Nalbandian, Cilic, Fish and Marcos Baghdatis Look Ready

US Open 2010
By Hiland Doolittle, September 1st, 2010
Roger Federer

Roger Federer

New faces and several veteran challengers pose serious roadblocks against the five-time U..S. Open winner, Roger Federer. This title would be the Swiss’s sixth U.S. Open title. Federer sent an early message to all in decisively using just 86 minutes to register a Federer-esque 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 first round win over Bob Dobul.

Unhappily for Agentina’s 5’7” Dabu, Federer brought the piilings down with his patented behind the back, through the legs winning shot that was last seen in New York a year ago. Federer’s greatest asset was clearly his consistency for which Dabu had no answers.

Lately, tour players have begun to look closely at the lumbering Swede’s foot speed. Switzerland’s Robin Soderling is well known for powering forehands as well as one of the most efficient servers in the game. Yet, he has had a disappointing season with losses to less experienced combatants.

On Tuesday, Soderling confirmed the accuracy and reliability of his core strokes, but he needed that other intangible, the old fighting spirit. After the 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 5-7, 6-4 win 38,000 fans stayed to pay homage to both players. After working his way through the first two sets Soderling fell off form, and suddenly Andreas Haider Maurer became the hunter. The role reversal was exhilarating to watch. Soderling’s flaws were flagrant and resulted in 57 unforced errors.

In a matchup between two veterans, sixth seeded Nikolay Davydenko gunned down 30 year-old American Michael Russell of the USA, 6-4, 6-1,6-3. Davydenko is serious about increasing his earnings as well as his ranking.

For the younger players, the points awarded for Grand Slam success makes these tournaments very high stakes. Not having to deal with qualifying increases the chance for more points significantly higher.

The 28th of August was already special at the Roddick home as the last throwback to serve and volley tennis who is coincidentally the ninth seed in New York notched his 28th year with solid, aggressive tennis.

Roddick not only improved his tour leading hard court record to 34-7, best on tour, but he has also recovered nicely from two months of fighting mononucleosis.

Berdych, Gael Monfils, Marin Cilic, , Jurgen Melcer, American Sam Querrey and Juan Ferrero, all advanced but there was plenty of resistance as Monfils (17), Cilic (11) and Melzer (13) all needed five sets to move forward. Unseeded strong arms Mardy Fish, with three tour titles this season are ready to make magic in 2010.. Attendance looks strong thus far and if organizers stay on trac, we should be looking at some major revenue increases.

Tags:

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.