Before I move on from the world number 1, I’d like to say that I wasn’t overly impressed with Federer’s speech during the ceremony. “I can cry like Roger,” Murray said. “It’s just a shame I can’t play like him.” How many players do you think nodded their heads when they heard this?

I wasn’t sure when to make a mid-tournament assessment.

Since their first and only slam final to date, Federer reached the final at the next four slams.

Boy did Brisbane hit the jackpot in players.

With everyone doing top 10 lists of the decade or the year, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Spain, without injured Top 10 players Rafael Nadal or Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco, topped Israel 3-0. In the Saturday doubles, Feliciano “F-Lo” Lopez and Tommy Robredo beat Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 7-6(6), 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2.

In the highlight match of the evening, Andy Roddick became the 36th player in the Open Era to reach 500 career match victories.

Seeds: Andy Roddick, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Gonzalez, Robin Soderling, Marin Cilic, Tommy Robredo, Tomas Berdych, Mardy Fish, Tommy Haas, Ivo Karlovic, Viktor Troicki, Igor Andreev, Dmitry Tursunov, Dudi Sela, Sam Querrey

Cilic will take on Blake in the first reverse singles on Sunday, and Karlovic is scheduled to face Fish in the final singles, the U.S. needing to sweep the day to advance to the semifinals against either Argentina or the Czech Republic.

Tommy Haas and Novak Djokovic have Grand Slam wins over Roger Federer. And Lleyton Hewitt has a grass win plus a best-of-five set win over the Swiss…