Yeah, the Wozniacki/Sharapova match was excellent. Not only was it chock full of quality play, but it had my very favorite element in sports, the clash of styles. Power versus movement, and in this match movement won out. I think this match would have gone to three tiebreakers if Sharapova could have managed any consistency. Then again, a major reason she kept pressing is because Wozniacki’s movement forced her into long rallies, and as a power player she kept running out of gas. To combat this she had to press, and that was all she wrote. Fun match.
With NFL/FF season in full swing this was the first match I’ve watched all tournament. I sure did pick a winner.
Very good point about the styles. I’ve been watching Wawrinka vs. Querrey for the last few hours, and there’s not as much stylistic contrast but they’re very evenly matched and it’s been terrific so far. The winner of this one gets Youzhny. It’s tempting to view all those guys as eventual Nadal victims. Youzhny did beat Nadal in New York in 2007, but that was so long ago it’s hardly the same guy. The old Rafa didn’t serve like this.
Wawrinka/Querrey was an absolutely great match. Maybe the best one I’ve seen all tournament. On the other hand Youzhny beat Nadal in 2006, not 2007, which is so long ago it hardly counts. But first Nadal has to get through some more of his compatriots.
Oh man, this is one of the best days of tennis I can remember. Within a couple of minutes of each other you had Clijsters edging out Stosur in the third, and then Verdasco pulling off a remarkable comeback to beat Ferrer in that fifth set tiebreak. Down two sets to none, then down a break in the fifth and then down 4-1 in the tiebreak he comes all the way back and wins the match with a spectacular winner on the dead run. All that and Nadal is just about to start. I’ll be very surprised if he and Lopez play a match that close, but anything from this point on is a bonus.
Darn it, I fell asleep and missed the end of the Stosur/Clijsters match. And I was uber-annoyed that I didn’t get to see all of the Verdasco/Ferrer match.
Zvonareva outlasts Kanepi to reach the women’s semis, and the Bryan brothers are in the men’s final. They might meet Bopanna and Qureshi, the Indian/Pakistani team that has gotten a lot of press. That’d be great.
Monfils and Djokovic just got started and the first point was pretty terrific.
ESPN just put up an incredible graphic during the Monfils/Djokovic match. They were comparing Novak’s 118 mph serve with the wind and against the wind. With the wind, the serve slows down to 60 mph when Monfils returns the serve. Against the wind, it slows down to 52 mph.
I am not surprised that there is an 8 mph difference, but I am amazed that the balls loses ~half of its speed through air resistance and court friction.
That’s surprising alright. Meanwhile I’m very impressed with what Djokovic is doing to Monfils. I thought Monfils would be able to use his speed and hit crazy winners against Djokovic like he did in his previous two matches, but it’s not happening. Djokovic is happy to let him run all over the place, and his shots are so good that Monfils just doesn’t have the opportunity to bang one of those winners on the run. And Djokovic is just eating up Monfils’ serve, too. He’s broken him six times - four out of his last five tries, I think.
That match was brutal, but Wozniacki managed them better, so she’ll get Zvonareva in the semis. Federer and Soderling are next.
Bopanna and Qureshi won, so they’re going to play the Bryans in the final. (Qureshi will also be in the mixed doubles final.) The Bryans beat the Indo-Pak Express at Wimbledon, but Bopanna and Qureshi returned the favor in Washington DC. Here’s an article about them.
What was the issue with the guys that played the Bryan brothers today. One guy had to change his shirt because it wasn’t the shade of blue didn’t match his partners. And then he put on a white shirt. And the other guy had to change his shirt to a white one.
the announcer said something about the shirts have to be the same color.
I thought for a minute it was going to shirts vs skins like at a pick up B-ball game.
Well I saw a women double match and one team sure didn’t have the same color outfit.
Now there is a shirts vs skins tennis match that would be sure to get good ratings.
Venus has been wearing different outfits in her matches. Stunning outfits IMO although she appears to be a little uncomfortable in the short tight skirt (skort?). However, most of gals wear the same outfit thing for every match. I would think their sponsors would want to show off different styles. No LPGAer wears the same outfit every day.
I’ll regret saying this if Soderling turns this around, but:
Federer is killing Soderling. It’s close on the scoreboard, but Fed is just smooth as can be. He’s really looking the favorite, along with Nadal, to win this tournament.
By the end of that one Soderling had that look on his face that you saw on the face of Andy Roddick after Federer would pound him at this tournament or in a Wimbledon final. That look of what the hell am I supposed to do? I’m giving him everything I can and it doesn’t even phase him. That “I hit him with the kitchen sink, and he went out and got the bathtub” look. He wasn’t perfect, but he was excellent and when Soderling made a push, he countered it very calmly. He also did a perfect job of dealing with the wind. Soderling has a very high ball toss and Federer doesn’t, so between that and Federer’s control, he was in a great position to deal with the weather. Looking forward to another match between him and Djokovic on Saturday. Tomorrow it’s Wawrinka vs. Youzhny, and then Nadal and Verdasco. I still remember that superclassic Nadal and Verdasco played in Australia and I hope we get something like that again.
Did Federer just say something that he was not suppose to say on TV?
It appeared the ESPN just muted (censored?) Roger in his post match interview. And there was noticeable reaction from the crowd and his wife. But he was talking about his kid. Seems strange.
And your mixed doubles champions are Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber [2], who beat Qureshi and Peschke 6-4, 6-4. (Qureshi and Peschke make for a pretty funny name combination.) This is Bryan-Huber’s second major win. The team won the French Open mixed in 2009. This is Bob Bryan’s fourth US Open mixed doubles championship but his first since 2006, and Huber’s first in New York. He’s won one other French Open mixed doubles title and one at Wimbledon. He grabbed one major each with Katarina Srebotnik, Vera Zvonareva, Martina Navratilova, Victoria Azarenka, and Sam Stosur. Huber doesn’t have any other mixed doubles major wins.
For some reason neither of the Bryans has ever played mixed doubles in Australia - maybe it’s the heat - but if Bob ever plays and wins he’ll have career grand slams in both men’s and mixed doubles. Mike was part of the winning mixed doubles teams in New York in 2002 and Paris in 2003.