US Open Day 6!

First topic message reminder :

Ah the US Open, the tennis major where tennis is the side attraction.  The crowd appear to be there for a natter whilst the tennis is on in the background, making for a rather unique atmosphere during the evening matches.  In the past we've had fights, we've had frights and when the matches are played at night, they're played under the lights.

The Day 2 schedule is as follows:

Arthur Ashe Stadium (day)

Pennetta v Gibbs (really?)
Djokovic v Querrey
Williams v Lepchenko

Night

BZS v Bouchard
Kyrgios v Robredo

Louis Armstrong

Kvitova v Krunic
Murray v Kuznetsov
Kohlschreiber v Isner
Wawrinka v Kavcic

Grandstand

Estrella v Raonic
Vesnina v Azarenka
Tsonga v Carreno-Busta
doubles

Other matches of note:

The Special Juan wrote:Kyrgios has dumped out Youzhny.

This Kid is the most entertaining of all the next generation stuff.

Let the Nadal Slayer make it big, which side of the draw is he on?

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Great players do not lose 9 games in a row to Haase

WTF, did Murray really lose 9 games in a row?

bogbrush wrote:Doesn't look like an injury, just cramp.

Will Andy be saying he needs to get fitter?

You not making Murray fans life easy, ain't u.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

Danny_1982 wrote:I dont know what to say.

Utterly bizarre.

Too right. Just weird. Even Murray doesn't know what happened.

Has this become a comic thread?

invisiblecoolers wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:Kyrgios has dumped out Youzhny.

This Kid is the most entertaining of all the next generation stuff.

Yes, I like him too.  I first noticed him at the AO and then of course his Wimbledon was great.  I think he can do very very well.  I like him better than any of the other youngsters I have seen except for Dimi.

I read on the BBC site that he was one bout of swearing from being DQ'd today.

By all accounts the Murray-Haase match was bizarre in the extreme, with Andy cramping all over the body from the 90-minute mark and Haase not in great shape either in tremendous heat.
Murray did well to win in four as Haase was 5-3 up in that fourth set. It could be that this cramping was a one-off thing - as much to do with nutrition as fitness. Let's hope so.
I'm never too worried about how players are playing in long tournaments. The thing is to get through. Look at Andy at Wimbledon: playing some of the best tennis ever at SW19 and then crashing out to Dimitrov. Djoko on the other hand didn't look too great early on but still went on to win it.

Thats total points won, no BP.

BP Haase 7/19 (37%), Andy 6/13 (46%).

Andy's cramping was very bizarre. It didn't seem an overly physical match nor was it that humid. Very impressive mental strength to somehow come through although Haase will be absolutely kicking himself. I suspect the problem will be sorted for the next match.

Krygios looked seriously impressive from the few games I saw against Youhzny. Hopefully, he can reach at least R3 and keep moving up the rankings.

A great point yesterday from Novak:

Updated.

Cirstea takes the first set 6-1 v Hev. In other news Lauren Davis is away to lose the first set

Superb shot from Nole there. The forehand looks like it'll be firing this fortnight, based off yesterday - but sterner tests await. I liked his attitude last night after the match as well, top man.

Incidentally, Novak is going to leapfrog Hewitt for outright 7th in total USO match wins this tournament - impressive given he still has a good few Flushing Meadows left in him. Fed can jump to 3rd with a tournament win. Full list for anyone who's as much of a geek as myself:

1. Connors: 97 match wins (!)
2. Agassi: 79
3. Lendl: 73
4. Sampras: 71
5. Federer: 67
6. McEnroe: 65
7. Hewitt: 46
8. Djokovic: 45
9. Vilas, Edberg, Chang, Roddick: 43

13. Nadal: 41
20. Haas: 34
22. Murray: 33 (jumps to 14th with title)
24. Robredo: 30
30. Ferrer: 27
39. Verdasco, Berdych: 24
45. Wawrinka: 23

Good stats there, Silver. I wasn't aware of that.

Like so many Novak stats, already excellent but just needs a final push to be in with some really serious company.

I make it Federer will need to average the semis for the next six years to pass Jimmy.

That's just insane.

bogbrush wrote:I make it Federer will need to average the semis for the next six years to pass Jimmy.

That's just insane.

Connors is really crazy, his longevity in the game as a top player is unmatched, its really unbelievable that for a consistent longevity player like is not even anywhere close to him .

Hats off Connors

It's a terrific record, Connors truly was a one-off in terms of success within longevity. I suspect he'll hold that one for some time!

A few years yet for Novak, HM. I think he has a great chance of catching Mac, but Federer may be out of reach by then. It does show how consistent he's been though - he has more wins here than Australia, which you wouldn't necessarily guess.

Watson got absolutely swatted today. 23 unforced errors, 8 doubles, double breadstick...ouch. One to forget.

Silver wrote:It's a terrific record, Connors truly was a one-off in terms of success within longevity. I suspect he'll hold that one for some time!

A few years yet for Novak, HM. I think he has a great chance of catching Mac, but Federer may be out of reach by then. It does show how consistent he's been though - he has more wins here than Australia, which you wouldn't necessarily guess.

Watson got absolutely swatted today. 23 unforced errors, 8 doubles, double breadstick...ouch. One to forget.

I don't think so Novak has a chance either, Novak has to win another 50 odd matches, thats like winning the title from here on for 7 years in a row, he is 27 which means he has to win non-stop till 34 or close to 10 years as semifinalists or 8 years as semifinalist with 3 titles.

Djoko should be happy if he can overhaul Pete in that list which itself could be monumental task given I see consistent Fed hasn't overtaken him yet.

Sounds like Watson had a horror performance. Shame as she had a chance to gain some decent points. Kuzzy out on a final set tiebreak as well.

Not much happening in the men's today. Coric v Rosol and Brown v Tomic are the matches which look most interesting to me.

Born Slippy wrote:Sounds like Watson had a horror performance. Shame as she had a chance to gain some decent points. Kuzzy out on a final set tiebreak as well.

Not much happening in the men's today. Coric v Rosol and Brown v Tomic are the matches which look most interesting to me.

Thats why I see Masters more interesting than Slams of late, I am not taking about the quality but on fans perspective Masters give lot more than slam, non-stop action of top players from Wednesday till Sunday.

Slam is about more opportunities to underdogs.

Yeah, with 32 seeds it takes until Friday/Saturday for the tournament to start to heat up. The first few days about the lesser lights battling out close matches with the main excitement being something like a top player struggling with injury.

This Giron kid playing Isner is impressive. The current NCAA champ - he has a nice aggressive game.

17 year old Coric currently crushing Rosol 64 61.

Jack Sock has had to retire - sad for him in his home slam.

Genie breaks.

Coric breaks to live at the start of the 3rd. Shame that isn't on a TV court. Be interesting to see if Rosol is just imploding or if Coric is playing high level tennis.

Silver wrote:Incidentally, Novak is going to leapfrog Hewitt for outright 7th in total USO match wins this tournament - impressive given he still has a good few Flushing Meadows left in him. Fed can jump to 3rd with a tournament win. Full list for anyone who's as much of a geek as myself:

1. Connors: 97 match wins (!)
2. Agassi: 79
3. Lendl: 73
4. Sampras: 71
5. Federer: 67
6. McEnroe: 65
7. Hewitt: 46
8. Djokovic: 45
9. Vilas, Edberg, Chang, Roddick: 43

13. Nadal: 41
20. Haas: 34
22. Murray: 33 (jumps to 14th with title)
24. Robredo: 30
30. Ferrer: 27
39. Verdasco, Berdych: 24
45. Wawrinka: 23

Connors is actually 98-17 (1970-1992 - 23 years) at USO - http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Co/J/Jimmy-Connors.aspx?t=pa&y=0&m=s&e=560#

Agassi is 79-19 (1986-2006 - 21 years) http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Ag/A/Andre-Agassi.aspx?t=pa&y=0&m=s&e=560#

Lendl is 73-13 (1979 - 1994 - 16 years) http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Le/I/Ivan-Lendl.aspx?t=pa&y=0&m=s&e=560#

Sampras is 71-9 (1988-2002 - 15 years) http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Sa/P/Pete-Sampras.aspx?t=pa&y=0&m=s&e=560#

Federer is 67-9 (2000-2013 - 14 years) at USO - http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Roger-Federer.aspx?t=pa&y=0&m=s&e=560#

Eugenie's comfortably through, as is Kvitova who crushed Mladenovic 6-1 6-0. I thought that could have been an early test for Petra. Coric crushed Rosol in the end.

Ranked number 1208th in the world, Cici Bellis beats AO finalist Cibulkova. How's that for a shock?

Born Slippy wrote:Coric breaks to live at the start of the 3rd. Shame that isn't on a TV court. Be interesting to see if Rosol is just imploding or if Coric is playing high level tennis.

Suspect Rosol is knackered after winning Winston-Salem last week...

TSJ, did you see any play from Borna Coric vs. Rosol eventually?

Slamtracker is not so precise for smaller matches but it shows at least:
20 aces, 3 DF, 64% 1st serve with 79% pts won, 5/19 in break point conversions

Good point Lydian! I'll leave the following bandwagon rant anyway

As he's just 17, it's a good moment to start a bandwagon way too early for the US Open title holder, in junior
He first appeared on a main tour event last year at Umag, Croatia, Clay 250 - losing R32 to Zeballos after taking the first set 7-6 (and went home with a bagel)
He showed progress at Umag this year defeating ERV and Zeballos in 2 sets, and losing to Fognini in the Q 7-5, 6-7, 6-4

Of course, he gets more interesting as he played Murray already last year. The then #525 ATP player losing 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 to then #3 for Davis Cup world group play-off. He did manage to break Murray in the 3th set though.

His next opponent will be Dominican veteran Victor Estrella Burgos, twice his age at 34, who also claimed his first slam win today. Followed by a first test against Raonic.

A side note regarding Raonic's recent luck of the draw: after 3 matches against players who  won 0, 2 and 2 Slam level matches, could he be caught off guard against Nishikori in R4?

biugo wrote:
TSJ, did you see any play from Borna Coric vs. Rosol eventually?

ent luck of the draw: after 3 matches against players who  won 0, 2 and 2 Slam level matches, could he be caught off guard against Nishikori in R4?

Unfortunately not as I was out this afternoon but from what I've read he was greatly superior on the day.

RE your other point, I think he may well be provided Nishikori's reasonably fit. When they met in Japan Kei bagelled him in the deciding set. They've met twice since then, both this year. Nish won on the clay, Raonic won at Wimbledon. Could be a cracker.

Kei, if fit, should take out Raonic but that is a big "if".

A big "if" indeed, looking at the match stats vs. Odesnik #176
49% of first serves, 7 DF, and had 9 break points against (broke once)
But with some good sides too: 37 winners (32 UE), 11/13 to the net

This Donaldson kid looks decent but a bit out-matched against Monfils so far. Nice all-court game.

Just watched end of Fed match - 5-10 minutes...court looks really fast even though it was a night match? Has it been sped up this year?

Just checking online, I see Brad Gilbert, Djokovic and others in agreement with me.

Updated

TSJ please open a new thread for separate days, its really confusing otherwise which comment was passed for which day, my comment at the top really looks odd now given it was posted specifically for Day 1 thread.

Groth serving at 140+ mph, but down a set and break.

I vote separate threads as well, one per day for slams and for other tournaments one for the whole tournament.

Watching quite a bit of Federer-Groth. Federer made a clean winner off a 142mph serve. It was a backhand (deuce court) cross court. Not particularly impressed with Groth so far. Federer playing OK but could do with going up a gear to kill it off.

2 sets down, not sure if Groth can mount an attack. Primarily a doubles player with Hewitt. Federer feeding off errors from Groth.

Well done, old man!

Federer in 2nd gear if that, hard to judge his standard. Thought he was a bit sloppy serving sometimes but he knew he had a read on the fast serve and it was just a matter of testing Groth to destruction.

On to the combine harvester, greater challenges await.

A couple of points easily for the highlights reel, but Groth errors to get broken decided the second set really. Federer broken at least twice in the match. Agree with BB he wasn’t in top gear.

Granollers in R3, Bautista Agut/Mannarino in R4, this a dream ticket,

Dimitrov/Monfils/Gasquet/Goffin in QF might be an interesting match, but can't see them taking out Federer.

Well bb/hb i believe that it IS possible to judge his standard, and I say that because of his very unimpressive bp conversion rate. It's been a negative & very significant feature for some time now, and the pattern continued tonight. May not be much of a problem with players of Groth's level, but he will undoubtedly be made to pay for it as he approaches the business end. On this issue alone I now rule out any prospect of him adding to his USO trophy haul.

On the more positive side, the serve is in good shape, and even against the fastest server in the world, guess who ended the match with the better stats. He could do with cutting out those DF's mind - they crop up far more often than they ever did in the halcyon days (although they were rare as hens teeth back then so a tough benchmark)

I'm certainly not caught up in all the "Rogers playing marvellously" stuff. I thought I was watching a different match in R1 the way they were describing it as a masterclass when it looked patchy and a bit erratic.

He's ok, in decent shape but we've not seen anything like title winning form. He needs Djokovic taking out for sure.

On a more positive note I like his chances at the O2, the way he's playing will really suit indoors.

Hard to get excited with Fed's cakewalk so far...I mean was Groth ever going to be anything other than cannon fodder? Even his serve isn't that great. It wasn't a great performance by Fed either and Groth was unlucky to not go 5-2 up in the 3rd set, having 2 game pts to do so. I fear when Rodge runs into anything near decent competition he may be found wanting...plus he's able to conserve energy with consistent night matches whilst others toil in the daytime heat/humidity. Are USO trying their best to get him to the semis/final?

lydian, totally agree that there's little if anything to get excited about by Federer's matches to date BUT disagree with your assessment re Groth.

I think it's all too easy to dismiss various guys as "cannon fodder" - and I don't just mean with benefit of knowledge of the actual result, but even before the match too. I wouldn't in any way put Groth in the same ability category as Kyrgios (big age difference anyway) but he came into this USO with a higher ranking than Kyrgios did at Wimbledon. Who seriously expected wildcard Kyrgios to provide any real danger to Rafa - let alone take him out so convincingly...... But we know what happened.

Federer spoke after the match about the weight of shot from Groth, commenting that his arm "still hurts a little bit". You would accept surely lydian, with the way some of the 'unknowns' can strike a ball these days, that upsets can come from very unexpected quarters (or even semis ...ho ho .... ) Look at how little Goffin is doing. He might have been in the so-called 'cannon fodder' category only a little while back, but not now methinks. It only takes a few good (maybe even sometimes lucky) wins and a player's confidence can be transformed.

As for Djokovic, he is looking ruthless once again, as I predicted he would once the serious business of a Slam began. Even more of a clear favourite than he was before the start. His to lose. Federer would provide poor opposition given his early form here. I can understand bp opportunities being missed in high pressure situations, but Fed is routinely failing to convert even when there is minimal danger.

Lydian, I expect Roger will likely play day session on Sunday.

...and I also vote for having a separate thread for each day...

Fed took just under half his break point chances. Given he won about 33% of points on Groth's first serve and 50% on his second throughout the match, that would tend to suggest he did better on BPs than might have been expected. Overall for the season he is at 40% compared to a career average of 41%. Hardly cause for particular concern. He is in good shape and has a cakewalk draw. He should make the final. It's just a question of what he can do when he gets there.

Sorry, sorry Is it worth it though? If I open a new thread when Federer's not playing it would get something like 20 comments (if that).