US Open 2018

First topic message reminder :

The draw has been made. Djoko is in Fed's quarter and they could meet in the quarters. Murray has avoided a seed in the first round - he plays Duckworth. Delpo could be his third-round opponent. Cilic v Zverev is a possible quarter final in the bottom half of the draw.
Fed could meet Kyrgios in the third round while Stan the Man faces Dimi in the first round for the second Slam running. Rafa could meet Anderson in the quarters which means someone is going to drop big points as the two were the finalists last year.
The Williams sisters could meet in the third round, with the winner possibly playing Halep after that.
Konta has a tough opener - Garcia of France the number 6 seed. Kyle Edmund, currently losing to Johnson in W-Salem, faces Lorenzi in the first round.

Del Potro survives 0-30 and 3 deuces to eventually take the opening game in the second set.

Djokovic survived a marathon 20 minute game at 3/4 saving three break points.

Djokovic takes the second set on the breaker 7-4. No fairytale for Delpo this time

Yes it was key that Juan took that marathon second set for me but it wasn't to be. Novak came through some turbulent times and now looks certain to win his 14th slam and third US Open.

And Novak breaks early in the third set to lead 3-1. I see no way back for the big-hearted Argentine now.

The closed roof has really ruined the final. Court is ridiculously slow and Djokovic just grinding rather than playing exceptionally well

Delpo breaks back. At break point after multiple failures by the chair umpire previously Djokovic received a time violation

In the past Del Potro was often marginally the slowest between points and at least comparable to Nadal and Djokovic.  Not sure how things have changed between them all.  They used to take quite consistently over 30 seconds and sometimes it would head towards the 40 second margin.  If they are now sticking to the 20 seconds time limit, then that would represent a big change for both Del Potro and Djokovic.

Djokovic breaks again and serving for the championship

Djokovic wins 6/3 7/6 6/3. Maybe he'll buy the roof at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows a couple of beers

Novak bags his 14th slam winning 6-3 7-6 6-3. That second set was the key. Well done Novak inturning around the year and commiserations to Del Potro who fought hard but just comes up short.

Djokovic wins 6-3 7-6 6-3 and now matches Pete Sampras for Grand Slam title wins. This is his second grand slam title in a row, and who would bet against him for AO 2019 - given his past success in Australia. This is yet another confirmation that Federer(20), Nadal(17) & Djokovic(14) have made this era the strongest for mens tennis. Unlucky for all those born in the same time period (especially including Andy Murray).

Congratulations to Del Potro for getting back to his first grand slam final since his injury. If he sticks around surely he will get to more finals and might possibly win one or a few more.

Not surpised Djoko won but bit surprised it was straight sets, even though Delpo fought hard.
Djoko now in a terrific position to take back the number one spot. Rafa invariably finishes the year weakly while Fed would probably have to win the year-end championship to have a chance.
So for the second year running all the GS titles, and plenty of the other tournaments as well, have been won by 30-somethings. With Cilic and Delpo - two of the GS finalists this year - due to pass 30 soon, this trend is likely to continue. Only GS finalists this year who was under 29 was Thiem.

Born Slippy wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:I struggle to see the BBC reporting this any differently to any other media provider, even for people unwilling to read beyond the headline.

I think that’s correct but even more worrying. The narrative from the media generally does seem to be that Serena was a victim here. Of course, that’s far from the truth and how the sexism allegation is being given any credence at all is astonishing. I was listening to the tennis podcast earlier and even the lady on there (who usually seems pretty sensible) said “I would never tell a woman who thinks she’s experiencing sexism that she’s not”. What nonsense - people make deluded allegations all the time and the media should tell it as it is. If it’s clear that there is no sexism, as is the case here, then those in the media should be making sure they say so.

Worth noting that the WTA has now issued a statement which contains the following:

“Yesterday also brought to the forefront the question of whether different standards are applied to men and women in the officiating of matches. The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same. We do not believe that this was done last night.“

and

“We look forward to more thrilling matches between these great athletes and hope that what we all witnessed yesterday never happens again.”

This is absolutely deplorable. It flat out accuses Ramos of acting differently to how he would have acted for a male player. There is no mention of the fact Serena broke the rules on three separate occasions or evidence to support the statement made. The last part is basically telling umpires that the WTA doesn’t expect them to ever penalise Serena (or presumably any other top female player) for similar offences again. What an invidious position to put the umpires in.

Born Slippy wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:I struggle to see the BBC reporting this any differently to any other media provider, even for people unwilling to read beyond the headline.

I think that’s correct but even more worrying. The narrative from the media generally does seem to be that Serena was a victim here. Of course, that’s far from the truth and how the sexism allegation is being given any credence at all is astonishing. I was listening to the tennis podcast earlier and even the lady on there (who usually seems pretty sensible) said “I would never tell a woman who thinks she’s experiencing sexism that she’s not”. What nonsense - people make deluded allegations all the time and the media should tell it as it is. If it’s clear that there is no sexism, as is the case here, then those in the media should be making sure they say so.

Worth noting that the WTA has now issued a statement which contains the following:

“Yesterday also brought to the forefront the question of whether different standards are applied to men and women in the officiating of matches. The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same. We do not believe that this was done last night.“

and

“We look forward to more thrilling matches between these great athletes and hope that what we all witnessed yesterday never happens again.”

This is absolutely deplorable. It  flat out accuses Ramos of acting differently to how he would have acted for a male player. There is no mention of the fact Serena broke the rules on three separate occasions or evidence to support the statement made. The last part is basically telling umpires that the WTA doesn’t expect them to ever penalise Serena (or presumably any other top female player) for similar offences again. What an invidious position to put the umpires in.

Well the WTA are clueless then. Ramos has penalised men before docking points from Nadal and Djokovic so the sexism claim is pure BS. Serena flouts the rules often and gets off with it and thinks she is above the rules and when she got hauled up for it she throws a schoolchild like tantrum of a spoilt brat with the crowd acting like parents defending their child caught doing wrong. Her coach even admitted he was coaching so Ramos was correct for that call. Correct for calling her out for racket abuse which he has done before to male players. Correct for docking her a game for umpire abuse which is fair given she called him a liar and a thief. Sorry but Serena has gone right down in my eyes.

Hadn't seen the Serena rant, but heard some of it on the radio this morning - absolutely outrageous, and should be sufficient to get her a hefty fine and a substantial ban. No sportsperson should be able to get away with treating an official like that (although of course we see similar and perhaps worse in football). The WTA are setting things on a slippery slope...


Her coach has admitted to sending signals, so the initial call regarding courtside coaching was correct, regardless of whether Serena saw or acted on them (and if Moratoglu was caught this time, how many other times has he got away with it?). You cannot abuse an official when he's correctly applying the letter of the rules - perhaps question those who don't apply them instead.

As for playing the sexism card, as others have pointed out male players get penalised too for their verbal outbursts (and I've not heard one as bad as this since McEnroe in his prime).

It's further evidence of people not believing what their eyes are telling them and buckling to social media bullying. It's clear to see to the few of us not in the abyss, that Serena has played everybody like a lead guitarist playing a Fender Strat...

I've seen people posting articles (but not footage) of Murray and Krygios questioning the same umpire and receiving single code violations, then being on their best behaviour so as to not lose a point, as an example of double standards??! I hope someone does a side by side comparison of those incidents coupled together with Serena's behaviour then posts it on Youtube. Because it will show a huge difference.

Lastly, a quote from Serena (post match press conference) - "For me to say ‘thief,’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief’."

I'm confused - Is she saying that he thought she was sexist for calling him a thief and so took the game from her? Because the only person making the "remark" was her?! Or is she saying that she should be allowed to make a personal insult against somebody doing their job (with impunity) and if not and they defend themself, THEY are being sexist? Furthermore, she blatantly lies in front of a room of people (again without being challenged) suggesting that male players have called Ramos a "thief" and gotten away with it when there is no record of any of them using that word against him!!??

I don't know what worries me the most, Serena's lack of honour and integrity or the people out there (sadly the majority) refusing to be honest about what really happened...

Lots of details irritate me about this sorry episode but one of them is Serena's focus on one word - "thief". It's not like that was the only comment she made, she was spewing absolute vitriol for several minutes.

I'm also seeing people suggest Ramos should have gently warned Serena before penalising her a game. Those people should remember Serena had told Ramos she didn't want to hear him speak another word so I seriously doubt any calming words would have had any effect. The abuse he was having to put up with was ridiculous and I think he deserves a lot of credit for keeping his cool in the situation.

A spoiled brat is my reading.  An immature spoiled brat who now expects that the world should allow her to write her own history and - I presume - her own results too.

She had it all set up in her head, the record breaking day, the glorious 'me, me, me' interviews, the photoshoots, the positivity and empowerment guff-gush speech that would come at the end.... it was all written in her mind before she'd even gotten out of bed on the morning of the match.... and the damn Umpire up and spoiled  it all - ruined another perfect 'me, me, me' social media Heaven day for her.

Aww....so sad.... tears emoticon and all that jazz.

Another woman was on that court making a record of her own, but obviously Serena's life and gender and record making ability and sensational social media existence was much much too important an industry to let the poor Japanese woman, Naomi Osaka, have her deserved time in the limelight.

It saddens me how many people are defending Serena on TV. I suspect that she will lie low for a few days before popping up on some soft interview TV shows where she will continue the narrative that she was the victim of sexism and that she is some heroine fighting for women's rights and deserves credit for having a baby.

Another thing - who is she to say that Carlos Ramos will never umpire another match of hers. Players do not choose the umpires they want. Tough titties Serea but you can always default the next time Ramos is umpiring a match of yours.

There is some talk of umpires agreeing not to officiate any of Serena's matches until she apologises to Ramos.

I do believe she should be apologising for calling him a liar (as her coach has proven that not to be the case) and a thief. She will not, but she should.

Now of course she is not the first player to threaten umpires about what games they can or cannot do. Both Rafa and Djokovic have done that in the past. Now with the WTA coming so firmly down on Williams side, they probably will not have him officiating for her. ITF should make sure he does all her games come Melbourne.

Carlos Ramos = mature, professional, calm. Correct in every respect.

Serena Williams = immature, spoilt teenager brat syndrome. No respect for authority.

WTA doing themselves no favours whatever in supporting their player here.

A belated well done to Novak for his US Open win. Really impressive how he has come back from the the lows that he hit last year and early this year. He could be in for another dominant period in the mens game again. Although, nothing against him, I hope that some of the younger really start to challenge him.

As for the Serena show I am disappointed that so many people in and around the game are scared to call her out. The two people who have been most damaged by this are Naomi Osaka who has had her first Grand Slam title success ruined and Carlos Ramos who umpired by the rules and has had unjust accusations of sexism made against him.

Spot on CC with your assessment, Ramos was totally justified on all his calls. Serena behaved so poorly, suck it up and get on with it. She was going to get beaten anyway, that’s what annoys me even more in how it took from Osaka’s win, the match was on her racket.

Nathaniel Jacobs, I would hardly say djokovic was grinding out another win. Djokovic is a brilliant defender but also has great offense, arguably one of the best all round players to have played the game. For the record he hit 32 winners in the final vs 31 for Del potro, that doesn’t suggest a grinder to me. Just look at his record against all the top players during his career. You simply couldn’t achieve what he has with just a grinder style game. Djokovic is ridiculously talented and has been beating the likes of Federer and Nadal since he was a teenager. Look at who he has had to face in the final of each of the grand slams he has won and lost.

Well done novak and indeed Del potro. I have been amazed at how novak has turned things around. Here is hoping the likes of Murray and wawrinka return to form too, all these players add so much to the tour. I also hope Del potro wins another slam

Calder106 wrote:

As for the Serena show I am disappointed that so many people in and around the game are scared to call her out. The two people who have been most damaged by this are Naomi Osaka who has had her first Grand Slam title success ruined and Carlos Ramos who umpired by the rules and has had unjust accusations of sexism made against him.

Serena has been the one player that turned me off watching women's tennis, not because of her dominance but because of her attitude. She is everything good about women's tennis (talent) but everything bad about it (attitude).

This latest outburst and accusations is simply horrible and women's tennis would be, frankly, far better off without her. Saying that she has a daughter and as such sets a good example...

I wish she had the humility of former legends of the game, and I include her sister Venus who has more class in her little finger than Serena will ever have.

To be honest I'm pretty bored of the Serena saga and its unfortunately taken time away from discussing the achievements of the US Open winners, Djokovic and Osaka. Serena was clearly out of order and doesn't deserve the solidarity she's received from WTA and former greats of the game. She's also lost the goodwill of many fans, including myself, who had been willing her on to match and subsequently beat Margaret Court's slam record.

Onto Djokovic, I had a feeling he would win the US Open before the tournament started (and I predicted at start of year when he was still injured that he would finish as year end no. 1) - he is after all probably the most consistent hardcourt player for the past decade, and his prior US Open slam tally didn't really reflect his quality on the surface. In terms of Djokovic's legacy this is a huge result - gives him a more balanced mix of slams and corrects his underachieving in US Open slam wins. With 14 slam titles he matches Sampras, but with the inclusion of French Open, you'd have to put him ahead of Sampras now, which would have seemed unthinkable a decade ago. With his favoured Australian Open coming up next, we could be on for 4 in a row potentially in the run-up to 2019 French Open.

Djokovic never gets the love from fans that Federer or Nadal do - this may partly be due to some of his oncourt antics and that he doesn't quite have a signature feature of his game with the same wow factor that both these 2 have (both players regularly produce impossible looking shots for the highlights reel). Nevertheless, the combination of controlled aggression, point construction, defensive qualities and versatility across surfaces mark him out as one of the greats, and whilst his on-court antics do irritate me I do acknowledge his achievements are undervalued by many.

Moving onto Osaka, we have had a series of false starts in the womens' game in past few years with new players threatening to dominate but not quite living up to this. I don't think Osaka will be a one-slam wonder but I am in 2 minds on whether she becomes a real slam winning machine (the case for: look at her mental fortitude in closing out that match with all the goings on, she has a ferocious service and offensive game, the case against: she's young and may struggle to adjust to early success - not sure how good her defensive game on other surfaces is) or whether she'll end up like Kerber or (pre-injury) Kvitova, having purple patches to win several slams but not dominating the year either. Next year will tell us a lot.

The womens' game though continues to be quite intriguing during the latter stage of slams with a fair degree of unpredictable and a number of bona fide slam contenders who can win.

I see that Carlos Ramos will be taking the USA's Davis Cup tie today. Could be interesting.

Jamie Murray the other day poured scorn on Serena's version of events. Jamie says Ramos is equalling hard on male professionals.

Serena chose the wrong umpire to have a row with. Andy Murray and Djoko, among others, have had issues with Ramos who is a stickler for the rules.
Fraid to say that an awful lot of rubbish has been written about the Serena business.