By Mike McIntyre
The heat stole the spotlight for a second consecutive day in New York as the schedule at the U.S. Open went late into the night thanks to several long matches.
Acting as an equalizer between players, the humidity in particular narrowed the gap between the lesser known talents and their normally more dangerous counter parts.
Here are some of the more interesting men's matches from day two at the Open.
Novak Djokovic came ever so close to being a first round casualty against fellow Serb Victor Troicki. Down two sets to one and a break in the fourth set it appeared as though Djokovic's fragile physique and mental fortitude would once again do him in. Brad Gilbert speculated that a potential Djokovic retirement would give him a career Slam in that department, as he has previously been forced to retire from play at the other three majors.
Instead Djokovic showed some heart as he broke back and then took the fourth and fifth sets as Troicki ran out of gas and allowed nerves to take over. Djokovic prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.
A strange statistic is that Djokovic improved to 6-0 in Grand Slams when trailing two sets to one, and to 12-5 in matches that went to a fifth set. Those numbers go against the prevailing opinion of the world number three player when it comes to long matches. Maybe we should give him a bit more credit?
One seeded player who went five sets but could not prevent the upset was Marcos Baghdatis. The 2006 Aussie Open finalist has been on a good role this summer, making the finals in Washington D.C. and the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati.
Not known for his physical fitness, Baghdatis perhaps became a victim of playing too much tennis over the last month. He even played the New Haven event the week before the U.S. Open which I never really saw the need for.
It was 32 year old veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement. himself an Aussie Open finalist from 2001, who defeated Baghdatis by a score of 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.
"What can I say? I was really heavy on court," Baghdatis said after the match. "I wasn't feeling very fit. It's not a matter of fit but very heavy. Couldn't play aggressive. I was really defensive today, and Arnaud played a very good first set. I mean, the second set he was giving a lot of points away and I took them, but I was really heavy on court. I was really defensive. I think I didn't play very good tennis, and he won the match."
A nice result today was the routine win for struggling American veteran James Blake who got by Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Blake has had a terrible time trying to get his game back on track this summer with a 3-8 record coming into the match since returning to the tour in June. Now ranked 108th in the world it will be tough for Blake to rediscover his previous form at the age of 30, but maybe he can conjure up a good run on home soil.
After the match Blake spoke of enjoying these types of victories at this stage of his career:
"Yeah, it's a great feeling. Any time you win a match, harken back to the days when my biggest goal and biggest dream was to win a round at the US Open. Somewhere along the way to some people it started to get taken for granted. It's still exciting for me to win a match here, to have fans that are excited to see me play and get to play again in front of some great fans. I'm happy to get through."
In the last men's match of the day, Nadal overcame a very tough Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 6-3. Nadal was pushed by the Russian in the first two sets but showed some great tennis in the third set to avoid prolonging the match any further.
Other results worth noting include Mardy Fish taking down Jan Hajek in five sets. Fish has been on fire all summer long but required the distance to dispatch of Hajek. He won by an interesting score line of 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
David Nalbandian also needed five sets to beat Rik De Voest and I wonder if he, like Baghdatis, has stretched himself too thin with so much match play this summer.
Tenth seeded David Ferrer, a semi-finalist in New York in 2007, beat up-and-coming Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
I also must give a shout-out to fellow Canadian Peter Polansky who won his first ever Grand Slam match by disposing of clay-court guru Juan Monaco, 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-3. Polansky has had some tough five-set losses in Grand Slam play so it's nice to see him finally pull one out.
Comments