US Open day 1

First topic message reminder :

I figured we could do with a place to discuss the first day's action at the last grand slam of the year. Andy Murray is the first of the main contenders to get under way, he plays Bogomolov second on Arthur Ashe, expected to start around 6PM British time. Roger Federer has the second night session match against Donald Young. Brit watch sees two of the three British women in action, with Heather Watson kicking things off on Court 17 against Li Na (starts about 4PM) and Laura Robson third up on Court 4 against American teenager Samantha Crawford.

Can't see either Murray or Federer struggling today, three comfortable sets for Murray and an absolute thrashing for Federer are my predictions.

cranking up that forehand now, nice

here's what I wrote on another forum before the match by the way:
comfortable straight sets win for Andy is how I see it going too. Bogomolov's serve is rubbish, so expect Murray to demolish that. It also means Murray will lose serve a couple of times or so and people will start using words like "lack of focus", ugly words like "first server percentage" may also creep in. Consider yourself warned...

so far so right

Danny_1982 wrote:Murray looking absolutely sublime receiving, and really poor on his own serve.

Bizarre match.

Bizarre?

When Murray plays badly (or is a bit rusty) this is the sequence he always follows.

Don't worry now he'll pick up his play. 5-2 and cruising now.

First set in the bag . Now if he can only remember how to serve

IMBL - I don't think I've seen Murray serve that bad in a major for a long long time. It's not really the norm anymore.

If Murray serves a bit better from here on in, there's the threat of a bagel or two here.

Danny_1982 wrote:IMBL - I don't think I've seen Murray serve that bad in a major for a long long time. It's not really the norm anymore.

If Murray serves a bit better from here on in, there's the threat of a bagel or two here.

Yes, these days Murray is meant to be better at avoiding these service displays.
Served terribly against Chardy at Cincy too.

Anyway Bogo immediately breaks 2nd set- 1-0.

Bogomolov holds serve for the first time in the match

Hello Murray first serve. Welcome to New York.

This is fast becoming a bit dangerous.

Come on Andy, take this chance.

Andy Murray really not on top of his game at all. Credit to Bogomolov who is playing some decent stuff. Key is for Murray to win this in straight sets. Energy conservation is the name of the game here.

Murray's hurt his hamstring here.

He's trying to hide it, but you can tell.

Mayer going to retire against Sock.

well it's been far from vintage Murray, but there's been enough to suggest the form's there. The returning has been excellent, and the FH very good at times too.

Forehand great. Returning great. Serving awful. Attitude concerning.

Most concerning is his movement in this third set. The commentators think that it was hamstring cramp, but it's looked like a hamstring strain to me for the last forty minutes. Be really interesting to hear what he says after.

Of course, if he does have a hamstring problem he'd be crazy to declare it to the world.

laverfan wrote:Mayer going to retire against Sock.

... and he does.

Pessimist: Federer won't be concerned by this. Tsonga won't be concerned by this. Even Dodig won't be concerned by this. Thankfully it wasn't Anderson he was playing otherwise it might have gotten tricky.

Optimist: Still, a win is a win Be interesting to hear what he has to say for himself.

Yes not great Danny. His first serve was very poor, movement was poor and aggression was lacking at times. He played poor yet still won in straight sets and that has to be a positive I suppose.

nah his movement was poor for several reasons, but don't think it was a twinge:
- heat and humidity made him tired and being in complete control didn't want to over-exted himself
- first round match, lack of recent competitive tennis takes time to adjust
- a touch of cramp

I think the attitude was borne out by the "I can break this guy at will" feeling, which meant he was rarely fully focussed (the end of the second set being the exception).

Return of serve the biggest plus point for me, he was supreme there. Ball striking/touch play (how good was that sliced lob?!?!) all fine (with minor adjustments needed), and some decent numbers (46 winners, 31 UEs). Serve a concern, but I think he'll be reasonably pleased with that start all things considered.

Question. There is a woman sitting in a chair to the right of the chair umpire. Is she holding a microphone?

Ridiculous, Fish and Soeda are trying to play a tie-break and it appears they've got something along the lines of an opening ceremony complete with fireworks and a pop concert on the Ashe court.

The Special Juan wrote:Question. There is a woman sitting in a chair to the right of the chair umpire. Is she holding a microphone?

Yes, she is. Tracking the sound of ball hitting the racquet.

Federer in action. First hurdle - admittedly a very difficult one. Let's hope he survives.

Scrapes through.

Not very impressed with Federer or Murray in their respective first outings at USO 2012. Is it the Big Apple that is making these two nervous?

Federer and Murray serves broken in their first outing.

Hopefully Djokovic and Ferrer will play it much cleaner.

Good to see Sock win over Mayer, despite Mayer being a bit under the weather.

Rain disruptions will only get worse. A Monday final looks very likely, yet again.

On reflection I think I was a bit harsh on Murray. After all it was straight sets and his returning was unbelievable at times. Don't really want him to be in top form the first round, he probably won't need to be until the 4th round anyway.

I assume Raonic and Tsonga won?

Neither have played yet. Didn't realise Tsonga had Nishikori in his 1/8th. That's an upset waiting to happen. Chardy too?

Tsonga plays Beck today and Raonic plays Giraldo, so the answer to your question Danny is - not yet!

Didn't watch either Murray or Fed match and both scorelines look like they were routine victories for both, so disappointed to read here that both were scrappy.

It was very windy on AA though yesterday wasn't it - perhaps that, as well as first matchitis, was a challenge?

What a very, very odd analysis by laverfan and I wonder just how much thought went into it.

laverfan, I hasten to add what I think you already know – ie that I have enjoyed the vast majority of your contributions, not least the well-researched and often fascinating statistical data and charts you regularly produce for the interest/benefit of the forum. And it certainly was not your posts that prompted me to take a break from the forum these past few weeks …

But all that aside, let’s look a little more closely at what you’re saying here …

“Not very impressed with Federer or Murray.....”

Murray was obviously somewhat troubled, having arrived in New York on the back of a demoralising early exit in Cincy and having to withdraw in Toronto.

He was up against a guy who we know has the weapons to beat him on a hard court.

Murray was far from his best, conditions were difficult (though of course same for both players) but he did enough to win in straight sets, commenting himself that it was not very pretty. The fact is he did what was needed to get through the opening round of a Slam which has so often proven very difficult for top players. All credit to him is what I would say

Now to Federer : Again, not at his sparkling best perhaps, but facing a home player with nothing to lose. He does the job. The ATP match report was factually concise :

"Federer won 10 straight points to clinch the opening set, and after trading service breaks with Young in the third and fourth games of the second set, went on a four-game run to firmly establish his lead. He closed out the victory in 94 minutes, winning all 18 of his first serve points in the third set."

And - significantly - his own comments on the conditions

"First round at the US Open can always bring a lot of pressure with it. It was very windy out there and extremely humid, so I’m just happy I was able to weather the conditions and a dangerous opponent."

Murray also referred to the wind (and heat, in his case) affecting his own his match.

And then you bemoan the fact they lose their serves, as if winning in straight sets (Fed in just 90 mins I believe) isn’t good enough, they must apparently never lose serve over the course of 3 challenging sets to accomplished tour professionals and must always perform perfectly to impress you.

And the Big Apple "is making these two nervous" …???

Murray has often done extremely well in NYC, and Federer has an even better record from what I hear – not least in the cauldron of night matches over many many years facing down all-American heroes and hence big crowd favourites. I somehow doubt that there's much on a tennis court anywhere in the world to make Federer "nervous". Tense maybe.

So then, this might seem like I’m taking issue with a fairly casual and admittedly harmless comment on yesterday’s key matches, but I do sometimes feel that sport – and what we expect of big sporting names - can skew judgement and perspective in relation to the real world. And professional sport – if we consider it a job, albeit a very privileged one - is of course part of the real world because it involves people and all their frailties in the way that other jobs do.

To take a random example of a retail sales assistant on the opening day of the January sales. The manager gives a motivational talk before the first customers arrive. The day goes pretty well, you sell a lot of stuff, a few customers create problems, some even come back demanding refunds and once or twice the pressure does get to you. But overall your sales figures are very, very good for an opening day. BUT then your manager – who has been sitting in a comfy office chair all day comes down to the floor for a chat and tells you he’s “not very impressed”.

I wonder how reasoned an assessment that would appear to you …..

Maybe I’m going too deep with all this – in fact maybe that's why I should continue my break from posting and make this a one-off

It was a strange performance from Murray TP. His first serve was at 28% in the first set which is horrendous. Yet he still won it 6/2 thanks to some incredible returning. There was a lot of complaining to his corner too, which we haven't seen for a while.

But... Only the first round I guess. As long as he finds his game by the time Raonic comes around.

This is a bit random but I heard yesterday that Sharapova released her own brand of sweets. I didn't believe it until now but say hello to "Sugarpova!!"

http://www.sugarpova.com/about/

Flirty
Sporty
Splashy
Gummy

Sounds like failed Spice Girls. Especially Gummy. Although the Spicies are quite old these days......

Seen nowt bar a few clips of Murray's match on the news, but I'm sure Fed and Andy are pleased to have advanced in straight sets.
Rain delays, windy conditions, an unknown opponent... all these things can be a trial.
I reckon all top players are a bit anxious in the first round of a GS event. It probably doesn't get any easier the longer your career as there is always the eager youngster waiting to try to knock your block off.

Murray actually has a poor record at US open. He has only reached the semis twice in his career (once reaching final of course) but other than that he has had quite a lot of early exits (last 16 and earlier).

Hard to know why really but its definitely not been a great slam for him over the years, far better and more consistent in Australia and Wimbledon