The US Open (Of Tennis) 2005

But in the women's - FOUR seeds gone! Farina-Elia only gets three games off of GLORIA! GLORIA! GLOR! I! A! Molik mullered 6-4 6-4 by Clap Your Hands She-NAY! USA! USA! USA! Also Pennetta got messed up by Schruff, and the Safinette got snapped by Instamatic Camerin.

On court now - by christ the scoreboard facility for this tournament mings - Scoville Jenkins is in a five set thriller with Ol' Dirty Bastl, Tommy Jo and Bjorkperson have gone through simultaneously, and Shari's making Danii With Two I's wish she'd never been born, or something.

Men's qf's -

Federer-Gonzalez
Dent-Ancic
Coria-Roddick
Youzhny-Blake (he's got to do it someday, why not now?)

There are windows of opportunity in the men's draw so big you could throw a small house through them. Before Federer wins the whole thing there could well be many, many shocks...

Women's qfs:

Mirza-Granville (yes yes it will almost certainly be Sharapova-Petrova but LET ME DREAM DAMMIT)
Clijsters-Venus
Jankovic-Likhovtseva
Schnyder-Davenport

Chakvetadze's seeded #29! Groenefeld's seeded #31! = SANIA MIRZA ROAD TO GLORY 2005

the womens 16 that looks like it has a big whole is the dementieva-schnyder one. who is this Jamea Jackson?

I have decided to have a crush on Maggie Maleeva. This is her last slam!

Is there really a player named Anna Smashnova?

I am very happy that Miss Bychkova has made a name for herself in a sense other than the literal, mad props to the girl who gave me my favourite pseudonym.

Anna Smashnova is no longer Pistolesi! She divorced her husband. I think Sybille Bammer is a brilliant tennis name too.

Predictions -

Federer v Nalbandian
Hewitt v Monfils
Lopez v Gasquet
Berdych v Nadal

Sharapova v Vaidisova
Clijsters v V Williams
Henin-Hardenne v Mauresmo
Chakvetadze v Davenport

In staying-firmly-away-from-limbs news I predict FEDERER and HENIN-HARDENNE to be champions.

Which means our big stories so far are just how well the Americans are doing. Meg's 6-2 2-2 up on Da Brat, SpaddyPhatNastee's handling Weiner with very little trouble, Alexa Glatch (WHOOOOO?) is a set up on Fedak (WHOOOOOactually no, she sounds familiar) and Rajeev Ram's a set and a break up on Swiss Stan. Also, PHM's 6-2 3-2 down to Capdeville, Force 9 Gael's a set down to Humourless Sod, and NLV's a set up on The Linnet.

Which means our big stories so far are just how well the Americans are doing. Meg's 6-2 2-2 up on Da Brat, SpaddyPhatNastee's handling Weiner with very little trouble, Alexa Glatch (WHOOOOO?) is a set up on Fedak (WHOOOOOactually no, she sounds familiar) and Previously Unheralded Rajeev Ram's a set and a break up on Swiss Stan. Also, PHM's 6-2 3-2 down to Capdeville, Force 9 Gael's a set down to Humourless Sod, and NLV's a set up on The Linnet.

Henbock about to go two bocks down.

and Starchy's suddenly got destiny on his side - he goes two sets down, races to the third set 6-1, before the fourth goes entirely with serve until there is some variety of miscall at 6-5 to Scuttler, resulting in the internet scoreboard reporting that the German's taken the set 7-5 - except he hasn't, it's a tiebreak and Starchy's 2-1 up! With serve, obv, but still!

Also, Karatantcheva-Shaughnessy has been stuck at Sesil leading 6-5 40-30 in the third for the past half hour. And I'm not sure why.

a) Sesil won

b) the US Open website is pish.

Oh, and The Hurricane vs. No New Wave No Djokovic is quietly turning into a war - the German lad leads 7-5 4-6 7-6.

The Hurricane is turning into The Tornado: reaction to going down two sets to one is to speed out to a 4-0 lead in about five minutes.

The Canadian Briton now down two sets to the British American, the second on a tiebreak...

The US Open site seems to provide certain results and then take them back a few seconds later.

(xpost - I wondered the same)

One other seed out today, and it's another shocker - JCF is downed in three by Arnie Clem, who gets to be the next obstacle for The World's Spottiest Pin-Up, Andy Murray, who went five sets and won against Andy Pav. Other five setters include the Monfils-Djokovic Teen Choice Marathon, with our Serbian chum coming out on top after christ knows how long; Young Wrinkly ensuring Rajeev remains unheralded; and Nieminen edging out Karol Beck's Red Hot Slovak Ass. As such it seems fairly obvious that Santoro went through in straight sets for the loss of six games. His reward? Federer. Poor fella...

By way of contrast, all the women's seeds got through. Every single one. Yes, even Tatiana Golovin. The US Open site therefore decided that today's big story on that side was Vania King taking three sets to dispose of... Klara Koukalova.

Murray on his on-court vomming incident: "It was a sodium-rich energy drink. I had a bit too much, I thought I was going to burp and I threw up. It was pretty funny." Pavel had a fit of the screaming abdabs on an overrule at 3-3 which turned it Andy's way. For the 2nd GS in a row he's the longest-surviving Brit.

Oh, and if you're going to the evening sessions, then Castano-Serena will most likely be a drubbing in favour of the She-Hulk, but Scurvy Jenkins against Nadal could be kinda fun. Admittedly, Scurvy's last match saw him being taken to five sets by, er, George Bastl, but on home turf against one of the big favourites, who's to say what'll happen? (Rafa 6-2 7-5 6-4)

Weather.com keeps updating the status of strong storms set to hit -- now they're predicting nothing until 4pm.

So maybe we'll get to watch some tennis before a thorough tour of the exhibits.

At the moment - Burgermeister-Steradent and Acasuso-Horna are both at a set apiece, though Taylor's tearing away with the third, Ken C's a set down to Alma-Gro, Keggy Kim's on the verge of a two sets to one lead over the Lammer Farmer, and Seppi's clinging on grimly at two sets down in the third against Hrbaty. Oh, and Ferrer's a break up on Calleri.

Three set victories for: Kucera (Poup just keeps on slipping), Almagro.

Merciless crushings doled out by Shaz & Clidge.

The first five-setter is Ferrer & Calleri - 4-6 6-4 7-6 6-1 thus far.

The first seed out might well be AIIIIII - 6-2 4-3 down to The Pasty Cove. Or she would have been except Vento's just taken out White Van Ana 6-1 in the third. Douchebag's House Of Fun plays host to Shahar Peer, and they're currently at one set apiece. Kirilenko's 4-1 down to Venus but threatening a minor fightback...

But it's really all about MEC-Warrior and Mirzbow at the moment. Sania takes the first 6-4, Camerin fires back to take the second 6-1, and now in the third Sania's 4-3 up and serving... no, Camerin's snatched the break back, and it's now 4-4.

I caught Molik and Kuznetsova take apart Linetskaya and Voskoboeva, despite the best efforts of the willowy Vosk. She hit several incredible drops but Linetskaya's head was clearly not there.

The Ferrer - Calleri match was great, very intense tennis from both. I sat near Calleri's supporters, an old Arg. couple and what appeared to be two of his coaches or friends. They stayed enthused for most of the last set hoping he'd come back, but not enough in Gordo's tank.

I caught bits of Clijsters (who didn't look as together as I had hoped), Sharapova, Mirza (who wore a T-shirt in the interview room that said "I'm cute? No Shit" and answered questions about being a bad muslim. Awesome.)

Speaking of the interview room, Venus answered questions for about five minutes regarding the MTV 70s house reality show. Which segued into her own reality show and her mother's "'tude."

I ended my day in the pleasant Grandstand, which had cooled off once the sun was low and was a spectacular place for a late afternoon match. Julia Schruff gave a low-effort dismantling of Lisa Raymond.

Guga with a one set lead over Robredo right now. 5-5 in the second.

Agatha a set up against KarlIvo9 - no breaks but AA may ultimately bust through as he generally does against the servin' machines.

I think I like the blue court.

Game But Gimpy Guga Comes Up Short Against Robredo

'gimpy'?

Anyway - two seeds gone so far today - Yoon Jeong Cho squelched Gissie, Tommy Jo succumbs in four to Wee Seb. No women's match has gone beyond two sets yet except for Groenefeld and Razzano's bottom-of-the-seedings dogfight on court 10, the German serving at 3-6 6-3. Elsewhere Swiss Stan looks ready to pick up Fabrice's baton should he ever feel the need to drop it - he's in a second consecutive five setter, this time against Puerta, and is 3-1 up and serving. Flicka's already a set down to Bobbysods, Haas is a break down to Schuttler, Coria's two sets up on Cousin Vinny and Agassi's just straight-setted Karlo. Guess how many of those sets were tie-breaks...

In Her Biggest Test Yet, Sharapova Passes

Heading into her third round matchup with Julia Schruff of Germany, Maria Sharapova had dropped only three games total in her previous two matches and spent just an hour and 55 minutes on the court. Schruff, ranked No. 87 in the world, took six games from the No. 1 seeded Russian and pushed the match to an hour and three minutes

(Shaz 6-2 6-4 btw)

Also - first seed-on-seed CLASH results in Serena straight setting Schiavone. Gloria's gone battling bravely but going down 6-2 7-5 to Nadia Petrova, Andy Murray's a set down to Arnie Clem but the second's gone to a tie-break, Rochus is two sets to one up on Montanes and Keef's two sets down on Stepanek.

Big result, though, is the next men's seed out - Ancic falls in four to Djokovic.

Oh

Kiefer has actually completed a recovery of similar magnitude vs Stepanek, but that's not going to have quite the same effect in the living rooms of Shepshed and Goole.

Roddick remains out of the tournament. Mind you, having clocked a 72% first-serve success rate vs Muller, he may ultimately top that particular chart at the end of the event (he's second to Agassi's 74% right now) by virtue of not playing any more matches. Because he's out.

And holy mother of holy mothers, Murray's levelled at two sets all on a fourth set tie-break.

Earlier, Keef got by Stepladder. Currently, Nalbs and Wessels are going with serve, Vento's serving to put out Peer at 5-3 up in the third, and Venus and Dani With One I are taking an age to get through Venus' first service game.

Ventolin blows out Myopia! (MVK was the first player I ever saw live and will always hold a special place in my heart.)

I think it bears repeating that Andy Roddick lost in the first round, in straight sets, on his birthday.

Shaz has learnt to be funny since Wimbledon:

"Oh, I'm upbeat. I just haven't gotten interesting questions yet. Sorry, guys."
Maria Sharapova on why she seemed a little downbeat in her post-match news conference.

Is that all? Fie! Gasquet and Ljubi are having a right old tussle on Armstrong - the Croat takes the first 6-3, but The Future Of Tennis Apart From Nadal And Federer And That is currently 5-2 up in the second. Diva and Chakatakk are one set all, and Massu's a set up on Stan.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Andy Roddick.
Andy Roddick who...lost in the first round?
Yes.

Currently, Amelie's 7-5 5-3 up on ALG, and is now serving out for the match. They will be followed by Wee Seb (they took his seeding. Now he's taking it back) and TomRob, who's reached the fourth round here twice before, so that should be entertaining however you slice it. The evening session will kick off with Annie Meddie Garrie against Big Dave, which will probably be less entertaining, followed by possibly the least likely top-of-the-bill matchup you could imagine - Tommy Haas vs. Robby Ginepri. Then again, going to seeding, this should be Tommy Haas vs... umm...

Maria Sharapova - Sania Mirza (head says Shaz, heart bellows Sania)
Nadia Petrova - Nicole Vaidisova (tricky - Nicky V's not been stretched at all thus far, can she possibly get in the way of Petrova's inevitable quarter-final exit?)
Kim Clijsters - Maria Vento-Kabchi (the Venezuelan's a footnote here, cos this leads up to Clidge vs...)
Venus Williams - Serena Williams (first really intriguing all-Williams match up in how long? Big sis has the momentum for the first time in yonks, but Serena Will Not Surrender Never Never Never...)
Justine Henin-Hardenne - Mary Pierce (JHH is the big favourite here, which is exactly the type of situation she always thrives in...)
Elena Likhovtseva - Amelie Mauresmo (again, you'd heavily favour La Mez, but Likyallova showed immense reserve against Myskina today - has she got any left?)
Elena Dementieva - Patty Schnyder (if you need Lex he'll be behind the sofa giggling uncontrollably)
Natalie Dechy - Lindsay Davenport (like Clijsters-Vento except even more predictable)

Haas drops the first set 7-5 to Someone That Isn't Andy Roddick, the second set is 4-4 with serve.

No she can't - 'rova gets through 7-6 7-5.

Given current matches, today might be a good day for the recurring pattern people - today's attack of the Murrays might be happening to Djokovic, who's lost the first set against Verdasco 6-1 (currently 3-3 in the second); and today's Blake-esque rising to the occasion might well be happening to guitar-faced Taylor Dent, who leads Chewie by two sets to one out on Arthur Ashe. This said, Lleyts is currently 3-1 up in the fourth set.

Also, Ferrer takes the first set off Hrbaty on a tie-break jobby.

Into the fifth for the Llout and the Teeth.

Ferrer/Hrbaty and Verdasco/Djokovic are at one set all...oh not even I care about those matches.

The Family Feud, Italo-Dave-O vs. Pan-Pan and Arnie vs. Keef have all only just kicked off. Niems is two sets to one up on Mirnyi, and the website is struggling to keep score in the fourth - basically, at some point Nieminen was 3-1 up. I think.

In roughly the same amount of time it's taken Clidge to get by Vento for the loss of one game. Enh.

Fedge a set up on Rochus Superior.

FORZA DAVIDE!!

Roger Federer vs. Nicolas Kiefer (yes, well)
David Nalbandian vs. Davide Sanguinetti (how much has Sango got left? Nalbs has only dropped one set so far, but then again that was to Peter Wessels - sleeper hit of the round, surely?)
Lleyton Hewitt vs. Dominik Hrbaty (by comparison to this anyway)
Fernando Verdasco vs. Jarkko Nieminen (definitely the best opportunity either is ever likely to get to reach a Slam quarter-final - this is already the first time Ferdy's ever got beyond the third round. Jarkko has better form, but he's also played more sets. A tough call, Verdasco probably edges it, but another finely-poised matchup)
Guillermo Coria vs. Nicolas Massu (Coria's stalled in the fourth round at every Slam so far this year. Shockingly, this is the first time Massu's got this far. Probably chalk one up for the Guillemot)
Richard Gasquet vs. Robby Ginepri (man, the calls just do not get any easier - Gasquet's probably got the class, but Bobby G's on something of a roll, plus he's gonna be playing in the slots where Roddick could have been - rule nothing out)
Andre Agassi vs. Xavier Malisse (Oh for fuck's sakes - Andre's got this far, he can't go and lose to some poxy Belgian, can he? Can he?)
Tommy Robredo vs. James Blake (as above)

Roger Federer vs. Nicolas Kiefer
remember, Kiefer was the only player that took a set from Federer at Wimbledon, err right? But Fed will win of course.

Lleyton Hewitt vs. Dominik Hrbaty
I heard Hrbaty has the strangest outfit ever. I wonder if he will wear it this time. Hewitt probably hates gays too (as well as black people)
I am always hoping for a Hewitt loss but Hrbaty is not the guy who can do it..

Fernando Verdasco vs. Jarkko Nieminen
Go Jarkko..!

Guillermo Coria vs. Nicolas Massu
Easy win for Coria.

Richard Gasquet vs. Robby Ginepri
Gasquet wins in 4 sets.

Andre Agassi vs. Xavier Malisse
If Malisse is in great shape he can beat everybody. But usuall he gets into a fight with.. well.. everybody and loses. I am going for a 5 sets win for Agassi. (It's either a 3 sets or a 5 sets win for Dre)

Tommy Robredo vs. James Blake
I accidently catched Blake vs Nadal on the telly.. Blake will kick Tommy's ass!

Big Dave is our only winner so far today: love'n'three over Dechy. The day schedule will be sliding neatly into the night schedule at this rate.

Amelie LeMesurier is taking her empties back with amplomb - Thresher is a thrashee right now.

Danger for Blakey - 1-2 30/40 in the 4th. Saves the b-p with a weird, kinda shovelly push-shot off a mishit backspun doozy. I dunno, I'm on dial-up, I can't see the shot-tracker. Holds! With a 37mph ace and a technically-illegal frame-splitting boomerang lob. Perhaps.

Mesmo not quite over the line as Elena Shop'o'drink threatens to recover the 2nd set break.

The Big Messy's through 6-1 6-4, and Blakeula has three match points...

He wins. The crowd go nuts. The crowd eat nuts. He could win this, y'know.

Good night and good luck to Justine and Robby G.

a) who else did he end up beating that year? Is there anywhere I could find a decent summary of the whole draw?

b) whatever happened to Dominique van Roost?

R128 Van Herck, Johan (BEL) 84 6-7 6-1 6-1 2-0
R64 Squillari, Franco (ARG) 78 6-1 6-3 6-2
R32 Voltchkov, Vladimir (BLR) 218 3-6 6-1 5-7 6-2 6-1
R16 Clavet, Francisco (ESP) 36 7-6(3) 6-1 6-4
Q Krajicek, Richard (NED) 14 2-6 3-6 4-6

dominique van roost retired in...2000? the year her mother died of cancer, i think, and she upset davenport at roland garros and cried afterwards. i loved van roost, she was so...neat, and tidy.

She's lost both of them! Deuce at 5-3 on the JHH serve...

Justine clobbers a forehand wide - another match-point...

Sharapova vs. Petrova
Clijsters vs. Venus Williams
Pierce vs. Mauresmo
Dementieva vs. Davenport

Would it be wrong to be describing that as a bit top-heavy? Dave looks like something of a lock (no cheese-eating surrender monkey gets out of her territory alive etc.), but from the other half - Shaz? Clidge? Venus? One from four, but goodness knows which one...

COME ON ELENA.

I was a bit confused as I only knew her as Dominique Monami. But then I realized she married a guy from Leuven. Hence her name change to van Roost. I think they opened a sport shop.

http://www.geocities.com/dvr_fan/INTRO.HTM

She was (and still is) a very sweet girl.

Nice for the Yanks to do moderately well in their own tournament for once; I don't see a US winner in either singles though.

Am still pissed off about Justine losing but then I do like 5 of the 8 quarter-finalists so it's not too bad I guess.

Rrrright here, rrrrright now: Shap's just taken the first set off Pet 7-5, and the Dave-off is currently at one set all - Italy takes the first 6-4, Argentina takes the second 7-6. Living up to expectations, and just that wee bit more besides.

Federer-Nalbandian
Hewitt-Nieminen
Coria-Ginepri
Agassi-Blake

In this case, it's the bottom half that provides the toughest calls by far - Agassi-Blake will probably be capturing headlines all over, and Coria ought to win but, having come this far, is Rob really gonna blow it against a guy who can't grow a proper moustache?

Coria to upset Agz in the semis like Ferrero did two years ago, I reckon. G'mo is on a mission to make sure people forget all about Little Rafa, at least for a fortnight. Clay used to be his bitch.

I can't see how Kim won't win now, despite choking history: she really has far too much game for Sharapova, and all the likely candidates to be her final opponent are even worse than she is for failing to win big matches.

Are you talking about Clijsters? That's the weirdest nickname (for her) I have ever heard. :-) Probably because we (Dutch speaking people) pronounce it completely different.

Anyway, I hope she wins. She's not my fave Belgian player but she has a great attitude. Thanks to her dad (a soccer trainer), I think.

Q. She said she's never quite sure what she's going to get from your second serve. Sometimes it will be 100 miles, sometimes 55.

ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Yeah, who knows. I don't know either.

No? Okay, next round then.

Earlier, my Hot Tip for the women's title, Amateur Melisma, won a glorious total of five games against Mary P. Well done.

Earlier still, Martina "48" Navratz demonstrated that Peter Fleming's old self-deprecating quip about the world's best doubles team ("John McEnroe and anyone else") has a female equivalent; 20-y-o Anna-Lena Groenefeld is the "anyone else" here and together they edged out the #2 seeds to make the semis. MN really is in some kind of Bradman/Ali/Didrickson class of superhuman, isn't she?

I was on MSN with a friend and she was relaying all of the points to me with gusto...match points saved with forehand winners down the line and even serve-volleying, and then the ultimate anticlimax as G-mo served two consecutive double faults to lose.

This US Open is rubbish.

Except a SILVER LINING might be on its way: the Diva has taken the first set 6-1 against the Dinosaur!

Early break for Linz in the second set.

Truly, Kim Clijsters can never have had it quite so good.

Hell of a match.

Aw, they're so nice at the net. Blake said, "Let's do it again, man."

Blondest semi-final line-up ever?

I would quite look forward to the Piercing One dispatching the Clidge. Apparently, my favorite players now are the "old" people.

??????????????????

Except the alternation might have stopped. Because the Orientt Expressss is now 4-1 up and serving in the fifth.

Actually, no, he's served and now he's 5-1 up. Things do not look good for the Flying Finn...

In related news, I've got 41 consecutive issues of Tennis World for sale on eBay and no one is interested. Can't blame them. It's the bizarro John Lloyd cover from Dec '85 that puts people off.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40771000/jpg/_40771436_hrbaty_203.jpg

Oh, and the tennis - Federer's leading 6-2 64 5-1 and has two match points.

Sharapova-Clijsters
Pierce-Dementieva

Federer-Hewitt
Ginepri-Agassi

If anyone picked that last one, they are fibbing.

*Ginepri has actually been on fi-yah this summer, and beat Roddick a few weeks ago, and I hoped foresaw that it would happen again here (haha except Muller got him a round earlier HAHA).
**looking back I see that my prediction would have been off anyway as I thought Agatha would be an early casualty. oh well!

Have we mentioned yet that Ginepri's erstwhile fling is Miss Minnie Driver?

Pierce-Clijsters final plz plz plz!

Sharapova is hanging grimly on vs the Clij - down 2-6 5-5. But she takes the first point off the Belgian serve in game 11. I might have just blundered in on a Turning Point.

Dementieva on why pointless bitching and poor sportmanship will never leave the game of tennis.

GO KIM!

TWELVE-MINUTE injury timeout (for Pierce)? I know I'm out of touch with the rules thesedays but since when was this allowed? What next, keyhole surgery and a month convalescing at the change-of-ends?

i am slightly in love with kim clijsters, and happy she doesn't have to play henin-hardenne.

S'pose Federer (and it will be him, won't it?) will have nominally less time to recover for tomorrow if that's any consolation. Agassi has been pulling out of tournaments over the summer if he's done well the previous week to spare his body for Flushing Meadow; if that's how careful he has to be with himself thesedays, tomorrow might be a bit of a mess if he gets there.

Ken Rosewall only won two games off Connors in that '74 final, y'know. Connors only won four from Mac in his last GS final ten years later. There's rarely a fairytale finish for the oldsters.

RF sloppy again for an hour (more errors than winners) but he steamed through the t-b and now leads Chewy 6-3 7-6 2-1.

It's the Kimary experience in the next half-hour.

I fear what might happen tonight is Federer, playing within himself, taking few chances and not attacking the net much, rolls over a fatigued Agassi in three. I hope it's more of a contest than that.

I have ONLY JUST got back home! My displeasure at the Kim and Mary show has taken a definite back seat to the fact that I am having a severe case of the post-rave no-sleep-for-two-days shakes but still can't sleep or anything.

Pierce breaks the time rules every time she serves so it's no surprise she broke them for an injury time out. And she's never been exactly known for her sportsmanship herself.

RF-AA 6-3 1-3 15/15*

Sounds like very good stuff indeed.

Feddy now up a break in the 4th.