US Open Reports (report #6 of 7)

by Pierre Cantin

Today was a pretty interesting day, i wasn't sure at first what to expect but yeah, it was good:) I started off my day on grandstand to watch the match between Jelena Kostanic and Ai Sugiyama, I expected a pretty close match and maybe an upset but I don't think anyone could be more wrong than I was!

From the start of the match, especially in the first set, Ai Sugiyama was just so much better than her opponent, she was playing terrific in my opinion. She was hitting her groundstrokes very deep, getting some angles, coming to the net, moving very well, she seemed to know where Kostanic would hit even before the Croatian girl had thought about it. I think in that first set i remember one point where Sugiyama had a problem getting to a ball, so you get the picture right? The second set was a bit closer thanks to more patience, a few more mistakes and some bad line calls, but still it was more of the same. The points Kostanic would manage to win were points she had worked very hard to get, hitting balls from one part of the court to another and putting a lot of pressure on Sugiyama, but there was no way she could play every point in such a way, few could in fact....The way she was playing, I would probably bet on her against Capriati...Kostanic was of course upset but hopfully for her she knew she just played against someone who was "in the zone", I think Kostanic could have done a few things better, but nothing she would have done would have changed the end result, at least in my opinion.

After the match, I had some time to kill as I was hoping the Zvonareva match would be soon, I headed towards smaller courts, I missed the Benesova practice by a few minutes it seems, too bad:(

I then headed to court #17, ,where Petra Mandula was to play mixed doubles against Lisa Raymond and Mahesh Bhupati, I just saw the start of the set, but it was pretty clear what would happen, I don't think Raymond and Bhupati could have ever lost this match, even if I probably was wishing for that to happen:) But really that team was just superior on ever possible level!!!

After a few minutes, I headed to court #10 where there was a doubles match between Zheng, Yan and Tanasugarn and Huber on the other side. It was a very entertaining match after all and although I was pretty tired and almost falling asleep, I had a pretty good time at that match. I don't know much about Yan but she has some interesting shots, and looks pretty young, no idea how she is in singles but I think China might have another hope for its future:)

The end result of that match was a win by Huber and Tanasugarn, I guess the crowd was excited and it had been a good match but we all felt bad for the two chinese girls, they seemed to have tried everything they could but in the end they came up short...

Following that match on court #10 was Vera against Fabiola Zuluaga.. for the entire match, I was surrounded by Columbians who had came to cheer on their favourite, so it's safe to say I heard no English spoken during that match:)

So anyway, Vera played a very average match I'd say, I mean I consider that this match should have been fairly easy in the sense that Zuluaga is not the type of player who really wins much against top 10 players and also, on a hard court, there was nothing to make me think this would be too difficult. But Vera had I would say an under-average day, she was ok in the rallies, but her returns were not agressive enough and her serving was just not so good, she hit several double faults and was not getting first serves in on key points. However, I was impressed, I mean of course she did break down on several occasions, we are talking about Vera here... But even while crying between points (which was odd as she was leading), she did continue to play and fight as best she could in order to do what the top players do, win with their B game. Zuluaga played well, I don't know how much better she could have played, I have not seen her play often enough to judge on that but I would say that she certainly gave it a good effort and tried to be as agressive as possible during rallies, which worked well on many occasions. So overall, it was nice to see Vera smile so much after the match, I think she knew what her fans knew, she had escaped a game against the #23 seed without playing close to her best tennis, and if her best tennis is to come, then it better be in the second week in than in the first:)

After that match, I headed to Louis-Armstrong to see the end of the Hantuchova-Schnyder match, they had just finished the second set. It was a pretty strange set the third one, low quality tennis, with lots of unforced errors, you could sense that Hantuchova was the better player, she was controlling points so well, hitting the shots she was trying and getting ahead in points, but then, each time she had occasions to pull away from Schnyder, she would make errors. Especially on her serve, where she served several double faults on key points, match points or points to go up late in the third set. It was really heartbreaking to watch her struggle so much to close out a match that really was hers to lose, and she did:( I might also add that Daniela seemed to have lots of problems to concentrate because of the noisy grandstand court just next to Louis Armstrong (Ferrero was playing his 5th set).

Schnyder though was playing ok and fighting harder or at least showing more determination than she usually does, she was very happy to win the match obviously after such a long battle....

But still, Daniela continues to make great progress and hopefully she knows how well she was playing, she needs to get more of those matches so she can regain the mental edge, but she's on pace to a great recovery and who knows if by this time next year she'll be back in the top 10, it would certainly be great for her fans (myself included) and for tennis!

Tomorrow's matches:

I intend on trying to see:

JHH vs Raymond (expect JHH to prevail, hope so too)

Kuznetsova vs Frazier (again, Svetlana should prevail!)..

Benesova & Birnerova vs Raymond and Navratilova (I guess Raymond and Navrat will win this, should be a fun match though).

Dementieva & Sugiyama vs Svensson & Tu: I have not seen ElenaD yet this week and look forward to a fun match and a win:)

Hantuchova & Safina vs Ruano-Pascual & Suarez: Depending on schedule I might see this, shjould be a good match although the top players will surely prevail..

Srichaparn vs Hrbaty: Court 11? Wow, this should be good!

All for now, I'm heading to bed, came back later because of Yankees match, I had a blast though:)

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