Querrey Out 4-6 Weeks

Sam Querrey merely tweeted “worst day ever”.  Did he have a loss?

Well, of a sort.

Querrey sat on a glass table.  The table broke and he cut his right forearm requiring emergency surgery and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.

What began as a tour of Asian tournaments to bolster his rankings now sounds like a return trip back to the US for rest and recovery in Los Angeles.

Get well soon, Sam.

Federer to Rest, Withdraws From Two Events

Roger Federer, tired? Doesn’t seem like that should be possible does it? With his relaxed and loose style of play it seems as thought he should be able to play forever, however the world #1 announced recently that he would be taking some time off to “rest, rehabilitate and fully recover from a physically challenging year”. Federer will be skipping the events at both Tokyo and Shanghai.

I certainly don’t blame Roger. Professional tennis has become more and more physically demanding over the last 10-20 years as players have continued to hit the ball harder and with more topspin. Modern professional tennis players have shifted from the crafty tacticians of the mid 20th century to world class athletes who bash and slam not only their rackets against the ball but also their bodies against the court for 2-5 hours at a time. Today’s top level players take a beating day in and day out.

What I find puzzling, however, is why we hear this from Roger before the likes of Rafa Nadal who struggled with injuries all year, including through out the most recent slam the 2009 US Open. Nadal plays a style of play which takes a much harder toll physically than Federer does, I think that if anybody needs an extended rest before next year it’s him.

No matter what my biggest hope is that both players return to the tour rested and ready to go physically for the 2010 season, I can’t wait for the grand slam schedules to get back underway!

US Open Wrap-up

This year, the US Open brought with it a lot of questions.  Could Roger Federer win his 6th straight US Open and 16th Grand Slam title?  Could Andy Roddick return from a good, but not great hard court season where he lost twice to del Potro and once to Querrey?  Was Sam Querrey ready to take the next step up the rankings?

Could Andy Murray finally win his first Slam title despite being Slam-less at number 2 in the world?  Could Rafa come back from rust to play well at the US Open with his awesome tennis raquet skills?  Was Juan Martin del Potro ready to make an impact at the US Open?

On the women’s side, the biggest question was: could anyone stop Serena?  The second biggest question was, is Kim Clijsters ready to win again?  Although Clijsters did quite well in her hard court tuneups, no one thought she was ready to win so soon.  Serena Williams was the heavy favorite despite winning no tournaments outside of the Slams.  The Williams sisters, who seem rather injury prone, have decided to forgo playing well at smaller events and focus all effort on playing the Slams.  Remember, once upon a time, when one Williams sister or another was not even playing a Slam?  Despite their outsized physique (especially Serena), neither seem able to avoid the injury bug.

Other questions abounded.  Could Maria Sharapova overcome her serving woes and return to the top of the game?  Could Dinara Safina hold it together mentally and make a serious run at the US Open?  Were there any up-and-coming stars?

With the US Open concluded, we can take a look back at this fortnight and see what happened.  Let’s start on the women’s side.  Early on, it was seed after seed falling.  Melanie Oudin became the darling of the US Open when she beat Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova before finally facing a non-Russian in the steady Hingis-like, Caroline Wozniacki.  When you look at the rankings, there’s no one much after the Williams sisters that can contend for majors.  There are maybe 4 or 5 Americans in the top 100.  Compare that to the Russians where you need hands and feet to count how many are in the top 100.

Once Melanie Oudin exited, it became the Kim Clijsters story.  Kim had retired more than 2 years ago due to injuries and the desire to have a baby.  Having healed, had the baby, the itch to play tennis came back, and she trained for 7 months to get back into tennis shape.  Much like Monica Seles, her return was shockingly good.  In the process of winning the US Open, she did what few women had done: beat both Williams sisters.  She’s the first mom to win a Slam since Evonne Goolagong did it in the 1970s.  She also won as a wildcard.  This story would be the feel-good story of the tournament, were it not for one thing.

Tennis has its hardcore fans.  Folks that know the difference between Kuznetsova and Dementieva.  They know Serena only wins at the Slams but cares little about the smaller tournaments.  They know Agnieska Radwanska is and up-and-comer.  They know that there are sisters other than the Williams sisters playing (the Bodarenko sisters also play).

However, sports fans that don’t follow tennis, only know Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal (maybe), Andy Roddick, and the Williams sisters.  Maybe Maria Sharapova.  The only time the non-tennis fan seems to care about what’s going on is when Federer plays Nadal again or the Williams sisters win again.  Generally, the debates of greatness then digress back to basketball or baseball or whatever sports pundits feel more passionate about.  Perhaps Tiger Woods.  They want to pump tennis up, make it more visible, but they have a hard time because they can hardly discuss the actual games played.

So for such fans, the US Open can be summarized as “the Serena incident”.  In a semifinal showdown, pushed past 9 PM on a Saturday due to rain that had shut down play on Friday, and nearly washed out Saturday, fans were fixated on whether Kim Clijsters, the former number 1 and now a mom, could challenge Serena Williams.  Her record prior to her retirement was not good.  Serena had a 7-1 record over Clijsters.  But Clijsters’ 7 months of training had beefed up her forehand, and she was playing almost as good as ever, and in some respects better.

Late in the first set, with Serena serving to stay in the match, Serena netted a ball at set point.  This mistake angered Serena who threw her racquet down, and then smashed it.  This lead to a warning for racquet abuse.  Then, at 5-6 down in the second set, Serena serving at 15-30, she faulted on first serve.  She was then called on a second serve foot fault.  Serena went over to the lineswoman and said she’d shove the tennis ball down her f**ing throat.  This lead the chair umpire to call the lineswoman over and ask what had been said.  The lineswoman claimed Serena was threatening to kill her, and while having a tennis ball shoved down one’s throat might be death-inducing, the two phrases are different.  In any case, Serena’s histrionics were a breach of etiquette and she was given a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Since the score was 15-40, the match was over.

This incident was perhaps the indelible image that non-tennis fans saw, and Serena tried to do damage control, including holding a press conference shortly after her doubles win with Venus to apologize to everyone, lineswoman, USTA, and Kim Clijsters.

Tennis fans, at the very least, can remember Jada, Kim Clisters’ daughter, running around joyously, pointing out to mom, touching the trophy, soaking up her mom’s biggest moment, with nary a care in the world.

On the men’s side, things were pretty much going to form when two upsets occurred.  Andy Murray looked completely listless after dropping the first set to Croat, Marin Cilic.  Long accused of having a passive style that prevents him from pounding his opponent, Murray’s variety seemed to dry up, and attempts to use power were met with shots long or shots wide.  Murray had pointed to the US Open as the tournament he was best fit to win, but his fourth round exit at the US Open tied a fourth round exit to Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open, and that match went five sets, and Murray was even sick.

The other Andy also lost early.  Andy Roddick was hoping that his newfound success at Wimbledon and his new training regimen with coach Larry Stefanki would lead to US Open success.  Stefanki had helped get Roddick leaner and meaner.  Roddick had a reasonably successful hard court season, but had to skip some of the early events due to a hip injury.  Roddick unfortunately had three losses in the summer that marred his return: two to del Potro, and one more to Sam Querrey.  Roddick said tennis is sometimes this way.  Last year, he said he played awful, but made the quarterfinals.  This year, he was playing much better, but ran into a hard-serving and calm John Isner, losing in their 3rd round match.

Novak Djokovic had had a reasonably mediocre Slam season.  He lost in the quarters of the Australian Open and Wimbledon and the third round of the French Open.  Quite a far cry from when he was reaching the semifinals routinely.  It seemed he had been coming back during the clay court season when he was the only guy stressing Rafael Nadal, despite no wins.  Djokovic finally beat a recovering Nadal in the semifinals of Cincinnati.  Djokovic made a good run to the semifinals but showed, against Roger Federer, that he wasn’t back to his dominating self.

Rafael Nadal played a bit rusty at the start of the US Open.  If the warmup tournaments showed anything, it was Rafael Nadal could win against lesser players at less than 100%.  For this reason, despite an abdominal strain, most felt Rafael Nadal could make a deep run.  This was buoyed by the scintillating win over talented Gael Monfils.  For a set and a half, the two traded body blows, with Monfils attacking and using his athleticism to keep up with Nadal.  Nadal, for his part, looked brilliant.  But the victory seemed to take its toll.  Nadal would play a tight match against Fernando Gonzalez which concluded on Saturday with Gonzo falling apart completely.

His match with Juan Martin del Potro promised to be more of a challenge.  Given del Potro’s play in the summer, and really, all year, plus Nadal’s injury, plus del Potro’s two victories over Nadal on hard courts this year, those in the know thought del Potro would be favored to win.  No one expected the kind of beatdown he ushered to Nadal.  del Potro has now got the most fearsome forehand in tennis.  Unlike Gonzo, this forehand always seems to be in control.  His height let him take Nadal’s high bouncers with ease, and his flat delivery left Nadal gasping for air.

Roger Federer, meanwhile, was being Roger Federer.  That is, making his way to the semifinals as he always seems to do.  He faced rival Novak Djokovic in a semifinal which was a bit humdrum with Federer making a few fantastic shots mixed with a bunch of errors.  Djokovic didn’t seem to have his heart in the match despite trying valiantly to keep up with Roger.  He had had a poor match win over Fernando Verdasco where he struggled to keep his forehand in before finally playing a good fourth set for the victory.

And that lead to the final.  Delpo was clearly playing better tennis coming into the finals, but there was hope that Federer would turn it up and blow del Potro out of the water.  And for a while, Federer started out great.  He took an early break and won the first set.  He was up a break, serving for the second set, 30-0 up, and then played two bad points and was passed twice to lose the break.  Delpo seemed inspired and took the tiebreak.

Federer again had his chances.  He won the third set and looked in control of the fourth set when again, Delpo came to win that set in a tiebreak.  By the fifth set, the humming Federer machine had suddenly lost a wheel, and Fed was thump-thump-thumping along, mixing good shots, with inexplicable errors.  Meanwhile, del Potro continued to play good tennis, got an early break, and broke once again to take the match, and with it, his first Slam title.

For now, Delpo becomes the first of the new guys (Murray, Tsonga, Cilic, etc) to get a Slam and is tied with Novak Djokovic with one career Slam.  He seems to have the most upside of any player not named Federer or Nadal.  He’s got the kind of game that can bother both of them.

With the rankings out, Murray goes back to number 3 in the world and Nadal back to 2 in the world.  del Potro goes back to 5 and Roddick down to 6.  Murray and Nadal are very close.  One would expect Nadal to take another huge break to recover and Murray could, in that time, do well enough to regain number 2.  Murray has lots of points to defend since he did well at the US Open and at tournaments afterwards, but Nadal’s zero at Wimbledon and 3rd round loss at the French makes him within range of Murray.

And, in the end, Federer who was almost within a breath away from having a monumental year, is now seen, once again, as someone that might be showing his age again.  For the most part, it’s really Federer trying to gain consistency on his shots, but one factor that Federer should be concerned about is how many squash shots, half volleys, etc. he needed just to keep shots in play.  Nadal used his speed to keep up with del Potro (which didn’t work this time) and Fed used his amazing hands to keep up.

This tournament may signal both the return of Kim Clijsters and the ascendancy of Juan Martin del Potro.  Only time will tell what impact the winners will have.

Meanwhile, this is Charlzz signing off for US Open reporting duty.  Enjoy the fall!

Day 14: Men’s final: Federer vs. del Potro

Roger Federer was on the verge of a 16th Slam.  He was on the verge of 6 straight US Opens.  There were a few things going for Roger.  First, the history of winning so many finals.  Second, never having lost to Juan Martin del Potro.

And yet, despite a nice win over Djokovic, it was a not-great Federer playing just a bit more solidly than a not-great Djokovic.  Federer didn’t exactly dominate Djokovic.  He just played the big points well.

Although Federer started off quickly, getting an early break, and then taking the first set, 6-3.  In the second set, Federer again got an early break and it looked like he’d take control of the match. Federer will look back at the 5-4 game and wonder how he lost the second set.  At 30-0, Federer gets in a rally and nets a slice.  30-15.  Then, he went to net and hit an ill-advised drop shot that lead to a lob over Fed’s head, and it seemed Roger would hit another tweener, but hit a behind the back lob that lander long, 30-all.

Then, Roger approached the net, and del Potro hit a hard shot down the line that was called wide, but on replay, it clipped, 30-40.  Roger again approached the net and del Potro again passed a second time to secure the break back, at a point when Roger seemed totally in control of the match, and right at the edge of taking a 2 set to none lead.  If Roger watches this match again, he’ll point to the 5-4 game which he attacked too much to the del Potro forehand.

del Potro would start to hit better and forced the match into a tiebreak.  There, he took the tiebreak 7-5.

With the match knotted at one set each, it wasn’t clear which way the match would go.  When it clearly seemed as if Federer would take the match easily, the match was, instead, tied.

In the third set, Federer got a late break to go up two sets to one.  It seems only a matter of time before Federer takes the match.  The mistake in the second set didn’t seem quite as costly, but the damage had been done.  Federer’s game was starting to fall apart.  Federer tends to start matches quickly, but he’ll often start to make more mistakes as the match progresses, almost as if he has a limited time to play great tennis and when that time passes, his game becomes erratic, still good enough to beat most players, but not a player that’s on.

Only it didn’t work out that way.  At 2-all in the fourth set, del Potro gets a break.  However, Federer breaks back to 4-all, and the two head to a tiebreak.  Federer ends up losing this set in a tiebreak hitting a forehand wide.

In the fifth set, del Potro secured an early break to go up 3-0.  It seems he’s fatigued, but Federer is not doing his cause much good by missing first serves and not pressuring del Potro on his own serve.  At 5-2 down, Federer falls back 15-40, gets the match back to deuce, then double faults, misses a first serve, and hits a backhand long to give del Potro a second break and the match.

del Potro did a few things well.  First, his forehand was humming.  Currently, he possesses the biggest forehand in the game.  We’re talking about both power and consistency.  del Potro can hit 110 mph forehands, and this left Roger hitting squash shot forehands all night long.  It seemed like del Potro’s fitness would come into play, but with an early break in the fifth, del Potro didn’t have to play tough on every Federer game, and gave a few up to get rest.

Federer, for his part, served rather poorly.  Hitting only 50% of his serves, he put in second serve after second serve.  Federer is still good enough that he can win with a bad first serve percentage.  However, his average percentage was over 60% over his 5 previous wins.  If he had hit 60% or more, he would likely have held his serve more easily.  Federer also started losing control of his forehand and even backhand in the latter parts of the fourth set and in the fifth set.  del Potro simply kept his head together longer, and Federer failed to produce a great match that he’s capable of.

What’s more, Federer threw in an uncharacteristic number of double faults.  Even if Federer has a bad serving percentage, he rarely serves doubles faults.  He served 11, which is starting to be Maria Sharapova territory (admittedly, she makes nearly twice as many doubles faults in a best of 3 set scenario).

Although Federer lost, he did not shed any tears.  He felt he had a good US Open, and while he played bad, it wasn’t a loss to Nadal, and he’s certainly won plenty of US Opens.  del Potro found it hard to contain his emotions.

del Potro is now looking far and away the “best of the rest”.  Once you get past Federer and Nadal, you have Murray, Djokovic, and del Potro.  del Potro appears to have the most upside, having the biggest game of the three, but it’s very possible all three will be contending for titles, once Federer gets closer to retirement.  Another big question is the health of Nadal.  Nadal spent Wimbledon and another month trying to recover.  He’s likely to spend at least one more month trying to recover from his abdominals.  His body appears to be breaking down, or at the very least, he seems a bit unlucky.

Finally, the US Open audience needs to shut up during serves.  They called a fault during a serve by del Potro, which lead to Federer being given an opportunity to call a late challenge only to find the serve was indeed long.  As it turns out, del Potro held his serve in that game, so it didn’t change the outcome of the game.  The chair umpire did a weak job of controlling the audience and let them utter what they wanted.  To be fair, we’re talking about a handful of unruly fans who felt the need to affect the outcome of matches.

Well, it’s the end of another US Open, another Monday US Open.  Only time will tell whether it’s the passing of the torch from Federer to the newcomers.  Had he won the match, we would be proclaiming Roger as a juggernaut.  Since it’s the same Roger Federer, the question is whether he can clean up his game and play more like he did at Wimbledon rather than the way he played at the US Open.

Congratulations to the 2009 US Open champion, Juan Martin del Potro.  You’ve accomplished a feat that only Nadal accomplished–beating Roger Federer in a Slam final, and that puts you in rare company.  Given his defeat of Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, he’s one of the few players to ever beat both players in the same tournament, and probably the first to beat both in a Slam.

Day 13: Federer vs. Djokovic

Yawn.

Roger made another Slam final.  Sometimes he’s compared to baseball’s Cal Ripken who played 2,632 games in a row, but this accomplishment has more to do with health than with any accomplishment over this period of time.  He’s compared to Tiger Woods, but even Tiger can’t win every major or even be in contention.

Roger has made 17 of 18 Grand Slam finals, the lone exception being the 2008 where Novak Djokovic beat a mono-struck Roger Federer.  Federer impressed himself reaching the semifinals.

It’s a testament to Roger Federer’s health that he’s never been sick (Murray was ill at the Australian Open), at least not sick enough to impair play, that he’s never had a serious injury during the Slam period (he hurt his back at the end of 2008).  Roger Federer’s bad matches rarely extend to more than a set or two.  Federer has had close calls, quite a few at this year’s French Open, but has always found a way to win.

Roger Federer’s year started so much like 2008.  After a US Open win, some thought Federer might come back.  Instead, he started 2009 much like 2008.  He lost to Rafael Nadal at the final of the Australian Open, a match that went 5 sets where Roger melted down in the fifth set.

His poor play convinced Federer to take time off which he spent working not so much on his forehand, but on his serve, and on his volley.  Federer figured he needed to work on his strength.  Much of his problems may have stemmed from getting more match fit, being more confident in his body.   Meanwhile, it seemed Federer’s rivals, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, were catching up.  Both had victories over the Swiss maestro.

But starting at Madrid, Roger began turning things around.  Roger made the final against Rafael Nadal, maybe a month after his wedding, and beat Nadal in straight sets, quite an achievement given Roger’s record of futility against Rafael.  Some thought he might have a chance to win the French and finally beat Rafa.  Some thought Roger could not sustain such excellence over Rafa in a best of 5 set scenario.

No one predicted the four time winner of the French, who won the 2008 title without dropping a set, would actually lose prior to the finals.  Yet, lose he did, to Robin Soderling.  Soderling would take this huge win and beat Nikolay Davydenko, then come down breaks in the fifth set, and beat Fernando Gonzalez, only to lose to Federer in the finals.

Rafael Nadal would blame his poor play on his bad knees, and eventually opted to head back to Spain and receive treatment instead of defend his Wimbledon title.  Meanwhile, Roger would win another epic five-setter over longtime rival, Andy Roddick, and win yet another Wimbledon, his sixth.

Coming into the US Open, Roger took time off when his wife gave birth to twins.  It happened about two weeks after Wimbledon during a period where only small tournaments were being played.  Roger seemed to have good timing for his twins’ birth.  He played Montreal and lost a match he had a huge lead in (against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), then beat two of his top three rivals in Cincinnati, beating Murray in straight sets in the semifinals, and Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the finals.

Roger was considered the favorite to win the US Open, but no one was quite sure how Rafael Nadal would play.  Nadal would lose to Juan Martin del Potro in Montreal, and would lose to Novak Djokovic in the semis at Cincinnati.  Not to fret, Nadal’s camp would say.  A little rust and a few losses were expected.  Nadal was not winning tournaments, but at least he was beating players that weren’t in the top 5.  He’d play himself into the US Open.

When Federer played Soderling yet again, it seemed certain that the Swiss would beat the Swede.  Soderling is a tough player, but he’s never beaten Roger Federer.  Federer won the first two sets handily before Soderling fought and won the third set, and played tough, but lost to Federer in the fourth set.

Novak Djokovic hadn’t played great tennis to get to the semifinals.  He beat Fernando Verdasco, but had some problems controlling his forehand.  Although Djokovic and Federer played pretty well, it wasn’t at the high level of, say, Nadal vs. Monfils.  Nadal matches can often be quite exciting because Nadal chases so many balls down, many of which it doesn’t seem like he can chase.

To be fair, Federer made his share of good shots, but they had a tendency of popping up at strange moments, unexpectedly, and the point is over.

Djokovic had few chances to break Federer, and only managed one break.  Meanwhile, Federer did what he does so well.  Take advantage of the few opportunities he was given.  Federer once said that one reason he likes playing players like Ivo Karlovic is because he knows Karlovic will falter on rare occasions, and he feels confident he can take advantage when those few opportunities arise.  This patience helped him win against Andy Roddick where he only managed one break, the last game of the match, in a marathon set, 16-14.

The match was pretty much two exciting points.  One was an approach where Novak hit one, two, three, four volleys with Federer blasting shots.  Djokovic eventually floated too high a volley.  Knowing Roger would win the point, Novak turned around, shoved his fanny in Roger’s direction perhaps expecting to get pegged.  Federer hit to the open court, and the point was over.

The other point occured at 0-30 down, 6-5 lead to Roger Federer.  Djokovic drew Federer to net with a drop shot.  Federer ran to retrieve the shot, then Djokovic lobbed over Federer, who ran back and decided to go for the “tweener”, a shot between his legs.  This was struck so well, so flat, that it passed Djokovic, who stood with mouth agape.  0-40 eventually became, game, set, match, Federer, and Federer found himself in yet another US Open final.

Federer’s last meeting with Juan Martin del Potro was the French Open semifinals.  They had met in Madrid where Federer won in a comfortable win.  Federer had decimated del Potro at the Australian Open earlier in the year, taking 6-0 sets against the Argentine.  But the French Open was a different story.  del Potro has two huge weapons in his forehand and serve, and he used both to great effect to take Roger to a fifth set at the French.

del Potro beat Nadal almost scary easy today.  To be fair, Nadal was probably not 100%, but even then, Nadal can beat a player ranked 20.  He’s likely to produce a lot of problems for Roger Federer that one wonders if it won’t be like Safin’s win over Sampras, a changing of the guards, except for Safin, it wasn’t quite that.  Safin was a surprise finalist and then only ever won one more Slam where del Potro’s rise has been a year long progression that has shown him getting better and better.

The one advantage Roger Federer has is his win-loss record over del Potro.  He’s never lost to him.  Federer didn’t play a great semi, but one expects he’ll lift his level of play, and the final will be a great challenge for Federer.

Djokovic, for his part, has a little more work to do.  He reached his first Slam semi of the year, and still has chances to improve.  But one wonders if del Potro is now the new “it” guy, the guy who can make a big splash, and whether it will come at Roger’s expense.

If Roger does win, he’ll have won his fourth “small Slam” winning 3 of 4 Slams in a year.  No one has ever one more than 1 (excluding winning a calendar year Grand Slam), so this accomplishment would mean a great end to 2009, and Federer staying number 1 for the rest of the year (presumably).

The US Open, for the third year in a row, features a finalist that is an up-and-comer.  In 2007, it was Novak Djokovic.  In 2008, it was Andy Murray.  This year, it’s Juan Martin del Potro.  Will he end up like the others?  Or will he take the next step?

Day 13: del Potro vs. Nadal

What was that at the US Open?  I believe they call it…sun. The rain started Thursday night, washed out play on Friday, and washed out most of the day on Saturday.  One wondered if any match would be played on the final weekend.  Finally, finally, the sun came out and a full day of play could finally be played.

Juan Martin del Potro had beaten Nadal twice on hard courts, once as recently as a few weeks ago in Montreal where he handed a 6-0 set to Nadal.  Still, one wondered if Nadal might not pull out some magic like he did in an electrifying match against Gael Monfils, which saw both men try to bludgeon each other.  Nadal hit well, ran well, and competed well.  If this Nadal showed up to the semifinals, then del Potro would have his hands full.

The first sign of danger came in the quarterfinals where Nadal played two tiebreak sets against Gonzalez.  Gonzalez is a player that Nadal has owned lately.  Despite his fearsome forehand, Gonzalez is a streaky player.  When he is on, Gonzalez’s backhand almost disappears.  He can hit winners from all over the court.  However, Nadal knows how to play Gonzalez and forces him to move around to hit his shots.  Gonzalez never quite gets the rhythm he needs to win because Nadal can make Gonzalez hit 3, 4 more shots than he wants to hit, which makes Gonzalez more and more reckless.  It happened again on Saturday when Gonzalez fell apart, losing 6-0 in the third set.  The match might have been winnable had the rains not come.  Nadal had aggravated his abs and was not faring too well.  Nadal is as tough as they come, however, and he still probably could have squeezed out a straight set win.

Although Nadal got some rest due to the rain and the short conclusion of the Gonzalez match, playing Juan Martin del Potro would be a difficult task.  Even a fully healthy Nadal (as healthy as Nadal can get, which means he is still suffering from some pain) finds a del Potro hard to handle.  del Potro had played a game Cilic and didn’t focus right away.  He dropped a set before he began to impose himself in three sets.  del Potro wanted to focus from start to end to beat Nadal.

And it wasn’t even close.

Not even.

Nadal looked flummoxed trying to handle del Potro who now possesses one of the game’s biggest serve, and makes a good argument for its most lethal forehand.  Unlike Gonzalez, del Potro never seems out of control.  He hits big shot but it’s within his game.  It’s not the go-for-broke style that Gonzalez and Monfils played.  The only comfort Nadal could take was that he wasn’t 100%, and that once he gets his health back (expect Nadal to again take another extended break to heal up) to play del Potro more competitively.

Today, Nadal made 27 unforced errors.  On a good day, Nadal makes half as many errors.  27 errors is typical for most players in straight sets, but for Nadal, it’s amazingly high.  Was it due to Nadal’s serve?  Did he serve weaker than he normally does?  Pace-wise, the stats say no.  Nadal was serving the same average speed throughout all his matches, serving around 107 mph on first serves and about 85 mph on the second.  It may have affected how much spin he was able to apply.  Either way, del Potro seemed to feast on Nadal’s serve while Nadal struggled to handle del Potro’s serve.

It’s sad that Nadal took time off to to recover from one injury only to sustain a different injury that affected his chances to play the finals.  But it’s great news for del Potro who has shown a great deal of improvement in his game since he first broke big onto the scene, last year, prior to the US Open.  If Nadal were healthier, he can still be competitive with del Potro, at least, one assumes he can.  If this win is a sign of things to come, then it really signals a changing of the guard. It will be intriguing to see whether he’s going to make that leap at the expense of Federer or Djokovic.

The other men’s semifinals will start at 4:30 PM.

Day 12: Serena vs. Clijsters

ET Tour News primarily focuses on the men’s tour, but as there was little action except the conclusion of the Nadal-Gonzalez match, and due to the anticipation of the match between Serena Williams and unseeded Kim Clijsters, we’ll take the detour to discuss this match.

Although the men’s quarterfinals got finished, rain began to fall again on Saturday.  Weather maps showed the northeast fairly clear of rain, but it’s like that small raincloud that keeps following a loser, there were rainclouds that seem focused over the general vicinity of the US Open.

The first women’s semifinal was scheduled for 4 PM.  The second for 8 PM.  By 9 PM, neither match had been played, but shortly after, both matches were started.

There were a few drops at the start of this match, but the officials decided to let the match continue even though a match in the adjacent court with Wickmayer and Wozniacki had been delayed.

As with many women’s matches, there were plenty of breaks of serve.  Serena, for her part, did not look particularly sharp, making an uncharacteristic number of errors.  Clijsters was playing pretty well, able to move the ball around, especially on her improved forehand.  Top women pros lacking the strength to hit topspin with power, generally skim much closer to the net.  If your timing is just a bit off, you end up hitting the net.

At a break point (and set point) in the first set, Serena netted a ball early in the rally.  This error so disgusted Serena that she bounced the racquet, then proceeded to smash it.  This is important because Serena is given a warning for racquet abuse.

In the second set, breaks were again traded.  Down 3-4, Serena was trying to hold serve.  Despite many opportunities to break, Serena managed to serve her way out of a mess and tie it up at 4-all.  Clijsters held rather easily to 5-4, and although Clijsters got an early point, Serena held to 5-all fairly comfortably.  Clijsters again held easily to 6-5.  She started with a strong game getting a 15-30 lead on Serena’s serve.

Serena faulted on the first serve.  Then, in the second serve, Serena got called for a foot fault.  This lead to 15-40, double match point.  Serena was really irritated that a lineswoman would call her on foot-fault to match point.  She began to berate the woman.  Word was that she said she would shove a racquet down the woman’s throat.

The chair umpire asked the lineswoman to approach the chair and explain what she had heard.  Word was that she claimed Serena was intending to kill her.  It’s possible the lineswoman’s English may not have been that good.  This prompted Serena to come to the chair as the tournament referee, Brian Earley, was brought out.  Having decided that Serena had been unsportsmanlike, she was penalizes a point penalty.  Since the score was 15-40, she lost the match.

This wasn’t clear right away, as it seemed like Serena had sour grapes and wasn’t going to play anymore because they didn’t reverse the call.  Serena walked over to Clijsters, shook her hand.  Clijsters meanwhile looked stunned, and hung around at least 5 more minutes while certain things were explained to her.  It did seem like Clijsters would have won, but Serena is so competitive, you never know.

This semifinal was perceived as the final because the other semis involved Yanina Wickmayer (who?) and Caroline Wozniacki.  Wickmayer is also Belgian.  Few would have expected two Belgians in the semifinals of a Slam and one of them not being Justine Henin.  As it was, Wozniacki won the match by the comfortable score of 6-3, 6-3.

Tomorrow, the men’s semifinals are played as well as the women’s final.  Nadal and del Potro play the early match at noon.  Federer and Djokovic plays the late match at 4:30.  The women’s final is played after that.  This makes the women’s final a bit more unpredictable since it will depend on how long it takes for Federer and Djokovic to finish their match.

The men’s final will be played at the unfortunate time of 4 PM, probably because Monday night is Monday Night Football and the US Open doesn’t seem prepared to run a later time that would make it more friendly to people watching at home.

Hopefully the rainy weather is done, and we can get back to tennis.

Day 12: Nadal vs. Gonzalez

In tennis, if you want to be the best of the best, you must achieve a level of consistency.  Your game must be consistently good day after day, week after week.

This may be the reason a player as hard hitting as Gonzalez has never moved much higher than about 10 in the world.  Possessing one of the best forehands in the game, Gonzalez can dominate a match by powering his forehand to the corners.  Arguably, when he’s on, it’s the best forehand in the game.  (One might point to Federer or to Juan Martin del Potro as other hard-hitters with exemplary forehands).

When Nadal played Gonzalez Thursday evening, the two played surprisingly even.  The first set went to a tiebreak with no breaks of serve, which Nadal won.  The second set was halted with Nadal up 3 points to 2.  Perhaps one reason the match was so even was Nadal’s abdominal injury which was aggravated in the first set.  You have to hand it Nadal.  He guts out matches regardless of how much pain he’s in.  And he doesn’t need a huge serve to win matches.

Gonzalez had to hope that the rest would allow he and his coach, Martin Rodriguez, to figure out a way to beat Nadal, which has been a tall order for Gonzalez who has not even won a set in his last 5 losses to the Mallorcan.

Perhaps the worse possibly outcome was what happened today.  Nadal went on to win 4 points in a row to close out the second set, 7-2.  Gonzalez wanted to start off aggressively and instead completely imploded.  Nadal, for his part, gave Gonzalez opportunities to miss.  He did something a bit unusual, occasionally feeding Gonzalez some junk, and Gonzalez seemed unable to keep the balls in play.  He threw his racquet down in total frustration.

And as quickly as the match started, it ended, in a flurry of errors that lead to a 6-0 win for Nadal.  Not the ending Gonzalez had hoped for, but the ending that Nadal could barely have hoped in his wildest dreams.  Nadal barely works up a sweat, and can get rehab for his abs to maximize his chances of beating Juan Martin del Potro.  Nadal’s healthy will have very much to do with how he does against del Potro.  If he plays like he did against Monfils, this could be a very competitive match.  If his abs start to bother him, del Potro might win quickly.  del Potro, for his part, will hope he can get out to a faster start.  He felt he started slowly against Cilic before reaching his stride.

Tomorrow, the first semis will be played at noon.  It’s not entirely clear who will play the early match, but given Federer’s preference to play early and Nadal’s preference to play later, it’s likely the Federer-Djokovic match will start at noon, and the Nadal-del Potro match will be played at 4 PM.

With the tournament winding down, with the possible exception of Andy Murray, the semifinalists are not too surprising.  It wasn’t entirely clear that Nadal was going to make the semifinals, but he’s played tough.  del Potro was perhaps, after Andy Murray, the guy who was playing the best this summer, with the oddity of his loss of conditioning to Murray and having to drop out of Cincinnati.  Federer is, of course, Federer.  All he does is reach semifinals.  Djokovic, on the other hand, is certainly capable of reaching the latter rounds, and the likelihood was, after a season of disappointment, Djokovic would make a push on his favorite surface.

Tomorrow ought to be pretty exciting with Djokovic trying to turn around his recent loss to Federer, and del Potro trying to show if he’s got the game to beat Nadal, who is trying to win his own career Slam.

Day 12: Rained Out

Last year, with rain imminent on Super Saturday, tournament officials moved the first semifinals to 11 AM.  When it looked like it wasn’t possibly to wait until the conclusion of the first semifinal to finish, they started the second semifinal in an adjoining court at 12:30 AM.  That match featured Andy Murray playing Rafael Nadal.  The two finished a little over two sets, before rain canceled play for the remainder of the day.

Critics wondered why they didn’t run both matches at the same time because of the rain.  Some felt the winner of that match (Andy Murray) had a disadvantage.  Murray had to play two sets on Sunday, while Roger had the day off.  Roger got off to a quick start on Monday and never looked back.

With three of the four quarterfinals completed, they moved up the Rafael Nadal-Fernando Gonzalez match up 30 minutes to 7 PM and managed barely two sets before stopping play.  Had they started at, say, 5:30 PM, they would have likely completed the match on time, and not needed to push this match to two days later, thus disrupting the entire play.  Had their match been completed, they could have played the semifinals on Saturday as originally scheduled.

Let’s see where things stand.  Federer is scheduled to play Djokovic.  They just played in Cincinnati, and Federer beat Djokovic much like Murray, by starting off really fast.  Djokovic has had success against Federer, having beaten him twice this year, but Federer was struggling pretty much until the French Open.  One could argue that the French was still a struggle for Roger.  Wimbledon went very smooth for Roger except for the marathon final.  Since then, Roger had one bad match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but was on the edge of winning that match, before collapsing.  This is a tough match to call.  Roger will be favored to win since Djokovic didn’t play a great match to beat Verdasco, but players go through phases where they play poorly one match and then well the next (compare Nadal’s match against Almagro and Nadal’s match against Gonzalez).

The Nadal-Gonzalez match will be interesting.  Nadal seemed to hurt himself in the first set, and it may be one reason Gonzalez was able to hang with Nadal.  But one wonders if the extra days will help or hurt Nadal.  If Nadal’s injury in serious, it may affect his play.  He seems able to gut out matches, but in this case, it’s quite literal.  If Nadal does get past Gonzalez, he faces a big challenge in Juan Martin del Potro.  del Potro played Nadal well even when Nadal was hitting well (back in Miami).  It’ll be a tall order for Nadal to get past del Potro, and that’s assuming Gonzalez doesn’t trip Nadal up.

The weather should be cool enough that any fitness issues that Juan Martin del Potro has shouldn’t bother him.  It’s surprising, in a single year, that del Potro has made this huge leap in his game.  At the time, Gilles Simon had also broken into the top 10.  But while Simon’s game has dropped a fair bit in 2009, del Potro continues to improve.

Tomorrow, at noon, Nadal and Gonzalez will complete the rest of their match.  The men’s semifinals will be moved to Sunday, at noon and 4 PM.  The men’s final will again be played on Monday at 4 PM.

Alas, the rain did not go away, and talk of putting a roof on a stadium has arisen for the second year in a row.  We’ll see if it happens.

Day 11: US Open in Review

Last year, there was a hurricane moving up the east coast.  Rain was predicted to hit the US Open on Super Saturday, the day both men’s semifinals would be played in addition to the women’s final.  Tournament organizers, concerned the day may be washed out decided to move up the first match.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic started their match at 11 AM.  As this match was proceeding and New York was dodging the rain, there was concern that it was only a matter of time before rain hit New York.  So it was decided, rather than wait for the Federer-Djokovic match to complete, to start the Nadal-Murray match at about 12:30 in another court.  A little over two sets were played before rain fell.  The rain kept falling throughout the day and the women’s finals were not played.  The following day, Murray completed his match against Nadal and made his first men’s semifinals.  The men’s final wasn’t played until Monday.

This is important to note.  The US Open is the only Slam that makes its players play back to back semifinals and finals.  The men play the semifinals on Saturday, then the finals on Sunday.  Except Roger Federer played his semifinals on Saturday, then got Sunday off, then played late Monday afternoon.  Although Murray only played two sets and was in great shape, some argued Roger got more rest and was the fresher of the two heading to the finals.

Fast forward to this year, and the rains fell on Thursday evening.  Roger Federer had already played his match, a four set victory that started off looking like Roger would dominate his Swedish opponent easily, and ended with Roger squeaking out a victory over Soderling, who took the third set in a tiebreak and nearly took the fourth set too.  Djokovic also complete his match on Wednesday.  Even del Potro, scheduled to play a later afternoon match with Marin Cilic had a comfortable four set victory completed.

That left Rafael Nadal, who had played more night matches than usual (perhaps by request–the night matches being cooler and less likely to create fatigue), ready to play his old rival, Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.  The rains were against expected to hit the US Open, but for a few hours, they had managed to avoid the rainfall, enough to get the del Potro-Cilic match in.

Normally, Gonzalez struggles with Nadal.  Gonzalez court movement is not as good as some.  Since his forehand is so good, he often feels the need to hit everything with his forehand.  Nadal knows this and uses his accuracy to thread shots up Gonzalez’s ad sideline and moves Gonzalez around.  This makes some of Gonzalez’s shots awkward as he doesn’t get fully set up, and then tries to power shots to Nadal.

Despite this, Gonzalez did a very good job of holding serve, perhaps because Nadal’s abs were bothering him more than usual.  Uncle Toni admitted as much during a rain delay.

The two got into a first set tiebreak, one that Nadal won and were playing even in the second set, when, at 2-all, the rains fell.  This caused the match to be delayed for an hour or so.  Play resumed after 9 PM, and the two continued to work their way to a second set tiebreak.  With the wind swirling, pieces of paper and plastic were falling on the court.  Indeed, at one critical juncture, with Gonzalez at break point, Gonzo hit a serve out wide and Nadal hit a very good forehand.  Gonzo hit a weird forehand looper, born of bad positioning, when a piece of paper blew across the court, and let had to be called.  Gonzo served again, this time more into the body, and Nadal missed the return.  Gonzo would go on to get himself out of that game.  The two would then head into another tiebreak.

At 2-3 down, Gonzo decided the rain was causing the lines to be too slippery.  The officials eventually agreed, and the match was suspended a second time.  Both players left the courts around 10:30 and the hope was they could play again around 11 or 11:30.  It was closer to midnight, when it seemed like the skies were clearing enough.  The grounds crew with their oversized blowers had dried the courts.  The ball-kids were ready.  The audience was making noise, and was ready to watch play resume.

Pam Shriver told the TV audience that she had received word that play was going to be called for the whole evening due to imminent rain.  The brief respite would only last a few more minutes.  A minute into her news-breaker, the audience, who had been looking for late-night tennis, were told the same information.  As rains began to fall, the audience seemed to agree, and headed out.

The match has been rescheduled to 2 PM today, weather permitting.

Marin Cilic had just come off his best victory, a shocking upset over Andy Murray.  Andy Murray, recent number 2, had been criticized for being like Dinara Safina, a player that reached number 1 with no Slams to her resume.  Murray had reached the semifinals of Wimbledon, losing in four close sets to Andy Roddick.  Criticized for not making the Wimbledon final, Murray pointed to the US Open as the tournament he felt best suited to win.

Murray would make his case for US Open favorite by winning in Montreal over Juan Martin del Potro, and then making the semifinals of Cincinnati where he’d lose to Roger Federer in rather convincing fashion.  So it came as a shock when Cilic was playing strong but not dominating groundstrokes that Murray would find himself unable to keep in the rallies, unable to take over rallies, and worse, having problems returning Cilic’s serve.  Murray’s game has always had a passivity, waiting for his opponents to make errors, rather than trying to impose his game on others.

Marin Cilic is one of the young players of the Nadal/Djokovic/del Potro generation that is still working his way up the rankings.  Was the fourth round match an indication he was ready to move up the rankings or was it merely mediocre play?  Cilic is coached by Aussie, Bob Brett, who has made a living coaching Croatians, including Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic.

Cilic would start off very well, moving the ball around, making del Potro struggle to reach balls and impose his game.  In particular, Cilic was taking ball that edged to his forehand side, slightly inside out and short.  del Potro was having a hard time getting to this shot.  del Potro wouldn’t get a break until early in the second.  Cilic, meanwhile, would find himself losing accuracy, missing balls.  del Potro would play stronger and stronger garnering more breaks, and eventually win comfortably in four sets: 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to reach his second Slam semifinals this year (the other being the French Open semifinal).

So now we wait to see whether today’s play can conclude.  The rain clouds appear to have cleared up in New York, though it is swirling, and there may be another chance of rain.  It does look like the day will be clear enough to get the matches through however.

Here’s hoping to some good weather!