US Open 2011

Oh, might as well get it going.

Also because this NYT Magazine story is already up and is clearly a tie-in.

my friend becky, my boyfriend and i have created a holiday called "open." for the holiday, becky comes to brooklyn to visit, we watch the us open and celebrate. becky and i met during the us open in 2001, so.

i'm excited.

i assumed this was abt golf

i thought so too but then i clicked the link

have u been doing the "open" holiday for 10 years? that's p cool

this is only the 2nd year that it has officially been called "open" but we have gotten together for the tournament a number of times before. decided to finally put a name on it!

do you go? or just watch johnny mac

golf's US open was 2 months ago!

obv very excited about this, #teammurray

i would be cool with djokovic winning too though - and while i love guys like monfils and gasquet i don't see anyone other than one of the big 4 taking this

ugh murray

i mean, i feel for the brits, but do not necessarily appreciate goofy dudes yelling COME ON

shattered by the absence of st. kim tho (seriously)

yeah that is a let-down.

to answer your question, mooks, no we did not go last year. i have a thing about watching the us open from home. it's better to me. they want to go though -- one of these opens, we will make it out there.

draws are out shortly! hyped!

Qualies have been interesting so far - 15-year-old US junior called Taylor Townsend has sprung the biggest surprise, beating Parra Santonja - she plays Robson next. There is another US junior who goes by the amazing name of Anne-Liz Jeukeng-Nkamgouo, but she lost in Q1 ;_; "Future World No 1" Caroline Garcia has lost already but the dread screamer Larcher de Brito is back and actually won her first match. In the men's, luckily that druggie cheat Odesnik lost his opener - kudos to Greg Jones, whoever that is, for taking the trash out.

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/interactive/radio/radio.html?ts=1314288175052&db=false&ref=www.usopen.org/en_US/news/media/radio.html&lang=en_US&stream=undefined&syn=

Draw being made. Exciting~~~~~~~~~~~~

My wish is for Serena not be in the same section as Li because Li scares me for some reason.

Maria got Serena in the 3rd round then. I laugh and laugh and laugh and irl fistpump on behalf of Petra K, Na and Bepa

Djokovic/Fed and Murray/Nadal

Ugh I wanted it the other way round.

Oh wait a fucking minute.

The womens draw has already been done? Haha! FUCK I NEED TO GO LOOK THEN

SHARAPOVA SERENA THIRD ROUND YOU BETTER BE FUCKING KIDDING ME LEX

@neilharmantimes - "the draw has been done before the draw"

uhhh maybe hold off on the Maria/Serena thing, why am I trusting tennisforum on this

Will fucking murder if that's the case.

Wait they're doing the womens draw now!

OK they've decided to talk about boring people like Roddick instead.

I see Raonic's skipped in the men's seeds. Bummer. Was looking forward to seeing more of him.

I think if his shoulder's recovered from Cincinnati, Berdych has semis potential this year.

Neil Harman is tweeting that the USO twitter has got the draw completely wrong. Still laughing!

Seriously lol @ this

Grand slam draw ceremonies never fail to fail

"James Blake certainly among those not seeded this year"

This made me laugh hard for some reason

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_US_Open_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_Singles

Um if this is real I will cry. Serena with Li

And Venus/JJ first round, if that draw were to be trusted lol

it's not real, the Baltacha/Venus 1Rs don't tally with what Neil Harman tweeted

Such a goddamn mess.

Next year you guys should do the draw.

Really, doing a draw is...not a hard thing to do! Tennis is such a badly run sport.

Official US Open twitter has Fed/Nadal semifinal wtf

xps I could totes do this draw. Just go on www.random.org and do that shit. I might rig it for a Serena/Woz 3rd round tho.

Woz could hardly have drawn an easier first two rounds. Llagostera Vives and then Rus or Vesnina lol.

Wozniacki/Li/Schiavone/Azarenka

Sharapova/Kvitova/Bartoli/Zvonareva

Think I got that right.

Serena in the top quarter I think. FUCK.

Oh wait it's the second quarter. That's much better~~

OMG Azarenka/Serena 3rd round lol.

Serena got Azarenka? That's good. Not hilarious like getting Maria/Caroline would be, but still welcome.

Heh, Azarenka tweeting something cheerful. She hasn't seen the draw yet then

No fluke semifinal for you two slams in a row!

Lisicki/Venus round 2

Giant Killer Dulko might take out Vika before Serena gets the chance.

well let's hope Vika doesn't get another concussion before her rematch w/ Dulko, that was pretty scary (also scary: having to play Serena in the 3rd rd, hilarious)

Official US Open twitter has Fed/Nadal semifinal wtf

2 vs 3 is not really that surprising

i can't believe you guys are actually talking about womens tennis, why do you do this to yourselves

cuz many of them are hot

http://static.tennis24seven.com/wp-content/gallery/marion-bartoli/marion-bartoli6.jpg

didn't say "all"

eh there's like 3 legit hotties in the top 20

i mean don't get me wrong if you wanna talk about women's tennis THIS is the conversation i'd like to be having /frogbs

oh come on

Woz, Sharapova, Azarenka, Petko, Cibu Matto, Ivanovic, Goerges: all top 20

tbh i can't picture any of those in my head other than woz, maria, & ivanovic

or, more to the point, they need to stop acting like Serena is above and beyond the pale when McEnroe is out there

ppl need to stop acting like American tennis players shouldn't get called out for shit

and when serena becomes a grand dame commentator i'm sure she will be duly embraced

(and no matter her petulance, she's no mcenroe for being an asshole iirc. except maybe that mcenroe ultimately admitted his assholedom)

i think 'antisocial' hits it pretty squarely on the head actually - it's not the magnitude of her outbursts but their quality. and fwiw i like serena and pretty much think she is too good for the WTA

she is amazing

i mean can you imagine novak taking the better part of years off and then showing up to dominate?

my racist stepmother would say whatever, but serena can do whatever she wants. including being called out for bitchiness.

btw before tennis fans dissipate until melbourne i have a vital question:

this whole server-looking-at-three-balls-then-discarding-one thing -- who started it? and what are they even looking at?

to discard the fuzziest, right?

half the time they never even look!

They feel

and fwiw i like serena and pretty much think she is too good for the WTA

kinda telling imo that taking serena's side often goes hand in hand with disdaining women's tennis as an institution. for all its doldrums I like women's tennis better than I could like any individual player (also I think selfish, pampered top players, in which I include my own fav Justine, are partly responsible for those doldrums: imagine a parallel ATP scenario in which Rafa and Roger had spent the past 7 years taking years off at a time, partying, getting pregnant, getting "injured" or not taking injury prevention seriously, retiring and re-retiring etc: they'd have swept in to win Slams out of nowhere and we'd have, like, Berdych and Ferrer at No 1 and No 2. Conversely imagine if Serena, Kim and Justine had shown their dedication and focus. I'd bet the Serbs, at least, would be better players for it, just like Djokovic and Murray were forced to raise their levels substantially just to meet the bar Rafa/Roger set, let alone clear it).

ANYWAY whatever, as ever it's not even the outburst that's really outrageous as her refusal to acknowledge or apologise for it. She doesn't get that she's done a damn thing wrong even when she's calmed down and that's why she's awful. Oracene was complaining how these dramas always seem to happen to them? WELL HEY GUESS WHAT THE COMMON FACTOR IS. Maybe these incidents say more about Serena than anything else, perish the thought. Would also like to point out that I've consistently criticised Roddick's character for pretty similar behaviour.

Roll of honour!

Men's singles: Novak Djokovic
Women's singles: Samantha Stosur
Men's doubles: Jurgen Melzer & Philipp Petzschner
Women's doubles: Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond
Mixed doubles: Jack Sock & Melanie Oudin
Boys' singles: Oliver Golding
Girls' singles: Grace Min
Boys' doubles: Robin Kern & Julian Lenz
Girls' doubles: Irina Khromacheva & Demi Schuurs

meanwhile, from Wertheim:

This may have been my favorite quote of the tournament. Asked about boisterous spectators in suites talking during her first-round match, Azarenka told The New York Times: ''As a player we would all like to have a bit of respect and quietness."

:o :o :o

I'm assuming Belarusians don't do irony

New men's rankings...

1. Novak Djokovic (1)
2. Rafael Nadal (2)
3. Roger Federer (3)
4. Andy Murray (4)
5. David Ferrer (5)
6. Robin Soderling (6)
7. Gael Monfils (7)
8. Mardy Fish (8)
9. Tomas Berdych (9)
10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (11)
11. Gilles Simon (12)
12. Nicolas Almagro (10)
13. Janko Tipsarevic (20)
14. Andy Roddick (21)
15. Richard Gasquet (13)
16. Viktor Troicki (16)
17. Juan Martin Del Potro (18)
18. John Isner (22)
19. Stanislas Wawrinka (14)
20. Alexandr Dolgopolov (23)
21. Jurgen Melzer (17)
22. Fernando Verdasco (19)
23. Florian Mayer (27)
24. Juan Ignacio Chela (24)
25. Radek Stepanek (25)
26. Marin Cilic (28)
27. Juan Monaco (36)
28. Feliciano Lopez (26)
29. Ivan Ljubicic (31)
30. Marcel Granollers (32)
...
32. Mikhail Youzhny (15)
49. Gilles Muller (64)
57. Donald Young (84)
82. Juan Carlos Ferrero (105)

Well, that's an interesting new top 10.

OMG I can't believe Granola is top 30. Hang your head in shame, everyone ranked beneath him.

Just realised that for both Li and Stosur, their Slam title was just their second title of any sort above mickey mouse level (and just 5th overall for Li, 3rd overall for Stosur). And this is at a pretty advanced point in their careers. That's remarkable.

what exactly is Ferrer doing at #5?

AO SF and 4R at the other Slams. Monte Carlo Masters final, Miami Masters QF. Holds another three titles and a few more finals. Generally very consistent.

Secret of men's tennis right now is that the rankings below the Big Three + Murray are as wacked out as anything in Women's Tennis, because the top 4 hog so many of the points that there just aren't that many left to go round after that, so it doesn't take a great deal to be ranked in the top 10/20. Monfils is the one that really confused me when I first noticed. I mean, a few weeks ago even Florian Mayer was top 20.

yeah it's also quite puzzling to see Monfils ahead of Tsonga for instance

that should change soon - a lot is due to Monfils having a great autumn last year and qualifying for the YC (a boatload of points right there), whereas Tsonga didn't (and didn't do well in any Masters/Slam from this time last year until, basically, Wimbledon)

*YEC

lex your dream has come true. serena/roddick australian open mixed doubles!!!

I hope that ends in default. It's likely to, as well!

they need to win. and then serena needs to win french open mixed (i.e. don't play with roddick). then she's won every single slam! yes plz

if she wanted to win, she wouldn't have partnered with Roddick

meh roddick can win every service game and then stand off the court and let serena do the rest

imagine a parallel ATP scenario in which Rafa and Roger had spent the past 7 years taking years off at a time, partying, getting pregnant, getting "injured" or not taking injury prevention seriously, retiring and re-retiring etc:

Interesting how Lex decides that all these things are sorta equivalent--

tbh I'm still trying to figure out how Roger and Rafa could get pregnant

well they're not equivalent because there's about 10000x more talent on the men's tour than the WTA, that's why serena and st kim and whoever can do that while you don't see men winning tournaments, much less grand slams, after similar layoffs/detours

if she wanted to win, she wouldn't have partnered with Roddick

lol

it's practice for the Olympics though right? I presume Venus partnering with whichever Bryan brother isn't an option any more.

well they're not equivalent because there's about 10000x more talent on the men's tour than the WTA

not really. 1) it's cyclical so you can't make a blanket statement like this - I remember the late 90s, the state of men's tennis was such a turn-off. 2) take the past 7 or so years - you have a clear potential Big Four on either side and then The Rest, it's just that the women's Big Four were flakes.

also, you do see the most talented men do this, to an extent - remember Safin's run to the AO final in...was it 2004? when he'd been out for most of the previous year and was nearly out of the top 100. If Rafa or Roger had had a year-long lay-off for whatever reason between 2005-09 I would have put money on them making Serenaesque returns.

Interesting how Lex decides that all these things are sorta equivalent--

not really, just varying degrees of lack of commitment to the sport

i guess ppl already sorta took you to task for this but including 'getting pregnant' in a list of reasons why someone isnt committed to their job is sorta 'problematic' lets say

lolll

Yes, that was my point.

Lex, u mad at Beyonce too?

i kind of was actually. i wanted a tour ;_;

i'm listening to beyonce right now

IF YOU LET HIM TAKE ME FROM YOU
NO NO YOU NEVER WANTED ME~~

sorry.
i just realised us open 2011 is over. lame.

Tashkent this week!!!! No lie one of my favourite Tour stops cuz it's so random.

how the hell is jovanovski the second seed

how does she win matches

well...she didn't win a match here, lol. though "how does anyone lose to Sorana Cirstea" would be another good question.

one of the Uzbek WCs won a match! She's called Sabina Sharipova. I need for herto make it on tour and confusion to ensue.

not really. 1) it's cyclical so you can't make a blanket statement like this - I remember the late 90s, the state of men's tennis was such a turn-off. 2) take the past 7 or so years - you have a clear potential Big Four on either side and then The Rest, it's just that the women's Big Four were flakes.

nah, there isn't nearly the depth in the women's game as there is in the men's game. you go into the 50s and 60s and you still have world-class players, ones who give top pros good matches. the womens side is much different

well there's an argument I haven't seen since the 90s. the women's game is ONLY depth atm! there are just no decent top players. bit like the men's game in the 90s (cf Agassi being a flake back then, everyone else being surface specialistzzzz). back then the dominance of the top women was criticised because there was "no depth" but it could equally apply to the men's game now.

went onto tashkent open website so i wouldn't have to look at tennisforum. first thing i see is an image of olga govortsova. saw her practice once and honest to god it was the most impressive tennis i've seen live. her strokes were SO clean and SO gorgeous. the sound off her racket was <3 i guess she's just a retard in matches or can't move or can't serve or something. i also saw wozniacki practice that day. lol.

Govortsova is kind of like a poor man's Gajdosova? (which is like...in serious debt I guess.) Great strokes but so stupid on court and so negative.

the men have incredible depth - the top 3 players just happen to be 3 of the (maybe) 15 best players of all time; they've combined for 23 of the past 24 grand slams not because the rest of the field is weak but because they're so historically great. i mean you look at the lower-ranked players...murray, soderling, berdych, gasquet, del potro - these are grand slam champions in a different era. (i have no explanation for mardy fish.) i'd argue the women have parity rather than depth

Gasquet is not a Slam champ in any era lol. Neither is Berdych unless the era is 2002 and you had Johansson and Costa winning Slams. Delpo is a Slam champ in THIS era.

also I refer you to a few posts upthread. Marcel Granollers is top 30. That is the opposite of depth. I look at the rank-and-file men and the rank-and-file women and neither seem particularly weak overall compared to the other.

the only difference between the men's tour and the women's tour is that there are 4 guys on the men's side who are consistent

also ppl on one tour have penises and ppl on the other have vaginas and breasts

i thought this was p good on the djoko shot & athletics generally -- http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6961013/shot-confrontation

i sympathize with fed to a degree on that whole thing - anyone who's played competitive on any kind of intermediately high level tennis knows djokovic's thought process on that shot was, i'm pissed, i'm down two match points on my opponent's serve, i'll go for a winner on this one and try to give myself a shot at playing my way back into this, if i miss, well fuck it. it's not like, unethical in terms of tennis etiquette in the slightest, but fed is within his right to be annoyed that it actually worked.

djokovic 100% otm in his disdain for the crowd, god they were such fucking mouthbreathing dipshits

"competitive tennis on any kind of intermediately high level"