US OPEN 2008

OK the madness first. Post-Henin women's tennis continues to be a complete mess with all the so-called top players taking turns to exhibit varying degrees of uselessness. Dinara Safina is about the only genuinely in-form player, and even she looked fatigued in Beijing.

4th round:

Petrova d Ivanovic
Safina d Cornet
S.Williams d Szavay
Cibulkova d V.Williams
Li d Dementieva
Kuznetsova d Paszek
Zvonareva d Davenport
Jankovic d Wozniacki

QFs

Safina d Petrova
S.Williams d Cibulkova
Kuznetsova d Li
Zvonareva d Jankovic

SFs

S.Williams d Safina
Kuznetsova d Zvonareva

F

S.Williams d Kuznetsova

Men's: hey, Rafa is finally at the top of the draw! Normally I would not pick anyone who went deep in the Olympics to really do the same at the US Open - I think in 04, all the Athens medallists lost in the first week in NYC - but Rafa just seems so unstoppable, and his stamina is really extra special.

4th round

Nadal d Berdych
Monfils d Mathieu
Del Potro d Ferrer
Murray d Youzhny
Gulbis d Kiefer
Djokovic d Zverev
Gasquet d Tursunov
Federer d Verdasco

QFs

Nadal d Monfils
Murray d Del Potro
Djokovic d Gulbis
Federer d Gasquet

SFs

Nadal d Murray
Djokovic d Federer

F

Nadal d Djokovic

I love this board b/c US OPEN means TENNIS

I am filling out brackets for a competition with a co-worker today and I have NO IDEA what to pick. Those 4 as semifinalists just seems kinda inevitable though. And Gulbis over Roddick, obv.

Man, I bought tickets to the men's final back in June or something for my gf's b-day, and I felt pretty sure that we would be seeing Roger tie Sampras' grand slam title record.

US Open is always exciting because I can actually watch the games! Well, I can watch the prime-time night games. Via SlamTracker, Nishikori is rolling all over Monaco right now, and we have our first result of the tournament: Rezai over Muhammad.

Saw the second set of Demented vs AKGUL THE GIANT. Actually the first time I'd seen Akgul play for an extended period as opposed to Youtube clips, it was rather entertaining though not very much like a tennis match. Her game is just so rudimentary. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player with such a huge disparity between how huge her strengths are (serve, FH, volleys oddly enough) and how inept her weaknesses are (everything else esp movement). I know she's struggled with finances for much of her career, and has never been able to afford a full-time coach, which would explain this, but having been in the top 100 for over a year she should probably really consider investing in one. Demented played well enough, saved two set points in the second set, served multiple aces though those may have been down to Amanmuradova's incredibly awful return game.

Half-watching Lazy Leach vs Wozniak now, Wozniak also totally sucks but in a more common-or-garden boring way. Leach's game leaves me as cold post-baby as it did in her heyday. BAM. BAM. ZZZ.

NADAL NADAL NADAL NADAL
i'm glad the federer hype is over
NADAL NADAL NADAL NADAL

Nadal is apparently going to start wearing polo shirts and normal shorts from now on! That is some awesome fashion-as-statement shit, I wonder if his team had this planned all along?

Russian teenager A-Piv takes a set but not the match from Batty. Let's hope Russian teenager A-Pav finishes that job in the next round.

Oh yeah, I think hot-on-comeback-trail Anna-Lena Groenefeld (remember her?) has a great chance of upsetting Hanturexia tomorrow.

Nishikori must must win, he is top of the list of players I haven't seen play yet but really want to. 3rd round versus Ferrer would be awesome.

Oh god, I hope Nadal doesnt win this I really cannot stand the guy for some unexplainable reason. Well, at least if he starts dressing a bit better on the court (a polo shirt and normal shorts, thank god!) I may hate him just a bit less.

please tell me the nadal fashion thing isn't true
xpost i may like him just a bit less!

wearing normal shorts in a tennis match, that would be soo cool since that's pretty much what I do most of the time.

I remember going to tennis practices in jean shorts and still kicking ass.

I like how you cant stand the guy for some unexplainable reason (that's how I feel about federer)

I like how people do that with people they've only seen and never met as well.

who's this Wozniak who won Pilot Pen?

I have met him! I walked right by him at Roland Garros! And I had a friend who worked in the players dressing room handing them towels and stuff like that who told me he had a really small dick! So its almost like I know him right?

uh, so that's why you hate him. the clash of the small dicks vs. the small dicks?

Haha... nah, i hated him before I learned that fact (which may actually be my friend pulling my leg)

i like both rafa and roger. but i like roger more. i don't really like roger moore, however.

best bond EVER, but nostalgia may cloud my judgement.

Oh come on, totally not the best james bond! Probably the worst one or bottom two for me. He looks good enough when it is cocktail drinking time, but as soon as there's action he looks totally out of place.

Looked better than Connery with a martini. Probably better than Jimmy Conners too.

who's this Wozniak who won Pilot Pen?

no, Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada) won Stanford before the Olympics, and is basically useless. Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) won Pilot Pen last week and is one of the tour's best up-and-comers; when I saw her this time last year I thought her game was too lightweight to really make a dent on the tour but she's really improved everything about it since, and she could go far here.

I really like Caroline Wozniacki a lot. She could be my favorite women's tennis player. (n.b. I don't really love any women's tennis players right now)

I remember watching some movie, where the part where the guy and the girl are building a relationship, they discuss the best james bond actor.

What intrigues me about these movies is that this conversation is essentially the only one (or two) meaning conversations before the sex scene.
meaning conversations meaning - "oh we get along oh so well"

crappy typos there

wuz referring to the Dane, of course; didn't realize there was an actual Woz

this dude's playing nadal kinda tough through a set and a half

Phau was great! So fast, and his single-handed backhand was a thing of joy. Strange to think that someone with so much obvious talent is 28 but has spent 90% of his career ranked 150 and doing nothing of note. Some of the points towards the end were spectacular.

Good start for CAKE's campaign. Also, an actual win for an actual British woman, well done Anne K.

he didn't win did he!

Coco Vandeweghe vs. Jankovic match was hilarious. It featured some of the worst errors I've ever seen: Coco hit an overhead into the net, hit a return of serve into the middle of the line judge chair, hit a baseline overhead midway up the back wall, etc. She's a hard hitter though, and was getting massive hype by the commentators. Hilarious because she's a mediocre junior!

The Chak Attack fell in round one :(((

Why do I find myself emotionally invested in the results of such a ridiculous player.

For those keeping score at home, Coco Vandeweghe is the niece of b-baller Kiki Vandeweghe, the daughter of an Olympic swimmer and granddaughter of former Knick Dr. Ernie Vandeweghe and former Miss America Collen Kaye Hutchins. Watched her play in the juniors tournament last year.

Q. What's it like for you in New York when you walk through New York? What do you like here?

NA LI: I like the street number five.

Q. Fifth Avenue?

NA LI: Yeah. I was talk to my husband. I say, Okay, after the match we have to go there. He say, No. Save the money for me. I stay in the house.

So after the match I will go there. I mean, I didn't care about him, so I go myself. Taking credit card. That's it.

Today at the US Open: Sam Querrey upsets perennial majors underperformer Tomas Berdych. Ivanovic is currently battling in a third set. And Wimbledon heroes Tammy Tanasugarn and Rainer Schuettler go down.

btw is there anybody watching the Ivanovic match who can provide any insights?

hantuchovlol

;__;

finally home and just in time to watch Gasquet v Haas! Whoop whoop, pull over that ass too fat. (I refer to Reeshard, a set up but a break down.)

Hantuchoker, oh the girl is an eternal punchline.

Nice win for Hsieh! Bad loss for Tammy T :(

Berdych, as with girlfriend Lucie Safarova, is ridiculous and neither of them will ever fulfil their promise.

Oh yeah, I think hot-on-comeback-trail Anna-Lena Groenefeld (remember her?) has a great chance of upsetting Hanturexia tomorrow.

-- lex pretend, Monday, August 25, 2008 5:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

The only good part of my washing machine breaking on Sunday was that I got to stay home and watch some early round play. (Of course, most of what I saw was Davenport/Wozniak, which outside of one or two points wasn't really exciting, but still! LUXURY)

i made my annual pilgrimage yesterday. i have trouble sitting still for a whole match during the opening rounds, there's so much going on. but i saw a set of monfils/cuevas, lindsay's first set, the first two sets of nadal/phau (phau's so much fun), the 3rd set of li/peer (peer not shockingly had a big cheering section) and bits of several others. i love the outer courts. stood right by the fence for schiavone's match and jiri vanek's. the open is probably my single favorite sporting event to go to, especially in the first and second rounds. next year i need to take off more days.

(i try to edit from memory the $7.50 cups of heineken.)

Battle of the Juniors now, Melanie Oudin vs. Jessica Moore, winner to play Groenefeld. I know very little about either player, but Melanie Oudin is from my hometown, so go Melanie I guess.

how much does a day pass cost?

35 bucks i think

oh wait

Grounds admission passes, which many say gives you the best bang for your buck ($46/$52), are also available during the first eight days of the tournament.

guess they raised it

I went to the women's final last year, which was cool in its way but I only got to see one (very short, near blowout) match

so yeah I'd say grounds pass is the way to go

although it's a little like going to a festival like South By Southwest, you always feel like there's something cooler going on somewhere else, but if you try to catch all the coolest things you can end up spending most of your time standing in line

i used to buy grounds passes but was alerted to the fact that the daytime cheap seats at ashe cost the same, and get you into all the grounds-pass stuff plus ashe. so i got to watch nadal from a fairly high perch, but then also watch stuff at the grandstand and louis armstrong and outer courts too.

also if you figure out the layouts of the various courts and time things carefully, you can mostly avoid the long lines. for one thing i almost never go at the start of a match, when the lines are long and then you end up sitting there waiting for the match to start. i usually try to make it for the 2nd or 3rd changeover. i also like just sort of picking things on the fly. like i was headed to one place yesterday but then i saw on the scoreboard that li/peer were just starting their third set, so i went around to the far rear entrance to the grandstand and got in and got a good seat no problem.

Wussquet's effort was completely feeble in that 5th set. He should have won the 4th; after that, he just blasted errors and didn't care.

I've been to Wimbledon every year since '98 (and first week ground passes are definitely the best there, would imagine this is the case at all Slams), but never any of the others. I think I should start changing this next year.

xp I take that back if Ashe seats, even nosebleed ones, cost the same as normal ground passes! it's always special to go into the huge arenas. Can you, um, actually see the ball/tell the players apart from all the way up there, though?

Researching your unseeded players also helps on the outside courts...check for upset artists, ex junior champs, veterans, up-and-comers, whatever takes your fancy.

Ugh, Eurosport inexplicably showing Fish vs Smeets. I was looking forward to watching K-Bond against Silliams :(

I still have never been to the US Open, or any other tennis event, but I plan on going next year.

Can you, um, actually see the ball/tell the players apart from all the way up there, though?

oh yeah. it's not that big, for one thing -- like 25,000? -- and i find tennis easier to watch from a distance than a lot of other sports. there are so few things to keep track of, and the players and ball stand out easily against those new blue courts. plus the giant videoscreens you can look at for the facial expressions and replays. plus i like being with a big crowd on the long, exciting plays, the way you get the collective holding of breath and big bursts of applause.

Q. Your sister was in here earlier after her win, and she talked about you actually have talked to her through the years about trying to learn from your...

MARAT SAFIN: My mistakes, yes. (laughter.)

Q. Can you just give us a couple minutes what you think of what she's done professionally so far this year in particular and maybe what her chances are?

MARAT SAFIN: I think if she will do everything opposite of what I've been doing throughout the years she will be No. 1 in the world for a long time. That's as simple as it is.

yeah you can definitely see fine from up high

also at the final last year they gave out little personal tv's!

that is kind of awesome!

it's weird how watching tennis on tv, on an outside court and on a show court are completely different experiences, you notice and concentrate on totally different things.

Regarding the view from the top level, this is what Serena vs Schett (double bagel, btw) looked like from the very top row on Chatrier at Roland Garros in 2003. Well, what it looked like through a toy sub-1MP digital camera, anyway:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/6/6551339_c9840e0b5f.jpg

UHHHH Anne Keothavong has won the first set 6-2 off Frankie Schiavone!

This will not last obv.

It's now time for the return of TSONGA. I am extremely curious to see how he does.

Italians are having a pretty good tournament here! Notwithstanding that Unforced Errani is about to lose to Na Li.

Hey, Keothavong pulled it off after all. And Zvonareva suffers the post-Olympics letdown. Based on the match stats it looks like Zvonareva just blew it, but I didn't see the match.

wasn't planning to go this year but tix for tomorrow night just fell into my lap. yay

Anne!!!!!

Bepa 3....way to take advantage of your first Top 8 seeding in a Slam. Idiot.

Jankovic served for the match against Arvidsson but lost that set in a TB. Serbian friend says she looks totally burnt out.

Watching Ventura vs Tsonga (who's playing his first match since May), of all things. Ventura is totally wacky! Dropshots, lobs, dropshot-lob-dropshot combos, genius changes of direction out of nowhere. I didn't realise he was so Santoro-esque. Sadly, he often tries to be too cute, and when you start missing the dropshots, you start looking really dumb, not like a clever magician. And while he plays beautiful setpiece points, he barely seems to have a match plan at all.

Tsonga's knee has definitely had its work cut out for it, but it's holding up so far. It's a nice match-up for him to get into the swing of things, he's been able to tee off Ventura's weak-ass groundstrokes and second serve many times. When he's not getting tied in knots by Ventura it's the expected BAM STUPID ERROR 50 MILES OUT or BAM AWESOME WINNER ON LINE; more of the former at the start, more of the latter now.

Hey, Jankovic probably gets Zheng in the next round. Guessing a loss for her, then.

Nishikori wins setting up a potential match against Ferrer. I'm rooting for Nishikori and Cornet here because they are two players who I really want to see play, but haven't yet.

Cornet's great fun to watch, not as creative as A-Rad perhaps but definitely not just a ball-basher.

Ana Ivanovic just lost to Julie Coin, a 25-year-old French qualifier and maths graduate ranked 188 who had never played a Slam before!

Is Ivanovic losing to Coin a new low for women's tennis or does Jankovic hitting #1 still top that?

I was there, in Ashe for that match.

Murray is fucking this up!

3rd set tie break - he should've already won the 3rd set.

Murray a cpl of points away from defeat, but he hit a 140mph serve and won the next. 2-1, but its painful to listen to.

ok murray 5-0 in the 4th in no time.

I only caught the end of the Nadal match, but I wanted to see more of Troiki's cartoon character serve. I've consistently been annoyed by Eurosport's choice of matches, although I imagine they'll have less opportunity to annoy me when there's only one singles match being played at a time.

Melzer apparently couldn't walk much in the 4th. The trainer works his 'magic' and has him all re-energized.

To the wire we go...

Monfils looking really impressive so far against Nalbandy, up 2 sets.

so much for Monfils

Mauresmo's performance against Pennetta yesterday was the most pathetic stuff I've ever seen from her. Which is saying a lot. 14 double faults in eight service games (inc. six in a row at one point). 40 unforced errors, mostly on neutral rally shots. Eurosport normally show a compilation of a match's highlights when it's ended; after that, they just showed a compilation of "the worst of Mauresmo" for lolz.

Despite the scoreline, Safina looked exhausted against ALG.

Fish's continued presence in this tournament is gross.

"It's always tough playing against one of your friends, but this is the fourth round of the US Open and this is my favourite tournament. We had to put friendship to one side tonight," said Murray. "The guys from Entourage come to watch. It's my favourite show and you don't get it back home."

lol Andy Murray doesn't get ITV?

Anyone know who that excitable black guy in the rainbow glitter t-shirt was in the stands of the US Open last night? The camera sure loved him, but we weren't really paying attention to the announcers.

Joey Porter of the Dolphins, as it turns out. Now I need to find the hilarious animated gifs.

You know that tournament is Key Biscane and not the US Open, right? You're about 5 months too early for the US Open.

coverage here has been so poor. wish i could've seen the serena/zheng and serena/li matches. saw the first set of venus/a-rad though. a-rad was playing beautifully - the dropshot/lob/drop-volley combo she closed the set out with was just O_O - but i wasn't surprised that venus stepped it up in the end.

serena has to beat venus, otherwise dinara safina somehow becomes world no 1, which must not happen :/

lol i was hoping this thread had been revived to talk about fed/roddick in miami

and then serena has to win the final and then repeat her tournament win in charleston to stay no 1 through april :/ if she does that, we'll be safe - dinara has to start defending points in may and will probably only make no 1 if she wins roland garros, in which case she'll probably deserve it anyway. unlike now.

was fed/roddick good? wasn't surprised at the result...(either that it went 3 sets, or the fed win) (i was surprised that djokovic beat tsonga, though.)

serena has to beat venus, otherwise dinara safina somehow becomes world no 1, which must not happen :/

― lex pretend, Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:03 PM (1 minute ago)

i want this to happen just so safin will feel like he's got something to prove and stay in shape and win tournaments again :/

what ive seen of the mens matches have been terrific btw def hoping for another fed/murray match in the finals (i think theyre in different halves?)

what ive seen of the womens has been really bad inc the end of that venus/a-rad match

> You know that tournament is Key Biscane and not the US Open, right? You're about 5 months too early for the US Open.

You have discovered the limits of my tennis knowledge.

yeah, well, women's tennis 09. azarenka seems to have raised her game this year though, i expect her to beat the useless kuznetsova and face whichever williams in the final. fed and murray are in different halves, yeah - murray has to beat his AO conqueror verdasco next. kind of wondering if this is where del potro steps it up and takes some elite names down - i don't think so but he has to do it sometime soon, and nadal's looked slightly vulnerable so far...

Also my football knowledge, come to think of it.

was fed/roddick good? wasn't surprised at the result...(either that it went 3 sets, or the fed win) (i was surprised that djokovic beat tsonga, though.)

it was but not in a best match ever way the both played pretty spottily. what was dope was a) seeing fed recover some mental toughness after he spazzed in the 2nd set b) nerve-wracking excitement for a fed fan since he was *on* one minute and then dumping an easy forehand into the net the next c) fed's backhand and d) crowd was really into it and the match was intense like only roddick losing could make it

Federer Roddick match was a good match, both players played well. I'm happy to see that the KB tournament has gotten good coverage in the USA. Actually, I've been surprised to see that Roddick has been playing well this year.

hey so DEL POTRO ACTUALLY DID IT - beat nadal in a third set TB! obv didn't see a second of it, but good to see things being shaken up even more, even better to see them being shaken up by someone with arms like that <3

The dodgy streams on chann3lsurf1ng.n3t have been pretty flawless for coverage of this. Obv no good for 2-5am BST matches like Fed-Rod and DP-Nad, but I did watch Fed-Dent the other night (good for about three games in the 2nd set, thereafter Taylor D was truly dismal).

A bit shocked that Del P has finally beaten an Elite, I thought he had a long career as an also-ran ahead of him, esp after that three-love-love debacle vs Fed in Melbourne. Perhaps he still does.

Would like to see Fed beat Murray in the final.

^^^^ yes!!!

missed the del p match and i know lex had called it yesterday but i was hella skeptical of his game - this is great news tho. as much as like nadal well okay i dont really like nadal im into this new uncertain era in mens tennis

I sure hope you guys that actually know something about tennis (and where it is discussed online) can find some animated gifs of Porter in that t-shirt for me.

Hell, stills even.

Oh, great - Fed implodes in the windy conditions. The forehand wasn't working today.

I can't see Fed winning a grand slam again unless he gets some mental help, he's shot to pieces right now.

Meanwhile, Murray is on fire so far. But I don't think I can stay up for this...

My eyes are closing, but there's some insanely inspired Murray stuff going on (assisted ably by Del Potro's lousy attempts at smashing). Hopefully he'll continue it and I can still be in my bed at a reasonable hour.

Hmm, two double-faults to go 0-2 in the 2nd. My idea of taking the laptop up to bed and just seeing out the battery (35%) doesn't seem like it would cover this match now...

my favourite thing is the Sky commentators totally failing to recognise any figures of popular culture in the crowd when the camera keeps panning in on them and then regurgitating facts about them next time round like when someone has presumably been going "psst, that's Owen Wilson" and shoved a list of Owen Wilson factoids in their face.

Murray breaks back due in no small part to Del Potro again failing to bury a smash.

And that's good night from me. I expect DP to take the decider.