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

[Moxie]

Good to see Kohlschreiber forcing some really good tennis out of Nadal.

But this was predictable as played, wouldn't you say, Broken? Kolhscreiber is wiley enough to give Rafa trouble, but it seems that Nadal is pulling away, as would be expected, because of the bigger game. But it was always going to be a fight.

Not because of "bigger game", but because of "bigger stamina".

Major difference.

Heavy-weight v. welter-weight = bigger game. This one's easy: Nadal is more powerful than Kohlscreiber. He didn't have to outlast him because he can out-hit him.

 

[britbox]

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.

It's a big win for Gasquet considering his poor fifth set record.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

 

[Front242]

Pathetic Fed. Just totally pathetic. Just woke up to see the stats and a miserable straight sets loss. Robredo's a player I've always liked but in no way should he beat Federer on this surface, especially given that previously he'd won just 2 sets. Well, I won't be taking Thursday off now or if I do that's it till the final. Disgusted. 2014 can only be better than this. 0 of 14 break points. Even worse than the French Open 2008 final.

 

[Moxie]

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

Surely, that's not right. Maybe QF at the USO?

 

[Front242]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

 

[DarthFed]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

It is true. He won Wimbledon in 2003 and at least 1 slam every year since except 2011 when he made the RG final. 10 straight years of a GS final is decent but surely not the record I'd imagine. Rafa will tie that next year and Djokovic will tie that in 3 years unless he gets injured. Off memory I'd think Sampras had at least 11 straight years with a GS final.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

Sorry, Front242

What I meant to say is 2013 is the first time since 2002 that Federer failed to reach a Grand Slam final in any of the four slams.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

It is true. He won Wimbledon in 2003 and at least 1 slam every year since except 2011 when he made the RG final. 10 straight years of a GS final is decent but surely not the record I'd imagine. Rafa will tie that next year and Djokovic will tie that in 3 years unless he gets injured. Off memory I'd think Sampras had at least 11 straight years with a GS final.

Darth, Djokovic has to reach the GS final for the next six years to tie Federer. Djokovic didn't reach a Slam final in 2009. So, basically Djokovic has a 4 slam final appearance streak right now. You are right about Nadal. Also, Sampras and Lendl hold the record for consecutive years of at least making one slam final appearance which is 11 years.

 

[Front242]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

Sorry, Front242

What I meant to say is 2013 is the first time since 2002 that Federer failed to reach a Grand Slam final in any of the four slams.

No worries. It's a crap year either way Well, it sucks having to go to work now so disgusted at the result. Again, I like Robredo but this is one Roger should never have lost on this surface.

 

[Andrew William]

Hello lovelies! I managed to actually sneak a few matches in today despite my being terribly busy.

It truly was the worst performance I've seen from Federer in all the years I've watched him play. He had zero confidence in his forehand. His ground strokes were so utterly awful that he (yes he, the great Roger Federer!) had to resort to backhand slice/charges (failing to execute even this) to win points. I don't want to rob Robredo of all the credit, but the man did nothing special in the least. He simply kept the ball in the court and waited for Federer to miss (and miss badly!). A most terrible performance. It brought my thoughts to Roddick and his retirement. Perhaps Federer's demise has not been greatly exaggerated after all.

I also had the privilege of watching Nadal and Kohl. A competitive match for the first three sets. It always disappoints me when watching the German. He has actually quite a lot of talent. A crisp striker of the ball, an underrated snappy service, and his mobility shouldn't draw complaints. He always has this uncanny ability to screw it up at the most crucial moment though. As for Nadal, the man looks staunch as ever. He's playing as close to the baseline as he dares and is taking on that forehand up the line courageously. The backhand of which I thought looked dreadful earlier this year, he has cleaned up and clubbing winners with more regularity. Overall he looks to have an easy stroll into the finals to butt heads with either Djoker or Murray. That should be a good one!

Toodles!

 

[brokenshoelace]

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.

I'm pretty sure you wrote that post before the US Open even started, and just waited for the first semi-close Nadal match to post it (while editing some stuff in relevant to the match itself), whether it was relevant or not. Okay, I'm not completely serious, but in your head, you had it all prepared, since it's the same pre-determined nonsense you post after every single Nadal win.

Honestly, between this and the whole "underhit shot" the other day, It's really impossible to take you seriously when it comes to Nadal.

 

[brokenshoelace]

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

Surely, that's not right. Maybe QF at the USO?

It's right.

2003 - Wimbledon final
2004 - 3 finals (AO, Wimby, US Open)
2005 - 2 finals (Wimby, US Open)
2006 - All four finals (!)
2007 - All four finals (!!)
2008 - 3 finals (FO, Wimby, US Open)
2009 - All four finals
2010 - Australian Open
2011 - French Open
2012 - Wimbledon

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

alrighty, no time for wallowing (and for reading all this, sorry, as much as i'd love to).

but parting thought: kinda happy for Tommy, i always kinda liked the guy. however, i'd have been much happier for him if he'd actually played great, as opposed to just good enough to stay the course and let whatever happened on the other side of the net just go down.

 

[DarthFed]

Nadal is the only player who hasn't lost his serve yet. In a similar fashion in 2010, he didn't lost his serve until the Quarterfinals against Verdasco. Surely enough, Nadal will face another Spaniard and this time it will be Tommy Robredo. The only difference is Nadal isn't serving as big as in 2010, but he is returning exceptionally well in this tournament. Dating back to the semis of Cincy against Berdych, Nadal has now held serve 71 straight times. That's amazing stat considering Nadal doesn't have an amazing serve like other players.

As for Federer, this is the first time since 2002, that he hasn't reach a Grand Slam final.

As for the match, it was just plain ugly from Federer especially after the first set. I'm not a Federer fan but every time Federer had a chance to break Robredo I felt like Federer was either gonna shank the ball or Robredo will just pass him. It was one of those matches were nothing was clicking for Federer. I give full credit for Robredo for staying tough because it is tough to win against a player who you never beaten even if the other player is mightily struggling for the whole match.

As for Federer, it will be interesting how he will play in the future. He is going to the 98 inch racket after the US Open so I will be interested to see how well he will do with the new racket.

The line in bold. I wish that were true!

It is true. He won Wimbledon in 2003 and at least 1 slam every year since except 2011 when he made the RG final. 10 straight years of a GS final is decent but surely not the record I'd imagine. Rafa will tie that next year and Djokovic will tie that in 3 years unless he gets injured. Off memory I'd think Sampras had at least 11 straight years with a GS final.

Darth, Djokovic has to reach the GS final for the next six years to tie Federer. Djokovic didn't reach a Slam final in 2009. So, basically Djokovic has a 4 slam final appearance streak right now. You are right about Nadal. Also, Sampras and Lendl hold the record for consecutive years of at least making one slam final appearance which is 11 years.

You're right, I totally forgot how bad Djokovic's 2009 was.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Good to see Kohlschreiber forcing some really good tennis out of Nadal.

But this was predictable as played, wouldn't you say, Broken? Kolhscreiber is wiley enough to give Rafa trouble, but it seems that Nadal is pulling away, as would be expected, because of the bigger game. But it was always going to be a fight.

Not because of "bigger game", but because of "bigger stamina".

Major difference.

Heavy-weight v. welter-weight = bigger game. This one's easy: Nadal is more powerful than Kohlscreiber. He didn't have to outlast him because he can out-hit him.

Kohlscreiber bh handles Rafa high balls better than most other one handers.

 

[Front242]

Still waiting to see the new improved Tommy Haas play Nadal. I like Youzhny too but was pretty gutted Haas lost relatively early in another slam. Still waiting for him to crack the top 10. He at least needs to be ahead of Milos frickin Roanic.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

Still waiting to see the new improved Tommy Haas play Nadal. I like Youzhny too but was pretty gutted Haas lost relatively early in another slam. Still waiting for him to crack the top 10. He at least needs to be ahead of Milos frickin Roanic.

milos is improving..Haas will prob not ever be higher than no 11 rank he was in his most recent surge.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Still waiting to see the new improved Tommy Haas play Nadal. I like Youzhny too but was pretty gutted Haas lost relatively early in another slam. Still waiting for him to crack the top 10. He at least needs to be ahead of Milos frickin Roanic.

Indoors and Grass would be interesting. Anywhere else, Nadal is a pretty dreadful match-up for Haas.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Still waiting to see the new improved Tommy Haas play Nadal. I like Youzhny too but was pretty gutted Haas lost relatively early in another slam. Still waiting for him to crack the top 10. He at least needs to be ahead of Milos frickin Roanic.

Nah.. I want to see a Rafa vs Murray match.. the consensus is that Murray is every bit the hardcourt baseliner athlete that DJoker which I would not doubt.