If you missed part I, just scroll down a bit to read that. 

- Did you watch the Women’s Semifinals?  I did.  And it was pretty awful.  The Williams-Henin match was bad tennis in terms of technique and the amount of unforced errors, but at least it had some drama.  The Kuznetsova-Chakvatadze match may have been the worst semifinal match I’ve ever witnessed.  They combined for 31 winners and 81 unforced errors, which is staggering.  Here’s the difference between the Men and the Women, after Federer beat Davydenko in their Semi, the early report was that it was an ugly match, and neither played well.  I tend to agree, both players were definitely not 100% there, but they combined for 74 winners and 63 unforced errors, far better quality than the Women. (more…)

So I thought I would be able to blog live from the US Open; as I’m sure you could tell, I was wrong.  Between playing tennis at West Side Tennis Club, dinner parties with clients in Manhattan, and schmoozing with our clients in the suite, there was simply no time.  I know I know, but I promise, it was difficult work.  Anyway, here are some random thoughts I have regarding the 2007 US Open.  Don’t worry, I’ll spare you actual match details and comments like, “Federer is good at tennis.”

- I applaud Thomas Berdych for making the round of 16, but retiring midway through a match on Arthur Ashe did nothing to alleviate his status as a young gun who can’t step up when it matters.  I realize he had breathing problems, but so did Venus Williams in her semifinal against Henin, and while she still lost, she fought all the way.

- Speaking of the Williams, I didn’t mind what Serena said following her loss to Henin as much as most people.  Telling the media that the only reason she attended the press conference was because she didn’t want to get fined is really not that big a deal.  In my mind, but saying that, she enlightened everyone on just how much the loss got to her.  The problem I did have was when she said something along the lines of, “She hit some lucky shots and I didn’t play well.”  Clearly this is just built up frustration at losing to Henin at the last three Grand Slams, but giving Henin no credit at all is classless.  Hitting almost twice as many winners as Williams, Henin as not so much ‘lucky’ as better.

- Djokovic is tremendous for our sport.  He’s funny (youtube his impressions if you haven’t seen any), intense, not to mention incredibly talented.  Those three thing add up to someone who will be a fan favorite for years to come.

- While it would have been fun watching a Nadal/ Djokovic semifinal, David Ferrer played perhaps the best match of the tournament in his night match when he defeated Nadal.  Not only was he able to run everything down, but he groundstrokes seemed to get harder and deeper the further into the point he got.  He really reminded me of Hewitt in his prime, circa 2001.

- I root for James Blake every time he plays, no matter who he plays.  And I was rooting for him when he played Fabrice Santoro, but Santoro made it extremely hard to root against him.  He plays with an incredible amount of “flavor,” and should really be guaranteed an evening match every year he continues to compete.  By the way, Santoro has now competed something like 61 Grand Slams, tying Agassi’s record.

- I wish Blake had come up with a few big points in the 5th set tiebreaker to beat Haas, but I was happy for Haas, who has had to overcome a slew of injuries.  Although after reading “Breaking Back,” by James Blake, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has gone through more.  Most people know what he went through in 2004- a broken neck, the death of his father, and then a rare disease called Zoster, but until you read about it in detail you really have no idea.  By the time I got through the chapter about dealing with his father’s death I thought to myself, “Thank God, now he will get to play again,” completely forgetting he then developed Zoster, and couldn’t play for another couple months.  It’s not going to win a literary prize anytime soon, but it’s a tremendous story, and very well written.

- I’ll be back with some more thoughts tomorrow, until then here are some links:

Great piece by James Martin at espn.com regarding our “inferior” sport.

Some amazing stats regarding the Greatest Player of All Time.

A statistical analysis on who really is the Greatest Player of All Time.  This is a long piece, but worth the time if it interests you at all.

A Scotsman’s take on what Djokovic brings to the sport, with a youtube clip of his impressions to boot.

I bet most of you have never heard of Dr. Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson, but here is your chance to learn something about him.

Below are the 2007 US Open Seeds (don’t bother clicking on the player links, it won’t do much good): (more…)

First round winners from the Pilot Pen include - Mardy Fish, Michael Russell, Robby Ginepri, Spadea the Gladiata, and last but certainly not least, Donald Young.  This was a monumental win for Young, who defeated fellow American Amer Delic, as he won his first ever ATP level match after failing multiple times.  Last night, after it rained all day, summer phenom John Isner defeated Benjamin Becker in straight sets in the final first round match.  Following that, James Blake took down Arnaud Clement in second round action.  Earlier, Mardy Fish upset 7th seeded Volandri to advance to the third round as well.  So, that puts two Americans in the round of 16, with five more that have a chance.  Although the remaining five will have to pull off upsets of seeds to do so. (more…)

Gasquet and Nadal both retired mid-match in Cincinnati, to Hewitt & Monaco, respectively.  Montreal Champion Novak Djokovic, who received praises in my last blog entry (and my guess is others’ as well), fell to Moya 6-4, 6-1.  I’m sure Djokovic was exhausted, and I didn’t actually see the match, but this sounds like a tank job to me, at least in the second set. 

Nadal losing was terrific news for two Americans - James Blake and Sam Querrey.  Querrey, who upset 13th seeded Youhzny now gets to face Juan Monaco instead of Nadal; and Blake will get the winner of that match in the quarters if he can pull out a win tonight against Juan Carlos Ferrero, no easy task.  The news is not as good for Andy Roddick, who has three other seeds (Ferrer, Berdych & Davydeno) in his quarter of the draw.  The happiest of all could be Roger Federer, who could get challenged by Baghdatis, but assuming he moves through his quarter will have either Moya, Meltzer or Hewitt in the semis, instead of Djokovic. (more…)