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While diving and swimming were operational elsewhere, the Bravo Channel was delighting tennis fans with nothing-but-tennis all day through. Seems like the sport was being kicked upstairs in prestige; after all, the station could have been earmarked for basketball or soccer, but it chose tennis. Great.
Back in 2009 when Roger Federer was the renowned heavy weight and had already won 5 US Opens in a row , he stood on center court prepared to grab his 6th. Was it Roddick across the net? Or Novak? or Rafa. Nope, just a 20 year old Argentinian that casual American fans did not know, Juan Marin del Potro.
The kid started nervously and was quickly down in the match, but at the point when Roger could have put him away, Juan found his talent and snatched victory in 5, including 6-2 in the final set.
America learned that this upstart had a rocket forehand. Now Federer is a master of anticipation, never seeming to be out of position. Nonetheless he just could not reach the strokes that del Potro was slinging across the net.
Pretty quickly Juan dropped out of sight. He had a wrist operation; then a 2nd, still another and even a 4th.
He's had other health woes too, and he has not scaled such heights in the last 7 years.
There have been blips here and there. In the last Olympics, both he and Novak lost in the semis, but they didn't go home, because the venue requires a bronze medalist. And it was del Potro who prevented that medal from joining Novak's display case. But that was 4 years ago, and we all know Novak has been a house afire in this decade.
Fast forward to last night. Over time it has not been real unusual for an early matchup to feature a player on the comeback trail with a misleading low ranking vs. a high seed. And so it was that #1 seed Djokovic drew
Juan Martin del Potro. Now, this is a highly motivated Novak whose only missing important trophy is the Olympics. Neither man could break the other, and the only clues as to who would succeed in the tie-break
would be that Juan was getting (unfulfilled) break points and Novak wasn't. In straight sets Novak got bounced, and, once again like vs. Federer 7 years prior, Juan showed off his amazing forehand. Throughout the match Novak kept slicing to Juan's backhand, again and again in many long rallies, but as soon as Juan could unleash his forehand, Novak became disadvantaged.
Juan is merely 27, and if he stays healthy...
Earlier, 2/3 of the Williams sisters tasted defeat. That is, Venus lost her 1st round match to low-ranked Flippens of Belgium, largely on the strength of her opponents frequent drop shots that the virus-infected 36 year old didn't anticipate and couldn't reach.
Serena won her singles match, but the Sisters fell vs. a very good Czech duo in 3 sets. By reputation Serena is the stronger server and Venus better at the net. That lower proficiency up front was the largest ingredient
to their demise, as Serena did not volley that well. Most glaring was the amount of times Serena decided to poach and a wily opponent hit behind her. It was the occasional match that showed that the Sisters talent gets them their many successes, but opponents sometimes show they are more adept than the Sisters at the subtlety of various phases of doubles tactics.
I expect Serena and Madison Keys to be in action today, but I cannot find an order of play for specific persons. Tennis will begin on Bravo at 9:30 am and run throughout the day. Happy viewing.
Back in 2009 when Roger Federer was the renowned heavy weight and had already won 5 US Opens in a row , he stood on center court prepared to grab his 6th. Was it Roddick across the net? Or Novak? or Rafa. Nope, just a 20 year old Argentinian that casual American fans did not know, Juan Marin del Potro.
The kid started nervously and was quickly down in the match, but at the point when Roger could have put him away, Juan found his talent and snatched victory in 5, including 6-2 in the final set.
America learned that this upstart had a rocket forehand. Now Federer is a master of anticipation, never seeming to be out of position. Nonetheless he just could not reach the strokes that del Potro was slinging across the net.
Pretty quickly Juan dropped out of sight. He had a wrist operation; then a 2nd, still another and even a 4th.
He's had other health woes too, and he has not scaled such heights in the last 7 years.
There have been blips here and there. In the last Olympics, both he and Novak lost in the semis, but they didn't go home, because the venue requires a bronze medalist. And it was del Potro who prevented that medal from joining Novak's display case. But that was 4 years ago, and we all know Novak has been a house afire in this decade.
Fast forward to last night. Over time it has not been real unusual for an early matchup to feature a player on the comeback trail with a misleading low ranking vs. a high seed. And so it was that #1 seed Djokovic drew
Juan Martin del Potro. Now, this is a highly motivated Novak whose only missing important trophy is the Olympics. Neither man could break the other, and the only clues as to who would succeed in the tie-break
would be that Juan was getting (unfulfilled) break points and Novak wasn't. In straight sets Novak got bounced, and, once again like vs. Federer 7 years prior, Juan showed off his amazing forehand. Throughout the match Novak kept slicing to Juan's backhand, again and again in many long rallies, but as soon as Juan could unleash his forehand, Novak became disadvantaged.
Juan is merely 27, and if he stays healthy...
Earlier, 2/3 of the Williams sisters tasted defeat. That is, Venus lost her 1st round match to low-ranked Flippens of Belgium, largely on the strength of her opponents frequent drop shots that the virus-infected 36 year old didn't anticipate and couldn't reach.
Serena won her singles match, but the Sisters fell vs. a very good Czech duo in 3 sets. By reputation Serena is the stronger server and Venus better at the net. That lower proficiency up front was the largest ingredient
to their demise, as Serena did not volley that well. Most glaring was the amount of times Serena decided to poach and a wily opponent hit behind her. It was the occasional match that showed that the Sisters talent gets them their many successes, but opponents sometimes show they are more adept than the Sisters at the subtlety of various phases of doubles tactics.
I expect Serena and Madison Keys to be in action today, but I cannot find an order of play for specific persons. Tennis will begin on Bravo at 9:30 am and run throughout the day. Happy viewing.