Olympus U.S. Open Series

RosyLily

Not sure if anyone is following this but the Series began with the Atlanta Championships on Monday for the men and will begin this Monday in Stanford for the women.

The Series is 10 hard-court tournaments in the run-up to the U.S. Open in Flushing. It includes 2 ATP 1000 Masters tourneys (Montreál & Cincinnati) & 2 WTA Premier tourneys (Toronto & Cincinnati). Winner gets about $1m in prize money if they win series. Andy Murray & Caroline Wozniacki won 2010 Series.

Atlanta Semis will kick off later tonight. Defending champion Fish will play Ryan Harrison and Isner will play Muller.

Draw for WTA Stanford event was released earlier. Top 4 seeds (Azarenka- 1; Sharapova- 2; Bartoli- 3; Stosur- 4) all received byes into 2nd round. Could be an interesting tournament. Sharapova & Serena Williams are scheduled to meet in QFs. All eyes will probably be on Serena to see how fit and healthy she is.

RosyLily

Mardy Fish defeated John Isner in the Atlanta Championships final. Fish came from a set down and saved 2 match points to win 3-6, 7-6, 6-2. This puts Fish at Number 1 on the U.S. Open series rankings with 70 points.

Stanford kicked off yesterday. Dominika Cibulkova came through her first round match against Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-2, 7-6. She'll play American Christina McHale next. Also through are Agnieszka Radwanska, Rebecca Marino and Kai-Chen Chang. Sam Stosur & Sabine Lisicki received a w/o in their doubles match.

Playing today are Lisicki (vs. Simona Halep), Ivanovic (vs. Morita), Goerges (vs. Kirilenko), Hantuchova (vs. Fujiwara) & Serena Williams (vs. Amastasia Rodionova)

The Farmer's Classic in L.A. started yesterday aswel. del Potro, Fish, Blake and Malisse are just some of the names in this field. Top 4 seeds got a bye into 2nd round. Also into second are Russell, Tsun-Lu and Sweeting.

RosyLily

Maria Sharapova is through at the Bank of the West Classic; she beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Masha was down 0-2 in the 3rd and came back to win. She'll play the winner of Serena Williams and Maria Kirilenko in the QFs. Also through are Agnieszka, Marion Bartoli, Dominika Cibulkova.
Some good matches on later tonight: Lisicki vs. Stosur (who were beaten in the doubles btw!), Williams vs. Kirilenko, Azarenka vs. Erakovic & Urzsula Radwanska vs. Morita.

At The Farmer's Classic in L.A., del Potro beat James Blake 6-4, 7-6. Delpo has mentioned that he's really looking forward to playing Flushing and was very disapointed to miss it last year. Marcos Baghdatis was beaten by Yen-Hsun Lu in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.

del Potro is looking good and healthy on the hard-courts. Hope he stays that way for the rest of the season! U.S. Open should be veerryy interesting!!:D

RosyLily

Serena Williams into the final of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. She'll face Marion Bartoli in tonight's final. Williams beat Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-2 whereas Bartoli got a w/o after Cibulkova pulled out due to strained abdominal muscle.
Ladies Doubles Final is also on tonight: Azarenka/Kirilenko vs. Huber/Raymond.

At the Farmers Classic in L.A. Mardy Fish will play Ernests Gulbis in the final. FIsh defeated Ryan Harrison in 3 sets in the SF (6-0, 4-6, 7-6), and Gulbis beat Alex Bogomolov Jnr. in 2 (6-2, 7-6). Mens Doubles Final will also take place; Knowles/Malisse vs. Devvarman/Huey

Johnmb

Bad result for women's tennis in Stanford. After being out for so long, with the problems she had, there's no way Williams should have been able to win this. A lot of the top players were missing, but there was enough of them there, and some supposed up and comers, to beat her, and yet she still won it fairly easily! even without the injuries, she shouldn't still be so dominant at this stage, but to be able to steamroll over the opposition in her first tournament back in so long is just embarrassing for the WTA.

RosyLily

How does Serena's win reflect badly on the WTA? I don't get that statement tbh.

If anything, it reflects badly on her opponents who were not able to beat a player who hasn't played on a hard-court in 2 years! Then again I was impressed with how Serena played over the duration of the tournament. Slammed down serves and kept on top of her opponent.

Also, she's not taking her blood-thinners as often anymore- just when flying. She might feel more comfortable taking them less, therefore it would reflect on her game.

Johnmb

RosyLily wrote: »

How does Serena's win reflect badly on the WTA? I don't get that statement tbh.

She's been out of the game for over a year, and not just taking a time out, she has been very seriously ill and with some pretty bad injuries, stopping her from even keeping fit, let alone keeping her training up for tennis. Stanford had some big names in it. For her to destroy some of them, some of the top names the WTA has, in the way she did, is bad for the WTA, and women's tennis. It reflects badly on women's tennis, it's an embarrassment to the WTA because they have to sell women's tennis to sponsors, TV execs, etc.

If anything, it reflects badly on her opponents who were not able to beat a player who hasn't played on a hard-court in 2 years! Then again I was impressed with how Serena played over the duration of the tournament. Slammed down serves and kept on top of her opponent.

Her opponents represent some of the top players in the WTA, that's women's tennis. Even Graf didn't dominate for this long in this manner. And to do so under these circumstances..... It's not like she just scraped through by the strength of her will power, she destroyed some of those opponents.

Also, she's not taking her blood-thinners as often anymore- just when flying. She might feel more comfortable taking them less, therefore it would reflect on her game.

The fact that nobody can handle her game, even after such a long lay off, after such serious problems, shows how poor women's tennis in general is.

RosyLily

You make some good points there but I'm not convinced! :P

Yes, Serena's win might reflect badly on the WTA etc. but the majority of blame has to be placed at the feet of Rodionova, Sharapova, Bartoli and Lisicki who couldn't beat her. At least Kirilenko took a set off her! The ladies have their own trainers, coaches, physios to advise them on opponents.

It was almost like they were playing Serena as if she was still pretty sick and couldn't see past that! You cannot think of her as sick or wounded as that's when she's most dangerous. Players will have to look past how seriously ill Serena was last year.

Good points though!

Johnmb

RosyLily wrote: »

You make some good points there but I'm not convinced! :P

Yes, Serena's win might reflect badly on the WTA etc. but the majority of blame has to be placed at the feet of Rodionova, Sharapova, Bartoli and Lisicki who couldn't beat her. At least Kirilenko took a set off her! The ladies have their own trainers, coaches, physios to advise them on opponents.

They are to blame, but they are the WTA, or at least who the WTA represent, along with a number of others (who would have done just as badly I'm sure). I honestly don't understand how, after over a decade, the women still can't deal with Serena. Whether you like her or not, the simple fact is that her game is very basic, raw power. Plan B is to hit the ball harder than she was in plan A. She hasn't changed much about her game over the years (she hasn't had to), so why can't the women develop a counter? Others came up with ways to counter Graf, Seles, etc in their prime, given time, causing them to make changes to their game, but for the last decade all most have tried to do with Serena is out hit her, something not many are capable of doing (are any capable of doing it?), and she hasn't had to make any changes to stay ahead as a result. Henin, and Mauresmo, are the only two I can think of who tried any other way.

Pighead

Johnmb wrote: »

Bad result for women's tennis in Stanford. After being out for so long, with the problems she had, there's no way Williams should have been able to win this. A lot of the top players were missing, but there was enough of them there, and some supposed up and comers, to beat her, and yet she still won it fairly easily! even without the injuries, she shouldn't still be so dominant at this stage, but to be able to steamroll over the opposition in her first tournament back in so long is just embarrassing for the WTA.

In fairness six of the top ten were missing in Stanford and Serena has been fit for a couple of months at this stage. This was her third tournament since her comeback so a lot of the rust would have been shaken off already.

Bottom line is, she's a phenomenal player. It's very hard to deal with a player who regularly serves 125mph+ serves. Nobody else bar Venus can serve that fast. I actually think the womens game is in a bit better shape lately. Grand Slams are extremely wide open these days and it's very hard to pick a winner. Basically any of the top 10 plus Serena and Venus would fancy their chances.

Johnmb

Pighead wrote: »

Grand Slams are extremely wide open these days and it's very hard to pick a winner. Basically any of the top 10 plus Serena and Venus would fancy their chances.

Not anymore. Serena is now the clear favorite for the US Open, since she's clearly back. None of the top players (bar maybe Venus and Clisters) can match power with her, and most of them only have power. Wozniacki can't defend against her, and her answer seems to be to try and increase her power, but she will never be able to match Serena's power. The only likely roadblock to Serena are two other part time players, Venus and Clisters, none of the full time players can match them, and they'll all have to hope for a huge upset in order to win the US Open. I did say Henin and Mauresmo were the only two I could remember trying something different, but Hingis did too (I'd forgotten about her), with good success against one of them, she just couldn't handle both of them in close proximity, which she ended up having to face constantly before she retired for the first time.

Pighead

Johnmb wrote: »

Not anymore. Serena is now the clear favorite for the US Open, since she's clearly back. None of the top players (bar maybe Venus and Clisters) can match power with her, and most of them only have power. Wozniacki can't defend against her, and her answer seems to be to try and increase her power, but she will never be able to match Serena's power. The only likely roadblock to Serena are two other part time players, Venus and Clisters, none of the full time players can match them, and they'll all have to hope for a huge upset in order to win the US Open. I did say Henin and Mauresmo were the only two I could remember trying something different, but Hingis did too (I'd forgotten about her), with good success against one of them, she just couldn't handle both of them in close proximity, which she ended up having to face constantly before she retired for the first time.

In my eyes any one of Serena, Clijsters, Kvitova, Azarenka and Wozniacki can win it. Of course there's gotta be questions as to why Wozniacki hasn't won a Slam yet but she has the game and she's too good not to eventually win one. Azarenka has a pretty decent record against Serena and generally gives her a tough match.

Kvitova is coming off winning her first slam and her confidence will be sky high. Clijsters has been there and done that and is always a contender at the Slams. Don't think Venus is going to win another one. She's lost a bit of pace around the court and no longer carries that air of invincibility. Sharapova ia a hard one to call. Has shown signs that se's getting back to her best but she's always struggled against the Williams.

Bookies say Serena is 9/4 favourite which is about right but there are five players that are less than 10/1 so pretty open I think.

RosyLily

Agree with Pighead there. U.S. Open womens draw is wide open this year! Out of them all, I'd say Serena, Clijsters, Sharapova and Kvitova have a good chance of winning it.

I'd rarely omit Serena from favourites, especially on hard-court or grass. Her power is particularly potent on these surfaces. Clijsters is a veteran of the tour now; just hope she is fit and healthy to defend her title. Sharapova- wouldn't count her out either. She showed flashes of her former self at Wimbledon and I hope she can do it again (gotta get the double fault count under control though!). Kvitova- young, powerful and should be brimming with confidence after Wimbledon win. She definitely has a few more GS to win.

Personally, I would love to see Kim win again!

I won't pick Azarenka because I don't think she has the game just yet. Maybe in 2 years or so. Wozniacki has so much hype built around her that I think it will take her some time to win a GS. Maybe she should ask McIlroy for tips! :P

jcf

I don't follow the WTA, but I am enjoying the Montreal tournament, Surely Novak Djokovic - it's his tournament to lose...


Great to see the cheat Nadal beaten early.

Tsonger has Federe's number..

RosyLily

Montreál is definitely Djokovic's to win! He seems in good form! Surprised the other 3 top seeds were knocked out so early.

Toronto is full of surprises as well! Sharapova, Wozniacki, Li, Zvonareva, Kvitova, Bartoli, Schiavone are gone already! And Serena is looking in top form. She or Azarenka could win this tournament.

Not impressed by Wozy at all! Lost in 2 sets to Vinci and didn't look in control or comfortable on court. I'd say her odds for the U.S. Open are falling. Rumour has it she flew down to Atlanta to be with McIlroy.

Clijsters ruled out for Cincinnati tournament next week. She is hopeful for the Open on the 29th August.

the_monkey

Easy for Novak there as Tsonger had to retire - pity he made a good 1st set out of it ...

Novak should destroy Fish in the final.

califano

I find it amazing that U.S Mens tennis has been in a slump for some time now and showing no signs or producing someone in the top echelon anytime soon. With the population and the popularity of the game in the U.S its hard to believe really.

_Bella_

Tough match for Nadal yesterday, quite lucky in the third tiebreaker to come away with it, I'm sure Mardy Fish will fancy his chances, especially with the form he is in at the moment. Womens tennis is pretty much the same as usual with most of the top seeds going out in the earlier rounds. I'd love to see Petkovic win this week.

Johnmb

Well the US Open for the women is pretty much sorted now. Serena taking this week off to rest up for it was a bad sign for everyone else because it means that she feels she has gotten rid of the rust and is ready to go. Everyone else needed her to keep playing right up to it and hope she ran out of steam during it. The one person who had a realistic chance of beating her for the title (not a great chance, but at least realistic) was Clijsters, and she has now pulled out of the Open. So barring devine intervention, Serena will win, the rest are just playing for second place (if they are lucky enough to be on the other side of the draw!). At least the men's is more open, even with Djokovic playing so well, there are probably 4 or 5 who have a good chance of winning, and another handful who have a realistic chance of beating any one of those contenders on a good day.

the_monkey

Shame about Djokovic today, I hope he is ok for the US open ...

RosyLily

Lleyton Hewitt is out of the U.S. Open. Foot injury still lingering so he decided to give back his wildcard for the Slam.

Shame! He's a very good competitor and gives it his all on court. Not many people like his ferocity on court but I do...shows his passion for the game and will to win!