US Open
Report
Thursday, September 2,
2010
Jerry
Balsam
Gimme
Shelter
With the
temperature remaining ridiculously high, as well-documented
by Stephanie Myles, the trick was to stay in the shade and drink plenty of
water. I accomplished this with help from my uncle, who arrived early to save me
a seat in the Grandstand under the overhang. Sitting together, we could drink
water with abandon, knowing that a seat would be saved while we attended to
biological requirements. By 10:30, the seats under the overhang were all
gone, while one could have parked a tractor-trailer on the sunny
side of the court.
One of my
favorite features of the day on the Grandstand was the familiar usher, seen year
after year, who ferries spectators in and out of the seats on the shady side.
He’s got distinctive dreadlocks,
and one of the fans noted that we all get older from year to year, but he seems
to stay the same. He does his job with a smile and manages pretty well to keep
fans from blocking the aisles and views during play. He certainly had his hands
full at the ends of matches, as young fans clamored for good positions to get
autographs on their giant
tennis balls.
Regardless
of the quality of the matches, the shaded portion of the Grandstand was going to
be the place to be till late in the afternoon. As it happened, two of the three
matches I saw there were pretty good.
As is the practice with these dispatches, my report
is supplemented by photos, the full album of which may be accessed by clicking
here.
Italicized hyperlinks in the report refer to individual photos in my
album.
Grandstand: Aravane Rezaï (FRA) (18) v.
Beatrice Capra (
The teenager Capra was lucky to make
the draw as a wild card, as documented
at the Open’s Web site. I didn’t see much chance for her to win, but I certainly
hoped she would, knowing that Rezaï had met
with and presented tennis racquets to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Maybe Ahmadinejad
doesn’t really mean his blood-curdling threats. Maybe he does not have, and
never will, the means to carry them out. Rezaï’s national pride aside, however,
why take a chance on palling around with a dictator who could carry out
genocide?
Capra jumped to an early 2-0 lead, but two double
faults helped Rezaï break back. Throughout the match, Capra had the yips on her
service toss, which she must have caught twenty times. She also took periodic
short breaks with her back to the court, presumably to compose her thoughts and
visualize the next point.
Rezaï went up a break for a 3-2 lead, and Capra,
playing excellent defense, later broke back for 4-4. That was a theme for the
match: Rezaï, who worked Capra’s backhand most of the time, hit
harder and went for winners, while Capra retrieved and tried to draw
errors. When Rezaï served at 5-6, she went up 40-15, but Capra fought back to
deuce, then reaching set point with a backhand down the line that, according to
Hawk-Eye, just clipped the sideline. Rezaï dumped a backhand into the net and
the first set suddenly belonged to the youngster.
Rezaï quickly went up two breaks in the second set,
which she took easily, 6-2. As the third set began, Capra barely held serve in
the first game, as Rezaï pushed her around the court. Capra went up a break,
3-1, but Rezaï broke at love to get back on serve, 3-4. In the eighth game,
Capra went up two break points when her forehand down the line caught two lines,
as shown by Hawk-Eye. Rezaï saved both, the latter with a brave backhand down
the line for a winner. Later in the game, Capra earned a third break point with
a crosscourt backhand winner, and then Rezaï double-faulted to hand over the
game. Capra, to raucous applause, served out the match without showing any fear,
dropping only two points in the final game.
The score sheet showed that Rezaï had won 94 points
and Capra 91, symbolizing Rezaï’s greater strength. On this day, at least, Capra
had the right stuff. Next up: Maria
Sharapova.
Final
Score: Capra d. Rezaï 7-5 2-6 6-3
Grandstand: Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) (6)
v. Richard Gasquet (FRA)
A reader of my opening dispatch reminded me
that my brief bit on Davydenko omitted to
refer to him as “the
Gambler,” as I have done in prior years. Before we get into our discussion
of his second-round match against Gasquet, let’s remedy that oversight. For his
part, Gasquet has had
his
own problems with tennis officialdom, but the allegations in his case did
not go to the integrity of the sport. Since his time off, Gasquet has had
problems climbing back up the rankings, but on this day he looked like the Top
Ten player he once was.
The Frenchman played with wonderful variety,
occasionally sneaking in behind second serves kicked high to Davydenko’s
backhand, throwing in many drop shots (without much success, it must be
said), winning cheap points on his
serve, and using his versatile backhand as an all-purpose weapon. Though
he plays well behind the baseline when receiving serve, he still finds chances
to come to the net, where he is quietly effective.
Gasquet took the first break of the match in the
sixth game, when he earned break point with a beautiful backhand down the line
and then won the game on a Davydenko error. He saved a break point at 4-2 and
served out the first set, closing with a huge down-the-line backhand and an
ace.
In the second set, Gasquet saved three break points
in the fourth game and broke in the seventh, holding serve the rest of the way
to take the set 6-4. The third set was a runaway, with Gasquet breaking for a
2-1 lead, saving a break point to hold for 3-1, breaking again for 4-1 with a
screaming crosscourt forehand, saving three break points at 4-1, and — after a
hiccup of consecutive double faults at triple match point — ending the contest
with a service winner.
I’m counting this as the second good match on the
Grandstand. Though it was not close, Davydenko is a formidable player, and it
was an excellent win for Gasquet. What’s more, it was good to see Gasquet
playing up to his capabilities. It looks like he may be headed for an
entertaining all-French match against Gaël
Monfils.
Final
Score: Gasquet d. Davydenko 6-3 6-4 6-2
Grandstand: Robin Söderling (SWE) (5) v.
Taylor Dent (
The third match cannot be called
particularly good, though I enjoyed it because I like Söderling and all
the Swedes. Objectively, the most entertaining aspect of the match might have
been Söderling’s Swedish
fans, wearing yellow shirts and chanting, often in Swedish, but sometimes
not. One memorable chant provided the opening lyrics to KC and the Sunshine
Band’s That’s the Way
(I Like It).
Before the match began, fans were
murmuring that Dent
seemed a candidate for the Mardy Fish
Diet. Both players serve hard: Dent topped out at 143 mph
on the radar gun, Söderling
at 142. But there is so much more to Söderling’s game, which explains why he
could win 61% of his second serve points and 60% of Dent’s. When Dent’s
serve-and-volley mojo was working, it all looked so easy. Much of the time,
though, Söderling was able to send the serve back with plenty of mustard on it,
making problems for Dent whether he came in or stayed back. In the latter
instance, Dent got played out of rallies fairly quickly, because he just doesn’t
have the speed to cover the court the way his peers do.
It would be a waste of time to describe
pivotal points in the match, because Söderling was just better. Instead, let us
recall some vignettes.
In the sixth game of the second set,
Dent got tangled up while running to his forehand to hit a passing shot. A ball
boy had to wipe up the court afterward, because of the puddle of sweat left by a
fallen Dent. In the third set, I noticed that Dent has a tattoo on his left
triceps, which showed when his sleeve rode up. (His clothing was by
Final
Score: Söderling d. Dent 6-2 6-2 6-4
Court 16: Michaela Krajicek
(NED)/Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN) v. Monica Niculescu (ROU)/Shahar Peer (ISR)
(13)
After the third match had concluded on
the Grandstand, the worst of the sun was behind us, so I ventured to the field
courts. On Court 16, the seeded team of Niculescu and Peer took on Krajicek, a former
top 30 singles player (and half-sister of Richard), and Pelletier. Both
Niculescu and Peer are steady ground-strokers, which matters in women’s doubles,
where players tend not to serve and volley. Niculescu, a right-hander, hits with
two hands on both sides, so her forehand is cross-handed. Krajicek served
big and was powerful off the ground, but missed a lot of volleys, while
Pelletier,
a tour journeywoman, looked very solid at the net. Krajicek seemed to enjoy
herself, even allowing herself an occasional smile.
The match featured a superannuated ball
boy — spectators debated whether he should instead be called a “ball man” or
“ball grandfather” — who was nimble on his feet. With the light fading by the
time he came out, there was a limit to how good a shot I could get of him with
my camera, so this
one will have to do. Trust me, he was not young.
In the first set, a Peer lob bounced
over the back fence and into the bushes. No ball boy, elderly or otherwise,
retrieved it. After a ball change, I deemed the ball up for grabs and searched
for it in the bushes, thereby obtaining a nice
keepsake of this year’s Open. The ball still had that fresh-from-the-can
smell.
After Niculescu and Peer took the
opening set in a tiebreak, they went up early in the second set, and Peer served
for the match at 5-3. She was broken at 30 and threw her racquet to the court in
frustration. While Krajicek would smile, Peer never broke her game
face. (Interestingly, her nail
polish matched her outfit.) Peer’s frustration was short-lived, as her
team broke Pelletier at love in the tenth game, with Peer, who had been cleverly
effective at net throughout the match, ending things by burying an overhead.
(While this match was going on, I also caught glimpses of the adjoining court,
where Cara
Black and Anastasia Rodionova defeated Alberta
Brianti and Urszula Radwanska, who were substituting for Victoria
Azarenka and Dinara Safina. Black is one woman who still relishes the
serve-and-volley in doubles.)
Final Score:
Niculescu/Peer d. Krajicek/Pelletier 7-6(4) 6-4
Court 4: Liezel Huber
(
I next caught the tail end of a match
featuring the top seeds in the mixed doubles, Huber
and Bryan, who overpowered Hsieh
and Soares. One fan kept calling Bob Bryan “Mike,” which seemed funny at
the time. In any case, Bob’s big left-handed serve was an unfair advantage for
his team, even though he stayed back most of the time, presumably to cover
lobs.
Final Score:
Huber/Bryan d. Hsieh/Soares 6-4 6-3
Court 14: Elena Vesnina (RUS)/Andy Ram
(ISR) (6) v. Raquel Kops-Jones (
My final stop was Court 14, where the
sixth-seeded team of Vesnina
and Ram went to the wire with Kops-Jones
and Butorac. When I arrived, Vesnina (who had nearly beaten Sam Stosur in the
singles) and Ram (who earlier in the day had lost his men’s doubles opener in an
11-9 final-set
tiebreak to a team featuring his countryman and erstwhile partner Yoni Erlich) were up a
set and on serve in the second. When the set went to a tiebreak, Vesnina and Ram
raced to a 3-0 lead, with two mini-breaks, but the Americans took six of the
next seven points. Vesnina and Ram saved two set points to get to 6-6, but
dropped the set when Ram missed a forehand volley and Butorac put away an
overhead.
The split of the first two sets sent us
into a match tiebreak, where the winner is the first team to ten points with a
two-point advantage. The American team seemed a shoo-in, grabbing the first five
points, but then Vesnina held her two service points, and Butorac, a big
southpaw, dropped his two thanks to excellent lobs from Ram and then Vesnina.
Ram put his team in front, 6-5, by holding his two serves, and his swinging
forehand volley gave his team a mini-break and seven consecutive points, for a
7-5 lead. The momentum shifted back, with the Americans getting to 6-7 and then
taking both points off Vesnina’s serve. While this was going on, the Brazilian
fans on Court 13 were shouting themselves hoarse rooting for Thomaz Bellucci
against Kevin Anderson. Now Butorac had the match on his racquet, but Kops-Jones
missed a backhand volley to level the score, 8-8. Butorac’s ace gave his team a
match point, which Ram saved by backing up his serve with a forehand volley. Ram
followed with a service winner to give his team a match point at 10-9. With
Kops-Jones serving, Butorac netted a forehand volley, and the match had ended on
the final streak of points: three to Vesnina and Ram.
Final Score:
Vesnina/Ram d. Kops-Jones/Butorac 6-4 6-7(6) [11-9]
The match ended just short of 9:00
p.m., and I was tired from a long day in the heat, so off I went to the subway.
It was well after I returned home, at around 10:30, that the match on Court 13
came to an end. The Brazilian fans must have been devastated, as