US Open: Day Murray + One (Day Eleven)

With Andy Murray going out of the tournament I know that interest in the US Open has taken a nose dive ... but I have decided to come in to save the day and post a "post Murray plus one" daily thread for those wishing to post on day eleven of the tournament.

Today you are treated to ... (checks schedule) ... erm women's tennis ... (delves further) ... ooo there is also a Murray playing in the men's doubles

Thursday, 8 September 2016
Arthur Ashe Stadium (00:00 UK start)
Williams (US) 1 vs Pliskova (Cze) 10  Women's Singles
Wozniacki (Den) unseeded vs Kerber (Ger) 2  Women's Singles

Grandstand (17:00 UK start)
Mattek-Sands (US) & Safarova (Cze) 12 vs Makarova (Rus)  & Vesnina (Rus) 5  Women's Doubles
Garcia (Fra) & Mladenovic (Fra) vs Hingis 1 (Swi) & Vandeweghe (US) 6  Women's Doubles

Herbert  (Fra) & Mahut (Fra) 1 vs Murray (GB) 1 & Soares  (Brz) 4  Men's Doubles
Lopez (SPA)  & Lopez (SPA) 8 vs Carreno-Busta (SPA) & Garcia-Lopez (SPA)  Men's Doubles

With regard wimmens tennis I have had my eye on Wozniacki early in the tournament thinking she might do well.  I think the likely final is going to be Williams versus Kerber, but I hope Wozniacki beats screecher Kerber.


BBC live scores page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/live-scores

BBC results page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/results

US Open live scores:
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/

Well done to Murray and Soares for beating Mahut and Herbert and reaching the mens doubles final.

Apologies for not posting the day thread but feels like a void day with no men's singles matches to be honest.

Void day is a bit harsh on the women's and the doubles.

Anyway, Pilskova 6-2 7-6 Serena Williams.

That's two years in a row Serena has lost at the semi final stage at the US Open, under achieving at her home slam while this year and last made finals at all other slams.

To be fair, she has won the event 6 times, so a reasonable effort.

You just don't get the feeling of consistent dominance with Serena, she loses matches, has to dig herself out of holes in others, her record is more about longevity than dominance at a particular time. She has a lot of defeats at all rounds of slams throughout her career, unlike Djokovic and Federer that had massive QF and SF streaks. She actually has a great record in semis and finals, while her record for some reason is littered with more quarter final losses.

Although I say that, this tournament actually was her 9th semi final in a row.

Decent tiebreak, some good play from both, but Serena in moments of aggression missed a few shots including two double faults including one on match pointn.

Pilskova who before this tournament had never reached a R4 of a slam and only won this year's R4 on a final set tiebreak (against Venus Williams), is now in the final.

Currently aged 24. Last year was the first year inside the top 50, and now heading into the top 10.

This doesn't look like a fluke, given she beat Muguruza and Kerber convincingly to win Cincinatti.

Serena will now lose #1 because she only matched last year's performance while Kerber has already done better. Kerber will be #1 now even with defeat to Wozniacki.

Now or never for Wozniacki?

CaledonianCraig wrote:Apologies for not posting the day thread but feels like a void day with no men's singles matches to be honest.

You have been a stalwart in generating the day threads - if it wasn't for you they might have closed down the tennis section of 606v2 seeing there would have otherwise been no apparent new threads for the US Open 2016.

Well maybe history in the making with Pliskova playing out of her socks to win against Williams. Apparently she is now only the fourth person in history to beat both Williams sisters in a singles tournament. And what is more she is not a screecher so I can support her and watch her matches. Hoping that Wozniacki can beat the screecher Kerber so I can listen to the women's final. But I have just checked the scores and Kerber is heading towards a comfortable win over Wozniacki

6-4 5-1 to Kerber but to tired to watch one more game. goodnight all.

Henman Bill wrote:Void day is a bit harsh on the women's and the doubles.

Anyway, Pilskova 6-2 7-6 Serena Williams.

That's two years in a row Serena has lost at the semi final stage at the US Open, under achieving at her home slam while this year and last made finals at all other slams.

To be fair, she has won the event 6 times, so a reasonable effort.    

You just don't get the feeling of consistent dominance with Serena, she loses matches, has to dig herself out of holes in others, her record is more about longevity than dominance at a particular time. She has a lot of defeats at all rounds of slams throughout her career, unlike Djokovic and Federer that had massive QF and SF streaks. She actually has a great record in semis and finals, while her record for some reason is littered with more quarter final losses.

Although I say that, this tournament actually was her 9th semi  final in a row.

I agree with everything you say there....

Serena is 34 now, and it's harder to stay completely fit. As Moratoglou explained on Eurosport, Serena developed a knee injury in the penultimate game, and I could see that she was hobbling towards the end of the match. But those are the breaks when you get older.

What I didn't realise until today was that Serena had equalled - but will not now pass -  Graf's record of 186 consecutive weeks at number one.
  I think Kerber will have too much for Pliskova in the final despite losing to her in the last tournament.
  Jamie Murray and B Soares have a great chance to win the doubles, facing a non-seeded pair in the final. Didn't think they would beat the number one seeds in the semi.
  For those missing their daily Federer fix, the Swiss features in a series of short video interviews on the main ATP tour website. Worth looking at just for the views of Switzerland in the background.

Watched some of the Wozniacki-Kerber match while on my computer, got a bit tired at the end as it was a bit late.

On the one hand, they looked quite similar in style, low flat fairly hard shots across the court without extreme angle (like many players) and quite well matched. And yet, as the points went on, often well matched and rarely with games to love, the scoreline was only heading one way all the time.

I was reminded of playing against players where virtually every game goes to deuce or at least 30-30 with a lot of hard fought points and yet I end up 4-0 or 5-0 down. In a way, there wasn't that much between me and some players. And yet, it was enough that I was never ever going to beat them. Felt that a bit last night.

Got the impression that Wozniacki, rather than this SF appearance representing a return to the form of the days when she topped the rankings, was probably the weaker of the four semi finalists, having done nothing more than take advantage of what turned out to be the easier quarter of the draw following Muguruza's exit. Wozniacki was close to being eliminated in round 1 (it was 4-4 in the final set) so this could have gone a different way.

I am left to conclude that she is never going to win a slam. But we have had several occasions in WTA when a 20-ranked player in the latter part of her career comes out of the blue and wins a slam, so you never know. But I can't see Wozniacki doing it unless we get a slam where the draw is torn apart by shock defeats and injuries.

Djokovic trying to prove everyone wrong and let a minor distraction cost him more than Murray.

Guest82 wrote:Djokovic trying to prove everyone wrong and let a minor distraction cost him more than Murray.

 I was thinking  the same thing. Problem was, Monfils hasn't got the same mentality as Nish

Arguably, the worst first set of a slam semi ever

Amazingly Monfils hit nearly twice as many winners, but he's been terrible 

Novak seems to be playing on memory, but let's be honest it's a very very good one 

Monfils is either injured or he has placed a large bet on himself losing in straights.

Nore Staat wrote:Monfils is either injured or he has placed a large bet on himself losing in straights.

Having seem Murray suffer so many loses to Novak, I'm reluctant to agree, but you have a very good point

I mean it was apparent from 5-0 down that Monfils was throwing that set - a serious accusation, happy to get a counter view

To me Monfils looks like he wants to play in his new 'mature' manner, but doesn't know how to against the top guys

Waiting for Djokovic to call the trainer for yet another 'bogus injury' now that Monfils has turned up in the third set.

As if on request Djokovic claiming to have a shoulder injury...

Early break for Nishikori who's looking a bit sharper than Wawrinka early on.