US Open 2014

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 12:54am #1

Starting this a bit early as both James McGee and Louk Sorensen are playing qualifiers this week.

The draw is here... http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/qs/r1s4.html

Louk plays Gastao Elias tomorrow at 11am NY time. James plays Gonzala Lama. I could be wrong but I don't see him on the OOP for tomorrow so I assume he starts on Wednesday.

RosyLily · 19-08-2014 4:22pm

Sorensen broke Elias already and just held serve, 3-1 up!:)

yerwanthere123 · 19-08-2014 4:45pm

Hoping and praying that James can make it for the first time. His draw isn't bad either

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 4:49pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Hoping and praying that James can make it for the first time. His draw isn't bad either

Yes. James' looks much easier than Louk's but you just never know.

timmy880 · 19-08-2014 4:51pm

Still gutted James came so close to making the French Open main draw.... Not trying to get too excited about the US Open qualifiers but he has been playing well recently... Did anyone see his performance against Austin Kraijcek in Lexington?? He was unreal!

yerwanthere123 · 19-08-2014 4:52pm

Indeed, it's hard to judge really cause I know very little about the guys he could play, just going by rankings really. I mean, he really should have qualified for the French, the guy that beat him was pretty unknown. Here's to hoping anyway!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 4:53pm

^ I know it's personal bias but I get a bit annoyed that nobody gives him a WC. Some of the players that get them constantly never do anything to deserve them. Baghdatis for example is constantly getting them and never gets any closer to qualifying in his own right. Why keep giving them to him?

timmy880 · 19-08-2014 4:56pm

Sorry but James will never get WC's to these events as much as he deserves one!! Baggy and Jack Sock have the most WC's this season and I can't see that changing any time soon. One USED to be a big name and is still seen as a fans favourite even though he basically has become a lazy pusher and the yanks will always back their own....

yerwanthere123 · 19-08-2014 5:00pm

Yeah, as much as we root for James, there's nothing really to differentiate him from the many, many others in his position. A lot of WC's are a complete waste though. Loads were wasted on Donald Young. Ashleigh Barty is another, she's got into about 8 or 9 grand slams draws with a WC and there's not much to suggest she deserves them. If anything she's regressed.

timmy880 · 19-08-2014 5:04pm

Well Barty is still only 18 so the WC's could be justified in the future if she progresses but ya there are alot of wasted wild cards... Dont even get me started on the Alex Bogdanovic days

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 5:13pm

I get the federations of the individual slam countries making sure their own players but if they really want to bring them on they should set out a criteria for progress between this year and next year. Here's a WC for this years slam, try your best there and you have until next year to raise your ranking by X, Y or Z. Easy enough to do it on an individual basis and to have realistic aims. Young 16 year old only starting out wouldn't have as high a goal as someone in their early 20's who's been making up the numbers on the tour for years.

Obviously it won't happen. Especially not at Slams.

RosyLily · 19-08-2014 5:32pm

Didn't the USTA have kind of a mini US Open Series thing for WCs for the French Open? I think Taylor Townsend got a WC through this system. Well spent imo! She played well.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 6:12pm

Elias serving for the win now

timmy880 · 19-08-2014 6:32pm

Seems like a big choke there from Louk from 4-1 up in the final set

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 6:53pm

timmy880 wrote: »

Seems like a big choke there from Louk from 4-1 up in the final set

Yep

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-08-2014 10:43pm

McGee is on 3rd tomorrow.

timmy880 · 20-08-2014 9:36am

James plays Lama who is from Chile and a clay court specialist - from what I can see he has never played a qualifying match before in a grand slam... Looks very winnable on paper at least

timmy880 · 20-08-2014 8:06pm

McGee is up a break.... Go James!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-08-2014 8:24pm

McGee takes first set in 20 minutes! Up a break in the 2nd now.

timmy880 · 20-08-2014 8:37pm

Battered him! Well done James

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-08-2014 8:38pm

Wonder if it was a brilliant performance from James or if Lama was rubbish? Either way he's on to the next round.

timmy880 · 20-08-2014 8:40pm

https://twitter.com/SOLINCOsports/status/502177334259363840/photo/1

Photo of James today.....

timmy880 · 20-08-2014 8:41pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Wonder if it was a brilliant performance from James or if Lama was rubbish? Either way he's on to the next round.

Probably a bit of both but James has been playing great this Summer so hopefully he played great

yerwanthere123 · 20-08-2014 11:12pm

Great, emphatic win for James. When you look at the others in his draw you'd think he surely has a big chance of qualifying.

RosyLily · 21-08-2014 10:56pm

Some good matches to look forward to! Djokovic-Murray and Federer-Dimitrov QFs should be good!!

Interested to see how Venus goes. Was really impressed with her at Wimbledon, hope she can keep it up here.

I think it could be Fed and Serena's year. Buuut, I thought that at Wimbledon and I was wrong.:-p

yerwanthere123 · 21-08-2014 11:40pm

James McGee just broke Bhambri as he was serving for the match

5-5 all now final set.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 21-08-2014 11:48pm

And he's won it! Great result. One more match and he's there!

yerwanthere123 · 22-08-2014 12:31am

Fantastic

Great comeback win, winning four games in a row. He had to stave off two break points at 2-4, which surely would have ended the match had he been broken.

Zhang Ze stands in his way next. He's slightly ahead of James in the rankings, but has a bit more experience, having qualified for the Australian Open at the beginning of the year. So Zhang will probably be the favourite, but all things considered they seem pretty evenly matched.

bada_bing · 22-08-2014 8:57pm

James has qualified for the main draw of the US Open. Am stoked for him, this is probably the start of greater things to come his way!!! Match score was 0-6 6-4 6-4

RosyLily · 22-08-2014 9:10pm

Woooooooo!!!!! Delighted for McGee..he deserves it so much.

Huge crowd around court 8 for the match, way more than any other qualifying match. Lot of tears from James. @rourkeytennis was the best for updates and pics.

Here's hoping we'll get to see him on tv next time!

whiterebel · 22-08-2014 11:10pm

bada_bing wrote: »

James has qualified for the main draw of the US Open. Am stoked for him, this is probably the start of greater things to come his way!!! Match score was 0-6 6-4 6-4

Great comeback from a bad start...

yerwanthere123 · 22-08-2014 11:11pm

Fantastic for James

So happy for him. Some win after being bagelled in the first set!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 12:00am

I doubt he'll get on TV unless he gets Raonic, I don't think any of the other spots for qualifiers would be TV worthy. Maybe Simon depending on what else was on at the same time.
It's a tough one, would we rather he gets another qualifier or a match he might win but doesn't get on TV or gets Raonic and probably loses but might be on TV?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 12:02am

The draws were made yesterday, we were all so distracted by James I forgot to link them.

Mens: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/ms/r1s1.html

Womens: www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/ws/r1s1.html

Stevecw · 23-08-2014 1:46am

Great to see an Irish guy make the main draw. When do we find out who he plays?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 2:03am

Stevecw wrote: »

Great to see an Irish guy make the main draw. When do we find out who he plays?

Maybe later tonight or tomorrow. There's still a few matches being finished as there was a bit of a rain delay just after James' match finished.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 3:10am

Qualifiers have been placed in the draw. James has drawn #108 Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan. Not the worst draw he could have gotten. Zero chance of it being on TV though. Fingers crossed it's at least on a court with cameras on it. If he can manage to get the win he'd play Tsonga/Monaco.

Stevecw · 23-08-2014 10:05am

Not impossible for him to win that. Very unlikely to be on any tv court though. Imagine a win and a game v Tsonga, that might even get a bit of notice from RTE & the Irish media in general for once.

yerwanthere123 · 23-08-2014 11:37am

Yeah, I think that's a winnable match for James. He has beaten players of a similar ranking before.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 11:38am

^ Just hope he's recovered in time. Cramping after a 3 set match, one where he wasn't even involved in the 1st set, doesn't bode well for a possible 5 setter. Would be great if he wasn't playing until Tuesday.

Minjor · 23-08-2014 4:37pm

There's a great video doing the rounds showing his reaction to the win.

Really puts in perspective what it means to the guy and how much effort it took to get to this level.

gordongekko · 23-08-2014 5:10pm

Minjor wrote: »

There's a great video doing the rounds showing his reaction to the win.

Link?

Minjor · 23-08-2014 5:32pm

gordongekko wrote: »

Link?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201587482328595

I actually wasn't sure if boards was allowing me to post links yet (I'm a new user), but it seems I can now. Sorry for not posting it earlier.

StillIntact · 23-08-2014 9:53pm

James is 3rd on Court 13 on Monday. From memory that is one of the tv courts.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2014 10:06pm

^ It's the court Andy Roddick had them move his match against Ferrer to a few years ago when the big court they were on kept leaking water. I remember it's tiny, can't remember if it's televised or not.

Randomfriend · 25-08-2014 8:09am

Can't believe I didn't notice this sub forum before.. I'm useless at tennis, but love watching. James nearly gave me a heart attack the last night, can't wait to watch his match today (if there's a stream). It's been hard work following his progress, so can't even begin to imagine what this means to him.

In other news, Louk Sorensen and James Cluskey are in action in challengers. Louk isn't far off being a steady top 200 player and won't be surprised to see him reach the inner 150's within the next year if his body holds up. He should have done better in this years USO qualifying. I had said pre qualies, that looking at the draws, between them either he or james would make the 3rd round, but he let a 4-1 lead slip in his opening match.. Cluskey in dire need of some ranking points over in asia.

Not all US Open news I know, but didn't want to go splitting my post across both of the main topics.

In other news, I've been toying with digital drawing the last while, and after James' huge win the last night, gave drawing him a go, which then led to me trying out drawing Cluskey, here they are if you want a look.

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10645009_620273628093574_3358059090506572168_n.jpg?oh=b1cae92e2dbc169f2062ee6b8e140c6a&oe=54700455&__gda__=1417509299_2d76920bba7b3278a30c33f7200ee14b

Anyone have any suggestions for other interesting people to give a go during the tournament. I have a feeling some interesting events during the next two weeks might inspire

Floppybits · 25-08-2014 10:19am

Good interview with James on Newstalk this morning. He sounds in high spirits and looking forward to his match today. They were saying that coverage of his match will be on Sky Sports 3 from 4pm today. Are Sky sports going to show his match, he is the 3rd match on court 13 and there doesnt seem to be another big match on at the same time, so it might be covered.

RosyLily · 25-08-2014 12:01pm

Hopefully it'll be on tv. Court 13 is one of the televised courts so fingers crossed!!:)

Interested to see how Halep and Bouchard get on. Both have had a great year. Not sure whether Genie will make a 4th SF though.

timmy880 · 25-08-2014 12:03pm

I've a fiver in a bet365 account for the last 2 years so I can watch their tennis streams. James will be on that as it's a televised court but looking at the schedule I can't see anything getting in the way of Sky Sports giving him at least some air time tonight... Should be on court between 7 and 8, there or there abouts. I'm nervous but really excited!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 25-08-2014 12:27pm

The year Conor Niland qualified Sky showed the match. Granted it was against Djokovic but they had a little feature on Niland and an interview before the match so I think they were showing him rather than Djokovic. Hopefully they'll do the same for James.

timmy880 · 25-08-2014 12:38pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The year Conor Niland qualified Sky showed the match. Granted it was against Djokovic but they had a little feature on Niland and an interview before the match so I think they were showing him rather than Djokovic. Hopefully they'll do the same for James.

Hope so... Looks like he will get great publicity. Hope it leads to a few more wild cards.

US Open 2014

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