US Open: Day 9

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

I think today I am going to go straight in...

The Boys doubles has officially begun. I'll quickly go through the fortunes of the seeds. Seeds seven Geens & Rubin of Belgium and USA, respectively, came through in straight sets, as did the eighth seeds Kokkinakis & Quinzi of Australia and Italy. There were three big upsets, however. Nakagawa & Norrie beat third seeds Khachanov & Medvedev in three sets, 11-9 in the third set champions tiebreak. The Chilean second seeds Garin & Jarry crashed out in a champions tiebreak, too, to Gallequillos of Chile and Mylnikov of Canada. Redlicki of the USA and Maichrzak of Poland took out the top seeded Coric & Kozlov of Croatia and USA, 7-6, 3-6, 10-6. The sixth and fifth seeds both came through in tight two setters. Nishioka of Japan and his Peruvian partner Panta are the highest seeds left now. The fourth seeds won their match against Mexican-Franco combination.

In the boys singles:

Following his success in doubles, Geens cruised through his match 6-4, 6-0. Kokkinakis, a promising young Aussie, beat Nakagawa without difficulties 6-3, 6-3. Despite losing in the doubles, Garin came through in three against Ymer of Sweden 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The Chilean is seeded third. Tatlot of France came through 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 against Saito of Japan. The Frenchman is the sixth seed in the boys event. Clearly there are a lot of Japanese juniors around or at least there are in the boys junior circuit. Nishioka is another from Japan and he is also the eighth seed here -- he came through against the aforementioned Pole Maichrzak 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. Safiullin, the Russian fourteenth seed, came through easily, as did second seeded Italian Quinzi. The tenth and 15th seeds came through in straight sets. The ninth seeded Chung fell to Russian Rublev. Chung was the Boys runner up at Wimbledon; he lost in two close sets to Quinzi, who is seeded second here. Top seeded Zverev came through but was tested by Mexican Lopez-Villaseno. Jarry is the twelfth seed here and he won, which might make up for the early doubles loss. Khachanov is seeded 12 in the singles and he crashed out in two easy sets against American Altamirano 6-4 and 6-4.

Now, some match reveiws. The doubles is pretty much going as seeded but, in the singles, only four people seeded to reach the fourth round actually did in the top half.


Doubles: PAES/STEPANEK d. QURESHI/ROJER IND-CZE/PAK-NED
...When the fourth seed plays the fifth seed in any sport in any tournament, you expect a good match. The winners here would be into the US Open semifinals to face the Bryans, the winners of the last 3 slams and the defending Olympic champions. So much was on the line. Paes has reached nine semis here, and out of those nine times he has won twice, in 2006 and 2009, plus been runner-up a further four times so he knows the US Open semifinals well. Stepsy has two final appearances here, winning neither of them so he, too, knows what the semifinal feels like. Qureshi has three semis here, winning one and though he lost in the final, he, too, is experienced. Rojer has just one semi here, but that was last year. In this match between four experienced doubles players, the momentum swung. In the first set the fourth seeds dominated and took it six games to won. The fifth seeds know how to fight and they did so, coming back and nabbing the second set in a breaker. Interestingly, there were no break points in that second set which the fourth seeds took 7-3. In the final set, the fourth seeds broke and then eventually closed it out 6-4 in the third in two hours and twenty six minutes.
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Doubles: PEYA/SOARES d. PEERS/MURRAY AUT-BRA/AUS-GBR
...Coming into this match, none of the four players had ever been to a US Open semi. Despite that, the match these two put on was an equal to that of the other doubles match. Peers/Murray acquitted themselves well despite the stage. They lost 6-4, 6-7 [4], 6-4 in two hours and 23 minutes. Despite the loss, they finished with a positive 3-1 ratio in aces and 3-1 overall. Their opponents had a poor ratio of 2-6 and 2-6 overall. The second seeds will play the tenth seeds next up and they should win that and then they will face the indomitable Bryans in what will be a, or should be, a great match.
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Singles: DJOKOVIC d. GRANOLLERS SRB/ESP
...All those comebacks, all those come from behind wins. The grinding and the fighting has hurt Granollers. The doubles would only have added to his fatigue. It finally culminated in a thrashing -- a real drubbing -- from the world's top player. It took the Djoker just 78 minutes to put Granollers out of the Open with a 6-3, 6-0 and 6-0 victory. He had ratios of 2-0 and 34-15 overall. He also broke seven times out of fourteen break point opportunities. He won 59 per cent of receiving points and won 86 points to his opponent's 36. Granollers won just eight points against the Djokovic serve. He finished with a ratio of 2-2 and an overall ratio of 8-20, which is really very shocking. You're forced to play badly when playing the Djoker, but he was given a lesson out there.

Something interesting to note about the quarterfinals is that in every one, a singlehander plays a doublehander.
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Singles: MURRAY d. ISTOMIN GBR/UZB
...Now that the Fedal quarterfinal has been postponed or cancelled, the quarterfinal to look forward to is Djoray. Anyway, somehow he was pushed to four by Istomin. He eventually beat the Uzbeki in three hours and seven minutes 6-7 [5], 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Murray has looked very shaky this tournament and he didn't play particularly good tennis at all here. He had average stats of 5-5 in aces and an overall ratio of 38-35. He won just 15 more points than his opponent, but did serve quite well. He has lost a couple of sets here and there to opponents he probably should not lose sets to.

Istomin beat fifteenth seed Almagro in four sets and twentieth seed Seppi in five, not to mention Kamke, too. His big run finally ends at the hands of third seed Murray. He has had quite the odyssey. He has been to the fourth round of Wimbledon [2012] and was once ranked 33 in the world, but is now 65. He should hit the top fifty soon.

Murray plays Wawrinka next and I think he might lose that. He has looked wobbly and they have played some big matches before. Once at Wimbledon and once right here at the US Open. He won one of those and lost the other.
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Singles: YOUZHNY d. HEWITT RUS/AUS
...In the battle of the veterans, Youzhny came through in two minutes short of four hours, winning the duel 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 [4], 6-5, 7-5. Hewitt very nearly made another slam quarterfinal, but the Russian was just too strong for him on this occasion. I have a horrible feeling the winner is going to be pulverized by Djokovic, but no matter, because it is still an amazing achievement to make the quarters. Hewitt had respectable stats of 8-9 and 55-54 overall. His opponent was less consistent with a 9-6 and 47-63 ratio. Those stats will not cut it against the Djoker. These two shared eighteen breaks of service and Hewitt actually won one more point than his opponent did [146-145]. It has been a fantastic US Open for both of them and Youzhny is still in with a shot at the title.
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Singles: WAWRINKA d. BERDYCH SUI/CZE
...A Swiss one hander is in the quarters of the Open, but somehow it isn't Federer. Wawrinka had the upset of the day -Istomin nicking a set off the defending champ Murray is also upsettish in nature, admittedly- as he beat last year's semifinalist Berdych in four sets. Berdie has had a poor year at the slams. For a world number five a quarterfinal, first round, quarterfinal and fourth round just isn't good enough. It's as bad as Federer's... well nearly. Anyway, he lost to Wawrinka in two hours and forty-seven minutes 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 [6], 6-2. The breaker turned out to be the deciding factor in the match. The Swiss had good stats of 14-6 and 36-28 overall whilst his opponent had poor stats of 3-3 and 32-45. It looks as if Berdie was out of sorts during the match. He broke three times from six opportunities whilst his opponent broke six time from 11. Wawrinka/Murray has four sets written all over it and it should be an entertaining four setter, as well.
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