How did Jesse Witten do it? His second round match was against a guy named Gonzalez. Gonzo! Yet, Witten was not willing to go down. He was having too much fun. OK, so the way he did it was by not playing the guy named Fernando Gonzalez, but instead playing Maximo Gonzalez. Maximo is from Argentina.
Maximo is ranked 79, not quite the same as the much better Chilean player, Fernando. However, Witten’s ranking is down at 276, and 79 is certainly a lot better than 79. Maximo is 26 years old. Witten is also 26 year old.
Witten won in four sets, with Maximo taking the first set, and Witten taking the next three. Witten’s likely to exit in the next round when he faces fourth seeded, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, for his part, took out Carsten Ball in straight sets. Ball was a finalist to Sam Querrey in Los Angeles, which lead to Querrey’s only tournament victory during the US Open Series. Djokovic said the Australian was a bit tricky to play because of his big serve. Even if Witten loses to Djokovic, he’ll have to call this tournament a huge success.
Today, the Americans did quite well. Indeed, speaking of Sam Querrey, he played fellow American, Kevin Kim. By the second set’s conclusion, the two had split sets. Kim had already achieved what he rarely achieves, which is a first round victory. However, Querrey came back to win sets 3 and 4, and dash Kim’s hope for a good US Open.
James Blake, who has had a dismal year, won another round, beating Belgian veteran, Oliver Rochus in four sets. Only Robert Kendrick had a loss for the Americans. He lost in straight sets to Tommy Haas, who at 31, isn’t even the oldest player left in the tournament. Marc Giquel, who looks to lose to Roddick, is 32. Nicolas Lapentti is 33. Santoro, who is 36, has already lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero. Even Blake is not so young, currently 29, but will be 30 in December.
Tall John Isner played the sole Turk in the tournament, Marsel Ilhan. Ilhan’s record is official 0-0. This is because the ATP record does not include Challengers and Futures, which he’s won a few matches. Ilhan is ranked 231, which is still higher that Jesse Witten. Still, Isner has had a pretty good summer. Not at the level of Querrey, but certainly, a very good summer for him.
Somdev Devvarman, two time NCAA champ, got out of the first round, but had to face Philipp Kohlschreiber, the German that knocked Djokovic out of the French Open. Devvarman wasn’t ready to beat a top guy despite a 6-0 third set, and Kohlschreiber beat him in four sets.
Verdasco, Stepanek, and Davydenko each had straight set wins, but the easiest match went to Robin Soderling, whose opponent, Spaniard Marcel Granollers only played 2 games before retiring.
This evening, Andy Roddick played yet another night match, this time against French veteran, Marc Giquel. At 32 years of age, he is the second oldest player remaining in the tournament (Lapentti is oldest left at 33). They’ve played 3 times, with Roddick winning all three, including this year’s French Open in straight sets in the 3rd round. Roddick has already taken the first set 6-1 as this is written, and is up 3-2 in the third.
There were no upsets on the scale of Melanie Oudin beating Elena Dementieva, the highest seed to fall in the singles.
Tomorrow, the headliners are Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, and Andy Murray. Nadal plays veteran Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, while del Potro plays veteran Jurgen Melzer of Austria. Murray plays a guy he played as a junior training in Spain, Paul Capdeville of Chile.
Get ready for Day 5!
