The men on Nadal's half are really up against it with the rain delays. If there is limited/no play tomorrow I don't think there is any way that the final will be played on Sunday. There's no way they can play round of 16/quarters/semis/final in three days.

mynameisnotsusan said:

Looking at the matchups to come...

Womens quarters

Wozniacki vs Petkovic. Petkovic has been looking strong. Woz was lucky to get the win against Kuznetsova.

Williams vs Pavlyuchenkova. Serena is looking scary good. The Pav has a game that could trouble Serena if she has an off day but Serena is looking as focused as I've ever seen her.

Kerber vs Penetta. These ladies are both happy to have made it this far. Penetta will make the Semi.

Stosur vs Zvonareva. Sam has had some tough matches and got through. She's inconsistent though so it's up to her. Could go either way depending how Stosurs forehand and serve hold up.

Anyone other than Serena winning the whole thing will be a huge upset.

It's kind of amazing how well Petkovic is doing when you consider that she suffered a serious knee injury two weeks ago in Cincinnati. As long as Caroline's forehand does not start spraying errors I think she should get through but if Andrea catches fire she could hit Caroline off of the

court. The match these two played in Miami this year was an absolute nightmare. Both players were terrible and had far too many errors.

Pavlyuchenkova needs a miracle. Her best bet is probably to try to get Serena moving as much as she can but Anastasia is a poor mover herself so I'm not sure how well she can execute that kind of strategy. Serena did look a little wobbly in the previous round against Ivanovic so maybe there is a tiny chance she will lose.

Pennetta/Kerber should have been Sharapova/Kvitova, a rematch of the Wimbledon final. I hate how the womens draw always falls apart. Flavia should win this but who knows?

Poor Vera. She is 7-2 against Stosur with the two wins coming way back in 2004. Still, Vera dismantled Sabine Lisicki and her monster serve quite handily so I really don't see how Sam can trouble her. If Vera wins she will likely face Pennetta in the semis who she is 2-4 against. Flavia defeated her the last two times they met.

wow, rialb friend you're a serious tennis fan aren't you?

rialb said:

The men on Nadal's half are really up against it with the rain delays. If there is limited/no play tomorrow I don't think there is any way that the final will be played on Sunday. There's no way they can play round of 16/quarters/semis/final in three days.

Yeah, it'll be survival of the fittest and it really gives the other half a big advantage. A shame that it's an issue. If Wimbledon can get it together, so can the USTA and they will get a hammering after this.

JoeTyler said:

wow, rialb friend you're a serious tennis fan aren't you?

Thanks to the wonders of the internet anyone can appear to be a "serious" fan of anything.

Yesterday ESPN were going on and on about the meeting between Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and the tournament director (Brian Earley). Apparently they were concerned about being put on the courts when they were still wet. Later in the evening it appeared that the ladies were having a similar meeting. Six of the eight quarterfinalists were seen on court presumably discussing the conditions. Well, kind of. Pavlyuchenkova, Wozniacki, Petkovic, Pennetta and Kerber were all on court and a "representative" of Serena Williams who appeared to be taking the lead. I thought it was funny and telling that even though Serena could not be bothered to attend in person she was still in control and calling the shots.

mynameisnotsusan said:

rialb said:

The men on Nadal's half are really up against it with the rain delays. If there is limited/no play tomorrow I don't think there is any way that the final will be played on Sunday. There's no way they can play round of 16/quarters/semis/final in three days.

Yeah, it'll be survival of the fittest and it really gives the other half a big advantage. A shame that it's an issue. If Wimbledon can get it together, so can the USTA and they will get a hammering after this.

I'm sure a ton of people would go crazy but they should really think about moving the final ahead to Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the weather. Better to delay the final and have both players well rested rather than send one of them out with a bit of an advantage and have a crap match.

rialb said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

Yeah, it'll be survival of the fittest and it really gives the other half a big advantage. A shame that it's an issue. If Wimbledon can get it together, so can the USTA and they will get a hammering after this.

I'm sure a ton of people would go crazy but they should really think about moving the final ahead to Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the weather. Better to delay the final and have both players well rested rather than send one of them out with a bit of an advantage and have a crap match.

I agree. It would be sad otherwise, but I think the money greedy organisers will try to end on Sunday, ignoring the players and running for their sad dollars.

So we have a Nadal-Roddick in quarterfinals. What do you think? It's a very interesting match. I think Roddick isn't at the necessary level at the moment to beat Nadal. But we'll see.

Federer-Tsonga will also be a very entertaining match. Tsonga is doing a really good year and it wouldn't surprise me if he won Federer again, like he did in Wimbledon.

I think the tournament is sadly conditioned not by rain, but by the organiser's attempt no to lose any money by making half of the players kill themselves with four matches in four days. This would be sad. Djokovic doesn't need any help to win here... Although he seems to be suffering against Dostoievski...

Wozniacki has just won Petkovic in straight sets. I hope this will finally be her Grand Slam, but I doubt she can beat Serena. I hope I'm wrong, Caroline deserves to win a Major.

Javi said:

So we have a Nadal-Roddick in quarterfinals. What do you think? It's a very interesting match. I think Roddick isn't at the necessary level at the moment to beat Nadal. But we'll see.

Federer-Tsonga will also be a very entertaining match. Tsonga is doing a really good year and it wouldn't surprise me if he won Federer again, like he did in Wimbledon.

I think the tournament is sadly conditioned not by rain, but by the organiser's attempt no to lose any money by making half of the players kill themselves with four matches in four days. This would be sad. Djokovic doesn't need any help to win here... Although he seems to be suffering against Dostoievski...

I do not know what to think about Roddick/Nadal. I really wanted this match so I'm happy and I would love to see Roddick beat him. Realistically I don't think Andy has another slam in him but if he does this may be his best chance. Nadal is certainly looking vulnerable and maybe the US crowd can give Andy the necessary boost for him to score an upset. It's reall funny how my feelings about Andy have evolved over time. Circa 2001-2003 I absolutely loathed him and was hoping that someone could prevent him from winning a slam. I carried on disliking him through 2004 but sometime in 2005 I flipped and started rooting for him. He really deserves to have won at least once at Wimbledon. He played so good in 2009 but just couldn't quite beat Federer.

Tsonga also has a recent win over Roger on a hardcourt in Montreal. Roger should win this but he seems to be losing the will to win that made him so dominant. I don't know what it is but he seems to have lapses in concentration that he did not have at his peak. Time really is running out for him to win another slam so maybe he will be able to motivate himself.

I just pray that Murray can take out Isner. John Isner in a grand slam semi-final just sounds wrong.

Javi said:

Wozniacki has just won Petkovic in straight sets. I hope this will finally be her Grand Slam, but I doubt she can beat Serena. I hope I'm wrong, Caroline deserves to win a Major.

Sometimes, typically in grand slams, she makes it really hard to be a fan. She had a break point to go up 4-1 in the second set but couldn't do it. Then she served for the match at 5-3 and was broken. In the tiebreak she was up 6-3 before she finally won it 7-5. She can play assertively and take control of points but seems to struggle to do so at crucial moments. When Petkovic broke her and then held to make it 5-5 I was sure we were headed for the same result as the Na Li match at the Australian Open semi-final but fortunately Caroline hung on and won the tiebreak (eventually).

She often reminds me of Dinara Safina and her "why am I such a chicken" moment in the 2009 Roland Garros final. I keep waiting/hoping for her to step up and have a breakthrough, maybe it will happen tomorrow against Serena?

Pannetta loses to the 92nd ranked player and Tipsarevic retires during what I thought was one of the best matches of the tournament (definitely one of the hardest played). Totally weird Open. Mens finals on Monday now, too.

rialb said:

Javi said:

So we have a Nadal-Roddick in quarterfinals. What do you think? It's a very interesting match. I think Roddick isn't at the necessary level at the moment to beat Nadal. But we'll see.

Federer-Tsonga will also be a very entertaining match. Tsonga is doing a really good year and it wouldn't surprise me if he won Federer again, like he did in Wimbledon.

I think the tournament is sadly conditioned not by rain, but by the organiser's attempt no to lose any money by making half of the players kill themselves with four matches in four days. This would be sad. Djokovic doesn't need any help to win here... Although he seems to be suffering against Dostoievski...

I do not know what to think about Roddick/Nadal. I really wanted this match so I'm happy and I would love to see Roddick beat him. Realistically I don't think Andy has another slam in him but if he does this may be his best chance. Nadal is certainly looking vulnerable and maybe the US crowd can give Andy the necessary boost for him to score an upset. It's reall funny how my feelings about Andy have evolved over time. Circa 2001-2003 I absolutely loathed him and was hoping that someone could prevent him from winning a slam. I carried on disliking him through 2004 but sometime in 2005 I flipped and started rooting for him. He really deserves to have won at least once at Wimbledon. He played so good in 2009 but just couldn't quite beat Federer.

The final set in that final was amazing. I came around a little towards Roddick for the first time during Wimbledon09, mainly because he seemed so emotional and humble in his post-match interview after beating Murray in the semi. Never thought I'd see him like that. I loved it that Federer had a jacket with the number 15 printed on it ready for the awards ceremony, like he was absolutlely certain he was going to beat Roddick. I didn;t think it was disrespectful, maybe a bit arrogant, but I wonder what Roddick thought about it?

Cerebus said:

Pannetta loses to the 92nd ranked player and Tipsarevic retires during what I thought was one of the best matches of the tournament (definitely one of the hardest played). Totally weird Open. Mens finals on Monday now, too.

That's too bad about Pennetta, she has a great record against Stosur (4-0). This was probably the best chance she will ever have to make a grand slam final. It seemed like after the win against Sharapova that Flavia really struggled to get through her matches and was fairly exhausted.

Some people are penciling Sam into the final but I don't think that is necessarily going to happen. Lately Stosur has been playing good tennis but she has had some questionable losses this year (262nd ranked Melinda Czink in the first round of Wimbledon?) and Kerber could defeat her.

Too bad that Janko had to retire. He was really giving Novak all he could handle in the first two sets.

Federer is up a break in the first against Tsonga. I think that Roger probably needs to win this in straight sets or at most four sets. If it goes five I think Tsonga will take it.

elmer said:

rialb said:

I do not know what to think about Roddick/Nadal. I really wanted this match so I'm happy and I would love to see Roddick beat him. Realistically I don't think Andy has another slam in him but if he does this may be his best chance. Nadal is certainly looking vulnerable and maybe the US crowd can give Andy the necessary boost for him to score an upset. It's reall funny how my feelings about Andy have evolved over time. Circa 2001-2003 I absolutely loathed him and was hoping that someone could prevent him from winning a slam. I carried on disliking him through 2004 but sometime in 2005 I flipped and started rooting for him. He really deserves to have won at least once at Wimbledon. He played so good in 2009 but just couldn't quite beat Federer.

The final set in that final was amazing. I came around a little towards Roddick for the first time during Wimbledon09, mainly because he seemed so emotional and humble in his post-match interview after beating Murray in the semi. Never thought I'd see him like that. I loved it that Federer had a jacket with the number 15 printed on it ready for the awards ceremony, like he was absolutlely certain he was going to beat Roddick. I didn;t think it was disrespectful, maybe a bit arrogant, but I wonder what Roddick thought about it?

I like Roger and I am hoping he can win at least one more major but I think it is fair to say that he has a fairly large ego. The Federer/Roddick head to head is currently 20-2 in Roger's favour, it would be great if Andy could get another win or two before they retire, preferably in a final.

rialb said:

Javi said:

So we have a Nadal-Roddick in quarterfinals. What do you think? It's a very interesting match. I think Roddick isn't at the necessary level at the moment to beat Nadal. But we'll see.

Federer-Tsonga will also be a very entertaining match. Tsonga is doing a really good year and it wouldn't surprise me if he won Federer again, like he did in Wimbledon.

I think the tournament is sadly conditioned not by rain, but by the organiser's attempt no to lose any money by making half of the players kill themselves with four matches in four days. This would be sad. Djokovic doesn't need any help to win here... Although he seems to be suffering against Dostoievski...

I do not know what to think about Roddick/Nadal. I really wanted this match so I'm happy and I would love to see Roddick beat him. Realistically I don't think Andy has another slam in him but if he does this may be his best chance. Nadal is certainly looking vulnerable and maybe the US crowd can give Andy the necessary boost for him to score an upset. It's reall funny how my feelings about Andy have evolved over time. Circa 2001-2003 I absolutely loathed him and was hoping that someone could prevent him from winning a slam. I carried on disliking him through 2004 but sometime in 2005 I flipped and started rooting for him. He really deserves to have won at least once at Wimbledon. He played so good in 2009 but just couldn't quite beat Federer.

Tsonga also has a recent win over Roger on a hardcourt in Montreal. Roger should win this but he seems to be losing the will to win that made him so dominant. I don't know what it is but he seems to have lapses in concentration that he did not have at his peak. Time really is running out for him to win another slam so maybe he will be able to motivate himself.

I just pray that Murray can take out Isner. John Isner in a grand slam semi-final just sounds wrong.

I also think Roddick deserved to win at least one Wimbledon. I think Nadal is the favourite. He certainly isn't at his best, but he is gaining confidence as the tournament advances. I might be wrong, but I think that he's the only player who hasn't lost a set until now.

I agree that Murray must win Isner. Players like Isner should be forbidden. I remember when Karlovic won Federer, I think it was in the summer of 2008, in Canada or Cinci. I felt so bad that Federer lost to such a piece of shit, with all due respect.

[Edited 9/9/11 1:39am]

So one dream semi already set-up Federer vs Djokovic.

The 2 other quarters are interesting but odds are it'll be Nadal and Murray in the other.

Isner vs Murray - I hope Andy comes through because Isner only really has the serve.

Roddick vs Nadal - Could be a good test for him but Nadal should pull through.

Any of the big three can take it and it really comes down to only a few points. I love that tennis has such incredibly talented athletes who are pushing each other to be better and better.

I'd love Murray to step up but he'll have to stay calm and play like he's never played to go all the way but if I had to put money on it, I'd back Djokovic to take it.

So we have the semi finalists and really there's only one surprise partcipant in Angelique Kerber.

I can't say that I've ever seen her play but if she beat Penetta and got to the semi-finals she has to have some game.

She'll be up against Samantha Stosur who will be heavily favoured to make the final. She has been a bit of a head case but it seems to be coming together for her. She has the game to beat anyone and is the only one who has beaten Serena, which she's done twice. She's great to watch when she's on.

In the other semi-final the current world Number 1 Caroline Wozniacki comes up against the best player of this generation Serena Williams

I have the feeling Serena is going to destroy Wozniacki just to prove "Hey, you're only number 1 because my foot was in a cast." The break from the game seems to have given Serena a new appreciation and she's playing just unbelievable.

She'll be super focused because she'll want to erase the memory of her last semi appearance at the US Open when she completely lost it against Clijsters. Wozniackis defensive game won't be enough, she's got nothing to hurt Serena with.

BTW reports of the demise of US tennis have been overstated. Some nice results from a raft of young players and two teenagers, Jack Sock and Melanie Oudin just took the mixed doubles title. Congrats to them.

FYI Angelique Kerber has been a pro since 2003 and earned $846,175 in prizemoney. She's already guaranteed $450,000 by making the semis and if she makes the finals she'll more than double her career earnings by taking at least $900,000 (winner takes $1.8 million).

Wow, I guess that Nadal/Roddick match is a case of be careful what you wish for. I didn't necessarily think that Andy was going to win but I thought he would at least make it competitive. That was rather embarrassing. At times after he won games Nadal almost looked apologetic.

I kind of want a Federer/Nadal final but only if Roger is guaranteed to win. I still can not believe he blew that 5-2 lead in the first set of this years French Open final. That would have been the biggest win of Roger's career.

rialb said:

Wow, I guess that Nadal/Roddick match is a case of be careful what you wish for. I didn't necessarily think that Andy was going to win but I thought he would at least make it competitive. That was rather embarrassing. At times after he won games Nadal almost looked apologetic.

I kind of want a Federer/Nadal final but only if Roger is guaranteed to win. I still can not believe he blew that 5-2 lead in the first set of this years French Open final. That would have been the biggest win of Roger's career.

What???

[Edited 9/10/11 6:07am]

Javi said:

rialb said:

Wow, I guess that Nadal/Roddick match is a case of be careful what you wish for. I didn't necessarily think that Andy was going to win but I thought he would at least make it competitive. That was rather embarrassing. At times after he won games Nadal almost looked apologetic.

I kind of want a Federer/Nadal final but only if Roger is guaranteed to win. I still can not believe he blew that 5-2 lead in the first set of this years French Open final. That would have been the biggest win of Roger's career.

What???

[Edited 9/10/11 6:07am]

Roger is a tired old man, one more slam and he can spend the rest of his days in a retirement home.

Nadal/Roddick... p'sh! Whatever. Roddick was never the next great American player. Not ever. Don't get me wrong - he's good. But his current ranking is probably a bit too kind. I have to wonder if it would be lower if he'd played more.

Get outta here with one more slam for Federer! I think at least three more. He hasn't even had any of those late career, spured on by the crowd, luck of his strongest opponents getting eliminated early wins yet. He should get a couple of those, at least.

what time are the men's finals on? I don't get CBS so I have to plan to watch it somewhere

NDRU said:

what time are the men's finals on? I don't get CBS so I have to plan to watch it somewhere

Monday at 4 PM Eastern, I think.

Cerebus said:

NDRU said:

what time are the men's finals on? I don't get CBS so I have to plan to watch it somewhere

Monday at 4 PM Eastern, I think.

oh, monday, that sucks

Federer and Djokovic are in a fifth-set after Fed was up 2 sets to love. I have no idea who's going to win.

Federer broke! Serving for match...

Djokovic breaks back! Fed had two match points. Crowd was going nuts.

Djokovic holds, breaks again and serves it out. Damn he was tough. Even on match points down he held tough.