US Open Day 1 - I'm Your Venus, I'm Your Dolgo, Your Navarro

I will try my best to match the standard set by JHM 

We have Djokovic, Nishikori, Nadal and some guy called Cillic all in action today.

In the words of Delia: "Let's be avin you!"

A very good start!  

Cilic; he'll never do anything.

Nishikori putting some icing on Novaks cupcake.

Much like the Apollo theatre, I suspect that at some point you're going to be pulled from stage... But good start

Watson hopeless here, I truly hate the moonballing so good for Davis.

Well Watson going the way of Boggo at Wimbledon.

Davis the much more positive player. Shows if you go for your shots, the rewards can be high.

Tragedy on Ashe.

Got to love Fognini!


2h2 hours ago
Fabio Fognini ‏[ltr]@fabiofogna[/ltr]
[ltr]I THINK... Us Open transportation and players practice court is almost the WORST of the year !!!![/ltr]

Nishi had a mp....
Into a fifth we go.

How can Sky put Venus on ahead of the rest of the other matches?!?!

I take it Djokovics odds just got even shorter!

Is there anyone left in his half? A seeded semi final meeting with........ David Ferrer!!

Well is there anyone who can mount a serious challenge???

Very strange to see Paire take out Nishikori.

@BB...Nishikori's quarter was loaded with Frenchmen. Tsonga, Monfils, Paire. Cilic (defending champion) is also in the same quarter, a very surprising fact (will have to research similar instances from the past).

If Ferrer is fit, he will make the SF. However, I doubt he is, so I reckon it will be one of Cilic, Monfils or Dimitrov. All could cause Novak slightly more problems than Ferrer but realistically he is cruising to the final. Really hoping Rafa suddenly finds form to give Novak some challenge.

Nishi
That pains me slightly

laverfan wrote:@BB...Nishikori's quarter was loaded with Frenchmen. Tsonga, Monfils, Paire. Cilic (defending champion) is also in the same quarter, a very surprising fact (will have to research similar instances from the past).

French Open 2015...

This looks a thumping

Gotta be honest, didn't know much about paire until a few weeks ago but watched him play djokovic in Montreal or Cincinnati and he was very impressive. Really good shotmaker and crushes his backhand.

You would have expected nishikori to beat him but paire was definitely a tricky first round opponent. Get the feeling he is quite streaky but when he is on song, he is dangerous.

Not watching the djokovic match but clearly he must be playing some decent stuff

Nice symmetry from Novak. Wins 1,1,1 in 1:11!

Decent performance but the scoreline is more a reflection on Souza than Djokovic. The Brazilian was very poor.

Novak looks to have his serve rhythm back after losing it in Cincy though.

Paire was in the 20's rankings a few years back, dropped outside the top 100 earlier this year. Back up to 40 odd now.

Always think he should achieve more than he does. I enjoy watching him and actually backed him to beat Nishikori today, don't think Nishi is 100% fit.

Djokovic serving at 75%. If he continues doing that, he'll win it.

This Wiliams / Diatchenko "match" is an utter farce, an insult to everyone in the stadium. The girl is crap, complete rubbish, she's possibly injured but neither playing or retiring, it's pathetic.

Ah she's retired. Thank God it's over.

Oh Nishi, what a shame. Who will beat Nole now? Goffin or Dimitrov? Very likely.

Straightforward first set to Rafa.

Smooth sailing so far for Rafa. An early break to love in the second set.

6:2 second set. Coric's game looks very lightweight compared to Rafa's.

Players who won the most ranking points in the first three slams this year:

1. Nole - 5200
2. Wawrinka - 3080
3. Murray - 2640
4. Federer - 1650
5. Berdych - 1080
6. Gasquet - 990
7. Tsonga - 810
8T. Nishikori - 765
8T. Nadal - 765

Players 2-6 are all in the bottom half. Nishi is gone. Nole could not have asked for a much better draw.

Unbelievably, Rafa drops the third set. And it was nothing with what Coric did. Rafa had two bad DFs in the last game of the set and another unforced error.

Rafa wins in four sets. Should have been three, Coric was never threatening. Rafa played to his 2015 standard - neither horrible nor great.

If that's where Rafa is - and surely it can only be so - then Djokovic is in the final already, with some gentle warm-ups to run himself into the tournament. Fair play to him, the draw is extremely easy but his standard would see him hot favourite no matter who was in his way.

For the sake of a competitive final everyone except Murray or Federer needs to fall away and let him reach the final similarly conditioned. I'm dreading Federer beating Murray in 5 gruelling sets and facing Djokovic - that could be seriously brutal!

Looking the race, with Nishikori's loss it looks like Nadal should be in 5th or 6th position after the US Open. I suppose he might slip back slightly in the last part of the season where he had traditionally not done well, but certainly under no real threat from those below him for his place at the WTF. Quite strange really when it seems like such a poor year for him.

I've said for ages that it will take some kind of total implosion for one of the top guys to miss out on the WTF. If Federer wanted to play to 38 I think he'll be qualifying.

A poor day yesterday for the youngsters. Pouille and Ymer in particularly losing comfortably to journeymen.

Wouldn't say Schwartzman is a journeyman at 22/23.

I thought Coric, for 18, looked very promising player. He was hitting very nicely from the baseline with some good, angles, power and depth. Not many errors. Potentially due a breakout run . e.g. to maybe a slam QF next year.

I thought Rafa played well. I've seen worse this year, for sure. At times he out-powered Coric, even hitting from well behind the baseline cross court on the backhand, he has some serious power. His backhand I vaguely recall used to be weaker than that. Perhaps like Federer improved his backhand over the years while his forehand not quite the shot it used to be.

I think Schwartzman will be easy although some trickier ties coming up after.

Hard to call a 23 year old yet to break into the top 50 anything else (relatively speaking in a slam of course). He's a decent player but I would be surprised if he ever makes top 20.

Just noted that LK had a 66% strike rate (Navarro and Dolgo both going out) and Venus narrowly scraping through.

He's 5'7. Not easy in these conditions and at that height.

bogbrush wrote:If that's where Rafa is - and surely it can only be so - then Djokovic is in the final already, with some gentle warm-ups to run himself into the tournament. Fair play to him, the draw is extremely easy but his standard would see him hot favourite no matter who was in his way.

For the sake of a competitive final everyone except Murray or Federer needs to fall away and let him reach the final similarly conditioned. I'm dreading Federer beating Murray in 5 gruelling sets and facing Djokovic - that could be seriously brutal!

As much as my cautious pessimism makes me want to disagree, it's tough to argue with this as an objective assessment.

Djokovic falling before the final depends on things that might happen rather than things that are likely to happen.

Rafa might snap back into top form. Goffin might string together 3 sets of incredible shot-making. Raonic might serve lights out and snatch 3 sets. All of these things are possible but seem rather against the odds.

Getting to finals is the easy part for Djokovic though. Winning those finals is where he has come unstuck, so while I'm confident I'll see him in the final, I'm less confident I'll see him holding the trophy. I see him as the favourite but not an overwhelming one.

The final looks nailed on. Good chance hell make it with plently in the tank too.
Winning will depend on,
Whether Murray gets there but takes a lot of on court time, if so, its almost a done deal
If Fed makes it, but takes a while, hes probably toast, if he gets there easily, he may well still struggle to stand up to 5 sets. If Novak returns well hell probably run him over.

Lol at the idea of Goffin or Raonic being credible threats to Djoker. Cilic is the only guy in that half (other than a suddenly in form Rafa) who could do any damage.

Personally, I think this is more or less a done deal. No chance of Fed living with Novak over 5 sets. Similarly, I don't think Andy has the fitness to get through the challenges he is likely to face without being out on his feet after 2 sets against Novak. Stan is the only player who could reach the final AND be a live danger once he gets there.

Watching the highlights of Rafas match.
Must say he looks like hes got TWICE he power he did in the warm up events, youd want him and Novak to get through as they look the only reasonably interesting QF

temporary21 wrote:The final looks nailed on. Good chance hell make it with plently in the tank too.
Winning will depend on,
Whether Murray gets there but takes a lot of on court time, if so, its almost a done deal
If Fed makes it, but takes a while, hes probably toast, if he gets there easily, he may well still struggle to stand up to 5 sets. If Novak returns well hell probably run him over.

Federer has to bring out the half-volley returns, not so much because they're necessarily going to render Djokovic's 2nd serve service (though I think they're pretty good) but because Novak can sometimes be a bit ruffled and I really don't think he liked that tactic.

Yes, Novak has won R1 and Federer is yet to play, and I'm mapping out tactics for the big match.

The half volley returns might help in a TB, but his serve is what he needs to NAIL this open. Doesnt serve well enough in the Final then hes nearly no chance

For sure, but I'm enjoying plotting the devilish use of this "new' shot. I'm intrigued by anything in any field that changes the ground rules, so us fun to imagine this doing something interesting. Hopefully it gets wheeled out tonight.

temporary21 wrote:Watching the highlights of Rafas match.
Must say he looks like hes got TWICE he power he did in the warm up events, youd want him and Novak to get through as they look the only reasonably interesting QF

WAY too many short balls though.. Any of the top players would have feasted on those in the 1st couple of sets. Coric plays so far back he couldn't move in aggressively enough. The times that he did, he had Nadal nailed. Nadal trying to return closer to the baseline wasn't all that impressive either. Maybe with more time he'll become more capable at it, but his returning from deep where he could rip it was much better than the soft returns he was able to come up with when his time was taken away by being near baseline. I guess there were some flashes of power, but from what I saw- straight set victory by Novak is what is going to happen.

I didn't think he was hitting that many short balls at all, his length was good, his problem was the unforced errors and crap second serve.

HB/falzy - if you only watched highlights Nadal probably looked better than in the match proper. He did hit quite a few spectacular shots - certainly enough to fill up highlights with - but overall it was very patchy.

He was again hitting great many short balls, and was overall quite inconsistent. It was very much like the rest of his season so far.

HB, regarding Coric: it depends on what the expectations are. He was playing quite well for his age, but given that he had been quite hyped before, I was expecting more from him. This was the first match I really saw him play and he struck me as very underpowered.

Kyrgios now broken to love himself - he did not look so superior in this game - so Andy just needs to hold serve the rest of the way.

Andy up a couple of breaks; should be plain sailing from here.