast and furious, and it was an absolute seed massacre. Five out of eight seeds dropped in Wednesday's action, two to retirements. Lleyton Hewitt couldn't finish his match against Alejandro Falla, and Ernests Gulbis called it quits against Ilya Marchenko. Stepanek, who was playing his first tournament back from injury, clearly wasn't at his best against Marco Chiudinelli. And Sam Querrey was almost certainly tired when he lost to Janko Tipsarevic this time around. On the other hand, I expect that Stan Wawrinka just got blasted off the court by Wildcard David Nalbandian, who has not played many tournaments this year, but has been the absolute boss at Davis Cup.

Berdych was nearly another casualty against Dmitry Tursunov, but he ran away with the third set. And recent first-time titlist Andrey Golubev had the easiest win for a seed against Kristof Vliegen. Marcos Baghdatis needed two tiebreaks to get through Horacio Zeballos, but he managed to pull through.

Seeds had done better on Tuesday, with only the Frenchman Benneteau and Llodra losing - the former to Xavier Malisse, and the latter to American qualifier Ryan Sweeting, who built on his win over James Blake in the first round. Fernando Verdasco saved a match point against German Michael Berrer, but he managed to win the match in a third-set tiebreak. As a result, we have some interesting match-ups waiting in the winds, whenever the rain decides to stop.

Berdych will play Golubev - this will be one of the first tests to see if Golubev, who played like a top-10 player to win the tournament in Hamburg, was just having a flukey week, or if he is ready to raise his game on a week-in, week-out basis. It'll be tough to get past Berdych, though. They're playing for the chance to face the winner of John Isner and Xavier Malisse, another tough match. Malisse is a tough customer who has been playing well, lately, but Isner has been tough to beat on hard courts this season. They played once already this year, with Malisse winning in three tiebreaks, but that was on clay. I like Isner in that one, but it should be tight.

Verdasco plays Sweeting, and this is another tricky match for Verdasco - Sweeting is a young American who has been playing well lately, and Hot Sauce was not at his best against Berrer. I have to expect Verdasco to come out in better form, but there's a chance of an upset here. Baghdatis has one of the easiest matches, against Marchenko, who advanced thanks to Gulbis's injury. I expect Baggy in the round of 16.

Tipsarevic gets Alejandro Falla as a reward for besting Sam Querrey, and Tipsy has just been playing too well the past ten days, I don't see Falla winning this one, unless Janko falls apart. They'll be playing for the chance to get the winner of one of the round's best matches: Mardy Fish, on an 11-match winning streak, plays Croatian Marin Cilic. I really don't know who to call this one for. Mardy has been playing like a completely different player this summer.

The last quarter has Nalbandian getting Marco Chiudinelli, which should be a breeze for the Argentine. Chiudinelli is just a different class of player - the winner will get either Andy Roddick or Gilles Simon. Roddick is 2-0 against the Frenchman, and Simon has not been at his best of late, but he has done well on this surface and in this situation, so it could be a tough match. And things only get better from there. It'll be interesting to see if they have to play double-duty tomorrow - in which case, the spectators are really going to be getting their money's worth.