I was particularly delighted to see the back of Andy Roddick's latest challenge to win a Grand Slam. He had his chance earlier at Wimbledon and I'm sorry to say he'll never get a better one. He is destined to finish his career as a 'one-slam-wonder'. Maybe 'wonder' isn't the right word. With success being measured by the number of Grand Slam wins, I'm afraid he, Murray and Djokovic have miles to go in order to even be remembered in 10 or 20 years' time.
Novak Djokovic struggled through his 3rd round match with the unknown Witten, whilst Murray, somewhat disappointingly for me, eased his way past Taylor Dent this morning. It wasn't even worth Dent turning up.
I had a great time watching the walking circus known as Vera Zvonareva. Her emotional breakdown after failing to convert zero of six match points was extremely entertaining. She was shouting at herself, hitting herself on the head, smashing her racquet around, messing with these bandages on her knees, ripping it half off, then at the interval having a new one strapped on. Then in the following game off it came again, well part of it at least. Then she was covering her head with her towel, hitting balls against the back wall, and it goes on and on.
Teenager Melanie Oudin has caused quite a stir, eliminating both Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova in consecutive rounds with some blinding tennis that has caught many by surprise. She is one to watch for the immediate future, with another possible shock on the cards as she next takes on Nadia Petrova.
Nadal, Del Potro, Tsonga and Gonzalez all made it through and are placed in the same half of the draw along with Murray, making it terribly tough for all of them to fit into the one final berth.
And then we are left with the great man, Roger Federer. He laboured through his match with Hewitt and must have been glad to see Robredo defeat Blake, whom he will be facing tomorrow morning. Federer's half of the draw is much more straight forward though, with a possible QF against Davydenko or Soderling, with Djokovic or Verdasco as his most likely SF opponent, neither of which will give him too much trouble.
So it's looking good for Federer although he really must improve his performance and cut out the errors from now on if he is to triumph for the 6th consecutive time here. On the women's side, Kim Clijsters is in great shape, underlined by her victory over Venus Williams, although she is on course for a SF showdown with sister Serena. Svetlana Kuznetsova is the only big name left on the other side of the draw and must see this as a great chance to add to her Grand Slam collection.
All in all, it's been a great competition so far and I'm looking forward to the thrills yet to come. I'm confident Federer is able to up his game whenever he needs to, and I'm sure he will comfortably make the final. As long as he's not up against Nadal, I feel he will have no problems emerging triumphant again. If Nadal manages to control his knees and reach the final, we could be in for another epic.
Sit back and enjoy the U.S. Open!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your thoughts, comments and opinions. I'll be responding soon! I will not be publishing anonymous comments so make sure you leave your name with your comment!