Haas the real Iron Man

I guess you could call this 7-5, 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-3 triumph over No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic an upset, but I'm not altogether certain. Not after Haas took him down in the Queens final, also on grass, two weeks ago. Sometimes, those rankings (No. 34 for Haas) can be deceptive, and certainly Roger Federer, whom he will play on Friday, won't be paying attention to Haas' position in the ATP pecking order.

After having to rally from two sets down at the French Open last month and watching -- at least taped highlights -- of Haas' extraordinary play this fortnight, I've no doubt Federer is aware of the task before him.

But four hours after Haas was into the locker room for a celebration, there was even more to chatter about when Andy Roddick, showing staying power that he hadn't exhibited at Wimbledon since 2005, gutted out an extremely difficult match against Lleyton Hewitt by 6-3, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 to reach the final four against Andy Murray.

I'll get to each match in a moment, but first a word about the relative quality of the play of the four men left in the draw.

If you were forecasting a winner right now, based on consistency of performance, they would line up Federer, Haas, Murray, Roddick.

* Federer: Has lost just one set, to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round and was up two sets to love when he lost it, so it wasn't much of a crisis. Today, predictably, he poured through big-serving Ivo Karlovic, who hadn't been broken in his four Wimbledon matches. But in nine previous matches against Federer, and eight losses, he'd broken Federer's serve only once. He didn't have a break point Wednesday in a 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (3) defeat.

* Haas: Those of us who have been sniffing around tennis at least since 2002 recall that Tommy reached No. 2 that year. And then came an avalanche of injuries. Most caused only fairly short interruptions, but then there were two shoulder surgeries in 2004 and one more in 2007. The talent has always been there and he's got some weapons with which to upset Federer. One is one of the best backhands in the game. If he can maneuver himself into a lot of backhand-to-backhand rallies with Federer on Friday, he's got a chance. but who knows when he's going to break down. He's twice given walkovers to Federer. Still, right now, his confidence is high, he looks fresh and fit despite his age and he knows from the French Open what he can do to Fed.

* Murray: A strangely inconsistent second week. He had to go five to take down the other Swiss, Stan Wawrinka, in the round of 16 before struggling at times through Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarters by 7-5, 6-3, 6-2. That was a difficult straight-setter. Murray's serve has been prodigious, for the most part, and he's got a good matchup with Roddick (Roddick's big serve vs. Murray's great service returns). But he sometimes regresses back to a hardcourt style, in which he places too much emphasis on producing forced errors from his opponents. He's got to be more aggressive on grass, and he was in the final set Wednesday.

* Roddick: He's lost set(s) in four of his matches and his biggest problem, service returning, was really nettlesome against Hewitt. But a personal-best 43 aces helped him out of this match and, after tough losses at Wimbledon the last two years, he really showed some gut-it-out play in this quarterfinal. This is his fourth Wimbledon semi and his record for the season now is 38-8.

A couple days ago I described Roddick as having an "odd" year, and that was borne out again vs. Hewitt, whom he had beaten four times in a row. But despite only one title this year (Memphis), Roddick has been consistent and, in 10 tournaments this year, he's been in six semis.

Recall that two years ago he had a two-set lead over Richard Gasquet and lost in five. Recall that last year, his service returning was as miserable as it's ever been and he was taken down in the second round by Janko Tipsarevic. He's definitely trying to be more aggressive and riskier on returns, especially second serve, but the execution has to get a lot better -- especially off the forehand side.

He won this match for three reasons: (1) His serving was extraordinary; (2) he remained calm and fully under control; (3) Hewitt seemed to finally tire in the final set. On match point, with Hewitt closing on the net, Roddick banged a backhand right at the Aussie's body and his hands weren't fast enough. He looped the volley long and Roddick was in. Good job.

And so the matchups for Friday:

* Federer leads Haas 9-2. but three of their matches, all in majors, went five sets, including the French Open round of 16 Haas loss a month ago. Most of the matches have been close. Haas hasn't beaten him since the Aussie Open of 2002. Ancient history.

* Murray leads Roddick 6-2 with three wins in a row. They played this year with Murray winning the final in Doha without being broken. Roddick had only three aces in that match.

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THE WIMBLEDON JUNIORS

A couple years ago Alex Domijan of Tampa, who has now officially topped 6-foot-7 at age 17, had a mediocre-to-bad experience at a grass court junior tournament in Philadelphia, where, for some club reason, they didn’t allow grass-court shoes.

He slipped several times, never got the footing right and wasn’t too pleased with the idea of playing on grass.

But he's been a rising figure in junior tennis (now up to No. 19 ITF worldwide) and here comes Wimbledon. Big quandary out at Saddlebrook Resort, where he trains and occasionally gets to hit with Tampa habitues Mardy Fish, James Blake, the Bryan twins and John Isner.

“He wasn’t keen to go,” said Craig Boynton, the director of academy and professional training. "So we sat him down and talked to him. We asked him to trust us on this. We told him he’d love Wimbledon. He has a great game for grass, but just doesn’t know it yet. So we worked a week and K-Swiss sent him grass-court shoes.”

Off he went with mom and dad, who have very high profile jobs at the University of South Florida in Tampa. And this week has been something of a revelation for him. Today (Wednesday), on one of the bigger courts (No. 14), Domijan easily took down No. 1 seed Daniel Berta of Sweden, the French Open champion, to reach the final eight and a rematch with fellow American Devin Britton, who defeated him in the semis at Roehampton – the week before Wimbledon.

“Yeah, I played pretty well,” Domijan said after this win. He’s a young man of very few words, until he gets extremely comfortable with people.

He never faced a break point against Berta and, after a junior career of anonymity, he’s close to assuming a much higher profile. Winning a junior Grand Slam would present him with a much larger image and, of course, subject him to the usual "hey, the next great American player" from the army of dilettantes who are assigned to cover tennis for their U.S. newspapers. But I suspect his well-grounded parents will successfully squire him through that eventuality.

If Domijan has been blown away by the grandeur of Wimbledon, it doesn't show outwardly. “Actually, I like hardcourts better," he said. Still, he agreed, “grass seems to help my serve.”

He’s getting a long look from USTA elite player development manager Patrick McEnroe, along with other Americans doing well here – Britton, Jordan Cox and Sloane Stephens.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com

Charles Bricker