USO '13, when the seeds start falling

Not even half of the last slam of the year has been played and already many interesting names found themselves booking their flights off from New York because of a shocking upset before time.
There have been plenty of upsets in both the men and women singles draws, but quite a few were actually stunning and opened up different possible scenarios in the final economy of the Open. Contrary to what is usually thought to happen, a lot of seeds fell in the early days of the men draw with Gulbis, Melzer, Monaco, Dimitrov, Pair all losing in the first round. Same fate for a few more names you wouldn't guess beforehand, if not for their seeding, for their level of game: Fognini was stunned by the young American Ram winning 5 games only in the whole match; while Almagro lost another one-sided match to the Underdog Denis Istomin.
The biggest surprise came from the United Kingdom though, as coming from qualies, Daniel Evans, world n°179 before  this week, stunned with his bright and various game the 11th seed, Kei Nishikori in round 1, just before achieving another quality win over the Australian Promise Tomic in the second round. The British run was stopped only by the very solid performance of veteran Tommy Robredo, who needed four tight and long sets to finally prevail and reach the 4th round, where he will be facing Federer.
The biggest surprise of the tournament in the male draw happened when the 6th seed and former champion Juan-Martin Del Potro was ousted in the second round after a terrific marathon battle of almost 4 hours won by the former world number one -and nowadays unseeded- Lleyton Hewitt. Del Potro showed the sign of a not-so-stunning form earlier in the first round, when he needed a great effort to pass through the opening round against Garcia-Lopez. It still remains a great result for the Australian, that year after year never gives up and quite a few times can find the game and the attitude of the champion he's been many seasons ago.


The women tournament started with a breaking news as Maria Sharapova/Sugarpova decided to withdraw from the US Open due to a worsening of the conditions of her operated shoulder, that might actually force her away from tennis courts until the next slam in Australia in January.
Her absence opened in the draw a few more chances as the seeding changed in favor of Italian Sara Errani, upgraded to the 4th seed and hence with a bigger chance to defend her last-year SF.

Sarita came into this US Open with a lot of pressure because of this high seed and the ghost of this SF to defend, what's more, her results this summer were far from the ones of her best weeks, but the draw looked very kind to her as in the very first round she had no problems dispatching Australian Rogowska with a double 6-0. In the second round though, her run was promptly stopped by another Italian, whose love for the US Open is so big that she could find her best tennis after a year of struggles to recover from a severe wrist injury: Flavia Pennetta. The 3-time QFinalist in Flushing Meadows showed one of her best versions of her self outplaying Sara in every department of the game closing the match in a rapid 6-3 6-1 built on 33 great quality winners.
The first ever Italian top 10 went on fighting for a place in the 4th round against the former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, whom she had never beaten in their 5 previous meetings. The Russian clearly is not the same player as she was a few seasons ago, but the Italian pulled a great and gutsy performance to overcome the power of Svetlana.

In her 30s Pennetta found her first ever back to back slam 4th rounds, where she'll have another big hurdle to face: Simona Halep, the revelation of this summer and fresh winner of New Haven, who needed way less than one hour to win her 3rd round match against Kirilenko, seeded 14th, whose only credit for the match was to win that one game to avoid the double bagel. The match might be a great quality one as both players play a smart and bright tennis, made of both defence and offence, but despite the head to heads that see Flavia leading, Halep is the big favourite heading into this one.

Before Errani's loss in the second round, quite a big number of lower seeds had fallen in the first round and among them a few interesting name, given their pedigree and hot form: Sam Stosur, the 2-years-ago champion crumbled to local WC, the 18-year-old Victoria Duval; Kristen Flipkens, semifinalist in Wimbledon earlier this summer received a knock-down in the revenge match of Toronto's R1 by Venus Williams; Sorana Cirstea
, surprising finalist of Toronto crushed in round 2 by the hands of Japanese qualifier Kurimi Nara; Magdalena Rybarikova, winner of Washington and solid throughout the summer, was defeated by Austrian lucky loser Patricia Mayr-Achleitner and among the others Klara Zakopalova, whose lost to Hsieh could even pass unnoticed if it wasn't her 10th straight loss in the first round of the American slam.

Round 3 was then the grave of two more big names, whose career seem to be following some sort of a common pattern, despite the completely opposite playing style: Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova. If you believe that those two were battling for the world number one no longer than one and a half year ago, it might seem impossible, especially after witnessing the matches that ended their runs.
Petra won only 3 games in her match against American WC Allison Riske, a girl that she had defeated no longer than last week, even though in a long and tight match. This time the American came on court confident after the great win of German Mona Barthel and her game clicked so well that soon the Czech lost the plot and after the first set, she almost gave up the fight surrendering fast.
Quite a different story the one of Caroline Wozniacki, who seemed to have found a better game and more confidence during the summer, but that suddenly seemed to be fallen back to her insecurities and fears, which in the end cost her the match against Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi.

The Italian is well known in the tour as a very talented shot-maker, able to produce great power and at the same time very capable of moving well. Yet in the first set Caroline seemed to be able to contain the power of the Italian and at times re-use it for her own acellerations: up of a set, Wozniacki found herself close to break Giorgi's serve and capture all the momentum to flow with an easy two sets win, but after a 18 points-long game Giorgi hold serve and her confidence reached a new peak, while suddenly Wozniacki started to fear more and more the possibility to acutally lose and so her game became passive and soon her forehand broke down giving many free points to Giorgi, who winner after winner built a great performance which in the end deservedly gave her the 4-6 6-4 6-3 win worth of the round of 16.

A few comments from Rome early days (day 1)

Monday May 13th

[WC] N Burnett (ITA) b. A Cornet (FRA) 62 62

I could watch only the last few games because of an enormous crowd at the ticket office and a bug in the system which was slowing down the whole process. 

Anyway Cornet looked very far from focused and the low crowd all behind the local rising player didn't help her finding the calm to limit Burnett's firepower and force her to hit a lot of balls before winning the point. 
It wasn't so, Nastassja had much of an easy day, all her shots were working well and she was solid with both forehand and backhand, dictating the pace of the rally and so being always on the lead.
The Italian had no problem closing the match, despite playing a bad game on 5-1 on Cornet's serve, she served well on the next game and closed under a waterfall of clapping.

[Q] G Muguruza (ESP) b. [Q] M Johansson (FRA) 16 60 62

I was able to follow this match because court 1 and two share parts of the stands and so while watching Oudin's match, I could spy the next court and enjoy some rallies.
In the first set what one might have expected to happen seemed indeed to happen, but in a completely unexpected way. What do I mean? Well, Johansson was playing the exact match I expected Muguruza to, she served and raturned hard and deep, dictating the rallies with powerful shots, forcing Garbine to run and hit out of her comfort zone. I have to admit I was really surprised by the power and accuracy of Johansson, who had no problems in taking a first set lead of 5-0, while the Spanish youngster looked tight and lost on court.

Something changed in the last games of the set, Johansson slowed down her shots and from then on she barely ever could trouble the Spanish, who started to gain confidence and could rely on a lot more errors coming from her opponent. But if the first set could still somehow end in the French player's favor, the second set was as fast as the first, but the other way round. 
Suddenly it was Muguruza looking flawless and Johansson lost and the rage that soon took control of the French player didn't help her out of the hole, rather killed her last chances to win the match. 
Garbine now could count on much easier balls to attack and most of the times Johansson tried to be more aggressive she ended up missing. On 2-0 down in the third Mathilde tried a desperate attempt to get back, but the close game lost definitely killed her last chances.

[Q] M Oudin (USA) b. E Makarova (RUS) 26 75 4-2 rit.

By far one of the most interesting matches I was witnessed to watch. The two girls played some spectacular tennis all through the match and the quite big crowd watching totally enjoyed it.

I reached the court to see Makarova serving for the first set 5-2 up, but you could tell that she wasn't in complete control of the match. The great form showed in Madrid just few days before was still there, but the slower conditions weren't helping her, while on the other hand Oudin looked the best I've ever seen her on the dirt. Melanie was running much and retrieving many balls back with depth and often with power, so that Makarova could hardly ever charge for easy shots at the net.
Serving for the set Makarova found herself down of two break points after a couple of great defensive shots of the American that found the Russian out of position. Nonetheless Makarova could find a streak of great shots and with a big winner and loud scream she closed to set at her very first chance.
The first games of the second set seemed to lead towards an easy match for the Russian as Oudin looked little tired and frustrated too, after the missed chance to re-open the set. Her balls were too mild and Makarova couldn't ask for anything better, she stepped inside the court and hit many winners to take the lead.
Then suddenly Oudin found that spark of pride that took her far in her best days and with courage and

humility started to make Makarova feel her presence on court: her ball suddenly found power and depth, there was no ball too far to be reached or too powerful to be handled. With two impressive backhand winners in a row she could get the break back and from 2-2 the match found an incredible new quality and intensity.
Both girls wanted badly to win and you could tell by the screams and grunts, the efforts and the "come on's" on winners that made the crowd go wild. Makarova started to look tight and called the trainer on court complaining about all the balls that was defending, but the trainer didn't sort the effect she hoped for as she got broken and Oudin could serve for the second set.
Melanie was a little unlucky then, as she took the initiative and three times in a row she missed backhands that would have been winners and after having wasted 3 set points she was back to tie on 5 games each.
The wasted chance could have hurt her mentally, but she could see Makarova feeling insecure and instead of surrendering, she kept being aggressive and mixing up her game with deadly slices. The combination often took Makarova out of her comfort zone and many times Oudin found the space for a winner, that happened on 6-5 up as with two outstanding winners she closed the set.
The burst of power used to close the set probably took its toll on the American that again started the set below her level, so that Makarova could take a 2 games lead, but once more Melanie fought back and by exploiting her winning tactic to the best, she suddenly re-found the form of the late second set and won four games in row, while Ekaterina seemed to grow tired of fighting and running for every point.
On 4-2 Oudin went to serve, when Makarova called for the physiotherapist, she didn't seem particularly on pain, but the tiring week of Madrid and the 2 hours on court against Oudin probably took their toll on her shoulder and she preferred to retire instead of getting injured before the French Open, mostly because she seemed in no position to win at this point.
It felt like a great win even for the American, who needed this one for her motivation and she looked overjoyed while signing autographs at the end.


J Jankovic (SRB) b. T Pironkova (BUL) 63 60

I could watch this match only from the middle of the first set, but there wasn't much to be said about it. Jelena looked a little rusty at the very beginning and couldn't find the time off the weird shots of Pironkova, who tried to mix her game with spin and slices, but soon started to be too inconsistent to trouble Jankovic. The Serb on the other hand, once she could find the right timing had no problem closing the match and giving no hope to the Bulgarian, who seemed to accept her destiny and soon gave up fighting.


[Q] S Halep (ROU) b. S Kuznetsova (RUS) 61 61   



Probably the biggest surprise of the day and a really pleasant one. Svetlana didn't play bad at all, but Halep looked the best I've ever seen her playing, being really consistent and yet able to be aggressive and hit winners whenever she had the chance.

Kuznetsova didn't enjoy a good service day, but soon she had to ask too much out of it, since Simona was stepping inside the court from the return and winning almost every rally. Svetlana's serve stats then obviously started to get worse as her risks grew higher, while on the other side of the net Halep had no problems with her own serve, beind solid and hitting even a few winners with that shot, which is probably her "worst" weapon.
The Romanian looked very comfortable on the Italian clay and moved smoothly on every ball threw by the Russian, who on the other hand was struggling to read her opponents shots and was often caught on the wrong feet and "dropshotted" many times.
By leaning on Sveta's shots, Halep often found great accelerations and in no time the match was over on her favor with a double 6-1.


K Bertens (NED) b. F Schiavone (ITA) 76(5) 61

The first match of the night session was featuring two players with a great gap age-wise, since Italian only slam champion Francesca Schiavone is 11 years older than the Dutch player. Sadly for her and the home crowd, experience wasn' enough for her to get through this match, despite her will and pride, Schiavone never really looked in control of the match and her game was not enjoying a good day.
Despite coming from the victory in Marrakesh, Schiavone looked as if she had problems adjusting to the court's speed and bounces, but at first it was not that clear, since Kiki was missing too much as she gifted away at least 10 of the first 15 points with errors.
The Italian couldn't capitalise the advantage and soon got broken back and drawn to a set where every point needed to be fought for, even though the quality wasn't often involved in the making.
Only a tie-break could close this first set and Bertens played slightly better there, while Schiavone was too inconsistent and in the end had to surrender to Bertens's powerful strokes 7 points to 5.
Everything happened really fast from then onwards, Bertens finally looked steady and whether in the first set she gifted many points with silly errors, in the second she didn't allow any of that to happen, whilst Schiavone completely lost the plot and in the end couldn't really do much to prevent Bertens from winning it.

[16] K Nishikori (JPN) b. [WC] P Lorenzi (ITA) 62 64 

Coming from a good week in Madrid, where he defeated Roger Federer en-route, Kei Nishikori probably had not much time to adjust to Rome's different courts and you could see that from the first points against Local Wild Card Lorenzi. The cold night had slowed down the courts and the Japanese struggled to produce winners as easily as in Madrid, but that didn't hurt the gap between the two players. Despite looking a little rusty and often missing shots that he shouldn't have, Nishikori never really seemed on the edge of suffering an upset, mostly because Lorenzi's only shots able to worry him were the serve and the dropshot, but the first inevitably started to suffer smaller percentages, once he tried to serve more aces, whilst the second was very hard to be tried on the heavy and deep balls of Kei. Had to leave at the end of the first set.