Rafael Nadal berating himself against Andrey Golubev
YESTERDAY
What’s happened to Rafa?
The overwhelming sigh of relief emanating from every corridor inside Arthur Ashe said it all. Rafael Nadal, the defending champion, the former world No 1, is still in the US Open. Why such a worry? After all, he’s never lost a Grand Slam first round. And he won in straight sets. But his 6-3, 7-6(1), 7-5 win over world No 98 Andrey Golubev was tighter than the world’s greatest washing line. Nadal just does not look himself. He let Golubev crunch 41 winners past him, struggled to hold serve, and even admitted he was “lucky” to win in straight sets. Vamos Rafa. We need you.
The opposite was true of Serena Williams, who wasted no time at all in crushing Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-1. Watch out.
Passing through
Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Francesca Schiavone (in three sets), Ana Ivanovic (in emotional fashion after revealing her grandfather had died over the weekend), Novak Djokovic, James Blake (re-born?), Jelena Jankovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Sabine Lisicki.
Over and out
Li Na (with 54 unforced errors), Mikhail Youzhny, Anne Keothavong, Conor Niland.
Special mention to Niland, who retired trailing Djokovic 0-6, 1-5 – his body chose the biggest match of his career to inflict food poisoning on him. Sometimes life is just cruel.
Not just a mean girls’ game
Elena Baltacha proved that tennis players may snarl at each other, but actually, underneath it all they are pretty nice people. Suffering the ignonimy of being a set down against a young American, one she had struggled to beat in Australia no less, you might think that the Brit would have breathed a sigh of her relief when her opponent began to cramp. Other players have done it. But not Bally. She crossed her side of the net and went to offer poor Hampton, in the most horrible-looking pain, some help.
“It’s really difficult because over the clay court season we got to know Jamie and her coach because they were at a lot of tournaments,” Baltacha said. “We got pretty friendly. It was quite difficult because I wanted to beat her, but it’s kind of like playing a friend, and she’s going through all that.”
Despite the retirement, Baltacha’s win gave GB two women in the second round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 1991. She also became the first British woman to reach the second round at all four Grand Slams since Jo Durie in 1983. Pat on the back.
Soundbite
“I mean, normally I like hard court a lot. But I think these two years I just doing s–t.”
Li Na on what was behind her dismal first-round defeat to Simona Halep. Saying it like it is.
Somewhat opposite was Caroline Wozniacki’s rather bizarre update on her new coaching situation.
“If he wants to be in the background and not have his name out, I have to respect that,” the world No 1 said, explaining that her new coach does not want anyone to know who he is. Very odd.
Stat attack
1971
The last time that the reigning women’s champions at the first three Grand Slams of the year did not reach the second round at Flushing Meadows. AO champ Kim Clijsters (injured), RG champ Li Na (lost 1R), Wimby champ Petra Kvitova (lost 1R). Oh well.
On the grapevine
Adam Scott and Ana Ivanovic back together? Maybe.
Tweet of the day
Fyi I asked Wozza if her green leggings had been inspired by her recent link with Ireland.She said “haha. No. Very funny”. I like 2 think so
@judmoo on the ball as always
TODAY
Ones to watch
Andy Murray v Somdev Devvarman (second match, Arthur Ashe)
Two days after the 2011 US Open officially kicked off, Britain’s best, Andy Murray begins his campaign against Mr Devvarman. It seems to be Murray’s luck that he’s generally the last of the Big Four to get going, Mr Federer getting a whole extra two days grace, but there we go. Som-Dev is no pushover at No 64 in the world, and he likes to take the fluff off the ball, but in the end it will come down to Mr Murray.
Venus Williams v Sabine Lisicki (third match, Arthur Ashe)
Venus’s unseeded status means we get this clash far earlier than we might have liked. Miss ‘Boom Boom’ Lisicki has catapulted her way from Wimbledon wild card to 22nd seed, so the odds are heavily in her favour. But then Venus is Venus. Could be a corker. Could not be.
Laura Robson v Anabel Medina Garrigues
The young Miss Robson made it into her first Grand Slam second round at Wimbledon this summer. And now here she is in a second-consecutive Slam second round. Not bad for a teen considered to be slumping. Can she turn it into a third round? Her Spanish foe has a tricksy, unexplosive style, so Laura will need to do the hard work. And prepare to retrieve a lot of drop shots.
Louk Sorensen v Robin Soderling
After the stomach woes that befell his compatriot Conor Niland, Ireland’s hopes rest on fellow qualifier Sorensen, who will be little to Soderling’s large. But the Swede has not been firing on many cylinders lately. So opportunity knocks, perhaps.
Also look out for: Marion Bartoli v Christina McHale (Marion v Mini Marion), John Isner v Marcos Baghdatis (thundercruncher), Juan Martin Del Potro v Filippo Volandri (Is DelPo back?), Andy Roddick (past it?), Maria Sharapova, Gilles Simon, Feliciano Lopez, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska.
The daily click
If you needed evidence, Serena’s back
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