???????????????????????
Right so now I'll move on to the men's semi finals at the US Open which was a big showdown between four grand slam champions, one of them being the defending US Open champion (Marin Cilic). So let's see who emerged victorious.....
OK so the first match saw Novak Djokovic square off against the defending champion, Marin Cilic in a match which on paper heavily favoured Nole as he held a perfect 13-0 record going into this match. And the match itself despite any expectations of a tough battle were quickly dispelled as right from the get go Novak looked totally imperious and dominated his Croatian opponent who looked helpless and he suffered a bagel 1st set loss. In the 2nd set things weren't much better as Cilic's unforced error count was on the rise and he appeared to be struggling with his movement and again Djokovic seized the initiative cruising to a double break to take the two set lead. And in the 3rd set despite a brief glimmer of hope after Cilic went an early break down and he broke back to go 2-2, that's as much as he could manage as Djokovic effortlessly broke the big guy yet again and his heart with as he sealed the deal with another break and served out to reach his 6th US Open final and dump out the defending champ with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 rout.
While I have to say the outcome of the match was not in doubt I was quite surprised to see Nole win so emphatically with Cilic giving very little resistance. However Cilic had to fight his way through two gruelling five setters against Kukushkin and Tsonga in the previous rounds as well as having twisted his ankle in the 4th round against Chardy so I guess it had taken its toll on him. And given the fact that he had never beaten Novak was a clear indication that he most likely was never going to win this match regardless of his form. As for Novak well after a few stutter steps going into this match he drastically improved his form and showed why he is the world's best player again as he ruthlessly dominated Cilic. And right now he is very much looking the favourite to win this title again, which would see his grand slam count go into double figures for the first time (i.e. 10) so whoever he faces in the last match, he will be mighty tough to beat.
But that will all depend on the winner of the next match as it was an all Swiss encounter between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in which what promised to be a classic encounter. But Stan had never previously beaten Roger in hard court match and already the odds appeared to be against him scoring a victory here. And right enough that's pretty much how the match panned out as despite a strong start from Stan who right away put pressure on Roger's service games by racking up a few break points, he was unable to capitalise on them and Roger went on to break Stan's serve and grab the first set. In the 2nd set it was more of the same as Stan started to go for some flamboyant shots to throw Roger only to rack up more errors and Rog again broke his good friend to nab the two set lead. And in the 3rd set Roger showed his class and totally outdid Stan and sped to the finish line with a double break he reached his first US Open in six years with an emphatic 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Well again I have to say that while I picked Roger as the favourite to win this match I figured it would have been much closer than it actually was but the Fed express was in full flight here and in the end he just had too much for Stan. And I think right now it would be fair to say that Roger couldn't play any better than he is right now because the guy is playing incredible tennis and its quite an achievement that he has managed to reach the final without dropping a single set! And with that in mind it will see Roger go into that final with plenty of energy left in the tank and with an excellent chance of lifting his first major title in three years.
Which brings me onto my preview of the men's final between the No.1 and No.2 seeds, Novak and Roger and it begs the question: who will win this one???? Well....its tough to fully predict at this stage although on the form he has shown I would be inclined to go with Federer as he has looked absolutely imperious throughout this tournament and going all the way back to Cincinnati he has not lost a set since the Wimbledon final! And throughout the event Federer has found the perfect mix of play and he has also managed to keep the points short using his tactic nicknamed the SABR (Sneak attach by Roger). But the tactic in itself is nothing new as Roger is simply chip and charging which was done frequently back in the days of Borg, Connors and McEnroe and it is an effective way of cutting the points short and it has helped Roger immensely in this tournament so far. In fact given that its such an effective ploy its surprising that more players haven't tried it themselves these days!
However it has to be said that while Roger has looked white hot against the rest of the field there is still that one man he has struggled against in the major events in recent years and that is of course Novak. And I was convinced along with many others that after Roger's emphatic victory over Andy Murray at the Wimbledon semi finals that he would have gone on to win the title there but it didn't pan out that way and instead after two close sets his game unravelled as Nole went on to win the match in four sets. And in the past Novak has usually somehow managed to neutralise Roger's power and deft touch and turn it against him in the big matches and this makes me wary of predicting Roger as the outright winner of this tournament. Not only that, it is well known that Novak can have his lapses during tournaments but when it comes to the final of a big event he more often than not will raise his game and deliver.
Soooo as for my prediction despite Roger's incredible form I still have to go with Novak on this one and I think he will win it in four close sets because I just think somewhere in there a seed of doubt will be planted in Roger's mind during this match unless of course Roger can execute his gameplan to perfection. And my scoreline prediction for this one will be 6-4, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 to Novak, which of course will be pretty inaccurate but that's the score I'll go with (but so far though these have totally been way off lol!). But whatever the scoreline is let's hope its a great match.
And that's it for now and I will be back with the results of the ladies and men's finals and we will see who will emerged the singles champions at the US Open.
Until the next un bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment