Dan’s view of US Open qualies yesterday was a whole lot different than mine as we only connected early in the day by Kozlov vs Gerasimov and Young vs Jung and then we veered apart and never saw each other again.
So let’s get started with the standout moments of the day.
Nao Hibino the 24 year old Japanese girl was down 63 43 to The Little Giant from California Danielle Lao. Lao held for 4-3 and fist-pumped to her team in the bleacher on court 11, and gave them that firm stern facial expression of ‘I got this.’ But she never won another game! Hibino suddenly found her zone and swept the last nine games for 36 64 60. It was an awesome display of lights out tennis.
Next to Hibino was Tommy Robredo vs Go Soeda. The 5-11 Spaniard is 37 now and ranked 184. He lost the coin toss and returned vs Soeda and hit a forehand approach winner on the first point, after which he made a sound of Fyuush! or something similar. He was revved up already for his 17th US Open ( he first played qualies in 2000). Robredo raced to a 3-0 lead over the flat Japanese, double break but then Soeda woke up and next thing you know it was 4-4. That 4-4 battle game reached about eight deuces but eventually Tommy won it and the important edge he found in that game powered him to a hard fought 64 64 win.
The desire and drive are still burning inside Robredo, who once was the fifth best player in the world (2006). He’s won 12 ATP titles. I remember Robredo ever since the early 2000s when he would play a lot on ESPN and Cliff Drysdale would always tell the same story about him, how his father loved the rock opera Pinball Wizard by The Who and gave his son the name Tommy because of it.
The Robredo game is the same as it always was, baseline fighting, a sweet one hander fueled by an eye of the tiger that hasn’t lost an iota of ferocity. He still wears Sergio Tacchini attire, mostly white as always, but instead of the Dunlop racquet he’s now swinging a Wilson.
Speaking of racquets, an insider told me that Yonex is very happy with Nick Kyrgios as one of their top endorsement players, Even when he breaks his racquets, Yonex officals look the other way. However when three time major title winner Stan Wawrinka breaks his Yonex racquets, the bosses have a contradictory reaction and are seriously considering breaking their contract with Stanimal because of it. Hmmmmm.
A new young player who caught my eye is Shilin Xu, the 21 year old from China, ranked 215 now. She was playing American darling Victoria Duval and smoked her 63 62. Xu is slight of frame but plays with a whirlwind intensity and fierce racquet head speed, unlike Kozlov who tends to massage each ball. If only Kozlov could hit like Xu for a week, to add that knockout shot to his arsenal. He can’t seem to ever end a point with a power shot, more relying on counter punches or errors or finesse winners.
The best match I saw was Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak vs Argentina’s wily old veteran Carlos Berlocq, now 36 and ranked 199. The 23 year old Pole ranked 94, won the first set 63, then Berlocq dug down and played like his life and career depended on it, grunting fiercely on every ball, unleashing hard flat serves down the tee and firing baseline assaults all over the court. The old vet won the second set 63 and they were deadlocked at 3-3 in the third. We wondered if Berlocq could continue to serve so well. And if he could sustain the level. He seemed to be using 100% of his best tennis on each point while Majchrzak played in silence and not at his highest gear, maybe only 85% of his capacity.
We were right. the 6-foot, Lotto wearing Majchrzak was holding easier and held for 4-3 at love. Then the Fila adorned Berlocq served and his previous first serve missiles suddenly were missing and lost velocity. He got scared or tight or maybe intimidated by his foe’s cool and easier holds. Kamil broke and served it out. He had saved his best for last.
Watched some of Monfils practice on Armstrong with his crew. Monfils did a volley drill which made him fall down flat on his back after, right in the center of the court. Then his team had some fun. Gael and the three others joined at the net and each rolled a tennis ball to see who got it as close to the baseline as possible. Amazingly, Gael got within a foot, and the three others missed badly. The one guy lined up at the back wall to be targeted for butts up. The one guy fired a shot at him but it went ten feet over and almost hit a fan in the head. Monfils laid on the court laughing in shock/horror (the errant shooter later went over and gave the near victim what appeared to be a wrist band). Then Monfils launched a ball about 100 mph which just missed the poor chap by a foot or two to the left. Monfils and crew then slowly departed after one guy helped him put on a shirt. Monfils signed for all the people waiting in the first row.
New Jersey’s Robin Anderson won a physical battle with X Han, a lefty from China 64 36 64 and her legs were so depleted, she needed five minutes of treatment before leaving the court and walking slowly, very slowly back to the locker room. Anderson is an interesting story, she played well in juniors here one year beating Laura Robson and Ann Sophie-Mestach back in 2010 before losing to Daria Gavrilova 64 64 in the QF. She went to UCLA and is 26 now and still grinding it out, now ranked 165 in the world her best was 159.
Anderson is one of those shorter, squat baseline grinders who never misses a ball. Frankly I’m shocked she didn’t pack it in, she deserves an award for perseverance. I don’t think she’s ever played a major main draw. Next round she will face Nicole Gibbs, who she lost to in three sets earlier this year in the Bonita Sprints ITF, 26 64 61 on clay in May.
Another young American pulled off a good upset, Katrina Scott, a 15 year old, beat Katie Swan in straight sets.
There was a near fight after the Peter Polansky vs Dutra Silva match. It got hot out there with some glaring and staring and words on changeover, then Polansky hit an attack shot and before the Brazilian had a play on it, Polansky taunted him by saying, Go get that! More words, more bad blood. But the Canadian prevailed 64 36 64. Then after a young fan and a coach of Dutra Silva almost got into it and had to be separated. A witness who managed to break up the conflict said there may have been a possible assault by the coach of Dutra Silva with the uncalled for contact.
JP Smith lost 76 64 to Victor Galovic of Croatia. Smith is 30 now and ranked 239, well of his best of 108. Smith has to be the most unlikely looking tennis player with his gangly build and lanky limbs. Plus his posture looks like that of an old man but he can play some beautiful lefty tennis. It just was not enough vs Galovic, who is technically perfect.
That’s the thing about almost all these players in qualies, they all play such high level, high speed, fast paced super high quality tennis. They all look capable of becoming superstars yet most of them will probably forever be destined to wear the journeyman label.
My friend and frequent sparring partner Harry Cicma is working as the emcee for the USTA Fan Week initiative, and he does trivia contests on stage with fans, giving away free tickets. One trivia question he asked was which player did Roger Federer exceed when he broke the all time major title total of 20? The fan pondered the challenging question with free tickets at stake and answered, “Jack Sock?” Whoever said New York tennis fans are very knowledgeable?
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« Previous 1 2Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2019 at 10:51 am
Kikiem may be kaput.
Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2019 at 10:54 am
Gauff could win the open. I would not rule it out. She is like a tennis time bomb ready to detonate and win a major.
catherine · August 22, 2019 at 10:57 am
Andrew – I must be a sadistic person because I actually enjoyed Mewshaw’s book – parts of it were pretty yucky but there were some nice bits otherwise – particularly for the time it was written when everything was so bland and Mewshaw just didn’t want to do that. People in the public eye are fair game as long as we take note of libel laws and aren’t unnecessarily cruel.
Scoop Malinowski · August 22, 2019 at 10:59 am
Just interviewed John Lloyd In nyc at The Benjamin hotel about facing Vilas, young Americans and close encounters with Trump. On Sunday out to Open now. Tonight is a function with Kyrgios and Fognini, should be interesting to say the least.
catherine · August 22, 2019 at 11:00 am
Scoop – you said Gauff would win Wimbledon. Winning a GS could be the worst possible outcome for Coco at 15.
If Kiki’s kaput I’d expect Sascha to move on.
Andrew Miller · August 22, 2019 at 11:08 am
Catherine, Mewshaw strikes me as knowing his tennis and his characters. Same as Bodo, same as anyone that keeps after their craft. Wertheim.
As to the content I guess better it’s out in the open. I can’t for the life of me know why one player’s career is decent and another’s in the dumps. And I’m sure there’s a whole chaos of reasons ranging from the benign (player doesn’t like the sport, began playing at age four months, has had enough as of their first pro tournament etc) to the wicked (player’s abused, father a world class jerk, coach belongs behind bars etc).
I’m sure that all is behind the action of the court. These kids are people after all and the normal world is their world. Stories like Giorgi running as far away as possible from her contract violations with funding sponsors kind of pale in comparison to the worse and worst ones. And then far different from the better stories too, or the ones where players get some kind of peace like HOF worthy Mary Pierce