FanHouse Lleyton Hewitt

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was an ungainly site, Roger Federer skidding and falling to the ground, helpless on the court.

It lasted only a moment, though, and despite that and a few other scares Saturday, the world's top player advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

Federer defeated No. 31 Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 to extend his winning streak to 37 matches at Flushing Meadows -- and 14 straight over his Aussie rival, the 2001 U.S. Open champion.

Perfect it was not.

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This is the Andy Roddick we should have been watching all these years. It's the guy we saw early in his career, when he was going to be the next great American star, smoothly making the transition from Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Somewhere in there, Roddick's brain stopped developing. Or maybe the sport just kept developing while he was stuck in the power era, when finesse and style and smarts, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, moved in. He was a Neanderthal, while modern man arrived.

Whatever ... Andy Roddick has been promising a new Andy Roddick lately. And on Wednesday, there he was. He beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7 (12-10), 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, and now will face No. 3 Andy Murray in the Battle of Andys, on Friday.

Over the years, talk of Andy Roddick finally "getting there" has been inaccurate. The top-ranked American has reached the finals at Wimbledon twice, but despite a brief moment in the first set of the finals in 2004, Andy has always seemed a touch short of championship caliber.

Maybe not this year. Roddick took down No. 20 Thomas Berdych 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a match that was hardly competitive after the first set tiebreaker. Andy rode his 24 aces to easy service games, never even facing a break point, but the comfort he has shown with his ground strokes is what has really stood out in 2009.

It was nothing more than a win for Andy Roddick, but an important win in the second round of Wimbledon. A year ago, Roddick was waving goodbye to the All England Club in the second round after Janko Tipsarevic took him down in four sets.

Thursday in London, Roddick was the one on the winning end, beating Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 for his 100th career win in a grand slam event. Roddick, who has continued to focus on fitness and endurance over strength, threw a lot of backhand slices at Kunitsyn, who only seemed to find his groove for a moment in the fourth set when he broke Andy, but Roddick continued to ride his big serve to 18 aces.

I just got done watching Novak Djokovic defeat Marcos Baghdatis in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. As you can tell by the picture above, the match went nearly five hours, lasted five sets, and it was an utter duel that tested endurance, strength, moxie, and heart. Only a day earlier, I saw Djokovic grind for four hours in a four-set 4th round win over Lleyton Hewitt. That same day, second seed Rafael Nadal, who has since reached the semifinals, rallied from down two sets to beat Mikhail Youzhny in five, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. That was an incredible turn of events in which the better player won out in the long run. Putting all this together, plus many other years of watching both men's and women's tennis, and I'm led to conclude that the women are missing something. They are missing the magic that the men put on display at each Grand Slam event. They are missing five-set matches.

When you think of some of the greatest matches of all-time, what do you think of? You're all but guaranteed to see the 1980 Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe on everyone's list. Why? Not only did the match give Borg his fifth straight Wimbledon singles title, but it also went five sets, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6, with the 4th going 19-17 in a tiebreaker. The 1975 US Open semis between Guillermo Vilas and Manuel Orantes would have to make the list. Orantes rallied from down two sets and 0-5 in the fourth set -- one game away from losing, to win in five sets. The 1989 French Open Final between Michael Chang and Ivan Lendl was another legendary match. Down two sets to none, Change fought back, and eventually won it in five sets -- serving underhand in the fifth because of injury.

Rafael Nadal punished Lleyton Hewitt today at the French Open, 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). Raffa, now in the quarterfinals, pummeled Hewitt with high-bouncing , heavy topspin groundstrokes. Hewitt far too often found himself pinned six to eight feet behind the baseline and still hitting shoulder-high shots.

In the end Hewitt, who appears to have injuries and the the newness of fatherhood behind him, still has a long ways to go before he can claim his comeback is complete. Nadal, on the other hand, looked like he always does at the French - unbeatable.

Can Rafael Nadal win his third straight French Open title, or will Roger Federer be the holder of all four Grand Slam trophies at once? Nadal played a confident match today against a potentially dangerous opponent. For Nadal to lose, it will take a supreme effort from an opponent and for Nadal to be slightly off his game.

The most dangerous player remaining on Nadal's side of the draw is Novak Djokavic. Meanwhile, Federer faces the dangerous Spaniard, Tommy Robredo in the quarters. Should Federer win, he then must play the winner of the Nikolay Davydenko-Guillermo Canas match. Though seeded 19, Canas has beaten Federer this season and is certainly unafraid of the world's #1, especially on clay.

My thoughts? Bother Fed and Nadal win their quarterfinal matches. Federer gets upset in the semis by Canas, while Nadal wins a tough, tough battle against Djokavic. Nadal then grounds Canas in to the red stuff for his third French Open championship in a row.

But wait! This prediction is subject to change, so look for more tomorrow or Wednesday, I might just have a change of heart.