The sweet 16th meeting of these true blue tried-and-true vets doesn’t need to be half as good as their last two meetings at majors to be the best match of the day in NY. “They expect me semifinal, quarterfinal, step by step and match by match”.
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The top 10 spots in the rankings remain unchanged but Kerber, just 190 points behind the American, is hoping to alter that at the last grand slam of the season that began in NY yesterday.
“I love the question (of the number one ranking)”. “Let’s see how Serena will play here”. But don’t award her a seventh U.S. Open crown just yet – even with Maria Sharapova away from the court due to PED suspension.
Instead, she got so distracted by the “ifs”, “whats” and “maybes” that she was defeated in straight sets and was eliminated.
On Friday, Murray said he and Rosol hashed things out after the match and “I have actually gotten along fine with him apart from that day”. Another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, however, will take an early flight home after the No.13 seed was upset by Kyle Edmund 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
With one more Grand Slam title, Serena Williams will become the Open-era leader in major victories and break a tie with Steffi Graf at 22. When the American first made number one back in 2002, Muguruza was just eight. Williams said she measures herself constantly, “which I don’t think is normal. And because of how well he played on clay, now he has a chance to take over No 1”. “So that creates a little bit of juicy comment”. The sixth-seeded American opens her tournament against 93rd-ranked Kateryna Kozlova on Tuesday.
Jelena Jankovic (18 weeks in total in 2008 and 2009), Dinara Safina (26 weeks in two 2009 spells) and Caroline Wozniacki (two periods stretching over 2010/11 and 2011/12 totalled 67 weeks).
With Roger Federer opting to rest his knee for the remainder of the season, the year’s last Grand Slam will see only a Big-Three, with Rafael Nadal rounding off the bracket of perennial favourites.
The two tennis titans met in the final of the Australian Open and French Open this year, so it’s a smart bet they’ll square off again in two weeks. And, when it ended, the same broad smile and quick wit that charmed NY spectators a year ago.
Boris Becker believes Andy Murray is feeling less pressure and is in a position to challenge Novak Djokovic for superiority at the top of men’s tennis.
The prestigious Grand Slam event is the last of four majors held each year.
Other big names in the U.S. Open men’s singles tournament include Rafael Nadal, who holds 14 career Grand Slam titles, and Andy Murray, now ranked No. 2 in the world and a three-time Grand Slam title victor, having won at Wimbledon in July.
His careerbest 22match win streak came to a halt at the hands of Marin Cilic in the Cincinnati final last weekend when he simply ran out of gas.
Vinci – who went on to lose in the final to fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta – entered last year’s tournament facing odds of 300-1 to win it. Serena had been 43-1 against unseeded opponents at the Open in her career.
“But it does feel like this is Murray’s time”.
Murray has reached the final in each of the year s first three majors, losing to world number one Novak Djokovic in Australia and Paris before beating Milos Raonic at Wimbledon.
The only worry for Murray is his relatively mediocre recent record in NY – runs to the quarterfinals in 2013 and 2014 were followed by a fourth-round exit to Kevin Anderson 12 months ago.
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A motivated Djokovic ultimately will be too tough for the rest of the field in NY.
