Novak Djokovic was probably thrilled playing an evening match.  His breathing issues are well-known and they may have cost him at least getting a little deeper in the first two Slams of the year.  Indeed, even his match against fellow Serb, Victor Troicki, went 5 sets, and although he recovered to win the match, it’s not the kind of match he wants to play often.

Petzschner’s best surface is probably grass.  He has a big first serve, one that’s more power than precision.  He slices his backhand a great deal a la Feliciano Lopez, and he has a huge forehand.  Petzschner has been on the tour a while.  He’s not so young.  Usually, a player like that has some weapons but they lack, say, consistency.  They miss way too much, or lack mental toughness, and play loose games here and there.

By and large, one felt Djokovic would win this match, despite being close.  Djokovic would …

What’s happened to Marin Cilic?  Last year, he reached the quarterfinals of the US Open and took a set off Juan Martin del Potro.  Some felt, if he hadn’t given into nerves, he might have toppled the Argentine giant (though, the Croat, is just as tall as del Potro).  He took one more step forward, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, this time, beating Juan Martin del Potro along the way.

Since then, his Slam results have been iffy.  He lost to Robin Soderling in the French in the fourth round, but that loss was perhaps not too surprising.  What was surprising was his early exit out of Wimbledon, in the first round, to Florian Mayer.  To be fair, Cilic is more of a hard court player and the low bounce may not be to his liking.

Then, in the two hardcourt tuneups, Toronto and Cincinnati, Cilic lost to Baghdatis in Toronto and to Troicki …

This is why form sometimes doesn’t matter heading into the US Open.  If you were to look at the list of players that were playing well heading into the US Open, that list would be: Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Marcos Baghdatis, Mardy Fish, and David Nalbandian.  You could even argue that Roddick was starting to play better and might be expected to go deep.

Roger Federer and Andy Murray lived up to expectations and won handily.  Federer is striking the ball well.  He’s not quite the dominant player he once was, but that has more to do with the field starting to return some of Federer’s best shots (even Nadal has to deal with opponents getting some of his power shots back).

However, Marcos Baghdatis fell in five sets in oppressive conditions to veteran Arnaud Clement making some wonder if he’d played a bit too much before the the US Open (in particular, deciding to play …

When Roddick is unhappy with a call, he can be really unhappy.  Conversations can run long, as he is unable to put it past him.  While Roddick never promised to stuff tennis balls down a person’s throat, his complaint that his right foot was not the cause of a foot fault (although his left foot was) during the middle of a third set where he was already down a break (and had dropped the second set) had Roddick berating the umpire.

Slow motion showed that it was his left foot that caused the foot fault and that his motion (his right foot hitting his left foot) meant his right foot did, indeed, not get past his left foot.

Roddick claimed his tirade had no bearing on the outcome of the match.  Throughout the evening, Roddick played his usual steady style trying to prolong the points, but he struggled returning Tipsy’s serves and Tipsy went for big …

It is a bit weird.  The Spanish game seems better suited to clay than other surfaces.  Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Juan Carlos Ferrero.  Sure, many of these players can play other surfaces, but clay seems to be very Spanish.  This is backed up by recent Spanish winners of the French Open.  Aside from Nadal, the number of Spaniards that have won in the last 20 years include: Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa, Sergi Bruguera, and Carlos Moya.  No Frenchman has even appeared in the finals since 1988 and no one has won since 1983.

The French game, with its flair, perhaps most epitomized by Henri Leconte or Yannick Noah seems better suited to faster surfaces.  One sees evidence of this in the last Davis Cup match between Spain and France.  France picked a fast indoor court, and they beat Spain for the first time in many a decade.

Today, at the US Open, the …

You say Teimuraz, I say Teymuraz.  Like Oleksandr became Aleksander Dologopolov (who lost in straights to Ferrer), Gabashvili has chanced the spelling of his first name now preferring to use the “y” instead of the “i”.  And with maturity, he’s now tamed some of his hard-hitting but erratic tennis.

And for two plus sets, Gabashvili fought off break points, hit hard shots, and had Nadal unable to break serve.  The only good news for Nadal was Gabashvili’s inability to play a solid tiebreak.  He played two indifferent tiebreaks in sets 1 and 2.  Then, Gabashvili finally got broken, and then again, and lost the third set, 6-3.

Gabashvili is one of those big hitters that, when things go right, he’s hard to beat, but more often than not, he misses a lot.  In 2009, Gabashvili lost easily to Nadal in Miami, but he played his shots better this time.

(Nadal, like Federer, wore a black outfit, but …

For a second day in a row, the temperature reached the 90s (around 30C) in New York City, and the heat appears to have produced upsets.  Marcos Baghdatis may be rethinking his decision to play New Haven.  He didn’t win the tournament, but he had been playing hot tennis up to then.  The lesson?  Be wary of wily veterans.  Once Agassi retired, Arnaud Clement claimed the mantle of pirate tennis player with a bandana covering his head and wrap-around sunglasses and he took out the lone Cypriot in 5 sets: 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Mardy Fish also had a weirdly tough match.  He went five sets, but each of this three sets were totally lopsided against the Czech, Jan Hajek.  Final score: 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.

Veteran Rainer Schuettler lost to Frenchman Benoit Paire in five sets: 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2).  In one of the toughest opening rounds, Ernests Gulbis had to …

If you could boil down the US Open 2009 into one shot, one singular feat, it would have to be Roger Federer’s tweener against Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the US Open.

This is how it went down.  Djokovic is down 0-30.  If he loses his serve, Federer will win the match.  Djokovic hits a serve up the middle.  Roger slices it up the middle deep.  Djokovic peddles to his left and back and hits a big inside-out shot.  Roger moves to his left and barely slices a ball to the middle of the court.  Djokovic decides to drop-shot and come to net.  Federer pushes the ball up the line.  Djokovic lob volleys.  Federer runs back and hits the tweener crosscourt to Djokovic’s forehand side.  It lands cleanly and Federer jumps in glee.  The announcers are stunned at how good the shot is.

On a day that saw Federer playing Argentine, Brian Dabul, a guy …

It’s the last Slam of the year.  Let’s quickly go over today’s matches.

Let’s start with the seeds.  Davydenko (6) beat Michael Russell 6-4, 6-1, 6-3.  This is a solid win.  Davydenko seems like he’s regaining form.  At least, he’s beating players he should beat.  Robin Soderling (5) beat unheralded Haider-Mauer, but it took 5 sets, a bit of a shock.  7-5, 6-3, 6-7(2), 5-7, 6-4.

Lleyton Hewitt, who snatched the last seed (32), lost in 5 sets to the Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu in five sets: 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1. It looks like Hewitt may have gotten tired at the end.  Andy Roddick (9) had a comfortable straight set win over Stephane Robert.

Juan Carlos Ferrero (22) had an easy straight sets win over Slovakian Martin Klizan.  Marin Cilic (11) had a more challenging win but still defeated Illya Marchenko in straight sets.  Cilic has had an indifferent year since the Australian, so it will be …

Is it Ian Westermann’s dark haired Ukrainian right-handed doppleganger?  Whatever the case, Sergiy Stakhovsky has won his fourth title, and his second this year.  His opponent was Denis Istomin whose story of a car accident that broke his leg as a teen and left him playing no tennis for two years is one that might serve as inspiration.

Stakhovsky won despite dropping the first set, 6-3, to Istomin, by taking sets 2 and 3 by the scores of 6-3 and 6-4.  Stakhovsky shows a bit of touch, hitting drop shots with his forehand.  The two had only met in Challenger events with Istomin winning 3 of 4, but it was the Ukrainian who won.  Istomin plays for Uzbekistan, but lives in Russia, trained by his mother.

The event was played Saturday evening so the players would have an additional day to recover and get ready for the US Open.  Istomin has the tougher draw, potentially having …