US Open 2010

Watching baseball games, the pitch speed is always listed in the banner. Why doesn’t tennis put the serve speeds down by the score?

Roddick gone! lost to Tipsarevic.

He got testy with a line judge when he foot faulted. The line judge said he FF with his right foot which was wrong and Roddick said was impossible. But Roddick did FF with his left foot. Roddick looked like a total jackass.

And boy Tipsarevic really has a hot girlfriend/wife.

No idea. They should.

I can’t believe Andy lost. Terrible.

I’m not sure it translates on t.v. but Roddick looks like he’s lost 10 or 15 pounds, that he didn’t need to lose. I know they say he has a mild case of mono. Whatever it is/was, it’s taken a toll on his body. Couple that fatigue with the NYC heat and he was toast.

I watched the first set of the Tipsarevik match and I have to say that I was impressed with how Tipsarevik was able to match Roddick’s power on those ground strokes. That’s not an easy thing to pull off.

Now that he’s made it into the next round, how long before Brad Gilbert starts calling him “Tippy.”

I don’t know if Roddick is over his case of mono or not, but he didn’t look like he had a lot of energy out there. Maybe it’s a lack of training rather than mono itself. Something really didn’t look right. And he did play too conservatively. Early in the match the McEnroes were saying Tipsarevic wasn’t making that much of an effort and seemed content to just play his three sets and go home. But he started to pick up his game when Roddick couldn’t seize the opportunity and he did play better as he went along. And the thing with the lineswoman was just a manifestation of Roddick being frustrated, I think. He did foot fault with his left foot, no question. So what if she said the wrong foot? It was just pissy. And for his part Tipsarevic seems like an interesting guy. If he can play the same way against Monfils that he played against Roddick he has a great chance to get to the third round, because Monfils is also very happy to sit back behind the baseline and play long rallies.

I lost a lot of respect for Roddick last night. I have always been a Roddick fan, he’s our hometown boy after all, but the crap with the lineswoman was over the top, even by Andy’s standards. I realize that most of that was really about his frustration with his play, but he dragged out the outrage far too long.

Why didn’t the chair step in and do anything? I can’t believe that Andy didn’t receive any kind of warning at all. Instead, they do a shift change early for the lines people.

You kidding? After the slap on the wrist Serena got you think Andy was going to face repercussions at all? :dubious:

No, of course he wasn’t going to receive any warnings, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think he deserved one!

I have no doubt that the chair umps are probably told to stay out of the matches as much as possible and that letting the players have temper tantrums is good for viewership, but I hate that they don’t seem to have the balls to challenge the players. Nadal’s time wasting is legendary, yet he rarely is called on it. The calls for the trainer that are obvious gamesmanship. the shouting and harassing linespeople, the throwing of racquets, all of it could be easily stopped if the umps would give out more warnings and point deductions.

The abuse of injury timeouts is something that could be dealt with. I don’t see it as a problem if a player slams his racquet down in frustration, but if it happens regularly, the umpires are able to give warnings. I don’t think anyone at the USTA would tell a chair umpire to let a player rant away because it’s good for ratings. For one thing, it isn’t. I do think the umpires are reluctant to assert themselves but he could’ve put a stop to that much earlier. The call was correct, her explanation was wrong, and Roddick was a jerk about it. He could easily have warned him or told him ‘Andy, you’re getting a warning if you don’t shut up.’

By the way, Richard Gasquet just took out Davydenko in straight sets.

Kei Nishikori is a few games from taking down Cilic.

Watching Bethanie Mattek Sands for the first time ever. This girl has got some guns on her! I don’t think I ever seen shoulders that big on a women tennis player before.

Am I the only one who thought Roddick called Tipsarevic a " fucking loser " after a quick handshake before storming off?

Can’t find a vid of the end anywhere.

I doubt it. It would have made the news. If anything, he called himself a “fucking loser” as he is usually pretty honest about self-critique in post-match interviews.

My biggest issue with the racquet smashing is the pain of seeing them destroy such beautiful racquets!! I say that as someone who doesn’t have a sponsorship and has to shell out the $200 any time I need a new racquet.

Perhaps the USTA doesn’t actually tell the umps to let some of the foolishness go, but it is good for ratings. Look how long Johnny Mac has kept his schtick going. Serena’s outburst made national news, people who don’t know a thing about tennis were talking about what she did for days after the match.
It’s like any sport, people want to see controversy.

For the record, I am insanely jealous that you got to go to the Open!

Jon Wertheim of SI says Roddick said “Don’t fucking lose this time,” meaning make the most of the opportunity and don’t lose in the next round. Tipsarevic beat Roddick at Wimbledon in 2008 but lost his next match. Like I said earlier, if Tipsarevic can play the same way against Monfils that he did against Roddick he has a great shot. For that matter that section of the draw is very, very open - the winner of Tipsarevic/Monfils gets Anderson or Gasquet. This is all happening in the Djokovic quarter of the draw.

This stuff may generate short term ratings but I think it’s bad for the sport. Fair point about the racquets. I don’t think bouncing your racquet is a big deal. Throwing a big tantrum and breaking a few is another thing and it does make the players look spoiled, which is the same effect Roddick had with his fit. Incidentally I noticed he gave away two or three racquets as he was leaving the court. First time I’ve seen somebody do that.

I’ve seen more than one player give away his racquet(s), especially to kids. Heck, some empty out their gym bag and throw out their racquets, old shirts (if they changed them during the match), towels, wristbands, headbands, etc to the folks right behind their seat. In Cincinnati, one of the lower ranked players (I forget who) took his sweaty headband off and threw it into the crowd. No one grabbed for it. :smiley:

Thanks Marley!

I wondered if I’d misheard and I didn’t know the 2008 backstory.

Here is the fight from the Djokovic match.

Audience members fight

Great match between Clement and Fish yesterday. Unfortunately, Fish is going to be toast going in to his next match.

Monfils v. Tipsarevic was also great, but I kept urging them to MOVE IN, MOVE IN!

Oh, and did anyone listen to Serena Williams’ guest commentary of the Nadal match?

McEnroe: Would you like to be remembered as the greatest women’s player?
Williams: I would like to be remembered as the greatest player who gave back.

Where’s the barf smiley?

You know, I used to like Serena, but she’s as phony as a three dollar bill. I’m not buying her philanthropy act at all. Yeah, yeah, she gave some money to a school. If it didn’t come at a time right after her disastrous US Open behavior, it might have seemed less manufactured. I can just imagine her meeting with the PR folks:

“Hmm, how can we bolster your image?”
“I need to be more like Oprah. Why do people like Oprah?”
“Well, she built that school in Africa.”
“Sounds good.”

Oh, and part of the reason like Johnny Carson and Andre Agassi and Paul Newman is that they were extremely generous with their time, money and talent, but they were understated and humble about it.

I see this thread got quiet over the weekend, but the tournament’s heating up! The biggest news is that Andy Murray is down, and he lost to the wrong Swiss guy. There’s going to be at least one Spanish player in the quarterfinals because Nadal’s entire section is Spanish - he’s got Lopez next, and then Ferrer or Verdasco. Robredo is also in his half of the draw. Don’t you just feel like Nadal is destined for the final at this point?

Monfils impressed the hell out of me in his win over Gasquet today. The commentators are down on Monfils because they think he doesn’t play up to his ability and is happy to run around and try for big shots on defense instead of playing smart. And they’re right. But against Gasquet he was really something to watch. Gasquet would hit a shot that should have been a winner and Monfils would return it easily. Then Gasquet would hit another oughta-be-a-winner and Monfils would reach that, too. Gasquet might put away the point with a third shot, but by then he was also likely to miss. Djokovic is better than Gasquet, of course, but there’s a serious chance for an upset there. Too bad that Fish just didn’t have the energy to make that match competitive. He’s not on Djokovic’s level but he’s got the ability to be in the top 20, I think, and we’ll see if he can stay there for a while. Federer had some trouble with Melzer but he found the extra gear when he needed it, so now he’s got another match with Soderling.

Wozniacki was very, very good against Sharapova, and now I see why she’s been able to get so far in the rankings. She hardly ever misses. Her groundstrokes and serve are very consistent and she covers the court really well. Sharapova has the power to blow you off the court and Wozniacki doesn’t have that, but she can make up for it by forcing you into mistakes. From that description she might sound like a consistent runnerup instead of one of the best in the world, but that makes for a very hard player to beat. It’s one thing to be consistent and another to be that rock steady. She has an excellent shot at the final and only a top player like Venus or Clijsters has the savvy and strength to overwhelm her game. So for the women this is likely to be very interesting.