US Open 2019, Flushing Meadows, NY USA - Grand Slam (Men)

[tenisplayrla08]

Alright. First round matches to watch....
Without going back over the draw, right off the top of my head, Tsitispas/Rublev. Rublev still on the comeback trail I guess. But had his ... 4th round (?) success here a few years ago. Just got the Fed upset in Cincy.... He's feelin good. Tsitsipas is still probably the better player and more match tough and more confident. Should win it. But Rublev can win it. And he'll fight for it.
Anyways, in the same quarter you've got FAA/Shapovalov. I don't know if Shapovalov's experience will win out or FAA's youth. By FAA's youth I just mean he hasn't been through what Shapovalov is going through now. The struggle. You've had some early surprise success but you're not a surprise anymore and your game isn't totally where you want it to be. But FAA has had the injury this year. And that gives you a bit of perspective. But. Overall. I think FAA is the better player. He's got the size advantage. Should be a good match. Pulling for FAA. But I just wanna see both of them play well. I'm not sure FAA has had enough time to play himself back into form. So Shapovalov will definitely be looking to take advantage now. Before FAA becomes the best player of the future (I think FAA will be one of the top 2 or 3 guys of this young crop. But I also accept that he'll have to deal with guys older than him and Djokovic and Nadal for another few years.)
Pella/PCB, from my last post. PCB former top 15 (did he make top 10?) and a semifinalist here. Pella having his career best year. Is in great form. Seeded. PCB struggling. But I think he's on the comeback trail right? I'd bet this one at least goes four sets. But Pella should be the favorite.
I spied Pouille/Kohlschreiber I think. PK getting on up there now. But after not making the fourth round from 2003 to 2011. He's made the fourth round 5 out of 7 years from 2012 to 2018. And if I remember correctly, there have been some seriously memorable matches in there. I think he beat Isner like 2 or 3 years in a row right? Pouille always one of the more vulnerable seeds. But he is in good form and loves the US Open and has had success here. He should take it. But don't be surprised by the Kohlschreiber upset. (Looks up Kohlschreiber's US Open record.) Yeah. So he beat Isner in the third round in '12, '13, and '14. Lost to Tipsarevic, Nadal, and Djokovic in the next round respectively. And Federer in the third round in 2015. Retired first round 2016. Then lost to Fed 4th round in 2017 and Nishikori 4th round last year, after beating Zverev. Which I had forgotten about. But I enjoyed that match because I was definitely pulling for the upset.

That's all I think I remember off the top of my head. Looking back over the draw... I don't see a ton of great first round matches.
Fritz/Lopez is here though. In Medvedev's 16th in Djokovic's quarter. Fritz has been on fire mostly. He's got a ceiling. But he's been doing his best to stretch it and has definitely been playing up to it. But old Feli has all that experience. He's just said in Winston-Salem that he's definitely not ready to retire. Which, after Queens Club would you be? Heck no. He's rarely an easy out. And in 5 sets, he's bound to get a set via tiebkeak if he has to.
Fognini/Opelka sticks out. Fognini always vulnerable on hard courts. Opelka playing well, up to his ability, of late. He'll look to take advantage.
Tsonga/Sandgren could be good.
Maybe Herbert/de Minaur could be good.
Hurkacz/Chardy. Hurkacz at a point where he should be the favorite in this. And he is. But Chardy an old vet who can take advantage of a guy like Hurkacz if he's not at his best. Chardy usually entertaining to watch as well.
Maybe watch Thiem/Fabbiano. Thiem has been down right atrocious since RG. Then he had a virus and lost in Canada, then pulled out of Cincy. If he's healthy, he can handle Fabbiano on zero preparation. But Fabbiano will give him everything he's got. As we saw at Wimbledon.
Berrettini/Gasquet. Berrettini had a great grass court season. But we've heard nothing out of him since. Gasquet just made his first master semi in 6 or 7 years. Berrettini has the height advantage that should give him the serve advantage on hard courts. But so far in his career it hasn't so much. And Gasquet, now healthy and feeling good, probably won't repeat his long run from Cincy. But he can pull an upset or two. And while I'd pick RBA to take out Gasquet in the third round, it's a match Gasquet can win. He's landed in a spot that he could pull a run to the quarters out of the hat.
Karlovic/Tiafoe. Tiafoe continues to struggle, but he's got the talent and the winner of this gets Zverev/Albot.

Then a couple of matches that aren't actually matches you'd usually care to watch but may have a story line or something like that.
Querrey/Londero, only because the winner gets Djokovic in the second round and I'd love to see Querrey take on Djokovic in a slam again. He'll lose this time. But I wanna see it.

Kudla/Tipsarevic, only because it could be Tipsarevic's last slam match. He's announced his retirement for later this year.

Darcis/Lajovic. Lajovic seeded. But that's from the clay season. Darcis 35 now. Almost certainly not gonna win this match. But Lajovic is always vulnerable on the hard courts. And they've only played once at the main ATP level and Darcis won it, on a hard court. But in challengers Lajovic won, on clay. I only mention this because it's a possible upset of a seed. But not super likely.

Wawrinka/Sinner. Wawrinka almost certainly wins this. But the 18 year old qualifier is much hyped. Worth watching just to see what he's got. He's not one of these giants. He's only 6'2" (188cm). So Stan actually has him beat in the size department too. I know nothing about this kid though. This would be one of the few I'd pick from this group to put in the actual list of first rounders to watch.

Svajda/Anderson. Svajda is the Kalamazoo winner this year. He's only 16. And only 5'9" (179cm). Not a threat to Anderson. Good for him to win the Boys Nationals in Kalamazoo. Good for him to have this slam experience. Probably not actually worth watching more than a few minutes. But if you care about the youngsters, and I mean, he's only 16. Here ya go.

Looks like I missed Kwon/Dellien in my qualifiers write up. So I'll give Kwon a mention here because I wanted to mention all of the qualifiers. Winner of this one gets Medvedev. So doesn't totally matter.

Nadal/Millman. Nadal wins this. I won't be watching it. But if you think Millman deserves some eye time after this upset of Fed last year and making the quarters here, this is your only chance.

If you just always wanna watch Fed, I don't know anything about this qualifier from India that he's playing. Fed may not either. Therefore he needs to show up and take this guy seriously. Rublev upsetting Fed last week doesn't give me huge cause for concern though. Fed hadn't played since Wimbledon. He obviously wasn't at his best. But he was clearly treating Cincy as a warmup for the US Open. Sure he loves Cincy and had final points to defend. But I think he was mostly just trying to get back in the swing of things after the tough Wimbledon loss.

Raonic/Jarry and Sock/Cuevas. The winner of these two matches will play each other. They sit in Fed's quarter, in Nishikori's 8th, Coric's 16th. Jarry is tall like Raonic. Raonic still probably the better player and probably wins that one. And I'm just curious if Sock can ever win a singles match again. If he can, 33 year old dirtballer Cuevas is the guy to do it to. But Cuevas will make him play. And if he can't find some sort of form, Cuevas will beat him. If he can beat Cuevas, he'll likely lose to Raonic or Jarry though. So doesn't totally matter.

 

[atttomole]

So the qualifiers got placed today and a couple of them got some nice spots. I'm gonna start at the bottom, because of Chung. But that means we mention Ivashka first. He gets Kokkinakis, the Aussie wildcard. Who he is ranked 60 spots ahead of. They've never played though. Ivashka a couple years older. Kokkinakis may be oft injured talented one who everyone knows. But Ivashka can win this match.
Next is Chung. He's drawn Escobedo, a wildcard, who he is better than and should beat. He's ranked higher even after missing so much time with the back injury. I guess just coming back he could still be a bit vulnerable. BUT Escobedo did just win the Granby challenger and make the semis in Aptos, CA, losing to Koepfer. But Chung should still take that match and then he'll play the winner of Verdasco and Kamke (another qualifier). Kamke has been an also ran his entire career. Good for him to qualify, but Verdasco will not be an easy out. But he got lucky facing Verdasco over a Fed or Nishikori. Still should be Chung/Verdasco and Chung is completely capable of winning that one too. So we could get Chung/Nadal in the third round and I'd love to see that one. You gotta feel Nadal has been so good of late that Chung, just getting back into the swing of things, probably can't take him. But it's still a pretty top tier match for Nadal. Not a cake walk on paper. But we know Nadal can always turn any match into a cake walk. Then again, I always enjoy Verdasco/Nadal. But at this stage, Verdasco can't really put up the fight he needs to to make that one interesting.

GG Lopez has a winnable match against Isner. Though Isner should win it. Winner gets Struff or Ruud. Gotta think it's gonna be Struff. Ruud is a dirtballer from what I know. Plus terribly inconsistent so far. Nadal's quarter no matter what.

In the 16th above Isner you've got Gerasimov. He gets Lloyd Harris. Should be a win for Lloyd Harris. But not the toughest opponent Gerasimov could have gotten. The key thing here is that the winner will play Schwartzman or Hasse. I can see all four of those players beating each other. So a good opportunity for a non seed to make the third or fourth round here. Especially because Khachanov is on the other side. He gets Pospisil first. Then Tsonga or Sandgren. Khachanov really good when he's on. But definitely one of the more beatable players in the top 10. Especially for guys with the experience of Tsonga. Could end up being a surprise quarterfinalist out of this eighth. Because Zverev and Paire are the seeds in the other 16th and Tiafoe (has to get by Karlovic first) but could face Zverev second round. And Canadian Schnur could give Paire a fight in the first round. No qualifiers in the Zverev 16th though.

The next quarter up, still Nadal's half, only has one qualifier. But 2 wildcards. And that one wildcard is Giraldo and he gets Bublik. Gotta think with the wins Bublik has been getting that Giraldo is not gonna be a factor. But Bublik has definitely shown himself to be inconsistent. Giraldo will relish the opportunity for sure. But this will probably be the only quarter where qualifiers are not a factor.

In in the bottom of Fed's quarter, Nishikori's half, you've got Trungelleti against Nishikori, tough break for Trungelliti. Though Nishikori has been struggling and mentioned he's having breathing problems. Still. Trungelleti does not seem to me to have the goods to take on Nishikori as long as he can play. Then Donskoy gets Coric. Coric has definitely been struggling since the .... ab injury (?) took him out of Wimbledon. So while I'm inclined to think Donskoy doesn't stand much chance, Coric is vulnerable. Plus, Donskoy is the guy who beat Fed in Dubai last year right? I think. So he's not entirely useless. Fed beat himself that match. But still.

Then in Fed's half of the quarter, but in the 16th below him, you've got the Frenchman Barrere against Norrie. Norrie has shown some good stuff. AND Barrere just lost to Norrie a couple weeks ago in Los Cabos (hard court). But Barrere has 2 hard court Challenger titles this season. Winner gets Goffin. Moutet (not a qualifier) will likely give Goffin a push. But Goffin should come through. Then you've got Vesely against Berankis, who is usually a qualifier himself. So I'd actually have Vesely as the favorite there, though, if Berankis is ranked high enough to not have to qualify, he must be playing fairly well. Winner gets seeded Pella or PCB though. Tough first rounder for Pella. Though with Pella's form of late, you'd say it's a tough first round for PCB. Still. PCB a former semifinalist here. He'd love to take advantage of this spot in the draw. But so would Vesely. I would like to see Pella do well. But I really don't know who will come out alive. Goffin will probably beat whoever he meets. But... Goffin would certainly have to be considered one of the more vulnerable seeds. Just made his first masters final. He's amazing. Moves great. Gets so much back. So creative. But against these bigger guys, he's just beatable. Hence Medvedev's straight sets victory in Cincy final.
Goffin and Pella of course, if you've been paying attention at all, have just split their last 2 meetings in Canada and Cincy. The h2h sits 4-1 in Goffin's favor. But it's a close match up. They played here just 2 years ago and went five sets with 3 tiebreaks in the middle 3 sets, Goffin winning the second and fourth sets, and then the fifth set. But he was down a set and 2 sets to 1 and still pulled it out. But we know his grand slam record isn't great. Once they come around, he has a bit of a mental block, but also, guys are just able to take advantage of his weaknesses.

Then poor Bechetrit and Nagal. Nagal's first slam main draw and he gets Fed first round. And then Benchetrit, if he can beat Dzumhur, gets Fed in the second round. Fed should have no problems with any of them. As long as he shows up and takes them seriously.

Then in the first quarter, you've got Brooksby the young American qualifying only to get Berdych first round. Berdych not the player he used to be. And Brooksby has just won 2 ITF events back to back, losing only a set along the way. But he played absolutely nobody. A bunch of unranked and sub 300 and 500 players. Then he lost to Escobedo in the first round Aptos, CA challenger. Soooo I'm gonna say Berdych is the favorite there. Brooksby the only American man to qualify though. And he got a wildcard into the qualifying event. He lost to Millman in the first round of the main draw last year after getting a wildcard for winning the Kalamazoo National junior event.

Then Koepfer gets Munar. Munar solid. But best on hard courts. So Koepfer will look to take advantage. And with Fognini or Opelka as the second round opponent, Koepfer should see an opening. But they all should of course. Could be a good sport for Opelka to make the third round or further. With Basilashvili as the the seed on Berdych and Brooksby's side, Berdych will see an opportunity to make the fourth round. But all around, a fairly open 16th.

The last qualifier (actually the first I guess) is 18 year old Sinner. Good for him to qualify. Everyone is excited about him. Especially in Italy. But he's drawn Wawrinka. Tough break. Wawrinka may not be at his top 3 ways anymore. But he shows that level in spurts all the time and young Sinner probably doesn't stand much chance. Maybe he gets a set. I know nothing about him. So maybe he's amazing and I'm unaware. But even the truly amazing youngsters have to acclimate to the level at the tour and Wawrinka is right at the top of that level. The kid is the youngest player in the top 340 or something like that. Probably a bright future ahead. But that probably doesn't start here.

My heart was pounding when I read Nagal. I was I thinking it was a typo (Nadal) and that they redid the draw.

 

[Carol]

Haha, You know nothing little signora, I’m far from being fanatic, you are for your male cow. Every time someone isn’t friendly posting about the dirty one, you became furious like a mother defending her child .
I like tennis and many players, from big 3 Novak and Roger, in this order. I really dislike the cow because of his behaviour and gamesmanship.
I don’t believe you, you want your cow to win, so you cannot hope he will play the best HC player.

LOL I see how you are jumping when you read something that you don’t like about your ugly frog, and don’t tell me anything about behavior and gamesmanship when your ugly frog Is the worst in all the ways, breaking rackets, yelling the ballboys, talking to his box, chancing coaches like socks, besides he is an hypocrite hugging the opponent after to finish the match, same like you saying that you like Roger, come on!!!!when you can tell that you don’t like anyone, but the Serbian. By the way, are you Serbian?

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Kevin Anderson has withdrawn with a right knee injury he will be replaced by Lucky Loser Paolo Lorenzi (Italy) will play against WC Svajda.

 

[Andy22]

Aside from this Wimbledon Rafa has had major donut draws for awhile. Cilic probably won't even reach 4th round. Hopefully Khachanov gets to QF and runs him ragged.

Nadal does have a hard at this year's us open, D.thiem 2 time finalist, us open champion M.cilic, AO semi finalist Verdasco, + hard court king Djokovic if he makes it that far.

 

[Fiero425]

Nadal does have a hard at this year's us open, D.thiem 2 time finalist, us open champion M.cilic, AO semi finalist Verdasco, + hard court king Djokovic if he makes it that far.

Oh please! Spare me the pity party for this AH! People are talking about Rafa's early rounds and it's a clear path with patsies & pigeons!

 

[Andy22]

Forever is a long time, and your boy may be exposed by then and then his career is nothing.

Sadly old mate Federer going to end up 3rd the goat list with Nadal + Djokovic both passing him nadal 22, Djokovic 21, Federer 20 that's just a guess but most likely something like that.

 

[Andy22]

Oh please! Spare me the pity party for this AH! People are talking about Rafa's early rounds and it's a clear path with patsies & pigeons!

Ok wantever say you even all these players, have a beaten a member of the big 3 before..

 

[DarthFed]

Sadly old mate Federer going to end up 3rd the goat list with Nadal + Djokovic both passing him nadal 22, Djokovic 21, Federer 20 that's just a guess but most likely something like that.

Not if there is any justice in the world. Can't allow that inferior sauced up peasant to end up on top.

 

[kskate2]

US Open Order of Play for Round 1 Monday, August 26, 2019

 

[Andy22]

Not if there is any justice in the world. Can't allow that inferior sauced up peasant to end up on top.

Sounds good to me, Djokovic could have one of those I don't care seasons, or get injured and Federer not winning much more, so Nadal comes out as the leader of the pack.

 

[Fiero425]

Sounds good to me, Djokovic could have one of those I don't care seasons, or get injured and Federer not winning much more, so Nadal comes out as the leader of the pack.

You can dream I guess; maybe hallucinate! Whatever gets you thru the night! :whistle: :cuckoo:

 

[mrzz]

So we have a Fegal in R1

 

[Bonaca]

LOL I see how you are jumping when you read something that you don’t like about your ugly frog, and don’t tell me anything about behavior and gamesmanship when your ugly frog Is the worst in all the ways, breaking rackets, yelling the ballboys, talking to his box, chancing coaches like socks, besides he is an hypocrite hugging the opponent after to finish the match, same like you saying that you like Roger, come on!!!!when you can tell that you don’t like anyone, but the Serbian. By the way, are you Serbian?

Again wrong Miss Carol.
All I wrote I mean so. It’s the truth, nothing but the truth haha.
I’m no fanatic, I don’t hate your cow, I don’t wish him injuries like others do or hope he ends his career. I even do not hope for upsets when Novak is still in tournament!!!
What I do hope, strongly, is that your cow and Novak play as often as possible before they retire. In every possible occasion, no matter what tournament, which round or surface.
You too?? Than we have something big in common.
I’m no Serbian. Are you Spanish women or a relative of the cow?

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Time to see what the bookies think.

Contenders:

1. Novak 5/4 ~ 44.44%
2. Ralph 7/2 ~ 22.22%
3. Roger 8 ~ 11.11% (Nice pattern in the percentage chances of Big three players)

Pretenders:

4. Medvedev 14 ~ 6.66%
5. Thiem 33 ~ 2.94%
6. Perseus / Sasha 40 ~ 2.44%

Honorable Mentions:


8. Man / Khachanov / RBA 66 ~ 1.49%
11. Samurai 70 ~ 1.41 %
12. Cough Drop / Bad Boy 80 ~ 1.23%
14. McFly / Alisame 100 ~ 1%

 

[Front242]

Sounds good to me, Djokovic could have one of those I don't care seasons, or get injured and Federer not winning much more, so Nadal comes out as the leader of the pack.

I like your honesty which is funny really considering your nick. Basically you're right though, he's gotta rely on/hope for the above scenario to pan out to stand a chance outside of clay.

 

[Fiero425]

Time to see what the bookies think.

Contenders:

1. Novak 5/4 ~ 44.44%
2. Ralph 7/2 ~ 22.22%
3. Roger 8 ~ 11.11% (Nice pattern in the percentage chances of Big three players)

Pretenders:

4. Medvedev 14 ~ 6.66%
5. Thiem 33 ~ 2.94%
6. Perseus / Sasha 40 ~ 2.44%

Honorable Mentions:


8. Man / Khachanov / RBA 66 ~ 1.49%
11. Samurai 70 ~ 1.41 %
12. Cough Drop / Bad Boy 80 ~ 1.23%
14. McFly / Alisame ~ 1%

Oh please, how did Goffin even get 1%? :cuckoo:

 

[Nadalfan2013]

For people complaining about the draw unfortunately the U.S. Open cannot afford Djokovic on one side and Federer and Nadal on another side. Nadal and Federer are by far much bigger ticket sellers and bigger draws with the public compared to Djokovic so they can’t have half of the days of the tournament with only Djokovic cause sales would suffer. They tried it before and it was ugly. So they had no choice but to put Federer and Djokovic on the same side so the tickets are also good for those days while Nadal can take care of the other side. That way on each day they have either Nadal or Federer and ticket sales would be strong on every day.

 

[Carol]

Again wrong Miss Carol.
All I wrote I mean so. It’s the truth, nothing but the truth haha.
I’m no fanatic, I don’t hate your cow, I don’t wish him injuries like others do or hope he ends his career. I even do not hope for upsets when Novak is still in tournament!!!
What I do hope, strongly, is that your cow and Novak play as often as possible before they retire. In every possible occasion, no matter what tournament, which round or surface.
You too?? Than we have something big in common.
I’m no Serbian. Are you Spanish women or a relative of the cow?

 

[Moxie]

Not if there is any justice in the world. Can't allow that inferior sauced up peasant to end up on top.

But he already IS on top. Oh, wait...I thought you meant the juiced-up Swiss goatherd. When Nadal passes him, it'll be justice, alright.