OK as promised (well to myself and to whoever I haven't told about this blog which is everyone!!) here is part two of the epic 2 parts of Part 3 (this is getting very confusing!) of the US Open 2011.
Briefly before I go onto day 8 there was another extraordinary match on with the ladies matches, who let's face it so far this year have had the best ones at the US Open! This match I refer to was the one between Sam Stosur and Maria Kirilenko of Russia as they two of them battled it out in an extraordinary match for a place in the quarter finals. Their match was particularly noteworthy as it had the longest tiebreak in the history of the US Open, as in the second set Stosur and Kirilenko had it out, which saw Sam lose the 2nd set in the breaker by 15-17. However Sam managed to pick it up in the 3rd set and sealed the match and her place in the quarter finals for the second time at the US Open, winning the match in 6-4, 6-7(17), 6-3. Its great to see Sam reach the latter stage of a grand slam this year, as so far I think she has struggled to make it past 3rd round in the previous slams. And her next opponent will be Vera Zvonareva, whom Sam has a very good record against, so it could see her make way into US Open semi finals for the first time, but time will tell on that one.
So onto Day 8, which featured plenty of drama and entertainment, and plenty of fine matches. On the ladies side, there was quite a ding dong match between Francesca Schiavone and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as they shared breaks of serve, but this time Pavly got her revenge for her loss at the French Open and won the match 5-7, 6-4,6-4. However her next opponent will be one Serena Williams who just happens to be playing some of her best stuff just now, despite a rather mixed match against Ana Ivanovic, so I don't rate young Pavly's chances there. But the match of the day for the ladies matches was the battle between Caroline Wozniacki the World No.1 and the former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, as they hammered it out for a place in the quarter finals. After 3 hours of tense play between the two players it was Caroline who came out top, after being a set a and double break down to reel off 10 games in a row (I think) to seal her place in the next round winning in 6-7(8), 7-5, 6-1. Its really good to see Caroline get to the quarter finals at the US Open as she has had a mixed year in terms of her grand slam performances so I hope she continues to do well. Her next opponent is Andrea Petkovic, who has broken into the top 10 this year and is currently seeded 11th, Petko has already defeated Caroline once so it will be quite a tough match, but its 1-1 in their head to head, either way it will be one to watch.
And so now we go onto the men's tennis and to start off with the American No.1 Mardy Fish had a real battle against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who he fell to after a 5 set match, which will setup another quarter final grand slam match with Roger Federer. Federer so far has been playing really good tennis at the US Open and he crushed Juan Monaco in his 4th round match, dropping only 3 games. But Tsonga will prove a much tougher challenege, and he has won the last two of their meetings, but will Federer be able to beat him this time round??? I hope so because I would love to see another Federer vs Djokovic semi final setup, perhaps the Fed can hand another defeat to the World No.1 but maybe not. Even if Tsonga gets to the semi final it should still be a really good match as he posed quite a threat to Djokovic at Wimbledon.
Which brings us onto the World No.1's 4th round match, which was with the very talented and tricky Ukranian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who proved to be more than a handful for Djokovic for about half the match. In the first set, which was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining sets you will ever see this year, Dolgopolov gave Djokovic a real run for his money, with his hugely varied game, firing all sorts of unpredictable winners at him. And the 1st set featured a simply sensational tiebreak as both players had the crowd on the edge of their seats and in such an uproar I could imagine half of Manhattan could hear them!! The tiebreak lasted nearly 25 minutes as the Djoker and the Dog kept trading set points and unforced errors, until Djokovic finally hit a winner of his serve that the Dog sent long at 16-14. Unfortunately for the Dog he lost his way a bit at the start of the 2nd set as he dropped his serve straight off, and after that he fell victim to his own unforced errors and highly erratic serve. By this time Djokovic had brought the out of this world tennis playing from Dogly back down to Earth to a level that Djokovic can overcome. Regardless for one set the Dog put on one hell of a show and he showed signs of promise in the 2nd set too, not only that he managed to successfully disrupt Djokovic's rythhym if only for an hour and 15 minutes, so in the end the result was 7-6(14), 6-4, 6-2.
So that's Djoko and Fedora into the quarter finals, and for once Federer breezed and Djoky struggled, but they are through. Djokovic will next face his fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter finals which should be an interesting match, but I think it will be straight sets again for Nole.
Unfortunately due to heavy rain showers the schedule for the remaining 4th round matches especially the Muzza's rematch with Donald Young has been cancelled and rescheduled for Day 10, which will be a jam packed day for sure as they will combine the first ladies and men's quarter finals matches as well. So it will be a feast tomorrow, weather permitting of course, as its supposed to rain tomorrow, in fact its forecast to rain for the rest of the week in New York, so I don't how or if they will be able to complete the tournament schedule on time! This is where having a contingency plan would be useful in providing in-door hard courts or better yet providing a roof for the Arthur Ashe stadium just like they did at Wimbledon centre court!
And to add a bit more of an update on Day 10, the weather hasn't been any better as Andy's Murray/Roddick and Rafa have all taken to the court earlier on only to have their play disrupted only minutes into their matches by more rain! Understandably there were scenes of displeasure from Rafa who was at this point 3-0 down to his opponent Gilles Muller, so we will wait and see how that one goes. Andy Murray a bit more even pegged as it was going by service, 2-1 to Young, and Roddick was 3-1 up against Ferrer.
But having read one of the comments on the BBC Sports website, someone rightly said it seems unfair that in the US Open that they split the draw in the 2nd week, also it leaves for whoever makes it to the final on Rafa and Andy's side, they have to play four matches in five days, assuming there are no more delays! I also think that Andy and Rafa always seem to get a bit of a bum steer in the grand slams while Roger and Nole get an extra day's rest in between matches as they go out first. A perfect case in point was the Australian Open final where Djokovic had two full days of rest before meeting Andy in the final, whereas Andy only had one to recover after his brutal match against David Ferrer. I'm not saying the outcome would have been different, in fact it most likely wouldn't, but I always think Djokovic had the advantage of more time, and that seemed a bit unfair in itself. But we will soon find out how the rest of the tournament pans out timewise.
And as a further update I've just heard that due to more heavy rain that the day 10 schedule has been cancelled again!! So that puts the schedule quite far behind, as there are four 4th round matches to go for the men, and the first leg of the ladies and mens quarter finals are still to be scheduled also. So clearly there is no way there are going to finish the tournament on schedule now as that's two full days of delay, so tomorrow they have to try and make some headway in getting the schedule underway here's hoping those clouds clear up and rain goes away! Although there has been talk of them trying to schedule the ladies quarter finals matches tonight, which in a way seems unfair to the mens 4th round matches, but I guess the woman's matches might end quicker, especially Serena's match surely it will be over before we know it, but then again we don't know that, as it depends on how tough a test Pavlyuchenkova proves to be.
So while I'm rambling I had a look at the weather forecast for the rest of the week in New York City, and tomorrow its thunderstorms followed by rain, Friday thunderstorms and rain, Saturday guess what??? Yep thunderstorms, and on Sunday, supposedly the men's finals day, ermm cloudy but dry! So the weather forecast is pretty grim for the bulk of what remains of the final grand slam of the season, surely to God they must come with some contingency plan, such as putting a massive marquee tent over the courts if possible. And as Boris Becker rightly says they need to put a roof on the Centre Court, Wimbledon have done it so its high time US Open followed their example! To be fair to the organisers of the tournament they can't control the weather and all they can try to do is their best to deal with the situation, but at this rate we could be looking at maybe a Tuesday finish, which could also have a knock on effect with the next round of the Davis Cup which starts next Friday!
Anywayyyy when there is more updates on the state of play, and if matches have taken place, I'll be sure to blog it up. More to follow......
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OK that's it.
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