Heather, I'm not sure anything stranger than Roddick winning the French HAS ever happened.

Texas, there's always next year.. :) As a Red Sox fan, I'm very accustomed to the use of that phrase so I'm applying it to Andy too.

Tigress, tigress burning bright
In the forests of the night...

When the (spanish) stars threw down their spears (read racquets)
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made Tim make thee?

Does "a legitimate top 10 player who nevertheless doesn't have the game to hang with the very best men's players*" rhyme with "opinion"?

*Verdasco is 0-4 vs. Federer, FTR.

Jewell Well Lopez decided he could not beat Rafa from the baseline so he put his thinking cap on and decided to come in more.He did play better

Rafa was cruising and did what he had to do to win

At this stage of the tournament most players do the same thing

In the 2nd week the business week of a slam

Things change of course.

"Whatever Rafa wants, Rafa gets.

A quarter full of cream-puff minions? You've got it!
Sod & Berdy in other quarters far away from you? It's done!
Murray (whom you almost surely couldn't beat) knocked out so you won't face him in SF? Take it!
Choose most favorable times to play (like early SF last year, which contributed to Roger's loss in Final)? Go for it!
Sod in Fed's Quarter to potentially knock out your most dangerous Finals opponent? Help yourself!
Play nobody ranked higher than 8th (Minion Verdasco) through SF? It's yours!"

Tigress, best summary of your above assessment: PATHETIC

for the love of sport...... Oh that was brilliant...! Such talents here at TW!

Okay Kristy, I guess you're right, haha. A girl can dream.. :)

"I'm now afraid of Sokol's wishes knowing he/she had so much success yesterday ;-)"

that was a fluke :-)

Assuming Caro beats Cibulkova.

Caro is:

0-4 to V
0-1 to Mommy
2-2 to Crazy
2-0 to KK (both 3 setters)

4-7 against the field.

"I like Sam Stosur’s look on court. She looks like a (very attractive) athlete, not someone about to go nightclubbing—neat, trim, functional outfit, no earrings."

+1 here too, Ross. :)

The earrings on others drive me nuts. You're here to do battle, not win a beauty contest!!

CPM, I don't remember Sod's FO. I'll have to look that one up.

Neveah, he he. Loved your 11:59. :)

Ive been basically living at the USTA center the last 2 days, saw Fed/Melzer caught the middle 3 sets of Ferrer/Verdasco , and saw Nadal/Lopez

Hate to say it guys. But throw history out the window... Nadal is the man to beat. IF you saw his improved serve you will see why. I watched Federer get broken like 4 times and still beat Melzer in straights.

If you think Nadal is gettin broken 4 times, or losing when he breaks someone 4 times...you got another thign coming.

2010 USO will be Nadals.

Nam1, just because there are some of us who are a bit delusional doesn't mean most of us are not aware of the fact, that if Fed somehow (and it's a big if) prevails against both Robin and Nole, he will have less than 20% chance to win the final against Rafa.

"I'm now afraid of Sokol's wishes knowing he/she had so much success yesterday ;-)"

plus I didn't get my wish fully, it didn't go to TB in every set :-)

Sherlock I left a post for you after you left Rafa's match

I hope you read it.

"he/she"

she :-)

Sorry...too lame to post twice...thought post had disappeared into ether :-)

for love of sport - *shocked face* at putting Blake to such use! ;-)

This place makes me laugh

We are just going into q/finals

Who knows who will get to the s/finals

I take one match at a time

Whats the use of wasting energy on things that may or may not happen

Also the so called "bitterness" comes from both sides of the table lol!

Petrova's profile says her weight is 143lbs. Somehow I doubt it...

Sherlock,

Faulty recollection on my part, apparently. He was taken to 4 sets by Montanes in R32, but otherwise shredded the field on the way to the QFs.

Is it just me or does it rub anyone else the wrong way that after making the (correct, imo) decision to leave her coach, it is Zeljko Krajan having more success right now than Dinara Safina?

(not fond of most nicknames, but admit 'shortstack' makes me smile)

Cheers AM. :)

Come on, Huber/Petrova! break!

Finish the match in a timely fashion. It's Vera's match next...

JK,thank you for elaborating on that and since you've nominated yourself the number one Venus fan on this board,I'm declaring myself number two.talk about self proclamation,lol!
Heather,you really mean the French Open?and believe me I'm excited about the thought!!!

BrooklynNY -- awesome! great weather, too. I can't disagree with you (and I say this as a Fed fan). Rafa looks unstoppable. How did Fed look overall to you? I watched the Melzer match, and on TV at least, I thought Fed played well.

Heather: Sorry, I missed that post. I say, let him go for it. ;)
I wouldn't/shouldn't begrudge Andy winning anything/anywhere after years of...

Aube, yes I'm pretty sure the Earth may explode if it occurred, but it would be quite amusing. After the crap year that he's had to win the FO of all things would be so hilarious. In reality though my heart hopes for a Wimbledon win.

Gotcha, CPM. Interesting.

Cibulkova's only 21? Seems like she's been around for years.

AM, I'll go look that up. :)

Seriously Arun, it's been a rough road to say the least... :)

Heather You know we have made a deal

Rafa wins here.I will let Andy win the AO 2011 and the Brisbane International

Hell what more do you want?

By the way I detest greedy fans ok

Jewel-Blake would probably have loved this place...remember "without contraries is no progression"...

Oh AM, I totally forgot about our backroom deal. You're right, I'm good with the AO, I'm good with anything!! Andy should not end his career with just one.

Greedy? HAHAHA, that's funny my guy's only got one! :)

starting to frazzle about fed-Sod tonight. First set is going to be key I think. If Fed wins that one, I say he wins in four. If he doesn't, it may come down to a fifth. Personally I don't think he's going to start off like he did last year and he doesn't have to. No need to win the first two sets 6-0, 6-3. 6-4, 7-5 will be just fine thanks. Just win them :)

Sherlock- Thank you! I said Damn,that SamE has me dreaming about Caroline, aint that a Bish! LOL!=P

Mr. and Mrs D - Thank you, I've always called her Short Stack because I'd have that at McDonalds instead of the full order! LMAO!:D

There you go Heather Girl,now,that's not a dream,he could do that I believe!!!
To me if anyone else than Nadal ought to win the Franch it should be Verdasco,this guy can hit bullets on the courts,thunderous groundstrokes I mean!!!
If only he could lend some to Venus on Friday,and Serena if you reading this,can't you tell Venus how to land a safe second serve consistently???

Heather One is better than nothing

AM, I like your deal. Rafa seems to be on a mission and far from having his usual US Open troubles, he doesn't seem to have any. I do think he'll win. So yes, AndyR for AO 2011!

LOL -- Rafa was singing along to "Bad Romance" during the changeover before serving for the match last night.

Dude has some squirrely taste in music :)

TMF- You're frazzling way too early! Calm down and enjoy your day and then at about 6:00 start frazzling!:)

according to Sharapova's official website she will be playing Tokyo and Bejing next. The news was updated yesterday, so hoping that she's all right physically if she plans to play there.

btw, many fans in Russia are upset that she's not coming to Kremlin Cup

Tigress

I agree that the draw has opened up a bit for Rafa but it's not his fault that Murray got beat and Berdy went out early.

Kristy

Have fun tonight

Jamaica Karen

Hope it's not true about Maria's shoulder

So true, AM, so true.

Neveah - You think my mind isn't telling me that already? :) Although for some reason the frazzle-degree is lower than it was in the FO and Wimbledon QF's...maybe that bodes well...

Kristy Rafa and his team have had the USO pencilled in since 2008

of course with Rafa there has been things along the way that has interferred with that.

As I have said all along Rafa arrived here rested physically and mentally for the first time in years.

People tended to just push that idea away.Cause he didnt win or play that well in the lead up tournaments before the USO.

Rafa has been working hard with his serve.We have all seen that.His team knows his serve will be a important factor here on the faster hard courts.

Another point I have been making time and time again.

We Gonna See No?

kritsy : to ur q's from page 1, last year i took my camera and actually happened to video tapingwhen fed hit that famous tweener against djoker! as I sensed the match might be getting over, i had taken enuf fotos and wanted to take a vid and it just happened to be that point, unfortunately, i didnt actually see it live even tho i was there...i was looking into the camera... :) :(

So unless rules have changed for this year, cameras should be ok....

and they better be too, as i was disgusted with my puny little camera from last year and went and bought the real thing for this year and am going to be at hand in AA tonight :)

But I'd gladly turn my cam off, if fed is going to win tonight and get the USO too eventually and i'll add my right hand to the give-up list, if that win is going to be over rafa too :)

Time for a break, Petrova/Huber. Come on!

Lindsay D said this am she was switching her "pick" from Federer to Nadal.

@TMF- LOL,I think that's a sign!;) Relax,go and get a massage,meditate and come back refreshed and ready for TMF!;)..the other TMF;)

Andrew:

You were quite right not to waste your time watching a thoroughly predictable Minion Meltdown. I watched even less, thank goodness. Oh, and we get another M.M. on Thursday. Think I'll skip most of that one too.

Enjoyed your discussion of Fed-Lopez in '07 R16. I think that Fed set a Grand Slam record there by winning 34 or 35 straight points on his serve in the last two sets.

What is your analysis of the Fed-Sod match tonight?

Moses has nothing on Rafa. :)

Also the wind played a huge factor in matches on Arthur Ashe yesterday in all matches

It just swirls around and players found it hard especially on their serves

The Stosur v Clijsters match was a good example

Hell I dont want to go there again in that match.pfft.

Federerfan

Hope you bring our guy good luck tonight!!!
I may not be able to stay up for the whole match; have a league match to play @ 9 A.M. Thur.and need to sleep but how can I when Fed is playing Sod?

Yes, starting to frazzle and I know it's too early and also no vodka for me or I'll be all dehydrated for my match. Maybe vodka and gatorade.

federerfan, thanks for the input -- I find the US Open site ambiguous since they say "no commercial recording equipment" but who knows what they'll see as commercial?

Lucky you to catch Fed's tweener and congrats on your new camera. Hopefully neither of us will jinx Fed. Go Fed. Go.

brewer said: "Nam1, just because there are some of us who are a bit delusional doesn't mean most of us are not aware of the fact, that if Fed somehow (and it's a big if) prevails against both Robin and Nole, he will have less than 20% chance to win the final against Rafa."

Actually brewer, I was saying that Rafa has less thn 20% chance of winning aganist Federer, not the other way around and anyway I was attempting to say it in the way Rafa would in that overly humble way of his, before every match.

I guess my sad joke did not go over well with some posters.

Looks like you misunderstood me. I shall now slink away and work harder on my attempts to be humourous.

AM-I agree. I also think that what we saw from Rafa at Montreal and Cincy was a bit of what he showed us at Queens. He did not push himself at all...did not want to risk injury, "broken" abs, whatever...was conserving energy for the uso. This year was the first time that Rafa signaled his intentions of going for the USO, I think he has belief now and I think he's planned his campaign very carefully. Even in his last match, I felt that he was playing well within himself, did just enough to win...will pull out the heavy artillery when required...

for love of sport - I quite often think of "Joy and woe are woven fine" while watching a tennis match, for various reasons. :)

Hey Cherry,
Weather is great, atleast outside of Ashe. You know how it can be pretty windy/chilly in Ashe.

I'm a Fed Fan(sampras first) and I thought Fed looked very clean. However, I think maybe he just needs to play the big points better?(typical statement, I know) He was playing cleanly, you can tell Melzer was trying to force the issue. Overall, I think Fed looked great, I just think maybe the couple of things he got away with against Melzer (being broken 3-4 times), he won't have that leeway against Nadal, and perhaps Soderling tonight.

I've seen Nadal play before '08 vs Fish and 09 vs Gonzo last year. I have to say, I was never this impressed.
This was my first time seeing Federer from good seats and one thing I noticed was how loose his strings seem/sound off his racquet. Maybe it was also just the cleanest ball striking I've heard in a long time. :)

Not to discredit Fed, but after seeing them both play within 24 hrs up close. I just think that Nadal's form was a bit more impressive at the moment.

Also: whoever mentioned Cameras, you should be fine. Security is very lax, although they stress to avoid flash photos etc blah blah you've heard this line before

Andrew 09/08/2010 at 12:20 PM

Exactly my point! And again, I'm a huge Rafa fan...

AM: Feli only played better after he got booed for shanking too many balls lol
He didn't like that and was a tad surprised that the NY crowd caught on his act...

The commies were comical, like: "Feliciano is playing well the points, but, somehow, that doesn't show on the scoreboard; he just plays for style, "art for the sake of the art"...or something.( I'm paraphrasing of course.)

He would only rip a ball when he was 90% sure that Rafa can return it, in mid rallies, imho.

Also Rafa's serve is fabulous now! Still like Feli's more, b/c he has some kind of quick release/slap that makes it very hard for me to read it.

nobody tell sod that fed is defending yet another (stupid!) streak tonight, of never losing night matches (14?) at USO.
I expect Sod to come out nervous today, bcos there is actually some expectation on Sod to play well and cause trouble to fed (like there was some in the FO final where he folded pitiably and the same way the bird stunk up the place at the W final), i want these snipers to come in with some pressure of their own and see if they can swing freely and take it to the old man...if they do...then too good, the hand-off from fed would truly be over....or else....lets give credit where it is due.

OOOH I have found literary friend...in the most unlikely of places! I am happy...

Dayum. Stubbs/Raymond saved 2 MPs. 3rd time unlucky.
Huber/Petrova win.

for the love of sport 09/08/2010 at 01:08 PM

And

BrooklynNY 09/08/2010 at 01:09 PM

Yes to both your posts.

Fed was broken twice in the Melzer match.

Tigress: I'm not attributing Lopez' play last night to either his nationality or that of his opponent, just saying that (IMV) to beat Nadal on a fast HC you need to play aggressive fast HC tennis, and it didn't look like Lopez wanted to do that - for whatever reason.

As for Federer-Soderling, I'd give Federer 75% odds of making it through. Federer hasn't had any patches this tornament of either letting his opponent dictate the play (except perhaps parts of R16 3rd set vs Melzer) or of having his own rhythm come apart. He knows he can't afford to float slices that Soderling can run around and pound. If you take those kind of balls away, then Soderling has to paint the lines over and over again.

The RG QF 2010 match turned on two points at 4-5 in the TB: on one (0-30, I think) Soderling correctly appealed a ball that kissed the ad sideline to the chair umpire: on the second, he used all his 6' 5" and athletic ability and tennis skill to hit a winning BH OH off a running Federer OH smash get. The H2H is 12-1 for a reason, just as the Nadal-Federer H2H is 10-2 on clay for a reason.

Chris McKendry (?) on screen.

Andrew: "Federer broke in one of the three sweetest return games he's ever played (Roddick Basel 2002 and Nadal Shanghai 2006 were the others)"

To those 3 We really need to add one more: the 3-2 game in the Wimbledon '07 Finals 5th set, where he broke Nadal to essentially win the match. At 0-30, Fed hit a beautiful FH winner to the add corner that totally fooled Nadal and left him flat footed. Then at 15-40, he ended a fantastic long rally with a wicked low BH CC slice, then pounded Rafa's weak return for a winner to the deuce side, as he and the crowd roared in triumph and astonishment, respectively.

Kaia Kanepi vs Vera Zvonareva match to start shortly on Ashe....

Sokol,
No Slam titles for Nadia in singles or doubles.

"No Slam titles for Nadia in singles or doubles."

thanks, MA. I hope she can win at least in doubles. maybe Huber will bring her luck.

Chris is back! C'mon! *Gives a Federer-like fist pump.*

And maybe it means Hannah Storm has been sent back to Bristol. *Does a Rafa-like triple lawnmower*

LOL, Actionflunky!

Super glad, Chris is back!!

Feli came out last night shanking all over the place, and though he became steadier by the middle of the first set, the shanks never went away entirely. If he didn't play aggressive HC tennis last night, I suspect it's because he just didn't "trust his stuff" after that ugly start.

AF- I don't know what you look like but I made up an image of you lawn mowering and it was hilarious! LOL=P

Lol, Flunky. Woo hoo!!!

Ross, nice nick, btw. :)

"If you think Nadal is gettin broken 4 times, or losing when he breaks someone 4 times...you got another thign coming."

cue Judas Priest baby!!!!

CPM: And tha shanking went away for at least 1.5 sets after he got booed right? :)

He only snuck one back in, here and there, when he thought he could get away with it...

regarding the "shanking of balls" the wind played a factor there big time.

Vera win the toss and elects to receive starting the match with Kaia

Sam Gore and Virginia Wade is doing the commentary on usopen.org

Okay Vera lets keep those "emotions" in check

I was impressed the way Kaia came back in her match the other day.Good to see Kaia living up to her potential.

I hope there are no mental breakdowns in this match! Go Kanepi! :)

I don't know if it was postex, but here is some pictures of Caro and Fed from Fashion's night out on Wednesday.
http://www.gotennis.ru/gallery/displayimage.php?album=271&pos=0

don't like Caro's dress

AM: "regarding the "shanking of balls" the wind played a factor there big time" true, yet still, I wasn't born yesterday and neither were the NY crowd, nor the Mac brothers...

OK, Verochka, keep you cool and concentrate on every ball, no drama, please...

Davai!!!

Question: has Caro been dating Nado at some point?

My mother told me she saw pics of them alon in...Paris Match a while ago.

Vera must be thin-blooded. She's always bundled up more than the other players.

Game Lover Poor Feli.I still felt he didnt pour enough water on his head during the change overs ok lol!

Reading on Twitter that it's windy today too.

anyone who's watching Vera's match, I would appreciate any comments, observations, match calls. Anything to help understand the atmosphere of the match. Thanks!

Vera can handle the wind, so that's a good thing. I think.

sokol I see your "wish" for a 5 set match came true yesterday.

AM what good water would? To him, I mean lol

"I see your "wish" for a 5 set match came true yesterday."

it did :-), even though it didn't go to TB every set. I hope you haven't seen my new wish, lol

Kiai dosent want to get in rallys today with Vera I agree with my commies there

On Feli: One of his admirers told me that she envisons him playing Appolo...

break, Vera, break. Davai!

40-A Kaia nets FH
Kaia led 40-15
Vera breaks as Kaia FH sails wide

Vera to serve 1-0

yes, an early break for Vera. Now lets see if she can hold to consolidate. DAVAI!

Game Lover lol!

Sokol yes I did.I am not worried.I know and understand not everyone loves and adores my "boy"? though for the life of me I cant understand why.

"I know and understand not everyone loves and adores my "boy"? though for the life of me I cant understand why."

oh, I do like Rafa, AM, don't get me wrong. Roger and Rafa get my full respect as best players, I love to watch them when they play worthy opponents, and especially each other (at least those who can trouble them), but this desire is more selfish as I still hope that Misha will be able to go through SF

come on, Vera, hold!