Friday, September 01, 2006
US Open Day 4: Why it's called a tie-breaker
by Pierre Cantin
As yesterday started, it promised to be a great day with 32 ladies singles matches planned for the day and among others, a big test for Andre Agassi later that evening. Day started with a few practices, Viktoriya Kutuzova... It was strange to watch, she seemed upset about everything, the wind especially, she was missing her shots by miles, and really, it was a bad practice. I don't get why she was so upset with herself, especially so close to a match...which she eventually lost, no idea if the practice helped or not, I would be surprised to hear someone tell me it did...
Then I went to see Maria Kirilenko who was hitting with James Blake's brother, it was the end of their practice, but she looked relaxed and ready to go, as she was first on. She is one of the players who always seems to like to hit less than an hour before her matches, I guess it's usually good, but not sure how it affects her in longer matches... then also saw some bits of Schnyder and the Bondarenko sisters before going to see the Kirilenko vs Bremond match...
It was actually not a great match after all because Bremond seemed to have pretty severe pain in her thigh from almost the start of the match, she did get a medical treatment on it but it still bothered her from the start, I don't think she could put her whole body into shots...During her medical time-outs I saw parts of the Rezai vs Safarova match, Lucie had tons of opportunities but she let her opponent (who is quite a fighter), get a way with it... Jankovic had no problems, she was in total control. And Vaidisova, well, it was strange, I'm not sure what happened there, when I went she was not playing well but I had no idea it would go 3 sets against Jidkova, she was mostly missing so many shots, just too many errors...
Then I went to see parts of the Mirza vs Schiavone match... it was as I had feared, Schiavone had gotten in Mirzas head with her numerous spins, off-pace game, and Sania was just nowhere near the right mental state...
Following that, the match between Anna Chakvetadze and Alona Bondarenko, it was a great fight, so many tough points, Bondarenko had perhaps a slight edge but she was up against a great fighter, both players were so in it... They finally got to a 1st set tie-break and Bondarenko was playing well and came up with a 6-2 lead! She was then shocked (weak word really) by Chakvetadze who stormed back, won 6 points the set, and got her opponent discouraged, crying and helpless... it was no surprise to see that Anna Chakvetadze then steamrolled her 6-0 in the 2nd set...
After seeing Bychkova vs Srebotnik (good fight by Ekaterina but in the end I think she didn't play calmly enough in big points), I saw Victoria Azarenka put on another great performance, it was actually a lot tighter than I expected, maybe not in the scoreline, but in the points themselves, Azarenka was struggling a bit to beat a very solid defensive game by Jamea Jackson, but she was fighting very hard and in the end came up with some great shots in front of a stunned crowd (who was confident of seeing Jackson take on the world #124). Vicka was very very happy of her performance as she moves on to the 3rd round, I maintain that she will win a few more matches, although the next one will be very tough, Chakvetadze is playing great tennis these days....
After that, Golovin vs Radwanska, Agnieszka seemed to be without any clue how to get to Golovin, she wasn't following a good match plan, simply trying to outplay Golovin, but Tatiana is pretty good at that and it showed... Finally, Ana Ivanovic against Aiko Nakamura, it was a good match, but once more Ana was not playing very well, she was making too many errors, not moving as well as she was in Montreal, she did come through thanks to some great shotmaking and some agressive returns but it was unconvicing....
All for now, I'm headed for day #5:)
# posted by Pierre : 5:04 AM
