Welcome to my first post on the 2013 US Open, the final grand slam of the season, which is from Flushing Meadows in New York. Andy Murray and Serena Williams are both the defending champions in the singles events, so they will have quite alot on their plates over the next two weeks in order to hold onto their titles. But we've still got a long way to go before we get far enough to see how Serena and Andy both get on, so let's first off delve into the first round matches on the men's and ladies event.
Starting with the ladies on day 1 we had Agnieszka Radwanska open up proceedings on Arthur Ashe as she took on Silvia Soler Espinosa of Spain. And Aga had little trouble in getting past the Spaniard as she breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory, which sees her start off her US Open campaign in fine style, and its surprising to think Aga hasn't even got past the fourth round here, so here's hoping she can go a bit deeper this time. Serena Williams also wasted little time as she steamrolled her opponent, the former French Open champ, Francesca Schiavone who she beat in 6-0, 6-1. Venus Williams also joined her sister in the 2nd round as she upset the 12th seed, Kirsten Flipkens with a commanding performance, which despite the scoreline was quite tight in places, but it saw Venus close it out in style with a 6-1, 6-2 win. Li Na also made it into the 2nd round with great ease as she drubbed Olga Govortsova with a crushing 6-2, 6-2 victory. And finally Sloane Stephens, the American No.2, had to battle her way past Mandy Minella in a tight three set battle, which saw the American finally win in 6-4, 3-6, 7-6. And finally Laura Robson, the British No.1 made a great start as she beat her opponent Lourdes Dominguez Lino in straight sets with a 7-5, 6-0 scoreline.
Moving on to day 2 we had Caroline Wozniacki, the former World No.1 face a Chinese qualifier Duan Yingying (good name!) and despite taking the opening set with ease, she had to battle past the qualifier in the 2nd from a break down, Caroline came back to win the match in 6-2, 7-5. Petra Kvitova also had to fight her way past Misaki Doi of Japan with a three set win in 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, and Petra has been having alot of 3 set battles of late so she will probably need to pick up her pace a bit, but its good to see her get through. Victoria Azarenka and Sara Erannai however had no trouble whatsoever in their respective matches as they both dished out ruthless double bagel wins against Dinah Pfizenamier and Olivia Rogowska respectively both showing emphatic starts to their campaigns. Ana Ivanovic also made a great start to her US Open with a straight sets whipping Anna Tatishvilli just dropping two games with a 6-2, 6-0 victory. Christine McHale, the young American however had a tougher time against the German player, Julia Goerges as she overcame her in 6-4, 6-3.
And in the upset of the tourament so far on the ladies side the young American qualifier Victoria Duval who is just a mere 17 years old, stunned the 11th seed and former US Open champion, Sam Stosur with an incredible 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win on a packed Arthur Ashe stadium. This shows another new face to watch out for in the ladies game and if Victoria Duval can knock out Stosur who knows how far she can go, so she definitely one of the most promising looking up and coming players on the ladies tour.
And finally on the ladies we had Heather Watson in her night match take on the in form Romanian player, Simona Halep who has won four titles this year already, on all three surfaces no less, which is very impressive in itself. And a straight sets drubbing was feared to be on the cards, however the match itself was anything but and it was Heather that got off to the better as she broke Halep twice, who broke back twice herself before Heather finally broke again to win the set. The second was more of the same as Heather looked to be the better player and she even had Halep so frustrated at one point she threw her racquet to the ground. But it wasn't long before Halep fashioned a break of her own and she went on to serve out the 2nd set to level, and from here there was only one winner as Heather's game withered under the strain and the Romanian sealed a double break and Heather's fate with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. This was a really entertaining match with lots of high quality rallies from both players and for the first two sets Heather was the better player, however unfortunately in the end she succombed to nerves in the third set and after she lost the 2nd there was no way back for her. So let's hope Heather can regroup for the rest of the season.
So now onto the men's matches starting with Day 1 we had Rafa out on Arthur Ashe stadium against the young American player, Ryan Harrison. And from the get go Rafa looked in charge as he dominated the rallies from the baseline and in the strong winds he played some incredible shots, particular in the first game where he returned a massively curved winner down the line. Play was briefly interrupted during the 2nd set for rain but it didn't last long and as it resumed Rafa continued his dominance over Harrison and closed out the match with a comfortable straight set win in 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. This was a terrific start from Rafa who is now on a 16 match unbeaten winning streak on hard courts this season and in this form it looks like he is the favourite to win the title.
In other matches David Ferrer also got off to a solid start against Nick Kyrgios of Australia as he beat his opponent in 7-5, 6-3, 6-2. Richard Gasquet of France also made a strong start as he dismissed the American player, Michael Russell with a score of 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Bernard Tomic however had a much sterner test as he had to battle his way past the Spaniard Albert Ramos with a five set win in 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. And in one of the upsets of the tournament so far on the men's side, Kei Nishikori was stunned by the young Brit, Dan Evans, who produced a superb performance to beat the 11th seed in straight sets with a remarkable 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win. This victory really shows that Dan Evans is a force to be reckoned with as a tennis player and he himself has said he has finally started to knuckle down and show more commitment to his game and training than before. And if he continues to show that discpline there can be reason that Dan can't work his way higher up the rankings as he is currently ranked inside the top 200, but right now he is playing well above that. Next up though for Dan will be Tomic so it will be a really tough so we will see how it goes.
Now onto Day 2 which saw Roger Federer finally get his match going as it cancelled the night before due to rain, and he faced Grega Zemlja of Slovenia. The match itself however was quite straight foward and there were no real surprises as Roger moved effortlessly through the gears to close out a comfortable straight set win in 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Novak Djokovic, last year's finalist and World No.1 also put in a top drawer performance against Ricardis Berankis as he conceded just four games in the whole match and he breezed his way into round 2 with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win. Nole clearly in this match wanted to show that he means business at the US Open and he certainly did that well here and no doubt he will be real tough to beat, although I don't quite rate him as the favourite to win, but I would peg him as equal second fav beside Andy Murray, so we will see how the Serb progresses.
In other men's matches on Day 2, we had Tomas Berdych continue his fine form in 2013 with a straight set win over Paolo Lorenzi winning his match in 6-1, 6-4, 6-1. John Isner, the current American No.1 also showed fine form, despite a knee complaint, he manged to beat Filippo Volandri in straights with a 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 scoreline. Milos Raonic of Canadian, the big server, also came through with fair ease in 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 against Thomas Fabbiano of Italy. And finally Sam Querrey fought his way past Guido Pella of Argentina in four sets with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
As for Andy Murray well despite the fact he is the defending men singles champion he has to wait until Day 3 before he get's his title defence under way against the Frenchman, Michael Llodra. And it will be a night match on Arthur Ashe, however I think the US open organisers have really mucked Andy about with the scheduling as there is no way Andy should have been made to wait three days before he plays, as he should have been out playing on Day 1 the same as Serena did. However the US Open organisers insist on spreading the first round over three days, which makes no sense, especially as some of the ladies 2nd round matches will be completed on Day 3, which means they will already be into the 3rd round before Andy has even got on court and hit a ball!
And to make matters worse the weather forecast for today (which is Day 3 incidentally) is not great either in New York, as there are forecasts of thunder and rain, which will give way for spells of rain for the rest of the night. This means that Andy's first round match might be put back even further until day 4, which if it is will be an utter disgrace as there is no way he should be kept waiting this long and the organisers in my opinion need their asses kicked in order to ensure this doesn't happen in future. Further to that due to the delay Andy will also have to play back to back matches at some point, i.e. play his 2nd and 3rd round matches one day after the other, which in itself is not fair as he will have less time to conserve his energies before he can play in the 2nd week. But at this point I'm just speculating and we will need to see how the weather pans out, so in the meantime we'll have to wait...
Right that's it for now, more to follow once the remaining round 1 men's and round 2 matches get under way.
Bye for now!!
No comments:
Post a Comment