US Open - Day 1 and 2

Can't believe no-one's put this up yet - the tournament has started folks!  For those posters, like me, from UK, there's already a couple of interesting results - qualifier Cameron Norrie (who he?) reaching 2nd round, after Tursunov retired during the match, plus a very impressive looking straight sets win for Kyle Edmund over Robin Haase.

On the womens' side for the Brits some disappointment as Heather Watson lost in straight sets to Cornet.  She's not had the best time of it in last couple of years and I feel that unfortunately she may fail to meet the promise she showed earlier in her career (e.g. when she nearly beat Serena at Wimbledon).  Womens' match of the day surely has to be Sharapova v Halep.  

On the mens' side not too many blockbusters though Querrey v Simon may go the distance and Denis Shapovalov is in action.

David Ferrer - seen by many as a strong candidate to go deep after Murray's withdrawal - is out: won the first set against Kukushkin but it was all downhill from there...

Ferrer.

Konta out - she was tipped by a few to go all the way, especially as the hardcourts are her best surface.  Who's favourite in the womens' at this tournament - Muguruza?

MrInvisible wrote:Konta out - she was tipped by a few to go all the way, especially as the hardcourts are her best surface.  Who's favourite in the womens' at this tournament - Muguruza?

I think 8 women are in with a chance of being No 1 after the USO. Not sure if Konta was one of them. But it's pretty, er, open!

I see that Tomic was dumped out by Müller.

Tomic now sits at 142 in the rankings. This time last year he was 19th. I suspect his proposed future strategy, as expressed rather arrogantly in that recent interview (something along the lines of It doesn't matter if I'm not passionate about tennis, I can just turn up and make lots of prize money .....) won't have a very long shelf life.

Of more interest going forward is the fact that Edmund overcame the potential danger of Robin Haase in comfortable straights

The lack of comments in this specific thread makes the bottom half of USO 2017 feel more like an ATP250.

laverfan wrote:Ferrer.

Ferrer

lags72 wrote:I see that Tomic was dumped out by Müller.

Tomic now sits at 142 in the rankings. This time last year he was 19th. I suspect his proposed future strategy, as expressed rather arrogantly in that recent interview (something along the lines of It doesn't matter if I'm not passionate about tennis, I can just turn up and make lots of prize money .....) won't have a very long shelf life.

Muller is seeded here, so he was supposed to beat Tomic.  Tomic is obviously never going to do anything.  He is not so young anymore, going wrong way in the rankings, and admitting he is not into tennis.

summerblues wrote:

lags72 wrote:I see that Tomic was dumped out by Müller.

Tomic now sits at 142 in the rankings. This time last year he was 19th. I suspect his proposed future strategy, as expressed rather arrogantly in that recent interview (something along the lines of It doesn't matter if I'm not passionate about tennis, I can just turn up and make lots of prize money .....) won't have a very long shelf life.

Muller is seeded here, so he was supposed to beat Tomic.  Tomic is obviously never going to do anything.  He is not so young anymore, going wrong way in the rankings, and admitting he is not into tennis.

I suspect Tomic will need to make his mind up quickly as to what he wants to do. He will either have to commit and boost his ranking up through challengers or retire.

laverfan wrote:The lack of comments in this specific thread makes the bottom half of USO 2017 feel more like an ATP250.

At least Day 1 had a thread before it started!

JuliusHMarx wrote:

laverfan wrote:The lack of comments in this specific thread makes the bottom half of USO 2017 feel more like an ATP250.

At least Day 1 had a thread before it started!

Well - about 2 hours after it started. Day 2 still has time in hand to win that particular battle!

Apologies for changing the title to include day 2. Rain heavily curtailed play today. 80+ matches to finish tomorrow. Federer's back is still questionable, even if he gets through the first round.

Federer vs Tiafoe - 2 sets all. Crazy match. Will Federer lose in the first round of USO2017?

PS: Federer scrapes through. Well played, Tiafoe.

Weird match indeed !  And five extremely quick sets.

Federer said he was happy with his performance - but I'm not so sure. He'll obviously be relieved with the result itself - yes. But I doubt he has ever made as many U/E's in a USO opening round. He was misfiring really badly at times. Hard to say what this means for his title challenge here, but many players with greater experience could have taken him out.

By contrast, can't imagine Tiafoe has ever played much better than he did in sets 1 & 4. And then stood up well in the decider. With such a stunning forehand he will surely climb the rankings over the next year.

So the old guy pulled through against a very strong, hard-hitting teenager. I guess you don't get to win as many tour matches as Fed has without a fair few scrappy ones amongst them.

A much cleaner start by Rafa !

I thought Fed might have a scrap on his hands in the first round when the draw came out. Difficult to know how his back is as he's unlikely to say it's bad as long as he stays in the tournament.
   Good thing for him is that he's thru and his next opponent is likely to have to play twice in two days to catch up after the bad weather.  
   Surprised to see Ferrer out as he'd been doing well of late. Sharapova could go a long way now. Awful result for Konta. Kerber seems to have gone right off this year.

Didn't see the Fed match, but it seems Tiafoe gave him a scare. Maybe the back isn't fully fit....doesn't bode well for him.

Rafa didn't look that great early on either. Elite level choking from Lajovic in the first set, once he had choked that away the rest of the match was easy for Rafa.

I have bet on Cilic, liking that bet at the moment.

Guest82 wrote:

..................................

I have bet on Cilic, liking that bet at the moment.

He's a serious contender, no doubt And a little bit 'under the radar' too, right now at least.

We know these courts suit him.

Interesting (and almost opposite) comments from Federer and Nadal on the roof. Nadal prefers a lower noise floor, but Federer enjoys the crowd. Very interesting.