US Open Day 8: Monday, Sept 2 - Order of Play

[nehmeth]

Poor mens doubles. This was supposed to be the night they got showcased and it's all gone pear shaped for them.

 

[Riotbeard]

Pathetic netted forehand.

 

[DarthFed]

Let's go Dickie

 

[DarthFed]

Good win for Gasquet. Now hopefully he can take out Daveed!

 

[the AntiPusher]

Darth? Darth? DARTH!

Someone call 911. I think Darth had a heart attack.

All along many were saying Darth is overly critical of fed. It looks like he is right.

Federer is capable of summoning The Mighty Fed for a set, set and a half these days against anyone who puts up a fight. Pete dropped to #17, I believe, when he was 32, before pulling off his last USO.

But I don't think this version of Fed could have taken the 2002 USO if you gave him Pete's draw. Roger is sinking like a stone and I would think he'll drop out of the top ten pretty soon. Father Time is giving him a beating...

"And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."– after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...laitis.jpg

 

[tented]

Not exactly known for his stamina or fight, I'm surprised, but delighted, Gasquet pulled it off.

 

[Moxie]

Darth? Darth? DARTH!

Someone call 911. I think Darth had a heart attack.

All along many were saying Darth is overly critical of fed. It looks like he is right.

Federer is capable of summoning The Mighty Fed for a set, set and a half these days against anyone who puts up a fight. Pete dropped to #17, I believe, when he was 32, before pulling off his last USO.

But I don't think this version of Fed could have taken the 2002 USO if you gave him Pete's draw. Roger is sinking like a stone and I would think he'll drop out of the top ten pretty soon. Father Time is giving him a beating...

"And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."– after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...laitis.jpg

Perhaps it's a good time to remember that today is Jimmy Conners' birthday. Happy birthday, Jimbo!

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

more shock news as richey toughs out a 5 setter.. makes a change.

milos's volleying seems to have improved a bit at least.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Darth? Darth? DARTH!

Someone call 911. I think Darth had a heart attack.

All along many were saying Darth is overly critical of fed. It looks like he is right.

Federer is capable of summoning The Mighty Fed for a set, set and a half these days against anyone who puts up a fight. Pete dropped to #17, I believe, when he was 32, before pulling off his last USO.

But I don't think this version of Fed could have taken the 2002 USO if you gave him Pete's draw. Roger is sinking like a stone and I would think he'll drop out of the top ten pretty soon. Father Time is giving him a beating...

"And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."– after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...laitis.jpg

Perhaps it's a good time to remember that today is Jimmy Conners' birthday. Happy birthday, Jimbo!

Thanks Moxie!! That's why I posted this quote.. Happy Birthday James Scott Conners....one of the greatest warrior everclap

 

[Riotbeard]

Tonight was one of those perfect examples of why Nadal has had the EXTENT of success that he has, beating players in the Top 10, Top 20, and Top 30 as much as he has. It most certainly is not because of superior shotmaking ability (today's match showed that beyond a shadow of a doubt) or superior talent for actually playing the game of tennis, but because of his immense stamina and the mental profile of persistence, constany, and consistency that he possesses. When Kohlschreiber had his legs under him in the first set and was fully executing his offense (and this goes for later parts of the match too), his shots were simply too much for Nadal to handle. Yes, Kohlschreiber's serve helped, but he also owned Nadal from the baseline quite a bit tonight.

How many matches has Nadal won over the course of his career by simply out-lasting opponents? The other guy comes out on fire and shows he has too much game for Nadal, but then Nadal goes into gnat-mode and just chases everything down, mixing in some opportunistic offense and keeping the unforced errors low and the double faults nonexistent. Then the other guy eventually cracks with a couple errors and Nadal - with his immense stamina - is ready to play for another six hours. He has done this to Federer, Del Potro, Nalbandian, Gulbis, Murray, Kohlschreiber tonight, and many others.

There are three particular things that stood out to me in this match:

1) All of the hilarious points when Kohlschreiber simply dominated Nadal from the back of the court and hit clean winners.

2) How Nadal responded physically and mentally after losing the first game of the third set when it went to deuce about ten times on Kohlschreiber's serve. He came back as primed physically and engaged mentally as one could be. This is what I mean about immense stamina and mental persistence. These are clearly the attributes that separate Nadal more than actual tennis-playing ability, because Kohlschreiber had much more in the way of great baseline winners today. Nadal had his share, but Kohlschreiber was superior in that regard.

3) The point at 30-40 in the first game of the fourth set when Kohlschreiber missed the overhead. That point is an excellent snapshot of Nadal's career, in a very significant (but not total) sense. He is scrambling, running, chasing balls down, forcing one more shot - and then the other guy misses the shot. Nadal wins the point because the other guy made an error, not because he did anything special with it. Kohlschreiber dictated, Nadal was the ultimate gnat, and Kohlschreiber did not finish the final shot off. Nadal's (extent of) success in a nutshell right there. Take a look at the Federer series on clay.


In the end, Nadal wins the high-profile matches at the rate he does more so because of immense stamina and the psychological profile of extreme persistence, constancy, and consistency far, far, far, far more than his game being superior in terms of shotmaking (which it isn't). I don't see how anyone can object to that after watching the match tonight.

Often I agree with you about rafa, but I feel like we watched different matches.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Aren't Spaniards supposed to be clay court specialists? Why three of them
are in the quarterfinals of USO? Don't they know that USO is played on hard courts?

 

[the AntiPusher]

And this clown is shouting after every point he wins And Roger is still bending over and taking it from him. That's the sad part, no heart

Dude, that is Cold..Man.. I am glad I missed this match.. Sorry Darth

 

[DarthFed]

It's not cold at all AP, that was how it went down. Absolutely no resilience against a guy who should have been squashed like a bug.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Insane that 5 times a Nadal/Fed US Open confrontation has been ONE match away. 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013.

Unbelievably, in 2010, 2011 and 2013 it was because Roger failed to win the match and
meet Nadal in the next round. Fed fans like me always used to say that Fedal match
does not happen at USO at all because Nadal fails to meet his end of the contract and
rise up to meet Fed across the net.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Great win from Richard Gasquet. That was a gutsy win from him. His reward: He will play David Ferrer. So, after playing a long match, he has to play the energizer bunny! Yup, I wouldn't be surprised if Gasquet retires after the first set of games of the match.

Also, I would like to give major props to David Ferrer. This guy has now reach at least the Quarterfinals in the past eight majors. The only guys he has lost to are Djokovic (3 times), Nadal (2 times), Murray, and Del Potro. So, he might not beat the Big guys but he still making the Quarterfinals or better. And that takes a lot of effort.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

BTW, I was busy writing news items, etc....did Nadal drop serve? He hadn't before today.

No he did not drop serve at all today. He had only one break point against him
which his opponent saved by missing a smash after setting up the point nicely.

 

[the AntiPusher]

It's not cold at all AP, that was how it went down. Absolutely no resilience against a guy who should have been squashed like a bug.

of all the players to loose a 4th round grand slam match to, I never saw this one coming.. I wonder how Roddick feels since Tommy Robredo was the one player who never defeated him...

 

[DarthFed]

It's not cold at all AP, that was how it went down. Absolutely no resilience against a guy who should have been squashed like a bug.

of all the players to loose a 4th round grand slam match to, I never saw this one coming.. I wonder how Roddick feels since Tommy Robredo was the one player who never defeated him...

It could be worse, he could lose to Stakhovsky in the 2nd round at Wimbledon.

Hate to say I told you so following Cincy.. in fact I really hate to say I told you so.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Tonight was one of those perfect examples of why Nadal has had the EXTENT of success that he has, beating players in the Top 10, Top 20, and Top 30 as much as he has. It most certainly is not because of superior shotmaking ability (today's match showed that beyond a shadow of a doubt) or superior talent for actually playing the game of tennis, but because of his immense stamina and the mental profile of persistence, constany, and consistency that he possesses. When Kohlschreiber had his legs under him in the first set and was fully executing his offense (and this goes for later parts of the match too), his shots were simply too much for Nadal to handle. Yes, Kohlschreiber's serve helped, but he also owned Nadal from the baseline quite a bit tonight.

How many matches has Nadal won over the course of his career by simply out-lasting opponents? The other guy comes out on fire and shows he has too much game for Nadal, but then Nadal goes into gnat-mode and just chases everything down, mixing in some opportunistic offense and keeping the unforced errors low and the double faults nonexistent. Then the other guy eventually cracks with a couple errors and Nadal - with his immense stamina - is ready to play for another six hours. He has done this to Federer, Del Potro, Nalbandian, Gulbis, Murray, Kohlschreiber tonight, and many others.

There are three particular things that stood out to me in this match:

1) All of the hilarious points when Kohlschreiber simply dominated Nadal from the back of the court and hit clean winners.

2) How Nadal responded physically and mentally after losing the first game of the third set when it went to deuce about ten times on Kohlschreiber's serve. He came back as primed physically and engaged mentally as one could be. This is what I mean about immense stamina and mental persistence. These are clearly the attributes that separate Nadal more than actual tennis-playing ability, because Kohlschreiber had much more in the way of great baseline winners today. Nadal had his share, but Kohlschreiber was superior in that regard.

3) The point at 30-40 in the first game of the fourth set when Kohlschreiber missed the overhead. That point is an excellent snapshot of Nadal's career, in a very significant (but not total) sense. He is scrambling, running, chasing balls down, forcing one more shot - and then the other guy misses the shot. Nadal wins the point because the other guy made an error, not because he did anything special with it. Kohlschreiber dictated, Nadal was the ultimate gnat, and Kohlschreiber did not finish the final shot off. Nadal's (extent of) success in a nutshell right there. Take a look at the Federer series on clay.


In the end, Nadal wins the high-profile matches at the rate he does more so because of immense stamina and the psychological profile of extreme persistence, constancy, and consistency far, far, far, far more than his game being superior in terms of shotmaking (which it isn't). I don't see how anyone can object to that after watching the match tonight.

Cali, I agree with your elaborate write-up and share the sentiment. However, you
should realize that Tennis (or for that matter any sport) is about winning be it in a
good, bad or ugly way. You seem to forget that basic part.

 

[Moxie]

Insane that 5 times a Nadal/Fed US Open confrontation has been ONE match away. 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013.

Unbelievably, in 2010, 2011 and 2013 it was because Roger failed to win the match and
meet Nadal in the next round. Fed fans like me always used to say that Fedal match
does not happen at USO at all because Nadal fails to meet his end of the contract and
rise up to meet Fed across the net.

That's a generous concession, GSM, because that used to be a knock on Nadal. But, come to find out, their timing has just been off for the USO, which is a shame for NY/US fans, like me. And there will never be a meeting in their prime years, so...the ship has kinda sailed on that one. Oh, well.