US Open 2011 diary: ups and downs

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

US Open 2011: Diary – What a way to begin

Opening night at the 2011 US Open in New York

The bright lights and creaking subways of New York have welcomed the tennis-playing family to their annual party in a great big park in the heart of Queens, and, although Hurricane-turned-Tropical-Storm-Irene rattled a few cages, there weren’t too many hiccups on the opening day. Other than slightly fewer crowds.

Here’s a few highlights from what happened yesterday at Flushing Meadows, and what to look out for today:

The upset

Petra Kvitova may have been the first left-hander to win Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova, but sadly she notched up another ‘first to do’ next to her name yesterday…the first Wimbledon champion to exit the US Open in the first round. The 21 year-old looked like she didn’t know where the court was during her first-round defeat to Alexandra Dulgheru, that powerful forehand that had wreaked such havoc on grass homing in on the backboards and fences rather than the lines.

But she is young, she will learn. Let’s not be too harsh.

Passing through

The first day of a Grand Slam ends with a lot of winners – here are ones to take a note of:

Roger Federer (tying Andre Agassi for the second most singles Grand Slam victories on 224, nine behind Jimmy Connors), Venus Williams (encouraging), Gael Monfils (entertaining), Marin Cilic (is he back?), Tommy Haas, Mardy Fish, Tomas Berdych, Vera Zvonareva, Richard Gasquet (on the new Court 17). And many more.

Long way home for…

Viktor Troicki. The hot-headed Serb, who threw away a dead-cert lead against an ankle-stricken Andy Murray at the French Open in Paris this year, before swearing his way out of Wimbledon, was on the wrong side of a fifth-set scoreline yet again. And it was to none other than Alejandro Falla, the brave Colombian who so nearly sent Roger Federer home in five sets at Wimbledon last year. What goes around and all that.

Close second to the Japanese trio of Kei Nishikori, Ayumi Morita and Misaki Doi, who all retired. Ouch.

Brit-ometer

High. And there are still three British players to compete! Forgive the over-enthusiasm, but yesterday witnessed two very heartening performances from two very different but similar players. Laura Robson, who had overcome her qualifying heebie jeebies in New York at the third time of asking, on the same Court 4 that had been her downfall for two years running, was paired up against Ayumi Morita in her first main draw Grand Slam match outside of Wimbledon.

If you’re getting a sense of pressure that’s because it was a huge event. And, Robson, perhaps owed a little something from the Flushing Meadows gods, was given a free pass. Hanging in there, Morita retired with a sore shoulder. Through to Round 2, Miss Robson.

The other red, white and blue competitor did not end up in Round 2. But she did make what Americans are reporting as a ‘helluva’ debut. Heather Watson, the current British No 3, was competing in the first main draw Grand Slam match she had earned on ranking. Also a pretty big deal. She was playing Maria Sharapova. A bigger deal. And she was playing on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 22,500 seat goliath that is THE largest venue in tennis. An even bigger deal.

Quaking in her boots? Not so much. Young Hev took it to Sharapova from the very first point, won the opening set, narrowly lost the second, and narrowly lost the third. If this year has been about Heather Watson finding her feet on the WTA, the US Open announced her arrival well and proper.

Andy Murray, Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha are still to come…

Soundbite

Serena Williams has never been one to shy away from a press conference controversy. And, given that her last appearance in New York featured some rather demonstrative actions on her part, to her peril, and that of a diminutive lineswoman, it is no surprise really that it was going to come up when she did her pre-tournament presser yesterday.

And this was her response…

“I don’t know. I don’t think about it. Are you still thinking about it? Oh, my God, that was like two years ago. This is like two years later.”

Trivial? Maybe. But then again, she paid her penance. And remember, we’re happy she’s back. No more thoughts of shove-a-ball-down-your-throat-gate. Please. Unless she does it again.

Ones to watch

Enough, you may rightly think of yesterday. Today brings another host of storylines, even if we do have to wait until tomorrow to watch Andy Murray.

Caroline Wozniacki v Nuria Llagostera Vives (second match, Arthur Ashe)

On the back of the New Haven title last week, Caro should be feeling confident. No Rory in her box (he’s playing golf) but still. The pressure is very much on the world No 1.

Novak Djokoic v Conor Niland (third match, Arthur Ashe)

As it is on the other No 1, but in a very different way. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that we’re going to continue to see some extraordinary things from Novak Djokovic. His first challenger, one of Ireland’s two finest, Conor Niland, who came through his second consecutive Grand Slam qualifying to earn this opportunity.

Rafael Nadal v Andrey Golubev (first night match, Arthur Ashe)

How really is Rafa feeling? Not too good, seems to be the pervading sense. But we won’t really know until we see the defending champion hit a ball in anger. Golubev can give it some welly, so by no means an easy peasy one.

Serena Williams v Bojana Jovanovski (second night match, Arthur Ashe)

She’s baaaack. Let’s see how that run of 12 match wins continues against the talented young Serb.

Elena Baltacha v Jamie Hampton

I’ve never seen anyone quite so moody as young Hampton was against Baltacha in the first round of the Australian Open. She snarled and generally looked like a thunder cloud, but she did push the British No 1, so not an easy one for Bally. But she is in great shape and good form, so think positive.

Also in action

Anne Keothavong, Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Ana Ivanovic, Sabine Lisicki, Jelena Jankovic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer, David Nalbandian.

The daily click

How to keep up with the US Open from your desk (thanks to Courtney Nguyen of Sports Illustrated’s Beyond the Baseline)

Good luck staying up. And Happy Birthday to Andy Roddick. Only 29.