The U.S. Open is down to the final four’s. There’s been a lot of great matches this year, and I hope even more to come in the final few days.
The Roger Federer-Andy Roddick match was a great match, despite only being three sets. Roddick played probably as well as he could have, and still lost in straight sets. That says a lot about where Federer is right now, when a guy who won the Open a few years ago plays his best tennis and Roger still wins in three. Roddick not only played great in his loss, he also was very gracious in his loss. He talked about his own play and said there wasn’t much more he could do. Basically, he was saying, Federer is better than me right now.
Contrast that with Serena Williams, who, after her loss to Justine Henin a couple of nights ago, stated in the press conference that Henin “made a lot of lucky shots.” Williams lost 7-6, 6-1. Sorry, but you don’t lose a set 6-1 on “lucky shots.” Asked if she thought she lost the match or Henin won, she basically stated that she had lost it. It’s worth pointing out that Henin - who is #1 in the world, by the way - has owned Serena this year. She’s beaten her in three of the four grand slams this year (and Henin didn’t play at the Austrailian, or maybe it would have been four.) But instead of recognizing this, she chooses to dismiss anything Henin did and claim that she just didn’t play well. If this was her first time showing a lack of sportsmanship, you might write it off to a bad day, but she’s said things like this before. She really just needs to get over herself. And at some point, you’d think she’s going to have to admit that Henin is better than she is right now. Everyone else knows it, and she does, too.
I was sad to see Raphael Nadal in the fourth round to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. Ferrer played some great tennis, and has since advanced to the semifinals to play Novak Djokovic. Nadal has had some trouble with one of his knees, so that could have factored in as well. Still, it was a fun match to watch and hopefully Nadal will be healthy next September.
Novak Djokovic - who, of course, is my pick to win - continues to battle with each match, but had a relatively easy match (three sets, although by no means easy) with Carlos Moya last night. After several tough four or five set matches, it was good for him to get off the court a little quicker last night. He’ll need some rest to prepare for Saturday and, if he wins, Sunday, potentially playing back to back. I’m still hoping he can break through with his first grand slam, but after watching Federer’s match with Rodick, I wonder if there’s really any hope or not.
There was a stat last night that in the last 29 tournaments in which both Federer and Nadal played, one of those two won the title 25 of those 29 times. That’s pretty impressive. Djokovic was asked about the Federer/Nadal rivalry in the post-match press conference a couple of days ago and Novak stated that many people are, understandably, focusing on Federer and Nadal but missing out on some of the other players. He said he’s one of those who is hoping to make that “group of two” a little bit bigger. Based on his play this year, I’d say Djokovic is closer than anyone to joining that group, and I’m hoping he can start being mentioned regularly with those two after this weekend.
Another stat I heard this week. With Roddick’s loss, the last remaining American man is out of the tournament. This is the first year since 1988 that no American man played in a grand slam final. That’s a pretty good streak. I can think of Chang, Courier, Sampras, Agassi, Martin, and Roddick during that stretch. Hopefully, guys like James Blake, Donald Young and John Isner (along with Roddick, of course) can start a new streak to last another 18 years or more.
Please, can someone tell USA Network to fire Tracy Austin? She’s horrible. I hate listening to her. They need to unload her and bring in Mary Carrillo. Carrillo does work for ESPN, and fortunately, CBS, where she appeared over the weekend during CBS’s coverage of the Open. She’s so much better, it’s not even close. Jim Courier is not much better, but at least he’s only in the studio between matches. Small doses of Courier is bearable. Long matches with Austin whining on and on is not.
John McEnroe, of course, is great and has been on both USA and CBS. I love him, and am so glad he moved behind the mic once his playing days were done. The funniest moment I’ve heard in the booth this week came at McEnroe’s expense during a match over the weekend when Dick Enberg commented on McEnroe’s AmEx commercial. This commercial has been on constantly - seemingly every commercial break during the coverage on both USA and CBS. It’s a great commercial, of course, but it’s been on A LOT. Anyway, after Enberg’s mention, Carrillo deadpanned, “I haven’t seen it yet.” Well, it cracked me up…
Looking to the weekend, on the women’s side, it’s easy to see the semifinal between Venus Williams and Justine Henin as the championship, even though one of the two Russians on the other side - Svetlana Kuznetsova - is a former U.S. Open champion. Nobody has beaten both Williams sisters in the same grand slam since Martina Hingis in the late 90’s. Venus has played great at Wimbledon and in New York, so it’s going to be a tough task for Henin. However, I still think she’s going to do it and win it all.
On the men’s side, obviously it’s hard to pick against Federer. He’s beaten Nikolay Davydenko 14 times, I believe. Davydenko has beaten Federer zero times. I don’t see things changing tomorrow. The Djokovic-Ferrer match is a hard call. I’m still with Novak, but Ferrer has been impressive in this tournament, and his quickness and ability to run down balls may serve him well tomorrow. Still, I’m sticking with Novak to win it all, despite how unlikely it seems.