“I was very happy to be the first player to play in the competition with this fantastic roof closing”, he said.
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The biggest difference was that the crowd chatter and noise was amplified, but that can only be expected in a closed arena.
‘And the roof is so high you don’t feel you are closed. I didn’t feel the change.
Muguruza and some other players were talking about the noise.
Fans also noticed the noise. In tennis, normally you are used to playing in silence.
Welcome to Flushing Meadows, New York, for 2016’s final Grand Slam – the US Open. “But is true that was a little bit more noisy than usual”. “With the rain, it was too much”.
ESPN tennis analyst Chris Evert took to Twitter to share her feelings on seeing the new roof in action.
The first set was about as good as it gets for Nadal, who served Seppi with a bagel to kick off the match. But Nadal won the 11th game on serve then again broke Seppi, with the Italian blasting a backhand into the net on set point.
Most importantly, he said, the thwack of a ball coming off his opponent’s racket strings – or his own, for that matter – was completely indiscernible during a 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 second-round victory over Marcel Granollers at the U.S. Open on Thursday. “I didn’t need any more anyway”.
Next up for Nadal in the third round will be 25-year-old Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, a player the 14-time Grand Slam champion described as having “lots of big shots from the baseline and (being) very unsafe”.
“I know it’s so hard because the court is very big”, he said. I think I didn’t play well.
‘He is an aggressive player, he has a lot of big shots from the baseline and he is very unsafe. I need to improve, playing longer, playing higher, changing speeds, changing the rhythm of the ball with the slice, and then every time I need to hit more forehands victor. That’s important shot for me’.
Australian Open victor Kerber rifled home an ace to finish the first set against the free swinging, 34-year-old Lucic-Baroni, then won a see-saw second set in which each player was broken three times on the way to a tiebreaker. The Canadian was projected to face Rafa in the quarter-finals, but Nadal’s not focusing on that now. “I was playing on adrenaline”, said 24-year-old qualifier Harrison, who was as high as 43 in the world in 2012.
His form leading into the tournament has been poor at best, crashing out in the first round of the only tournament he played at the hands of Jan Lennard Struff. Sorry for Milos. Happens. Probably was cramping little bit.
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“I started cramping midway through the second set”.
