Of church-sponsored demigods and women using intuition

He's ranked No. 78 and, while he's been a decent hard-court player, it's easy to see him going into the US Open out of the Top 100. That would be sad, because on a great day, he's still one of the most interesting players to watch on tour. Here's five pounds that he'll need a wild card to get into his final Wimbledon next year.

The English are all gone now and it's only Thursday. Black Thursday! Black Thursday! That's called payback for the taunting us Americans underwent after our crew flamed at Roland Garros.

The third rounds are all set and now the mini-blockbusters come. There must be at least 20 terrific matches of the 32 available. Let's go with the must-sees for Friday: Federer v. Safin (Fed in four), Tursunov v. Haas (T-Haas in five), Blake v. Ferrero (Blake in five, yes!), Roddick v. Verdasco (Andy in four breakers), Mathieu v. Ljubicic (Ljubi in four), Bondarenko v. Schnyder (A-Bond in three); Jankovic v. Safarova (JJ in two tough sets), Bartoli v. Peer (Peer in three); and Chakvetadze v. Krajicek (Anna C. in two).

Let's look at today's results. Men's wins of the day go to Tomas Berdych over Michael Llodra 7-6(4) 7-6(2) 3-6 7-6(4); Novak Djokovic over Amer Delic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4); Gael Monfils beat Kristof Vliegen 7-5, 7-6(4), 7-6(1); Mikhail Youzhny over Gilles Simon 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 and Robin Soderling over Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. That's a lot of muscle on Rafael Nadal's side, even though the Spaniard cruised. He'll face Soderling next, then probably Youzhny and then likely Berdych. Talk about earning your stripes once again. How's this for a classic senior match-up: Jonas Bjorkman v Wayne Arthurs. The winner gets Johnny Mac on Centre Court right after the women's final.

The women had far less drama, but there was Ai Sugiyama over Alize Cornet 4-6, 6-0, 6-3; Lucie Safarova over Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Aravane Rezai over Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; Daniela Hantuchova over Elena Likhovtseva 7-5, 7-6(3) and Tamira Paszek over Tatiana Golovin 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Here's Tati on the endless tabloid questions about much publicized bright red undergarments.

"Are these questions allowed here like this? You talk about youth, look at these youngsters, your questions, tsk, tsk, tsk." Indeed.

	Mal Taam/MALTphoto Nadia Petrova is getting up to speed.

Hope goes out to you Safin fans, but your delightful and funny Russian has little chance of taking down Fed, not when he's saying that he wants out of Wimbledon because he doesn't like the tournament culture. Plus he's reached only one semifinal this year. Recall, too, that when Safin bested Fed at the '05 Aussie Open, he was running about as fast as he's capable of. With his bum knee, he's much slower of foot now and that is an absolute killer on grass.

Of course Safin could change his mind about wanting to hang around longer if he suddenly finds a church to represent him and call him a demigod. In fact, in Wimbledon Village, the Church of Emmanuel on the Ridgway just put a sign that reads "God created Roger Federer." On another marquee, the church lists its web site as wimbledon.org, the tournament's site. It must be the first (Henry VIII founded) church that is owned by a Slam. Only in England. Now I know who Mirka reminds me of - Anne Boyeln.

Safin is searching for his mojo, but Petrova says she's found hers again, just a week after she told our contributor Chris Bowers that she lost it. I spent some time chatting with the 11th seed, who wasted Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2, and said she's playing great and is re-invigorated. Petrova added she can do damage at Wimbledon. The semi-abbreviated version:

"I had a couple of tough matches in Eastbourne and it was a good boost. I should be playing at 100 percent and I'm really dedicated to it now. I really had to force myself to give 100 percent and do my work well, to tell myself I can do it. When you playing matches and you are competing, the adrenaline kicks in , and you have one or two good wins and then you are totally into it. I believe this is right place for me and I have a lot to achieve and I need to move forward. Everything is going well and it's a great feeling. I'm enjoying it. It's not about confidence and the matches for me, but enjoying it and staying in the now. You want to walk off court and say I've done everything, I didn't play short. I want to play free. If you say you need to attack second serves and miss, at least you tried. You don't want to say later that you should have done this or that. I have to go with my intuition. As soon as you start backing off, the other player takes over and you have to readjust."

Player quote of the day goes to a coy Sharapova. When asked about her racket preferences, responded with a smile: "I try to stay away from the stiff equipment."

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