The Tennis Thread

[Chaky]

If it carries on raining they could well be forced into a Monday finish for the men's final for the third year in a row.

Unfortunately it looks like a severe lack of foresight on the part of the USTA when they were building Arthur Ashe Stadium. Apparently John McEnroe was begging them to put a roof on it at the time but they didn't listen.

Now they've got a huge problem. Broadcasters and the public want a roof. Ideally they'd put one on Ashe but structurally it was never designed to have one and the cost of converting would be something like $200m. In the current economy that seems unlikely to happen.

Alternatively they could put one on Louis Armstrong, but apparently they are both built on reclaimed swamp-land and the water table there is rising. They'd have to knock down Armstrong and the Grandstand and start again. You've also got the problem of all those corporate types with their fancy suites on Ashe who wouldn't be happy if every time it rained the action was happening on a smaller court.

Bit of a mess they're in.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Another nonstarter...

 

[Chaky]

Yesterday was all a bit farcical wasn't it? Let's hope for better weather today and some sensible decisions by the organisers.

The men in the bottom half of the draw who are still stuck in the 4th round are basically stuffed now aren't they? But I suppose if they manage to finish today and it keeps raining then this will drag into next week and they'll get their rest days.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Oh Roger. Way to squander a match point

 

[Chaky]

I have no words.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

I just really hated Nole for a moment

 

[MyNameIs]

How could someone like Federer with so much experience and skill manage to lose like THAT?

 

[Leeroi]

Serena was just absolutely dominant over Wozniacki just now.

The only way Stosur can have a chance at beating Serena is if Serena stars choking on her serves.

 

[MyNameIs]

Wow, no woman has a chance of beating Serena right now. Unless Serena has to play on one leg or something. The woman is a beast out there. Complete domination. The only time during this US Open she looked like she was reaching was during that second set against Azarenka. Everything else has been on cruise control for Serena.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

How could someone like Federer with so much experience and skill manage to lose like THAT?

I thought he showed complacency. He seriously never bothered to challenge anything! Some balls even the commentators were certain they were in. I just wish he fought a little harder like Serena does, because it wasn't like he wasn't physically up to it, he was dominating over Nole most of the time.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Whoooo-Hooooo Nole!! Two fantastic returns, to get to deuce, when Fed was serving for the match. And both were on good first serves by Fed. The first one, the forehand winner on a serve out wide was AMAZING!! And the second one, on a body serve that really handcuffed Nole was still a solid return as many players wouldn't have even gotten that back in play. And then Fed hit a forehand wide.

In the end, the stats show that Fed's Unforced Errors did him in.

And Nole's return game is one of the best the game of Tennis has EVER seen!!

KUDOS to him; what a gutsy gutsy win!

Rafa and Nole are becoming the new "show" in tennis it seems. I wonder when Muzza or Delpo or someone else will break through??

 

[purplethistle]

Listened to the Serena and Wozniaki stats recently and Serena has close to 40 winners to 5 winners by Wozniaki This kind of thing really doesn't help the questioning over Wozniaki's ranking.

 

[Scott]

yeah but look at her error ratio in comparison and it's simply because woz is such a defensive player. i really hope that this mystery coach she's hired on will help her develop a stand-out weapon she can rely on.....and get her less defensive and more evenly balanced.

really happy to see sam stosur turn what was such a dismal season round this summer. and really kind of redemptive this run.....remember last year how she led kim clijsters and was serving for it and all in the QF before just collapsing? very fitting too that this final is between two of the best servers on the women's side and they had just played in toronto. hopefully sam can play as well as she did against serena at RG last year.

 

[Chaky]

That Wozniacki-Serena match was a major disappointed. I regretted staying up late to watch it. I think Caroline has already had her wake-up call this year. She knows she needs to change stuff if she's going to be able to take out the really talented aggressive players at the end of a slam. I think almost if she lost her number one ranking it would take some of the pressure off to actually make a radical change. But the way the rankings are at the moment I think Serena could hold all four slams (if she barely played any other tournaments) and Caroline could still be number one.

 

[Scott]

just when one begins to have a little compassion for serena,once again she manages to show her lack of class and her gamesmanship. sam stosur was so obviously in a flow and she robbed that from her with her drama queen antics. she knew what she did screaming out when the point wasn't even finished yet.

i am so done with her.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Oh dear, Serena will always be Serena
I guess in her defense that point should have been replayed rather than awarded to Stosur? But either way Serena played terribly today. Stosur won deservedly.

 

[Chaky]

I guess that match went completely the opposite way to what everyone expected.

Well done Sam. Really nice to see her give this performance after the letdown of her first slam final.

And Serena, well she should know better. She can claim ignorance on the hindrance rule, but to start a rant against the umpire like that... Has she learned nothing about abusing officials? It's episodes like that that make me not want to support her. I think we got the right result in the end.

 

[Scott]

well according to tourney referee and the hinderance rule,asderaki made the appropriate and fair decision. and eva did not deserve all that childish vitriol thrown at her either during the change of ends. she was only going by the rules and again serena knew exactly what she did.

anyway,forget her.....super impressed with how sam stosur regained her rhythm. in fact i am impressed in general with her composure today and her shot-making. she was clearly in the zone. i suppose all that fighting she did and the marathons were not in vain after all. and for all the hype and anticipation in predicting serena was going to steamroll...hehe.

and now no longer is sammy labelled that player to have never won a major. again,redemption. redemptive of her season prior to the summer but also her RG final and how she lost herself against kim in last year's QF.

 

[Leeroi]

serena totally lost it today. she lost all her composure. her game was not even nearly as great in comparison to the past few days. it was like watching a totally different person out there. i wonder what happened. it'll definitely be a long road to the australian open next year.

also, i'm rooting for nadal for the finals. i only wished federer could have beaten djokovic so we could once again see a nadal/federer final.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I am done with Serena too. Not nice. And personally I am done with Nadal vs. Federer finals. Been there, done that duopoly to death. Would like to see some new combinations as well as some younger guys in tennis break through. Time for some shake up in the ATP.

Aside from that, how lovely for Sam!!! And Three new women's / WTA slam champs this year: Na Li, Petra and Sam.