Rrrrrright so this will be my last post of my coverage of this year's US Open, the last grand slam of the 2015 season and this post will cover both the men's and ladies singles finals and we will find out who emerged as the winner (although the pics in this post will give that away!).
So to kick off with the ladies final we had a first in the history of the sport: an all Italian final which was between Flavia Pennetta, the 26th seed and the unseeded, world No.43, Roberta Vinci who stunned Serena Williams in the previous round. The match itself proved to be quite an entertaining one as both ladies tried to outwit each other in the first set which saw play eventually go to a tiebreak which Pennetta went on to seal the breaker 7-4 to take the opening set. In the 2nd set Vinci started to show signs of fatigue after the exhertions of her previous matches seemed to have caught up with her and Pennetta looked certain to heading for the finish line as she grabbed a double break. However Vinci wasn't quite done yet as she managed to get one of the breaks back to keep herself alive and with a chance to get back into the match. But in the end it was short lived as Vinci at 5-2 down lost her own serve which saw Pennetta fire a forehand winner down the right line to win her first ever grand slam title with a 7-6, 6-2 victory.
Well while this wasn't quite an epic battle by any means it was still an enjoyable match and it was a terrific victory for Flavia Pennetta who used the trophy presentation to announce her forthcoming retirement from tennis at the end of the season, which prompted much surprise from the crowd. And it would hard to imagine a better way to finish off a tennis career for Pennetta than winning one of the biggest titles in the sport itself. Pennetta however appeared to state that the final would be the last match she would ever play but she later clarified that she does intend to retire at the end of the season and she will play out the remainder of the calendar. But it seems funny in a way that Pennetta would want to retire after scoring the biggest win of her career which also would see her reach a new career high ranking of No.8. Regardless of that Pennetta deserves all the credit for winning her maiden grand slam title and there is no doubt that its one hell of a way to finish off her impressive career.
As for Roberta Vinci well it was a pity that she came up short in the final although she put up a decent fight in the first set but in the end fatigue seemed to get the better of her. And even though Vinci failed to win the title she did succeed in winning over the New York crowd as they really took to her bubbly personality and she evoked further laughter from the crowd after she pretended to pinch Pennetta's prize money cheque! And as Pennetta gave credit to her opponent and good friend, Vinci couldn't resist one more wisecrack as she pointed to the champion trophy and said "Is this for me? I played good, no??!". Vinci might not get another crack at major title but she did prove at this tournament that she is still at the age of 32 a player to watch out for and she will definitely be remembered as the player who toppled Serena Williams and denied her the calendar slam in New York.
Now to get onto the men's final which was of course between two of the all time great players and currently the world's No.1 and No.2: Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in what promised to be an epic match. However the match itself was delayed for over three hours due to the heavy rain in New York but eventually after the delay the players came on court and it wasn't long before both men locked horns in a tight battle that had the Arthur Ashe stadium crowd whooping and hollering. And in the first set both men traded breaks but it was Novak that made the key break and served out the first set to take the lead, which saw Roger drop his first set not only of the whole tournament but also since losing the Wimbledon final! In the 2nd set Roger started to pile on the pressure as he created multiple break points on Nole's serve at 5-4 but ultimately the Serb held on. However Roger finally made the breakthrough as he broke Nole at 6-5 to level the match at a set all much to the delight of a crowd that was very much in Roger's favour. In the 3rd set Roger again had his chances to break Nole but in the end he failed to capitalise and he ended up being broken himself at 4-4 with Novak serving it out for the two sets to one lead. And in the 4th set Novak started to dominate Rog as he went up a double break to serve out the title at 5-2. However Roger still wasn't done yet as he broke Novak again and held on to make it 5-4 in Nole's favour. And Roger for the last time made a last ditch effort to break Novak to go 5-5 but in the end Novak held on and chalked up a championship point and after 3 hours and 20 minutes he won the match courtesy of a Roger forehand going long to seal his 10th major title and 2nd US Open title with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Well for the most part this was an excellent match with some really high level tennis from both players and it showed yet again why Novak is the best player in the world. And in this match Novak had to deal not only with Roger Federer but also a somewhat hostile crowd who were very much pro-Roger in their support leaving the Serb somewhat understandably frustrated at times by the lack of support he got from the crowd. And its actually pretty unfair that Novak should always be kept in Roger's shadow as he really has established himself as one of the great players to have played the game with 10 grand slam titles, it doesn't lie. But the fact remains that Novak right now will never really achieve the level of love and respect from the fans that Roger has over the years and while he plays him the scales of support will usually always be tipped in the Swiss's favour.
But I also think in a way that perhaps a bit of Novak's bad press could come from the bad feeling that Boris Becker appears to be putting out over to Roger Federer as he appears to keep stirring things up in the press with the latest one being his comments about Roger's SABR tactic and that he felt it was "disrespectful to the other player's serve". However this is simply a well established tactic of chip and charge so Roger was doing nothing new and also I'm pretty sure back in the day Boris would have used it himself! But again this was said by Boris and Novak wisely has kept himself out of it but I would have to say that in a way Boris isn't doing Novak's PR a great service (no pun intended!).
And Novak also deserves alot of credit for playing down in his press conference after the final about how he felt he shouldn't criticise the crowd and that Roger fully deserves all the praise he get's more so than him where ever he plays as he has earned over the years and that he hopes to do the same in time. And whether the fans like it or not, right now Novak is the world's best player and he is the man to beat and he carries on showing time after time why that is and right now he isn't showing any signs of slowing down and within a few years he may well go on to overtake Roger's slam tally of 17 and if he does, he could very well become the greatest player of all time.
As for Roger well despite his loss it shows that even at the old age of 34 that his game is still incredible and he is showing no signs of slowing down as he even assured the Arthur Ashe crowd that he would be back again next year, which I'm sure would be of relief to them after Flavia Pennetta anouncing she wouldn't. The only problem for Roger is that Novak will probably forever stand in his way when it comes to the major finals unless he comes up against him on a slightly off day or he is knocked out before they are set to meet but with Novak in the picture it will be hard for him to get over the finish line and add to his tally. And in this match alone he had a whopping 23 break points against Novak but he ended up only taking 4 of them and he made almost as many errors as he did winners in the match (54 errors to 56 winners). And if Roger had only taken a few more break points maybe right now he could well be holding his 18th major title, but I still think he could have another chance to win one before he finally hangs up his racquet so its far from over yet for the man from Basel.
Anyway so that's it for this year's US Open and it was an excellent tournament again with some great matches, particularly on the ladies side of the net and it saw the men's tournament end on a very fine finale.
And as for other tennis I will be back soon with a post covering the Davis cup tie between Great Britain and Australia this weekend, which kicks off on Friday as team GB will attempt to reach the finals of the Davis cup for the first time in nearly 40 years so I'll be sure not to miss it. The good news is that it will be back in Glasgow again but unfortunately this time I didn't get any tickets (bah!!) so I will settle for watching it on the TV and let's hope that Andy and the rest of the team can get Great Britain into the final of the largest men's team event in the sport.
Oh and I almost didn't notice but this is the 500th post I've done on this blog so its quite an apt one to bring in the next 500! (If I ever make it that far on this blog!).
Until the next one its bye for now!
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