US Open Report, August 20 2005
I made
my first visit to this year's US Open on the second day of play, accompanied by
my friend Gabriel. He and I have a history at the tournament, largely of my
worrying about him wandering off and having to explain his disappearance to his
parents. Gabriel is 12 now, and he had a cell phone with him, so I was somewhat
less nervous than in the past. On the other hand, I gave him frequent
opportunities to invoke his favorite admonition: "Chill."
Though savvy
fans do not spend too much time in Arthur Ashe Stadium (thank you, USTA, for
building that monstrosity), we did want to see Roger Federer, who was given an
11:00 a.m. start time. I got stuck in the office a little bit later than I might
have liked, and I navigated the subways with all the élan of a congressman
caught taking bribes on videotape (not realizing that the stop labeled
"Roosevelt Avenue" was really the "Jackson Heights" stop where we had to change
from the E train to the 7), so Federer was in the process of breaking Ivo Minar
for a two-set lead when we arrived.
One of the big video monitors at Ashe
was out of order. Every year, it's as though the start of the tournament comes
as a surprise, and it takes a while to work out the kinks. That's a regular
experience with the IBM online scoreboard for all the Grand Slams.
At 1-1
in the third, Federer called Norm Chryst down from the chair to check the lines,
which were becoming slippery as a result of a drizzle. The forecast had called
for rain on and off throughout the day, so it looked like we were in for a
siege. But no - Chryst determined the court playable, and it never rained again
during the long day. It was plenty humid, however, and the fans, to say nothing
of the players, were soaked with perspiration throughout the day. Indeed, some
players were to encounter problems a lot bigger than maintaining a dry
grip.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the Federer-Minar match. Minar
did not have any obvious weaknesses, but that's not quite sufficient to help one
keep up with Federer. Federer is sublime, as anyone who is reading this page
well knows. In 64 minutes, it was over, 6-1 6-1 6-1.
I tried to get onto
Court 10 for the match between Gael Monfils and Novak Djokovic, but it was
impossible. In the end, Djokovic - who needed repeated injury timeouts -
rebounded from being bageled in the fourth set to win the match 7-5 in the
fifth. But this is not an eyewitness account, other than to the extent that I
stood behind four or five rows of fans outside Court 10 and heard the end of the
match.
I continued to Armstrong, where Tim Henman was down two sets and a
break to the flashy Spanish lefthander Fernando Verdasco, not to be confused
with the flashy Spanish lefthander (and Verdasco's doubles partner) Feliciano
Lopez. Henman looked old, tired, and overpowered. He would win only one game
after my arrival, succumbing 6-4 6-2 6-2. The press accounts later said he had a
bad back, and Henman fans had better hope this was the case. But for such
extenuating circumstances, he looked like he's about ready to
retire.
Speaking of Feliciano Lopez, I continued to Court 6, where Lopez
led Filippo Volandri by two sets to one and 2-0 in the fourth. Volandri doesn't
play like my image of an Italian dirt-baller: he hits a one-handed backhand and
is not afraid of the net. But he was hurting by the time I arrived; at the 3-0
changeover, a trainer was summoned to work on Volandri's right shoulder. The
trainer applied a cream to the shoulder, which might have helped Volandri a
little bit, because Lopez dropped his serve immediately thereafter,
double-faulting on break point. Volandri returned the favor, broken back on his
own double-fault, and the trainer worked on him again. By the end, Volandri was
not serving as hard as before, and he went down 6-2 4-6 7-6 6-1. Fashion tip for
Lopez: You may want to stay away from those awful Nike capri pants on humid
days, because the seat turns nearly transparent when you sweat. Or maybe this is
all calculated to enhance Lopez's commercial appeal?
I then caught the
very end of Rainer Schuettler's victory over Potito Starace on Court 15, with
Schuettler finishing off Starace in a tiebreak. Schuettler has fallen a long way
since 2003, but he maintained his concentration while a bunch of Aussie fans
began to hoot and holler in preparation for Wayne Arthurs's match on the
adjoining Court 16.
It was time to go back to Ashe, to see James Blake,
on the rebound with his win in New Haven last week. I rejoined Gabriel, who had
added to his autograph collection on his oversize tennis ball the John Hancock
of Sesil (The Mouth) Karatantcheva, a three-set winner over Meghann Shaughnessy
in the first match on the Grandstand. When I arrived, Blake was already up 7-5
7-6 on Greg Rusedski, and the crowd was firmly in his corner. Rusedski, like
Wayne Arthurs, whom I was to see a bit later, is left-handed, is over thirty,
still has a big serve, and wears less baggy shorts than are favored by the kids
these days. The days of Borg and Vilas are long gone!
With Rusedski
serving at 2-3 in the third, Blake cracked a forehand passing shot on the run
and then took the game with a forehand return of a second serve for a winner.
That break was decisive, and Blake closed out the match, 6-3 in the third. He
relished the new exercise that takes place on Ashe, wherein the winner
autographs three tennis balls and rifles them into the stands. (Federer has
seemed to get a kick out of it, too.)
We repaired to Court 13, where
Rajeev Ram, No. 218 in the world, was serving at 3-4 in the fifth set to
Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Ram, 6'4", has a big serve and forehand, but
Wawrinka is able to generate pace off both wings, including a one-handed
backhand. Serving at 4-5, Ram saved a match point with a stretch forehand drop
volley. In the 5-6 game, he could dodge the bullet no more. At 15-15, Wawrinka
hit a good lob, which Ram allowed to bounce before netting the overhead. On the
next two points, Ram dumped forehands into the net, and it was over.
I
then went to see what the Aussies were up to on Court 16, where their man Wayne
Arthurs was down 6-3 6-3 3-3 to his fellow old-timer, Italy's Davide
Sanguinetti. I've seen Sanguinetti lose to Tim Henman in New Haven in a
split-set match in 1998 and in five sets to Tommy Haas at last year's Open. I
like to watch him because he uses his smarts to rank No. 59 in the world at age
33. He's certainly not doing it with his serve, but he's got beautiful
groundstrokes, particularly his flat crosscourt two-handed
backhand.
Whatever images one has of raucous crowds at Il Foro Italico,
the Aussies were far more vocal than the Italians at this match. They serenaded
Arthurs with various chants on the changeovers, and they paid homage to his aces
with snake-like hisses. Arthurs remains an unreconstructed net-rusher, including
the Paul Annacone-like chip-and-charge when returning second serve. This made
for a good contrast of styles with Sanguinetti, who can hit groundstrokes till
the cows come home.
The third set went to a tiebreak. At 2-2, Sanguinetti
got a look at a second serve, and he punched it for a winner. He immediately
gave back the mini-break with a short lob that Arthurs pounded. Arthurs, serving
at 3-4, had a sitter overhead, but he clipped the tape with his smash, giving
Sanguinetti a chance to hit one more lob - and Arthurs missed the second smash.
Serving at 3-5, Arthurs was passed by the Sanguinetti backhand, and he faced
three match points. On the first one, Arthurs tried the chip-and-charge on
Sanguinetti's second serve, but he popped up the return, and Sanguinetti made an
easy backhand pass to close out the match. Afterward, he lifted his racquet and
applauded the Australian fans.
My next stop was the Grandstand, where I
had to wait through two changeovers before getting in to see David Nalbandian
finish off Alex Bogomolov, Jr. Nalbandian scored the decisive break at 4-4 in
the third, while I was waiting to get in. He served out the match routinely, 6-2
7-5 6-4.
I stayed on the Grandstand to see Andy Murray take on Andrei
Pavel. Pavel, who turns 32 in January, is now No. 39 in the world, but he was as
high as No. 13 less than a year ago. Everyone thinks Murray should have received
a wild card into the US Open. He's hanging in at No. 122 in the world, and soon
he won't need wild cards anymore. Murray was wearing a brace on his left ankle,
presumably a result of his pre-Wimbledon mishaps. He can hit the ball hard off
both wings - he hits a topspin two-handed backhand and a one-hander with slice -
and his serve is capable of reaching 130 mph. His second serve is a weakness;
often, it was in the low to mid-80s. Murray came out of the gate fast, breaking
Pavel in the very first game. Pavel squared the first set with a break for 2-2,
but Murray immediately broke again with a forehand pass. To top it off, Murray
scored a second break to take the set, 6-3, hitting a nifty backhand drop volley
to close it out. A disgusted Pavel rifled his spare tennis ball out of the
Grandstand.
Pavel played two nice points at 30-30 in the opening game of
the second set to break Murray and take an early lead. He held it throughout
and, like Murray in the first set, closed out the set 6-3 with a second
break.
In the third set, the players exchanged breaks: first Murray, with
Pavel tossing his racquet, then the other way around. Murray ran into trouble
again in the eighth game. He double-faulted at 15-15, and Pavel hit a forehand
stretch drop volley to get to double break point. A backhand pass on the second
break opportunity gave Pavel a 5-3 lead, and he served out the set at
15.
With Murray down 6-3 3-6 3-6, I thought he might fold up his tent,
but the young Scotsman has a lot of fight in him. He held serve to start the
fourth set and then broke with a fantastic crosscourt backhand pass. Murray
broke a second time for 5-1 and served out the set at love. It looked like
Murray had the momentum going into the fifth set, especially when Pavel, after
escaping from 0-40 to 30-40 in the first game, netted a backhand volley for the
early break. The players held serve for two games, and then Murray, on the
changeover at 2-1, vomited twice. There was a delay while the officials tried to
figure out how to clean up the mess. (I can imagine them saying to each other:
"No, you do it.")
When play finally resumed, Murray looked done for. He
couldn't serve as hard and didn't seem to be moving that well, and he was broken
at 15 for 2-2. Pavel held for 3-2, twice wrong-footing Murray, which is not a
bad strategy when your opponent is in distress. Later, we learned that Murray
was not in such distress. He told the press that his stomach had merely reacted
badly to a sports drink. At any rate, it seemed to take a lot of courage for
Murray to hold for 3-3. The crowd cheered him after that game, and he windmilled
his arms to urge greater cheers. In the seventh game, Pavel became very
exercised when a Murray lob, called out on the baseline, was ruled good by the
umpire, making the score 15-30. At 30-40, Pavel hit a backhand wide and was
broken. He became angry enough that he was penalized a point, so Murray began
the next game serving at 4-3, 15-0. Both players held, and it fell to Murray to
serve out the match with new balls at 5-4.
Murray couldn't buy a first
serve in the big game. At 30-30, he overhit a forehand and it was break point,
but Pavel reciprocated with a backhand long. Murray reached his first match
point when a Pavel backhand pass went wide. But Pavel then cracked a backhand
return of a second serve for a winner, and it was deuce. Murray revved up a 129
mph serve for a winner and his second match point. This time, Pavel dropped a
backhand into the net, and the marathon was over, 6-3 3-6 3-6 6-1
6-4.
For much of the day, I had been struggling through tides of humanity
on the outside courts. Maybe the Open is selling more grounds passes; maybe more
people are actually using their tickets these days; maybe sophisticated fans are
spending more time in the field courts; or maybe it's some combination of the
above. At any rate, I didn't want to fight my way into another crowded court, so
I hiked over to Court 7, where the No. 6 player in the world plied his trade in
front of a crowd of under 200. That would be Nikolay Davydenko, who was playing
Tomas Zib, No. 60. Both are right-handers with two-handed backhands, and Zib is
a solid pro, but Davydenko - whom I'd never seen on television, let alone in
person - is a groundstroking machine. Prematurely balding at 24, slight of build
(5'10", 154 lbs.), Davydenko crushes forehands and backhands with moderate
topspin and a lot of pace. He is the image of a Cold War Soviet fighting
machine, a KGB assassin in short pants. Federer slices up his opponents with a
rapier; Davydenko bludgeons them.
Last year, Zib beat Davydenko in a
Challenger match in Ukraine. This year, it would be inconceivable. When I
arrived at 8:10 p.m., Davydenko led 4-1; he ended up winning the match 6-2 6-0
6-4, and the score was deceptively close. Zib shook his head in frustration,
particularly in the second set, when Davydenko fed him a bagel. Zib seemed to be
saying to himself: This shouldn't be happening. I felt like telling him: There's
a difference between No. 6 and No. 60, and it's not a fluke that Davydenko is
No. 6. I remember wondering how Nicolas Lapentti became a Top Ten player; in any
event, his stay at those lofty levels did not last long. Whether Davydenko can
sustain his current form is open to question, but off the evidence of his
first-round match at the Open, he is no impostor.
While I was watching
Davydenko put on a clinic, Gabriel managed to get into the night session at Ashe
to watch Andy Roddick take on Gilles Muller. I had seen Muller win the Boys'
Singles in 2001, and he certainly looked like a potentially decent professional,
but not too many people expected him to win this match in 2005. We made a deal
that Gabriel could stay for the first set and then we'd have to head home,
because I have a day job. Little did we know that Muller's first-set tiebreak
win would be replicated twice, but that's another story, to be told by those who
saw it.
|
|
The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
https://tennis-ontheline.com/05usojb1.htm © 2025
Last updated 26 September 2015
|