Lauren Davis scores a big knockout win 61 61 over #30 seed Mona Barthel. She will meet fellow young American Christina McHale in the second round. Davis, 18 and two years younger than the Jersey girl, says she doesn’t know McHale at all but has watched her play many times.
Roger Federer looked sharp in his dark smoke gray Nike outfit with lime green highlight spots, and dismantled Kamke in three sets. He looks as good as ever. I liked his interview with BG after where he says he’s amazed every time he hits that forehand squash shot that it goes in. Fed also observed several other players use it too, including Querrey and Del Potro. Fed is always on top of everything tennis-wise, isn’t he?
Roddick got knocked off by Mahut on Sunday, and looked as helpless as I’ve ever seen him on a court. He looked like a lion trying to fight with no claws or teeth and four wobbly legs. Or like an aging fighter years away from his best form. It’s hard to see Roddick sticking around for two more years, the way he looked losing to Mahut.
It’s weird to see the ATP #1 player wearing an upstart brand of clothing but the Uniqlo attire of Djokovic does look very sharp. Brad Gilbert talked about watching Djok’s practice yesterday where he appeared very relaxed and even played a game of trying to hit water bottles with serves during his practice and finally hit it on about the 40th attempt and let out a big emotional celebration. Could just imagine the fun it must have been to be out there watching the king of tennis putting on a his show.
WTA #1 Azarenka was down a set and 0-4 to Italian Brianti but still came back to win. You have to wonder where her confidence level is at, but still that’s a heckuva win.
Melzer loses to Berrer.
Sad to see Hewitt bow out to Kavcic in four sets. Hewitt keeps battling through injuries, hanging around the Tour and popping up in the big events. But I can’t remember the last win he’s had since Australia where he had a nice run, beating Raonic before losing a good battle with Djokovic. Hewitt will play Newport this year.
Good to see Mattek Sands back with her colorful uni, today it’s green tank, dark blue shorts, knee high black socks, dark gray hat and those black blue green Babolat Propulse 3s. Bethanie took the first set from #12 Lisicki and is at 3-3 in the second set.
Loved Venus’ white outfit with the black and pink stripes, one of the nicest and most original WTA styles in a long time. Venus surived a three setter with Paula Ormaechea of Argentina. Watch out for Ormaechea in the future, she’s just 19 but has that extra fire and fight that make her stand out from the rest. Nice solid game, she bested Venus on many backhand to backhand rallies.
Melanie Oudin scored a huge win for herself as she won against Johanna Larson of Sweden. WTA level wins have been rare for Oudin lately and she screamed for joy after she closed it out. The one time darling newcomer of the WTA Tour is now in the process of grinding her way back to the top 100 after falling down to the mid 300s. Oudin lives in Westchester now and trains often at the National Tennis Center.
Whatever happened to Cara Black?
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Mitch · May 28, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I don’t think Hewitt has even played since Australia. Maybe Davis Cup? Nalbandian took a bad loss, making Federer’s life a little easier.
Dan Markowitz · May 28, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Surprised to see Nalby go down to unknown player after Nalby almost beat Murray in Rome. Surprised to see Djoko have such a hard time with Starace. He did not look sharp, lots of errors on forehand return, and just didn’t look dominant.
Roddick was oddly toothless, but maybe he just came to continental Europe to fulfill his contractual agreement with Lecoste and now he’ll revive himself on the grass in England.
mat4 · May 28, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Dan,
I think it is not a reason to worry for Novak. He had a lot of problems with his returns, but eventually he found a good rhythm and it changed everything. Then, PS played very well, with a lot of good sense.
But he served well, he improved all his strokes in the second and third sets. He has a good draw to improve until the fourth round.
Roger was not brilliant either.
Scoop Malinowski · May 28, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Shock loss by Nalbandian. Those guys over 30 – Nalb, Hewitt, Roddick, all look close to expired. At least on the dirt. Strange to see them all take losses like these. Imagine if Hewitt bows out first round in Newport to someone like Richard Bloomfield or Denis Kudla. Ouch. Who knows, maybe Roddick will take a WC in Newport.
Dan Markowitz · May 29, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Scoop,
What can you say about DYoung? ESPN highlighted his match on Court 6 today against Grigor Dmitrov, and boy did Young get taken out to the woodshed. I saw the same big problem I saw when you and I watched DY play Hewitt in D.C. a couple of summers ago. The guy’s backhand is a mess. He dumps it into the net more than any pro I’ve ever watched.
Compound that with a body more Pillsbury Dough Boy than David Ferrer and an attitude that needs to be more upbeat and you’ve got a guy who after his breakthrough last year into the Top 40, is 2-13 this year. He’s traveling with his mother as coach and a 16-year-old hitting partner. The Young camp is probably trying to keep all the money in family, but it would be better off paying out some of it and making more by winning matches.
What about Querrey? Wins the first set against Tipsarevic and then can’t win another set. I like the firepower of Sam’s game, his backhand has gotten better, but I do believe he doesn’t have the mindset of a top guy.
I didn’t see Harrison. For any of you who did, what did you see with young boy Ryan?
Scoop Malinowski · May 29, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Dan DY is at rockbottom or on his way to rockbottom. I saw him lose to Paire about a month ago and he looked like he was holding back tears after it ended in three, he won the first but choked away the second set TB. He needs some changes, major changes to his team, till then it’s going to be the same old disappointments. He needs a new voice and new captain to lead the ship. Tipsarevic is a very underrated player, steady top tenner now, doesn’t look like much but he gets the job done. Good effort by Q but Tip is the better player.