By
FOLKERT HESSE
Not all of the matches lived up to their expectations on the first “Super Sunday” at the US-Open, but the fans saw some real good tennis and some upsets in the men’s draw.
The biggest splash was the 4 set win of Stan Wawrinka over Andy Murray, who was the 2nd highest bet for bookmakers to take the title this year. And with Murray going down, we won’t see the much anticipated dream semi-final of the top four players in the world. The Scottish no. 4 seed is out now and this opens the door for a first win at the open for Rafael Nadal. I think Murray was the biggest mountain to climb, if he wanted to take his first US-Open crown and become only the second player after Rod Laver to win 3 consecutive Grand Slam events in one calendar year. A thing that not even the great Federer has done yet! But Murray’s early exit will also bring a new face to a Grand Slam semi final. One of the 4 players left over from the Murray – Berdych section of the draw, Wawrinka, Querrey, Youzhny or Robredo will now go to a maiden Grand Slam semi final. And after Youzhny took out US-boy John Isner in an exciting night session yesterday, the American fans will have to hope for Sam Querrey to be the one to take that spot in the semi final. He beat Almagro in convincing style yesterday and will now take on the second swiss player left in the draw, Stan Wawrinka. For sure this will be a close encounter, since both players will be loaded with confidence. Youzhny will take on Tommy Robredo, who is one of 6 Spanish players among the last 16 men remaining in the draw.
In the upper section of the top half of the draw, Rafa Nadal had a strong victory over Gilles Simon to join an armada of 3 other Spaniards to contest a semi final spot among them. Even though Gilles Simon was maybe not 100% focused during his match, because his wife had just given birth to their first son back in France and he was eager to get back home and see him for the first time, Nadal still showed a much improved form. He won in straight sets and never looked to be in danger throughout the whole match. He will now take on Feliciano Lopez, who won his match against Stakhovsky, due to a foot-injury the Ukrainian suffered in the second set.
Another surprise to me was the 4 set win from Fernando Verdasco over david Nalbandian. The serve and the forehand from Verdasco was too much and too good for Nalbandian yesterday. Nalbandian was never able to get into his game and form of the recent hard court events before the Open. But it was more that Verdasco did not allow him to and was able to control most of the points. He will face the 4th Spaniard in this section, David Ferrer, who beat, … you guessed it right… another Spanish player, Gimeno-Traver, to advance to the next round. After he won the first set in a Tie-breaker he had an easy win in 3 sets and will be fresh for the match against Verdasco.
The development of the upper section of the draw is all playing into the cards of Rafa Nadal. His biggest threats have been Nalbandian and Murray and now they are both out of the tournament. Two players that have beaten him a few times already and know how to handle the pressure playing against him. But now there are only Spaniards left and 4 unexperienced players who never have even reached a semi-final in a Grand Slam event. For me it would be a very big surprise, if he would lose to any of these players and not go to his first US-Open final next Sunday.
In the women’s matches we saw relatively easy wins for Schiavone, Williams and Clijsters. Ana Ivanovic was not able to continue with her improved form from the first rounds and showed that her slump is not over at all yet. She still struggles with her ball toss on the serve and never found any consistency and confidence in her game. Another disappointing performance for her, and we all have to sit and wonder what will happen to her over the next years.
Pavyuchenkova had to take a medical timeout against Schiavone, but with the Russians you never know when it is “tactics’ or a real injury, and was chanceless against the Italian Roland Garros Champion. Shahar Peer was fighting like always, but Venus never lost her focus and was just tested in the first set that went to a tie-break. She took the second set 6:3 and will now face Schciavone for a spot in the semi finals.
The most exciting match was the night session between 2 of the fittest players on the WTA-Tour, Dementieva and Stosur. This was clearly the highlight of the women’s matches yesterday and even though it was not always a great mental performance of the two players, this match had all a night session in New York needs. And it ended not only with a great victory and turnaround from Sam Stosur, but also with a new record for women’s matches at the open. The match finished at 1:43 a.m. in the morning and therefore was the latest finished women’s match at the Open ever. Stosur won it in the third set tie-break after she was down by 0:3 and 3:5 in the set already and fought off 4 match points against her.
So, we did not see many of the close matches that were expected, but quite some exciting ones and some really good tennis.
Today there is more good tennis to come and I think this time we will some close matches for sure. Maria Sharapova will take on Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark, who stormed through her first rounds so far. This will not only be a great match-up from the sporty aspect, it will also be the match between Mrs. Russia and Mrs. Denmark, who will fight for the best dresses and style on the court… ;)
On the men’s side there will be a great match between Mardy Fish and Novak Djokovic, which is also a rematch for the last ATP-1000 event in Cincinnati, wich Fish won against Djokovic. In an all French affair, Gasquet will face Monfils, Soderling will be playing Montanes and the big Fed, who will meet Juergen Melzer from Austria, will also be in action today.
F. HESSE
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