The Evans Report: World Beaters

It was a day for the stars to come out and play. Strong winds; hot sun — not, perhaps, the easiest conditions as the Sony Ericsson Open headed into the final weekend but the big players know how to deal with all that and a litany of marquee names, headed by Roger Federer, Justine Henin, Venus and Serena Williams and Nikolay Davydenko (well, he is World No. 4) all progressed with ease. 
 
None more so than Federer who came out blinking in the sunlight — the World No. 1 has hardly played anything but night matches recently — and took the first set 6-4 off  Robin Soderling in a routine sort of way before the Swede started feeling ill and retired at 0-3 in the second.
 
"Apparently it was fever," said Federer afterwards. "I guess he was really struggling with his footwork and there is no point to continue and risk your health in a moment like that."
 
So for the second time in two weeks Federer was not required to finish a match. In fact, against Tommy Haas at Indian Wells, he didn’t even get on court. "It’s a big difference not playing at all and playing one and a half sets so obviously I prefer this. I was in the spirit of playing a match."
 
And playing it well, too, but there will be tougher tests down the road for the man who is still looking for his first title in 2008.
 
The big loser was Lindsay Davenport who could not follow up her terrific display against World No. 2 Ana Ivanovic and went out in disappointing fashion to Marat Safin’s sister Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-4. 
 
"This is the first match that I just felt like I couldn’t figure a way to get back into it," said Davenport afterwards. "It was obviously windy today and she did everything better than I did. I thought she served, really, really well."
 
So no excuses for the circuit’s No 1 Mom. "I feel fine," she smiled. "I wish I could say I didn’t. The way I played yesterday (against Ivanovic) I was a legitimate……I don’t know about contender …..but a legitimate threat. Then today I ran into a girl who played really well. But, hopefully, more positives than negatives will come from this tournament."
 
No regrets so far from the Williams sisters. Serena, looking slimmer, blasted her way past Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3, thus joining Venus in the quarterfinals. The sisters are on course for a semifinal clash now although such an outcome is far from certain as Serena has to play Henin — a 6-2, 6-2 winner over one of those Russians, Elena Vesnina — while Venus will face Svetlana Kuznetsova, the top Russian at No. 3 in the world, who defeated Shahar Peer, the No. 16 seed from Israel 7-6(4), 6-3.
 
Venus looked in fine fettle as she kept up a steady tempo of winners — 23 in all — against the promising young Dane, Caroline Wozniacki and was in good spirits afterwards. 
 
"I’m always trying to take it to another level, regardless," she said. "If I’m playing on Cloud 9, I’m trying to get to Cloud 10 and actually Cloud 11. I definitely feel like I’m playing well. I just have to keep playing well. Simply said."
 
Peels of laughter. There were questions a little while ago about just how much Venus wanted to continue playing tennis. But she’s obviously doing just what she wants to do and is very happy about it. The crowds, who have been pouring into Crandon Park on Key Biscayne in record breaking numbers, should be happy about it, too.