August 30-September 12, 2010

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Friday, September 3, 2010

Singles – Third Round

(2) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. (27) Petra Kvitova (CZE) 63 60

(3) Venus Williams (USA) d. (Q) Mandy Minella (LUX) 62 61

(5) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 62 63

(6) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (29) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 61 75

(12) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (24) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 75 62

(16) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. (19) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 64 64

(20) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Gisela Dulko (ARG) 61 62

Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. (WC) Virginie Razzano (FRA) 75 60

Doubles – Second Round

(2) Huber/Petrova (USA/RUS) d. Bondarenko/Bondarenko (UKR/UKR) 63 62

(6) King/Shvedova (USA/KAZ) d. Groth/Zakopalova (AUS/CZE) 75 46 62

Goerges/Groenefeld (GER/GER) d. (8) Medina Garrigues/Yan (ESP/CHN) 75 62

(10) Kirilenko/A.Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. (WC) Hampton/Oudin (USA/USA) 62 61

Hercog/Martic (SLO/CRO) d. (11) Kleybanova/Makarova (RUS/RUS) 63 67(1) 63

(12) Benesova/Zahlavova Strycova (CZE/CZE) d. Date Krumm/Morita (JPN/JPN) 64 67(1) 61

(14) Vesnina/Zvonareva (RUS/RUS) d. Diatchenko/Senoglu (RUS/TUR) 61 61

(15) Mattek-Sands/Shaughnessy (USA/USA) d. Hantuchova/Wozniacki (SVK/DEN) 76(3) 64

Bacsinszky/Garbin (SUI/ITA) d. (16) Hsieh/Peng (TPE/CHN) 36 63 76(6)

Dulgheru/Rybarikova (ROU/SVK) d. Gallovits/Jans (ROU/POL) 62 63

And her work showed tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium when she debuted a new outfit designed for the US Open designed by her company EleVen Designs.

“So far this year my outfits have been based off of cities that I play in,” Williams said after beating Mandy Minella, 6-2 6-1.  “This outfit was really about New York.  It’s firework bursts actually on the dress.  It’s like bursts of fireworks.  It’s about a celebration of me playing my best obviously at home and kind of doing what I love and being able to wear something fun while I do it.

“So just always trying to do something fun on the court.”

It probably was also fun to see her sister Serena in the stands. After bowing out of the Open with a foot injury, the younger Williams sister made her first appearance here, yet no one knows if this will be just a cameo or a regular thing.

“Of course, I’ve had her there so many matches,” she said.  “It was good to see her tonight.  Usually we’re at the tournament together.  This year is an exception, but always good to have her back.”

With such a wide open tournament on the women’s side, it will be interesting to see if Venus can win her first major since Wimbledon in 2008 and her first US Open since going back to back in 2000 and 2001.

But first things first, she needs to just win her matches, which is not as easy as it sounds. Williams will face No. 16 seed Shahar Pe’er in the fourth round, where the matches just get a little tougher. And even though both Williams sisters enjoy a 10-0 record against Pe’er, including Venus’s 6-3 6-0 win on Madrid back in May.

“Yeah, obviously she played a good match, and the first seed that I’ll have the opportunity to play,” Williams said.  “We’ve had a lot of good matches in the past.  I think one of the best matches in her career was against Serena ‑ that I watched.  So I know she has the talent to do something big.  She already has in her career.

“I want to just get out there and execute my game to the point where I get to that next round.”

And that’s what we are seeing from Venus. In past years, sometimes questions arose on her commitment to the game. Now see looks very focused, especially with Serena on the sidelines. The only question is her health and if the left knee, which made her miss the whole US Open Series will hold up.

To that there’s no problem, in fact she doesn’t feel any rust.

“Obviously, you know, just kind of about making the play,” she said. “My concern is always to be able to make the play and to play the level that I’m used to. So of course, you know, it’s something you think about.  But my whole thing was to try to bank on my experience, which so far is working.”

As was that dress.

The victory vaults Ivanovic into a fourth-round showdown with reigning  champion Kim Clijsters in a match of former World No. 1 players.

Down a double break at 0-3 minutes into the match, Clijsters found her range and reeled off 12 consecutive games in pounding Petra Kvitova, 6-3, 6-0. It was Clijsters’17th consecutive US Open victory. She raied her record to 23-1 in her last four visits to Flushing Meadows.

“A match like this today probably gives me more satisfaction, because, you know, I beat a good player without even playing my best tennis,” Clijsters said. “There were moments in there that I was very satisfied with the way I was playing, and just overall the way I was moving, the way that I was serving. But then, yeah, it becomes kind of you become greedy in a way because you want it there, you want that to happen in every rally that you play in.”

The fourth round match is a rematch of the Cincinnati semifinals where Clijsters held a 2-1 lead when Ivanovic retired with a foot injury.

“Kim is a great player.  She hasn’t lost a match here in a long time.  So I can go out there and try to do my best,” Ivanovic said. “I’ve been playing really well.  It’s gonna be exciting no matter what. I think, you know, in some ways we have similar games.  It’s going to be a fun match, I think.”

On serve in the opening set, Ivanovic cracked a winner and then celebrated by unleashing a furious double fist pump that elicited an approving roar from the crowd. That explosion of positive emotion energized both Ivanovic and the crowd and was a physical sign of how far she’s come this season. During her long slump when she dropped out of the top 50, Ivanovic would often pull her adidas visor down over her face as if repulsed by her poor play.

Now, she’s playing with a positive posture, showing more conviction in both her shots and celebrations.

“It’s very important.  That’s something that I felt change over last few months,” Ivanovic said. “I became a lot more positive on the court.  Even if the things were not going my way, I still, you know, had a fist pump.  I still tried to bring a lot of energy on the court. That kind of, you know, helps also supporters get into the match more.  I felt that.  I’m, you know, sticking with it.”

Richard Pagliaro is the editor of TennisNow.com.

Below is the Q & A

THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  In the on‑court interview afterwards, you said your arm felt loose on your serve.  How did that affect your serve?

SAM QUERREY:  No.  My serve, I was getting great pop.  Every time I was hitting it flat down the T or out wide on the ad, it felt like it was somewhere between 135 and 140, so that’s a little faster than normal.

Q.  Did you catch any of the Harrison match?

SAM QUERREY:  Yeah, I watched pretty much the entire fourth and fifth set.  It was pretty exciting.  I was in the lunchroom.  Everyone had their eyes glued to the TV.

I felt bad for Ryan, but still a great tournament.  I’ve been hitting with him for three or four years.  He’s going to be good.

Q.  When you see an up‑and‑coming kid make some way in the Open, does that harken you back to a time when you were in that position?

SAM QUERREY:  A little bit, yeah.  I know what the feeling is like.  At the same time it motivates me a little bit.  I don’t want him taking away the limelight.  I want to go out there and play well.

Yeah, when you’re 18, first Open, I mean, I remember when I was doing mine.  It’s exciting.  Ryan played great.  He should be really happy with qualifying, making the second round.

Q.  Seeing that Roddick is out, it’s just you and Isner and Mardy Fish, the American crew there.  You’re one of the top Americans left.  Does it give you any extra push to say, I have to carry the mantle for the United States?

SAM QUERREY:  I’m not feeling any pressure or anything.  I think the four of us left are all doing our best.  To have four guys in the round of 32, it’s pretty good.

Hopefully we can have four in the Round of 16.  I think we’ve got a great shot to do that.  Hopefully they’ll put some of us on center court.  Not a huge fan of the scheduling this week (laughter).

Q.  That is center court.

SAM QUERREY:  We have a lot of Americans here.  None of us play on center court.  If you go to the French Open, they have Gasquet, Benneteau, Monfils; they’re on center court every day.

If his ankle holds up, then sure, but that’s a big if.

“Yeah, it’s definitely been tough,” said Isner who beat Marco Chiudinelli in four sets, 6-3 3-6 7-6 6-4. “You know, I started feeling it in the third set of my first match.  I felt great.  I actually felt pretty good right from the get‑go of my first match.  I was thinking, Hey, this is a good omen.

“But then kind of hit me in the third set, and really throughout the whole match today I was feeling it.  I don’t feel like I had the pop on my shots that I normally would out there today.”

“So, yeah, I’m struggling a bit physically.  But, you know, I’m going to have to do my best to get myself up to 100%.  I’m getting stronger.  Although I’m out there and playing these long matches, I feel like I’m getting stronger, and I should be better for the next one.”

The winner of the Eternal Match back in Wimbledon hurt his ankle back in Cincinnati and what was originally thought to be torn ligaments turned out to be just a sprain and he was cleared to play just a few days before the Open.

So without any practice or conditioning, the 18^th seeded Isner is taking it one match at a time and hope he will be continue to get into better game shape.

“Yeah, I am going to need that,” he said.  “I think, you know, the focus, the rest of today and all day tomorrow, is going to be just to try to rejuvenate my body as much as possible to get me feeling as good as I possibly can going into that match.

“I’m going to have to play really well, do the same thing essentially today:  serve well, hit my forehand well.  Those are my two strengths.  That’s no secret.

“He’s just ‑‑ I played him in Montreal last year and it was three sets.  But, you know, he kind of ran me off the court the last two sets.  When he’s on, he’s really, really tough.  For me, I kind of hope he’s not on.”

Even with his own problems to deal with, the 25 year-old is still keeping his eye on the up and comers like Harrison, especially after he lost that five-set heartbreaker today.

“Yeah, it’s so tough,” he said of Harrison.  “I mean, personally I don’t know how many fifth set sets I’ve played in.  I think I’ve played in two this year, maybe four or five in my career, so it’s not that ‑‑ I’m not seasoned at it, either.  It’s something that obviously with maturity and the more times you’re in that situation, the better you’re going to be.

“But, I didn’t see the match today.  I don’t want to say that ‑‑ I mean, probably just have to give credit to Ryan’s opponent.  Ryan, he’s obviously playing well and he’s a huge future in this game.”

Harrison’s time is in the future, but right now, Isner may be America’s great hope.

And much like George, who were the least known of the Beatles, 18 year-old Ryan Harrison us definitely the least know of the American’s at the US Open.

A native of Shrevenport, LA, Harrison is playing in his first main draw at the US Open after winning a qualifier and his first round win over Australia’s Peter Luczak, 6-3 6-7(4) 6-3 6-4, but the young man on the map.

Today he almost became a star.

Unfortunately, though, these great stories don’t always work out and despite having three match points in the fifth set tiebreaker, Harrison couldn’t convert against the Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6‑3, 5‑7, 3‑6, 6‑3, 7‑6.

“I mean, it was a great experience,” said the young Harrison.   “I mean, the whole last week and a half almost two weeks now has been incredible for me.  I mean, I’ve always believed in myself and I’ve always believed that I could come in here and compete at this level.

“But to go out there and actually execute and to win some of the matches I did, you know, I’m extremely happy about and extremely proud of.  But in all honesty, I could have lost second round quallies.  I mean, I was in full leg cramps down 3‑0 in the third set, and I fought through that and had a good match and then played one of the best matches I’ve ever played in my life.  Just got a little bit tight whenever I needed to come through.”

Now that he got his name on the map, it will be interesting to see what this young man does. Last year, everyone had Melanie Oudin as the next great thing and that hasn’t turned out as expected. And even great things were expected of John Isner, Sam Querrey, James Blake, and even Andy Roddick, but those varied expectations have been tempered.

And now we have Harrison, who seems to be having a nice time at the Open, but we don’t know if 2010 is a stepping stone or just a shooting star in sky.

Harrison, though, seems very grounded and has learned from some of the top Americans when he served a practice partner for them at the Davis Cup quarterfinals in 2009.

“That was incredible for me,” he said. “To go with the Davis Cup team ‑‑ Andy ‑‑ whenever I went, Andy had just finaled Wimbledon and lost 16‑14 in the fifth to Federer.  Now I feel about 1/10th the way he felt after that match.

“There was Mardy, James, and then the Bryan brothers.  Those guys were just ‑‑ you know, entire time I was there ‑‑ the first four days I was there, actually the other hitting partner Devin Britton was experiencing a shoulder problem.  I was on the court for probably like four, five hours a day every day, I mean, just working, going straight from practice to practice.  I was involved with every single practice.

“Those guys were extremely helpful, trying to teach me how to play.  You know, the stress and pressure of Davis Cup is one that I’m sure you don’t understand until you’ve actually been in that situation.  But watching those guys, and ‑‑ you know, I watched Mardy, I watched James, how they go about trying to execute during those times.  You know, of course I’ve tried to learn from them and pick up as much as possible.

All of that is great, but these players are also opponents, and not guys he leans on. Rather, Harrison looks towards someone else.

“I mean, my dad has been a great role model for me my entire life,” he said.  “He’s literally explained everything to me from the time I was a little kid.  You know, just this is what’s important in life; this is what you always have to do, you know, no matter what.

“The moment I got out of here, you know, on the day I beat Ljubicic, the entire conversation with him was staying humble and preparing for the next round.  I’ve had a great support system.  I have a little brother and little sister, and they both look up to me.  I just try to set a good example for them.

“You know, I’m just go out here and work as hard as I can, and hopefully be a steady player that’s a contender in these tournaments.”

But until he does, Harrison has this year’s Open and it was his greatest learning experience.

“You know, I’ve always not been one to say, like, top 10 and top 5, all that stuff,” he said.  “Because my general personality has always been, you know, if I’m top 10 in the world and I’m 10 in the world, there’s still nine guys ahead of me.  So I’ve always had the mentality where I’ve wanted to be the best and I’ve always wanted to, you know, be the top, to win Grand Slams.

“But with that being said, it’s a ways away.  You know, this was the breakout run of my career, and in the round of 64, you know.  So I’ve got to really keep working and hopefully try and improve.  And guess it’s just been a great experience.”

Looking like the loneliest man in the building, Stakhovsky dug in and made a spirited stand.

The skinny Stakhovsky showed stubborn competitive backbone and a spirit as spiky as his Brillo-pad haircut in roaring back to win the final five points of the breaker to post a 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) victory in a dramatic duel that was one of the most exciting encounters of the tournament.

Harrison, who had played with the poise and purpose far exceeding his 18 years, was down a break in the fifth set but battled back, put one foot inside the baseline and blasting a backhand pass down the line to break back for 4-all.

Playing the first five-setter of his career, Harrison continued to press the issue, but Stakhovsky, who carried a six-match winning streak onto the court, refused to yield before a crowd chanting “Let’s Go Ryan!” throughout periods of the fifth.

This was a throwback tennis with both men playing all-court tennis in propelling each other to explore virtually every corner of the court as 172 of the 343 points played were decided at net.

Trailing 2-3 in the breaker, Harrison sprinted rapidly to his right like a kid chasing a runaway rental car that had his racquets trapped in the trunk, caught up to the ball and rifled a running forehand pass down the line. By the time Harrison had skidded to a stop he was so close to the side wall he probably could have high-fived fans leaning over the railing.

Stakhovsky, who covered the line, went airborne in a full stretch dive as his body bounced off the blue court but his backhand clipped the net and died as Harrison evened the breaker at 3-all.

That stirring shot sequence brought the fans to their feet and Stakhovsky looked rattled by the resounding rorar as he scraped himself off the court and delivered a double fault to fall behind 4-3.

Two points later Harrison had triple match point at 6-3.

Stakhovsky, who won New Haven last weekend, saved the first two match points on his serve smacking an overhead winner on the first and a service winner on the second.

Serving on the third match point, Harrison, who had been effective hitting his kick serve to Stakhovsky’s one-handed backhand, dared to delve near the sideline, but missed his first serve. In the ensuing exchange, Harrison took a slight backward step and pushed a high backhand into net, for 6-all.

“I was trying to make sure I got the first serve in and trying to put pressure on him and missed that one barely,” Harrison said. “And then I wanted to play a long point and give myself an opportunity where I wanted to try to break him down and he didn’t miss. I ended up missing and then just kind of fell apart from there.”

Then the nerves constricted his right arm. Harrison sent a double fault beyond the service line, donating match point to Stakhovsky.

“It just wasn’t smart,” Harrison said of his eighth double fault. “I didn’t go about it the way I should have. I went for a big serve on the first serve at 6-all. Looking back, I probably should have just controlled that one in and looked for a forehand or for a first volley. But you know I can’t change it now.”

Attacking behind a stinging serve that pushed Harrison off the court, Stakhovsky blocked a high forehand volley crosscourt then crumpled to the court ending an enthralling encounter and turning magic into misery for Harrison.

As impressive as Harrison was competing on court, his sense of perspective following a gut-wrenching loss was equally as absorbing.

No tears, no excuses and no alibis. The son of a tennis coach who reads the game as comprehensively as a graduate student scouring a textbook, Harrison views the biggest match of his life as a learning experience in creating a career.

“Obviously, I’m not the happiest person in the world right now,” Harrison said. “But looking back on it, it was a great experience. My ranking is 220 in the world right now, and I’m trying to hopefully get to to the top 10. So I feel like one match doesn’t make or break that. It’s the experience of playing these type of matches that is really going to help me get there.”

Rich Pagliaro is the editor of TennisNow.com

The 12th-seeded Dementieva deconstructed Daniela Hantuchova, 7-5, 6-2, to advance to the fourth round for the eighth time in 12 career Flushing Meadows appearances. Dementieva lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the New Haven semifinals and has continued her solid form in Flushing Meadows this week in winning all six sets she’s played.

French Open finalist Stosur smacked seven aces in sweeping Sara Errani, 6-3, 6-2. Since surrendering the first set of her opening-round 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 win over Elena Vesnina, Stosur has not dropped a set.

Dementieva has beaten Stosur four times in five meetings, including a 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-3 victory in their last meeting in Toronto last summer. Three of those five matches have spanned the three-set distance.

“We’ve had some good matches in the past.  I’ve beaten her once or twice, and then she’s obviously beaten me, as well,” Stosur said.  “So I think it’s gonna be whoever can, you know, execute the game plan better on the given day. But I know what I’m gonna want to do against her.  If I can do that, I think I have a chance.”

Dementieva has worked diligently to transform her serve from the side-arm, slingshot slice it was when she reached the 2004 US Open final, falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova, and though her serve is not a weapon it has become a much more stable shot.

Stosur is at her best hitting the kick serve to set up her favored forehand and in past matches Dementieva has tried to prevent the muscular Aussie from creating one-two combinations off her serve and forehand by directing her inside-out forehand to Stosur’s weaker backhand wing.

The fact that Stosur will hit the kick on both first and second serves can pose problems for some women, who are unaccustomed to returning off shoulder high balls.

“Samantha, Serena, they both have a very powerful serve, and especially second serve,” Dementieva said. “They have such a good kick.  The women don’t usually have this. It’s always very difficult to play against her.  She puts a lot of pressure on you when she’s serving.  But also, I think she’s very solid on the baseline, and, you know, very experienced player, singles and doubles. She covers the court very well and, you know, can finish the point at the net.  She has a great variety to her game.  It’s never easy to play against her.”

Rich Pagliaro is the editor of TennisNow.com.