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US Open
Reports (report #4 of 7)
by Pierre
Cantin
Hello!!! Well
it's 11:45PM! It really seems like this week I will not be going to bed early
after all, not that I'm complaining though:) I'm having a great week really!
Wednesday, I expected another big day of tennis for me with lots of players I
wanted to see in action. I was probably going to stay away from the big courts
which sadly meant I would miss some interesting matches like Vera Z (but I was
confident, I mean she is going to win the whole thing isn't she?!).
I got to the
site at about 9:45AM and entered shortly after, again for some reason, not too
many interesting practices were being held at the time, I went to watch Taylor
Dent for a while, he was hitting serves so I was practicing my "take serving
photos" skills, was kind of tough with him but hey:) I then headed to other
courts, most notable player I saw was Gagliardi I guess, took a few photos and
shortly after went towards court #6 where Iveta Benesova was playing. I was
curious as to how she would be able to handle all those spins from Patty
Schnyder, another player I like as well. The match went by very strangey, Iveta
had a slow start but then came back and even got a 4-2 lead, at that point, I
was honestly feeling pretty confident about her chances, but for some reason,
everything changed at that point. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I think
for sure Schnyder stopped taking chances and relied on a few things. First of
all, Benesova's 2nd serve was a very apparent weakness,
Patty hit many winners off of the serve and really did not seem to have any
problems getting to it and hitting solid returns. Also, for some reason, Iveta's
movement seemed deficient today. The number of times she got wrong-footed was a
bit astonishing, I didn't know what wass going on, she was pretty upset at
herself but I mean, I don't know, I didn't think Patty's shots could really
explain why this was happening all the time. And thirdly, during rallies, Patty
was putting lots of top spin thus getting her shots comfortably over the net
while her opponent was hitting more flat and thus in the long run, she was
missing more shots. So unfortunately, I guess Iveta did not have her A game and
it seems as though after all Patty's game was not a good match. The second set,
compared to the first one was very easy for Patty, her opponent was frustrated
and hitting lots of errors because of it... I guess Iveta will know some things
to work on as she continues her great improvement this year!
After
the match, which wasn't that long, I headed towards court #10 but it was just
too crowded for the
Dulko-Sugiyama match so I went to #17 to watch Grande and Pennetta
play doubles... Honestly, I still don't understand why Denisa Chladkova keeps
her haircut so short, anyway, I guess it's besides the subject but I felt I had
to talk about it! Anyway, so that doubles match was pretty interesting, some
nice shot-making, and Flavia Pennetta was having a lot of fun on the court,
which is always a lot of fun to watch. There were many Italians who were
watching the match as well!
Then, I went
walking around the courts, looking for what to do while Sebastien Grosjean
continued his match (Golovin was to follow on #13), and suddenly I saw a very
interesting practice court:) On that court, there was Magdalena Maleeva,
Nathalie Dechy, Maria Kirilenko and Vera Douchevina! I had so many things to
look at once, was trying to take lots of photos and was also trying to see what
they were doing. It was kind of funny because Maria and Vera clearly were the
least experience. While it didn't happen once (from what I saw) for Maggie and
Nathalie, on several occasions, Maria or Vera sent
the ball on the side of the court of Vera and Nathalie, which they were
appologizing for every time, it was quite funny to be honest:) Maria had a cute
shirt as you can see in the photo here.
Finally, as
their practice ended, I went to get myself some pizza (9$US for those
interested), and went to get my seat for Tatiana's match against Akiko Morigami.
I think that was a very interesting match, it was much closer than the score
would let you think. Both players seemed very good at building the points and
then once they got the ball they wanted, they could hit the winner.
I was impressed by Tatiana's fighting, she was not only fighting Morigami but
also herself on many occasions as she was clearly very upset with her first
serve for example. But she always stayed focused, tried to be on the offensive
and keep the control of the match. It was much harder resistance than I had
expected for sure. But Tatiana was hanging in there, doing her best to keep
control of the match and I guess hoping to see at one point Akiko lose her
rythm. And at the start of the second set that is exactly what happened, with
Tatiana still controlling most of the rallies and making her opponent run a lot,
she saw Morigami seem a little more tired and start to make some unforced
errors. When Tatiana was finally able to consolidate a break, the match was
pretty much over, I mean it was 2-1 I think but Morigami started missing shots
by much bigger ranges and just honestly was not in there anymore, Tatiana was
feeling it and I think she made a few mistakes in that regard. I mean, when your
opponent is making mistakes all over and beating herself, why would you want to
go to the net? That is what she did, Morigami hit a great passing shot and it
gave her life for a few minutes.. luckily for Tatiana, that burst of energy did
not last too long!!!
I
finally left the match midway just minutes before it ended because I wanted to
get myself a good place for Maria Sharapova's mixed doubles match and wow, good
thing I did. I got there 30 minutes in advance and it was already filling up!
With 10 minutes to go, you could say court #4 was filled up! And when I heard a
voice behind me: "How come it's so crowded here, is someone going to be
playing?", I looked back thinking "uhhh.. what the.. ", but then saw a big
smile, it was Maria's dad, Yuri, he was with Max's dad, and they were looking
for some places, but none were left!!! They were 2, and coach Robert Landsorp
and her agent joined in moments later..! So finally we squeezed in, Yuri was
behind me with Robert while her agent was next to me and Max's dad a little bit
to my left, honestly, I can say her dad is a very nice, down to earth guy, he
made lots of jokes, talked with people around him, it was great really! He told
me pretty much that Maria was playing mixed doubles instead of doubles because
"she has a good chance of getting very far with Max", and I do agree with that
statement:) Her agent also talked about upcoming tournaments for her, etc..
anyway, it was interesting. Back to tennis though, Maria and Max played solid
tennis, the two others certainly were a bit intidimated or "unfocused" at the
start of the match because of the large crowd, but it was a very entertaining
match. Maria and Max won, which made pretty much everyone happy, I got lots of
photos, as did hundreds of others, and we all had fun. Yuri seemed to like Maria
playing mixed doubles because of two things, obviously playing doubles will
improve her game, especially net game but also, he liked to see her smile and
thus relax during the match, something he seemed to think (I agree), she's been
having problems with since Wimbledon with all the attention and expectations on
her...
After
Maria's match, I saw mostly two matches, a little doubles from Iveta Benesova
and Eva Birnerova, they played against two young Americans who honestly were not
playing that great. But some problems on serve for Birnerova helped them stay in
the game and even get some set points, I was happy to see the two Czeck players
prevail in the end though. They do make an interesting pair to watch.
But most of
the end of my day was spent on court #4, watching Vera Douchevina and Marion
Bartoli. I like both players a lot and was not sure who to root for so I went
with just hoping for a good match.. Well the first set was pretty tight, Marion
had some problems with a leg but the rallies were of good quality but I just
didn't sense any spark in Vera, any intensity that would have showed me how much
she wanted to win... Marion won the first set but her phycial situation was
deteriorating, she had to see a trainer, got the other leg taped as well and was
clearly in more and more pain as the match went on.. I then started to root for
Vera as I saw some
sparks, even a few fists in the air, she was really trying. She seemed to have
decided she would simply try to make it as painful for Marion to continue as
possible, ok maybe that sounds harsh but you know what I mean. She played longer
rallies, trying to make Marion run as much as possible from side to side,
bringing her to the net, hitting lobs, etc.
Marion was in
more and more pain and when it was 2-2, she had a setback that saw her lose the
following 4 games... Vera must have been pretty confident. Then, the third set
started, at that point, I saw no way Marion could hang in there, or could she?
The first game lasted for at least 5 minutes, or so it seemed, they were having
these huge rallies, with Bartoli seemingly suffering more and more, but
Douchevina was playing smart, sticking to her game, she did go down an early
break and even went down 2-1 with a break but even at that point, it seemed
obvious Vera would win, how could she not, how could Marion even play with this
much pain... But as points were going on, I guess we all kept thinking, what if
she does do it, what if she can take this through and win the match, it seemed
impossible but every shot made that reality a little closer... But then, what
everyone had expected by then happened, Marion's body started to give in, she
was not able to run from side to side anymore, she had to force things, go to
the net, Vera was keeping her calm and I was pretty happy for her, she slowly
but surely advanced with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win, that was great wasn't it? She had
played smart, patient tennis and was in her first ever grand slam 3rd round. Or
was it really that great? Moments after the match, Marion barely reached her
chair and started crying, I guess we all knew how painful keeping up had been
and I had not really thought about how much it would hurt to see it had been in
vain, I guess she had worked hard for this US Open and to see it come to an end
because of an injury like this was just killing her, I guess the photo here
explains it better than I ever could... The few of us left in the stands were
without words as she stayed there for a few minutes and then started to try to
walk off the court, it was a sad moment... Sport can be so cruel sometimes...
So anyway,
after that moment, I headed to Grandstand, saw the end of the Bryan brothers
doubles and headed back to my hotel room, with another big day awaiting
tomorrow:)
