TENNIS in DEPTH.

Today’s match against Samantha Stosur could be a defining moment in the young Serbians career. She has not played up to her potential after her 2008 success, and if she fails to reach week two at Wimbledon she is in danger of sinking into the melting pot of just above average women players mired in the top 50. She says, “For me, I find that it’s really important to stay in the moment and realise that every day it’s a different opponent and different match and not every day do you feel good.

“Even if you feel great, just to go back to basics and work hard for each point.That’s what I was doing the last couple of matches and it makes me feel much more comfortable out there.

“I have lots of confidence from my practice session because I have been practising well for a long time but I just never managed to back it up in my matches.But I feel this week that I made some big steps. I just feel I need to allow myself some time and be patient and work hard.

“Samantha is obviously on a great roll. She played semis in the French Open and she’s tough opponent, especially on grass. She serves and volleys a lot. It’s going to be a tough game. But I enjoy competing and I enjoy challenges. But serve and volley, I don’t think it’s my style of game.”

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Two-time finalist Roddick and Austrian left-hander Melzer have been friends for a decade, but that will be forgotten when they step out onto Centre Court looking to book a place in the last 16.

“I think a lot of him,” said Roddick, beaten in the final at the All England Club by Roger Federer in both 2004 and 2005.

“We’ve known each other probably 10 years now, going back to juniors. We kind of grew up together.

“We enjoy each other’s company a little bit. We’ve kind of developed a little bit of a friendship over the 10 years we’ve been on tour now.

“But to be professional you leave that kind of courtesy in the locker room when you go out on the court.”

Also in action today is 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian taking on Germany’s Philipp Petzschner on Court Two following his impressive victory over fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro in the second round.

Nikolay Davydenko and Tomas Berdych, 12th and 20th seeds respectively, clash on Court One, which is also the venue for Fernando Gonzalez to take on Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The bottom half of the fourth round was decided yesterday, with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Ivo Karlovic among those progressing to the last 16 on Monday.

Federer surprisingly dropped his first set of the championships but responded in style to beat Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-1 and set up a rematch of the French Open final against Robin Soderling.

The world number two has won all 10 of his matches with Soderling but insisted he will not be taking the Swede lightly.

“If you asked me before Paris, I would say he’s definitely more dangerous on grass than on clay, but then you saw all those great matches he played in Paris and you’re worried, too,” said Federer, whose win at Roland Garros gave him a record-equalling 14th grand slam title.

“He’s definitely proven his point that he’s a good all-around player. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how he’s going to enter the match after coping with such a long tournament in Paris and see how fresh he still is.

“I’ve played him here in the past and I’ve played him on grass a few times now. I’ve had success against him but I know the danger because he hits extremely hard.”

Marin Cilic and Tommy Haas were producing one of Wimbledon’s classic encounters before bad light brought an end to a five-set thriller on Number One Court last night, and they will resume this afternoon locked at 6-6 in the deciding set.

Haas had been two sets in front but Cilic hit back and led by a break in the final set, before his opponent showed admirable fight to claw himself level.

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CENTRE – 1.00 PM START

1. Venus Williams (USA) [3] vs Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)

2. Jurgen Melzer (AUT) [26] vs Andy Roddick (USA) [6]

3. Andy Murray (GBR) [3] vs Viktor Troicki (SRB) [30]

COURT 1 – 1.00 PM START

1. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) [12] vs Tomas Berdych (CZE) [20]

2. Tommy Haas (GER) [24] vs Marin Cilic (CRO) [11] T/F 7/5 7/5 1/6 6/7(3) 6/6 0-0*

3. Sabine Lisicki (GER) vs Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) [5]

4. Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) [10] vs Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)

COURT 2 – 12.00 NOON START

1. Samantha Stosur (AUS) [18] vs Ana Ivanovic (SRB) [13]

2. Andreas Seppi (ITA) vs Igor Andreev (RUS) [29] T/F 1/6 6/7(5) 6/4 5/5 0-0*

3. Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs Philipp Petzschner (GER)

4. Dinara Safina (RUS) [1] vs Kirsten Flipkens (BEL)

COURT 3 – 12.00 NOON START

1. Melanie Oudin (USA) vs Jelena Jankovic (SRB) [6]

2. Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) [17] vs Flavia Pennetta (ITA) [15]

3. Victor Hanescu (ROU) [31] vs Gilles Simon (FRA) [8]

4. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) and Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) [16] vs Samantha Stosur (AUS) and Rennae Stubbs (AUS) [3]

COURT 4 – 1.00 PM START

1. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [9] vs Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) [20]

2. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) [19] vs Jesse Levine (USA)

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Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic secured his place in the second week of Wimbledon for just the second time in seven visits to the All England Club with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-5) victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Ninth seed Tsonga simply had no answer to the brutal serving of Karlovic, who fired down a staggering 46 aces on his way to the fourth round.

Up next for Karlovic is 7th seed Verdasco, who has a big serve himself but is also vulnerable to being broken more often than Tsonga. If Karlovic can produce a similat number of aces in his next match he will be virtually unstopable. 46 aces in any match represents two sets of free points to the server, and puts so much pressure on the receiver to win his own service games to be able to reach a tie break. I doubt that Verdasco has this ability.

Looking ahead to the following round would put Karlovic up against Federer, who maybe one of the only players capable of returning the big man’s service consistently. The last time they met in October 2008, it was Karlovic who came away with the victory!

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Seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia has pulled out of Wimbledon because of an ankle injury.

Zvonareva was set to play No. 26 Virginie Razzano of France in the third round Friday but pulled out before the match.

She was sidelined for eight weeks after injuring her ankle in a match against Razzano in April, but returned to play in the grass-court tournament at Eastbourne this month.

Razzano will next play the winner between No. 12 Marion Bartoli of France and Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

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Del Potro, expected to go deep into the tournament on the back of a French Open semi-final run, as well as being placed in the section of the draw stripped of injured champion Rafael Nadal, admitted he had been in awe of Hewitt when he was younger.

“He’s one of my idols. I started to follow him was when I was young, like 11 years, 12 years-old,” said the 20-year-old Argentine.

Hewitt finds it amusing to have hero status.

Hewitt’s next assignment is a match-up with Germany’s Philipp Petzschner for a place in the last 16 with potential clashes against Andy Roddick and Andy Murray further into the second week.

Hewitt believes he still has the game to worry the top players.

“There’s been patches this year when I’ve played extremely well. It’s taken some of the best players to beat me in the bigger tournaments,” he said.

“I think if draws open up and the body feels good and I can play and execute that kind of style of tennis for over five sets, there’s no reason why I can’t put a bit of pressure on these guys.”

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Venus Williams expressed her admiration for the persistence of questioning about her latest accessory, bandages on the calf and thigh of her left leg during her rout of Kateryna Bondarenko. But she navigated all questions coyly. Labeling the bandages as “just for support,” she said, “What happened was that I needed some support, and then I went and got the support, and then I wore it in the match. I’ll be wearing it in doubles too. So it’s working out. I mean, I think all the players might start wearing it because it’s so supportive.” . . . Williams and her sister Serena, the defending doubles champions, won their first match, 6-3, 6-3, over Virginie Razzano and Aravane Rezai of France. . . .

When one has been the queen of England for 57 years, one can weather some serious tennis droughts, and so Elizabeth II, who last attended Wimbledon to present the women’s singles trophy to Virginia Wade in 1977, gamely sent a letter to the All England Club on Wednesday. An official delivered it to Andy Murray at his practice court, and it congratulated the world’s No. 3 player on winning the Queen’s Club tuneup and wished him good luck at Wimbledon. Having tweeted that he “put it in its own pile away from the bills,” Murray later said, “Yeah, it’s surprising. I mean, you don’t get that every day.”

Evidently, Wimbledon patrons of a certain torpor had been parking at St. Mary’s Church just down Church Road from the All England Club. Evidently, they had been paying £20 — or about $32 — to avoid walking a distance. Evidently, they would pay and then steer through trees, hedges and, um, the church cemetery, to find their spaces, as shown in a National Pictures photo of a BMW stashed between two rows of headstones. Evidently, this did not persist after it got some attention, but it did afford a sterling opportunity to one headline writer at the London tabloid Metro: “Going to Wimbledon? Over My Dead Body.”

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Gisela Dulko, the new darling of Wimbledon after her second-round victory over Maria Sharapova, could face a sterner test on No 3 court today when she comes up against Nadia Petrova, the No 10 seed.

The Russian was a quarter-finalist last year and is made of teak-tough stuff. The glamorous Dulko can be sure of vociferous support from the Wimbledon faithful, though.

Roger Federer is the biggest draw in the men’s singles, getting his third-round match against Philipp Kohlschreiber underway at 1pm on Centre Court.

The world No 2 has looked a class above in his first two matches and his German opponent should not cause him too many problems, especially as his second-round tie with Ivo Minar went to 8-6 in an energy-sapping fifth set.

Novak Djokovic continues his campaign in the tea-time slot on the show court against the brilliantly-named American, Mardy Fish.

The Serbian was taken to four sets by Julien Benneteau in the first round but made easy meat of Simon Greul to set up this match with the No 28 seed.

Serena Williams will hope to follow in her sister’s footsteps when she gets the day’s play started at noon on Court 2 against Roberta Vinci. Venus, the reigning champion, cruised past Kateryna Bondarenko in straight sets yesterday despite heavy strapping on her dodgy knee.

The Williams siblings will be in action together later on when they meet Sabine Lisicki and Aleksandra Wozniak in the women’s doubles.

Also appearing in the doubles are British pair Laura Robson and Georgie Stoop who face a tough task against the No 16 seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amelie Mauresmo.

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