2017 U. S. Open Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York, U. S. A.

[don_budge]

Interesting. It's bugger right now. I cannot get my satellite TV to work. I would like to see Rublev play.

He's playing Damir Dzumhur and Dzumhur just took the third set 7-5 and it seems to have temporarily rattled the rather arrogant Rublev. Rublev looks like he could be a character out of a Dostoyevsky novel...striking looks and attitude. Maybe he could be Arkady Dolgoruky from "The Adolescent". Written in 1874, it is the story of a nineteen year old looking for his identity amidst the disorder of Russian society in the 1870's. Rublev is nineteen and he is doing his best to make his mark on the game and he isn't very shy about it.

Try this link if the satellite doesn't get moving.

https://www.batmanstream.com/tennis-...o-2016-21.html

Andrey is very impressive though. I actually see him as having ultimately more potential than players like Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev. He had a huge win against Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets where he never really let the Bulgarian in the match.

[stotty]

It couldn't have been scripted any better for the young Denis Shapovalov. Others have a big chance to capitalize. Watching Andrey Rublev up two sets to love and deep into the third. Looks like a possible tie-breaker. This kid has come a long way since I saw him in Paris a few years back. faultsnaces is right about the forehand...he is teeing off on it nearly every ball.

Interesting. It's bugger right now. I cannot get my satellite TV to work. I would like to see Rublev play.

[don_budge]

It is. An outsider is going to make it to the final.

It couldn't have been scripted any better for the young Denis Shapovalov. Others have a big chance to capitalize. Watching Andrey Rublev up two sets to love and deep into the third. Looks like a possible tie-breaker. This kid has come a long way since I saw him in Paris a few years back. faultsnaces is right about the forehand...he is teeing off on it nearly every ball.

[stotty]

The lower half of the draw is now wide open...

It is. An outsider is going to make it to the final.

[bottle]

Who at the U.S. Open has the best name? It used to be Elena Dementieva but now it's Anna Blinkova (eye). She's the one to follow. No I didn't know that.

[stroke]

That was a lot of info I did not know on this draw stuff. Sam has a shot here at a major he may not see again. He is playing well, certainly one of the best if not the best serve left in the tournament, a very high end forehand, and his confidence is high after a good recent run of good play/results. Would have looked pretty good at 33/1. It would be quite a story for US tennis if he could somehow do it.

[don_budge]

Still baffles me why Nadal and Federer are in the same half. Also why Murray waited till the last minute to pull out, unless it was a move to keep Federer and Nadal in the same half, so the gap between him and one of the two lessens...

Solid point. Both points. Nadal and Federer obviously are the two top players in the draw...they should be on opposite sides. Andy Murray...a real flake. The poorest representative of the number one player in the world...ever.

[klacr]

Still baffles me why Nadal and Federer are in the same half. Also why Murray waited till the last minute to pull out, unless it was a move to keep Federer and Nadal in the same half, so the gap between him and one of the two lessens...

As much as I love a good conspiracy theory I think you are giving Murray too much credit for his diabolical plan. Murray did not want to skip the US Open, he held out until the last minute. He practiced until the last day.

According to Grand Slam rules, when a Top 4 player pulls out before the tournament begins, several players are moved within the draw.
This benefitted Sam Querrey the most. Seeded 17th, moved from a spot reserved for players ranked between 17 and 24 and inheriting a spot reserved for players seeded fifth to eighth. By moving into the spot held by Cilic (who moved to Murray's spot), Querrey no longer has to play a top-16 seed in the third round. He would also avoid meeting Roger Federer in the fourth round and instead would not face a player ranked higher than 10th ( which would have been fellow American John Inser) until the quarterfinals.

The logical course would have been to elevate No.3 Roger Federer into the vacancy created by Murray’s no-show, Instead, the rules dictate that the senior seed in the 5-16 seeding band (in this case No.5 Marin Cilic) is pushed up into the top four, and the highest seed in the 17-32 group (No.17 Sam Querrey) gets bumped up. Further down the food chain, unseeded Philipp Kohlschreiber has filled Querrey’s spot and lucky loser Lukas Lacko booked a main draw start.

Murray had every right to leave his decision to play, or not, until the last moment, regardless of the ramifications for the rest of the field in New York. It is the system, not the Scot, that’s at fault.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Still baffles me why Nadal and Federer are in the same half. Also why Murray waited till the last minute to pull out, unless it was a move to keep Federer and Nadal in the same half, so the gap between him and one of the two lessens...

[gzhpcu]

Mischa Zverev rolls the years back with vintage serve and volley! Everyone was talking about his younger brother, but he pulls off the surprise. Just like his serve and volley win over Murray. And Shapovalov beats Kyle Edmund. Too bad Kyle pulled out with a shoulder injury. The lower half of the draw is now wide open...

[klacr]

Mischa Zverev takes out John Isner in straight sets.
Served and volleyed on every first serve.
34 winners...7 unforced errors. Outstanding performance.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

Here's another factoid for you, Roger Federer is first player ever to win at least 80 matches at 3 grand slams.

87 @ Aussie Open
91 @ Wimbledon
80 @ US Open

Mikhail Youzhny has some real high level play yesterday. The sweeping backhand, the penetrating forehands, he was unconscious for a good two sets. But Federer found a way, as champions so often do.

Nadal got a bit of a scare last night being down a set and a break to Daniel Taro. But the writing was on the wall, Nadal took the kids legs out from under him, made him suffer. Fed and Nadal on course for a semi-final meeting, if they can get there.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The Dogfight...Denis "The Menace" Shapovalov versus Kyle Edmund...The Round of 32

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/us-open/560/draws

I'm telling you...if and only if Roger Federer is in the draw is it interesting. And interesting it is getting at the 2017 U. S. Open Tennis Championships...at least on the men's side. It's way too early to call the women's side interesting when one doesn't have an inkling who 90% of the players are...even they deserve equal pay for the lesser efforts. Lesser talent. Lesser everything. It is still...the weaker sex. No social engineering can change that. At least not in a fortnight. Afterall it took God seven days to do the whole ball of wax.

But that being said...it is true that somehow the draw was depleted when five of the top ten could not answer the bell for the tournament for various reasons and maladies. Somehow it makes it interesting...but only because Roger is here and vying for a third Grand Slam in a row. We witnesses a Roger Federer with less than perfect preparation for this tournament last night against a persistent and tenacious competitor in Mikail Youznhy. Give the Russian a lot of credit...I will bet he got a call from Vladimir Putin last night for his valiant effort. Roger plugged away to remain in the tournament for at least another round. There is a bit of a window there by Grand Slam standards if he can find his form. He actually has found it in both matches but it only seems to be there in fits of starts. He hasn't been able to sustain it and that could be because he hasn't had to summon the dragon. He managed to sort of waltz through. Doing a bit of a tap dance.

If you go up and down the draw sheet you see names that haven't been seen before in the round of 32 in a Grand Slam before. Even so the names are at least recognizable...unlike the women's. But we have a mini host of Next Generation player's...players that the ATP is choosing to inherit the tour in the next few years. It oscillates depending upon who is holding the hot hand at press time. Before it was Borna Coric...then it became Alexander Zverev as Coric slid into relative obscurity. He slid down the rankings. But a new name emerges in Andrey Rublev. It's the "dreaded" Russians again. They are everywhere...surely Andrey is guilty of meeting Trump officials somewhere to secure his spot in the round of 32. Scrolling down we find Borna..."...gain" Coric paired against Kevin Anderson who owns the "Next...Next Generation" Star 2-0 head to head. So that's two Next Generation hopefuls...we come to the "Dogfight".

The "Dogfight" pair consists of Denis "The Menace" Shapovalov and Kyle Edmund. I latched onto the Shapovalov wagon the first time that I saw him play. I saw Edmund first on a video that Stotty posted with Stefan Koslov. We had our eyes on Koslov but it has been Edmund who has persevered. Kyle Edmund isn't a pretty player to watch or even pretty by looks but pound for pound he impressed me as a pretty darn good fighter. When he takes the court he is giving loads away in talent a lot of times but when it comes to heart he is compensating admirably. Nick Kyrgios should definitely take note of this guy. He could learn something fundamental about what is missing in his personna that is carefully constructed to offend in general. Kyle, on the other hand, plays it by the book. The Book of Hard Knocks.

The two have met a couple of times. The first time Kyle won by TKO. Shapovalov technically knocked out the umpire with a forehand that was not intended in all probability to make the flight that it did. It will go down as a low-light in the young man's career. It was an accident...but an ugly one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbYoB5sdWo4

More recently Shapovalov beat Edmund on grass earlier in the year. It was pretty darn close with the smallest of margins. At least on paper. This sets up the "Dogfight" at the 2017 U. S. Open. This is a huge match for both players. Kyle has an advantage. Nobody expects him to win. They don't give him the chance that he richly deserves because he doesn't get the press clippings. But week in week out this guy is out there grinding. Grinding out a win here and a win there with his record peppered by frequent and routine beatings by more experienced and talented players. Still...he shows up to play.

Keep an eye on this match. It could be pivotal to the tournament. If Shapovalov gets it rolling and his confidence is leaping by bounds...one never knows. That 40-1 might just look better and better as the tournament progresses. It is a long shot though...rightfully so.

Federer has his hands full of Feliciano Lopez now. Hopefully this scare against Youznhy will serve as a wake up call. He got a little sloppy and a little passive there after an opening set that was by all accounts a virtual clinic. He may be getting a little bored with it all. Just how hard is it to keep up the level of concentration to do what he is attempting to do. The aging process creeps in early in a professional tennis player's life. Federer has his hands off just keeping that at bay let alone all of the players looking to zero in on the huge bullseye squarely on the back of that Nike shirt. I think it was a bad idea to wear the red at the Open. Hopefully he doesn't do it again.

[don_budge]

Not pretty but a win is a win. He won 3 five setters in a row to win the Aussie Open

Federer moves past Hewitt for solo second on the list of most grand slam five set wins in Open era. two behind Sampras' record of 29.

Only two men has ever won a grand slam after having played 5 sets in rounds 1 and 2. That was Boris Becker at Aussie open in 1996 and Gaston Gaudio at Roland Garros 2004.

Salute to Mikhail Youzhny for the effort. 0-17 against Federer. 17 more chances to have played Roger than any of us.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Good stuff klacr...it helps to put things in perspective a bit. Connect the dots you know. Mikhail Youzhny was a very dangerous opponent for Roger Federer last night...or should I say yesterday. It was night here in Sweden. The match lasted until after midnight. I have a Federer hangover this morning.

I think that Youzhny actually outplayed Federer in some respects last night. He certainly did at times in the match. What impressed me most was the backhand. In the post match interview Federer still had not regained his balance or sense of his usual composure. He seemed to be confused and certainly very relieved to have made it through. Reminiscent of perhaps his five set win over Gael Monfils a few years ago...where he subsequently went out and lost the next round to Marin Cilic.

Maybe even more impressive than the Youzhny backhand though come to think of it...was the hard nosed approach to the match and he just refused to take no for an answer. I missed the first set but apparently Federer put on a clinic in the beginning of the match. Somehow Youznhy got his foot in the door and he really had his teeth in the match. He wasn't going to let go. He started to cramp at a very crucial point in the match. It seemed to make him angry. Of course it would...he had lost to Federer 16 times in a row and he had a golden opportunity to end that mean streak and create one of his own. A streak of one. Oh he would have cherished that moment.

Federer served for the second set at 5-4 and played an uncharacteristic game to hand the set back to Youznhy. Youznhy really found his rhythm in the tie-breaker and continued to hammer the Fed in the second set. At this point Federer was behaving rather strangely. He never grimaced in pain from what I could see but he seemed to be hampered. At one point he gestured with his had to his box as if to say..."what's going on here? I don't get it." There weren't any answers coming his way and Youznhy continued to hammer away and he didn't quit until the very end. At one point Youznhy went to the ground writhing in pain from cramps but he never quit. Once the ball was in play it didn't appear that it slowed him down much and his strokes seemed to have more authority than Federer's. Almost to the very end.

The ending was also a bit strange. I don't know what kind of relationship these two have...it certainly is one-sided in at least one respect. But when they came to the net to shake hands Federer looked to be in the mood to give Youznhy "some love" but Mikhail was having none of it. He shook hands respectively and brushed past any attempt on Roger's part to make nice.

Very strange match and it will be interesting to read what Roger has to say. Maybe even more interesting to here what Mikhail had to say.

[klacr]

Not pretty but a win is a win. He won 3 five setters in a row to win the Aussie Open

Federer moves past Hewitt for solo second on the list of most grand slam five set wins in Open era. two behind Sampras' record of 29.

Only two men has ever won a grand slam after having played 5 sets in rounds 1 and 2. That was Boris Becker at Aussie open in 1996 and Gaston Gaudio at Roland Garros 2004.

Salute to Mikhail Youzhny for the effort. 0-17 against Federer. 17 more chances to have played Roger than any of us.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton