Interesting First Round US Open Head To Heads

[scoop]

By Scoop Malinowski

Quirky head to head stats intrigue me so I looked up a few.

Gael Monfils and Jeremy Chardy are both 30 years old but they have only met twice on the ATP Tour, both in Grand Slams, with Monfils winning the 2009 US Open clash and Chardy winning the 2016 Wimbledon five setter. Just two meetings in over a decade – some players have actually played each other in consecutive tournaments. Heck, Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Woodforde played four times in one year.

Nicolas Almagro and Steve Johnson have played once before, a memorable five setter in Australia won by the Spaniard 75 67 62 67 62. Johnson was gunning for his first Grand Slam match win back in the first round of 2013 but Almagro denied him. They meet again in Flushing Meadows with the 32-year-old Almagro apparently at the end of his career.



Roberto Bautista Agut, the newly crowned champion of Winston-Salem will square off against Andreas Seppi at the US Open and the two veterans have only played once before – in Miami in 2012, won by Agut.

Gilles Muller and Bernard Tomic will face off at the US Open for the fifth time. Muller, currently ranked at his career high 23 has won three of their four meetings against Tomic, who is currently ranked 146. Muller won their first three matches but Tomic won the last at Queens Club last year, 76 46 62. With his ranking so low right now, Tomic surely will be giving it his best effort. But then again, nothing is ever a certainty with the eccentric Aussie.

Philipp Kohlschreiber vs Benoit Paire could be considered a bit of a mini rivalry as they have already met seven times, with the German winning four.

Borna Coric, currently ranked 62, will play Jiri Vesely, 55. Coric won their first three meeting but Jiri won the most recent 76 64 this year in Budapest.

Gilles Simon was supposed to play Marin Cilic before Andy Murray’s pullout changed the draw and now Simon will play Sam Querrey and Cilic faces Tennys Sandgren. Gillou vs Cilic would have been an interesting clash as the two baseliners have already played six times with Simon winning five.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Sharapova leads Halep 6-0 but Halep is in her best form right now and Maria is a ?

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Duke Carnoustie writes:

You guys were talking about Tommy Robredo. Crazy that four years ago at the USO, Tommy beat Fed en route to his 7th Slam QF, and many thought Fed was done. Fed looked awful in that match. Now Fed has pocketed two Slams and is 40-3 this year and Robredo, who is YOUNGER than Fed by 10 months, is in a Challenger the week of the USO.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Duke Carnoustie writes:

Anybody watch the Dolgopolov match fix? I did and I think it's obvious he fixed. Note the returns when Monteiro is serving at 5-3 in the first set. Then in the second, Monteiro is serving at 4-3 and Dolgopolov gets ahead 0-30 only to crumble with a ridiculous return on that 0-30 point. Monteiro’s serve is hardly anything special and then there are these facts : Dolgopolov had no break points on the Monteiro serve. In the past two seasons, there have been just two matches where Dolgopolov has not created a single break point chance - at the 2016 Australian Open and Wimbledon 2017, both vs. Fed. It is the first time in Monteiro's entire career that he has not faced a single break point on a hard court. Over his previous 7 hard court matches at ATP level, he had been broken 31 times.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Dan Markowitz writes:

Very suspicious, Duke. As was all the money coming in on Monteiro when he was ranked so much lower than Dolgo. But Dolgo being from the UKraine which you associate with a lot of Russian gamblers, and being a guy who's had a nice career, but has certainly under-performed, and being that it was W-S where players might be overlooking that event, it's not shocking. Be interesting to see what the Tennis Integrity Unit (TUI), love that name, verdict and possible punishment is.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

catherine writes:

Scoop - I think Simona will win this match and can't really understand why peoploe are backing Maria. Simona is younger and faster and Maria is in doubtful form physically. As long as Simona thinks tactically....

 

[Front242]

Duke Carnoustie writes:

You guys were talking about Tommy Robredo. Crazy that four years ago at the USO, Tommy beat Fed en route to his 7th Slam QF, and many thought Fed was done. Fed looked awful in that match. Now Fed has pocketed two Slams and is 40-3 this year and Robredo, who is YOUNGER than Fed by 10 months, is in a Challenger the week of the USO.

Roger did indeed look awful in that match as he did in much of 2013 due to his bad back. Along with long time retired Ferrero, Robredo is about the only Spanish player whose game I like but let's not forget he was playing a mere shell of Roger that day.

 

[Front242]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Sharapova leads Halep 6-0 but Halep is in her best form right now and Maria is a ?

Maria is a POS? Just answering the ?

 

[TFBlogGuest]

catherine writes:

Scoop probably meant 'Maria is a DOPA' but since Maria is not a doper now and hasn't been for nearly two years I can't see the relevance. Simona should lob and dropshot her to death.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

scoopmalinowski writes:

Meant Maria is a question mark. Simmer down, folks.This reporter is not anti Maria.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

scoopmalinowski writes:

Dolgopolov is a prime suspect in tanking. I think this one will be broomed under a rug. Because gambling doesnt happen on atp or wta tours just lower level tournaments. So weve been told.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

catherine writes:

Ok - I meant my comment to be taken lightly. I've really no feelings one way or the other about Maria. But Simona should still get her running up and back. Tall women aren't so good at that.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Very good digging on Dolgo Duke. I actually talked with a guy who works with tennis gambling sites - he is a friend of a friend/guy I play with in NJ. The guy is from Sweden. He said usually stories like this one with Dolgo vs Monteiro end up just fading away. He also said possible tank matches on WTA Tour never get any media scrutiny, for whatever reason.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

catherine writes:

Scoop - Gambling happens at all levels in most sports - or at least in Britain it does. The Dolgopolov thing will probably be swept under the carpet through lack of proof unless someone squeals.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

scoopmalinowski writes:

Its just a dark side of a beautiful sport. Everything that is beautiful has a dark side.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Hartt writes:

The officials were alerted right away to the suspicious betting patterns in the Dolgopolov match. I wonder if they sent anyone to observe the match and, if the match itself looked suspicious (and several people have reported it did), insist on the players' phones, etc. If they did not do this it's hard to take the TIU very seriously.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Duke Carnoustie writes:

I tried to link to the Dolgo match highlights here, I'll try again so you can watch ... https://goo.gl/dW63D7 This may get swept under the rug but will the press at the USO try to ask him about this?

 

[TFBlogGuest]

catherine writes:

Hacks will probably try to ask him but the PR blackout will be imposed and there'll be 'no comment'.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Chazz writes:

I watched the video Duke posted. To me, the biggest red flag is that Dolgo didn't seem to care at all when he missed easy shots.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Hartt writes:

Muguruza just won in SS over Lepcehenko in SS, and Kvitova in SS (7-5, 7-5) Jankovic. I predicted Garbine winning the title, so glad she got off 2 a good start. If Andrew were here he would be pleased to hear that Bouchard has teamed up with Ostapenko for doubles.